ISG Provider Lens report finds businesses struggling to find ways to integrate and justify new social collaboration products
Enterprises in Germany are looking to improve their traditional intranets and are exploring ways to use the technology to expand their digital workplace services, according to a new report published by Information Services Group (ISG), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2019 ISG Provider Lens Social Business Collaboration – Services & Solutions Report for Germany finds German enterprises looking to improve and expand their social collaboration capabilities, but they are more focused on modernizing existing tools than on new team collaboration products.
German enterprises also face several challenges in the social collaboration space, the report says. While vendors offer many enterprise collaboration tools, businesses in Germany find it challenging to connect those offerings to their wider organizational goals, the report says. Specifically, some German enterprises are having a tough time marrying the IT department’s idea of social collaboration with the needs of employees and the rest of the business.
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In addition, German enterprises are having difficulty deriving business value from the adoption of enterprise social collaboration tools. While vendors point to employee engagement as a benefit, many businesses still struggle to translate this indicator to measurable business outcomes, the report says.
“Some enterprises in Germany see adoption of social collaboration tools as a huge step, involving significant change management and team coaching. These challenges point to the need for social collaboration vendors to provide easy-to-adopt tools and return-on-investment calculators when selling to businesses in Germany,” said Andrea Spiegelhoff, partner, ISG DACH.
The report also finds strong competition in Germany among social collaboration vendors. Vendors previously offering specialized products are now expanding their offerings and competing with other social collaboration specialists.
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The report recommends businesses considering new social collaboration tools should not leave the decision to the enterprise IT department, but instead should consider the working style and the demographics of their workforces.
The IT department often “chooses a solution that integrates easily with the rest of the business ecosystem,” Spiegelhoff said. “However, the solution that best integrates with existing systems may not offer the collaboration features that employees expect or that generates measurable results for the business.”
The ISG Provider Lens report evaluates the capabilities of 46 providers across three quadrants: Enterprise Social Collaboration Solutions, Enterprise Social Collaboration Consulting and Integration, and Social Media Management Solutions.
The report names Atos as a leader in two quadrants, and Accenture, Axians, Capgemini, Communardo, COYO, Facelift, Hootsuite, IBM, Khoros, Microsoft, Salesforce, Sprinklr, T-Systems and United Planet as leaders in one quadrant each.
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