IBM's bet on social networking tools faces IT scrutiny

Orlando – IBM/Lotus is betting heavily that social networking software will be a boon to corporate productivity, and while many observers agree, they caution that features such as access and management controls and training issues could be a major hurdle toward adoption.

At its annual Lotusphere conference, IBM/Lotus made no bones about the fact that it sees Web 2.0 technologies as the wave of the future for collaboration. The company’s focus is on developing social software with business users and business requirements, such as directory integration, in mind, rather than the free-for-all attitude of consumer implementations of blogs, wikis and file and photo sharing.

To make its point, the company unveiled Lotus Connections, its first integrated bundle of social networking tools that is slated to ship later this year. Connections includes blogging, bookmark sharing, user profiles and software to track activities and build online communities. In addition, IBM showcased in the conference’s Innovation Lab its next wave of tools with a “social software” pedigree that target business intelligence, real-time communications and development of Web 2.0 applications.

“Connections can create mashups of humans, and the benefits of that are huge,” says Jeff Schick, vice president of social computing for IBM. “Think what it can do for product development. It means fewer repeated errors.”

While users and observers were captivated by the possibilities, they were also questioning the challenges corporations may face in rolling out such tools.

“The question is how you sell this to the enterprise,” says Irwin Lazar, principal analyst and program director for convergence and collaboration at Nemertes Research. “The enterprise manager will say, how do I manage this, how can I control it, how can I cost justify the implementation, how do I support it and what are the training issues.”

Lazar says the model around Web 2.0 tools is decentralization -- the tools get pushed out to users, who then figure out how to use them -- as opposed to the way software has been deployed for years as a big, feature-laden package that required user training.

“You have a younger generation that has grown up on MySpace and social bookmarking, and an older generation that really does not have any concept of how these tools work,” Lazar says.

He agrees with IBM’s take on the future of collaboration, but he says the challenge will be educating customers on the business benefits.

Indeed, customers seem to be intrigued and inquisitive.

“Having tools to manage content, subscribe to content, and organize and share content, it’s very powerful,” says Scott Burt, president of Integro, a consulting firm based in Denver. “That stuff should not be done in e-mail.”

But Burt questions where the tools might be the most effective. “For smaller shops, they might not be worthwhile. But for firms big on knowledge, consulting, or anytime you have over 100 employees I think you need this,” says Burt, who has 30 employees distributed over four time zones.