It didn’t take me long to “get” Clearvale because it reminded me of fractals.

Remember fractals? (If not)

You look at a fractal and see patterns:

Then you zoom in and see the exact same patterns:

You keep zooming in, but the patterns remain:

I’ve always looked at our internal Clearvale network (see video here) as being similar to a fractal. The below images are from a demo network but if you watch the video, you’ll see what our actual network looks like.

You start with the whole network, which includes everyone, has an activity stream,  houses files, blogs and wikis, all of which are relevant to the entire network:

Zoom in a little, and you see communities, which exist in the network but are organized around something specific, such as a department, project or product.  They have the same pattern; activity stream, files, blog, wiki, etc., all of which are relevant to the entire community:

Zoom in further, and you have the profile page with the same pattern, but everything is relevant to that particular profile:

It’s all very neat and tidy, and it helps (for me anyway) dictate where things go. Everything (with some exceptions) goes into the network, but only things relevant to marketing go into the marketing community. All marketing materials go into the marketing community, but only the ones that I wrote are stored in my profile.

The point is, you only need to get a handle on the pattern once.

Parts of 1 and 2 of Enterprise Connections focused on the benefits of a company intranet. However those benefits are not limited to internal use; brands also have much to gain by engaging with their customers via an enterprise social network. Of course, this is nothing new, brands have always found creative and unorthodox ways of learning about their customers and using this new information improve its interactions with them. A good example is Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewing Company, which learned that without them ever being marketed to by the company, its beer had become favorite of the younger, hipster crowd. In turn, it saw significant success by altering its marketing efforts to better reach that audience. (Though those marketing efforts were not what most people would have expected. Read this piece in Fast Company to see how they did it)

A public facing customer network is an excellent way to help facilitate the interaction between brand and customers, as well as the brand’s response to those interactions. A great example of this would be WeBank’s WePad project, which used a public facing Clearvale network to help get customers involved in the creation of a WeBank iPad app. www.wepadproject.it

For 6 weeks, 6 experts in fields such as social media, design and technology brainstormed every week for 4 hours, with the aim of producing an iPad application to make the interactions between WeBank and its customers social and collaborative, and to save their customers’ money. Each brainstorming session was broadcast live via a webcam and participants were encouraged to contribute by uploading comments, videos and feedback. An exciting, interactive and thought-leading initiative, the WePad Project successfully bridged the gap between company and customer. The entire project took place on a Clearvale network created and maintained by WeBank.

The WePad Project is a great example of how an enterprise social network can be used as platform for managing one-off campaigns and special events. The next part of Enterprise Connections will focus on the ongoing, day-to-day benefits of a customer network.

The point I make in this presentation is that while most of the attention towards enterprise social networks so far has been about driving adoption – getting people onto the network in the first place – the bigger question is “what are they going to do when they get there?”. My assertion is that these networks need to become a place where real work gets done, and therefore need to host real business processes. But simply taking existing processes and moving them to a social network without change is missing the great opportunity that social networking provides. Instead, you should consider how the social aspects of the network benefit and reshape the process.

The capacity issue discussed in this interview is something we are very aware of, as it sometimes results in complaints from people trying to book tickets coming direct to BroadVision via Twitter. We do actively monitor these, and try to reply where appropriate. Maybe it is through one of these replies that you have reached this article. In this article we’d like to add our perspective to what Mr Tandon said.

Readers outside India may not be aware that IRCTC is the biggest eCommerce site in India, recording an average of 400,000 transactions a day. This average traffic is no problem at all for the server infrastructure, but of course, like all web sites, there are peaks when traffic is many times higher than this. In IRCTC’s case, these peaks are very high indeed, particularly in advance of major holidays with up to nearly 1 million users trying to access the site at the same time. And the servers powering the site are not always able to cope with this volume.

It is worth clarifying exactly what services BroadVision provide to IRCTC. We provide the eCommerce software upon which the IRCTC booking application is built, and we provide consulting services to advise on the best way to use this software. We don’t own, or host the servers on which the application runs. The complete infrastructure is owned by IRCTC and they solely determine the deployed capacity of servers.

Some of the messages we get on Twitter are intelligent and constructive; some are funny; some are downright offensive. And yes, those do hurt our feelings a little. Let’s have a look at a selection of the recent messages:

Why doesn’t BroadVision think of moving #irctc to the cloud?

It’s a good idea, but not something under our control. As mentioned above, BroadVision provides the underlying software on which the site is based, but we don’t own, host or operate the servers on which it runs – IRCTC does this.

BroadVision do actually operate significant cloud-based infrastructures across the world to support our Clearvale product. But very specific, customized solutions such as IRCTC’s booking application don’t get the full benefits of cloud computing where many customers share the same infrastructure. So whether in the cloud or not, the capacity problem would remain unless the server infrastructure is expanded.

@BroadVision your irctc website is a real nightmare for the general public in India. It is incompatible with the load it has to bear @8am

Yes, it is the 8am peak that is the problem. It is at this time each day that “taktal” tickets are made available for booking and as everyone wants to be first to book a ticket, we see the number of users increase up to 20 times the normal load with everyone trying to book tickets at exactly 8am. Shortly before big public holidays, the peak gets close to a million simultaneous users, and that’s when we see the most complaints.

Broadvision, the company that maintains the irctc website, claims a 99.8% uptime. I think they’re just bluffing!

Actually, this is true (the uptime, that is, not the bluffing!). The site goes down very, very rarely, but as explained earlier, it simply doesn’t have the capacity to handle the extreme peaks.

Hmm, the guys at BroadVision, IRCTC’s solution provider, are at least nice enough to respond to my complaints!

Yes, we do try to. Although…

IRCTC Sucks! N when its done sucking it sucks even more – May the developers rot in hell and with them you too @BroadVision

Ha! Well, how do you respond to that? Honestly, we do understand this frustration, but hopefully what we’ve said earlier explains why sending our developers to rot in hell really wouldn’t solve the problem. Seriously though, we don’t reply to this sort of message. We’re always willing to discuss the problems people are seeing, but we see little benefit for anyone in getting involved in an argument like this.

So, what’s the solution? “More servers” would appear to be the obvious answer. But that is a decision for IRCTC, and not something BroadVision can control. Rest assured that we have made this recommendation. However, as the traffic outside peak hours is significantly lower, we do understand that IRCTC perhaps find it hard to justify the cost of commissioning additional infrastructure to handle occasional overloads. As Mr Tandon notes, the capacity has already increased significantly, but has been matched by equal rises in demand.

We hope that this helps you understand the cause of the occasional problems. We do understand it is frustrating, and we continue to be available to IRCTC to offer our assistance in resolving the problem.

“There was a chemist, Kekule, who worked for decades trying to figure out the structure of the benzene ring. One night he went to sleep and he had a dream of a snake swallowing its tale, and he woke up and said, That’s it! That’s the structure of the benzene ring!

So his student said, Not bad, you go to sleep, wake up, and you’ve got the structure of the benzene ring.

And Kekule said, Visions come to prepared spirits.”
David Milch, speaking at the Paley Center for Media, 10/4/2004

In the world of enterprise social networking, and the tech world in general, we sometimes play Buzzword Bingo. Everyone has at least one buzzword that makes them cringe, either because the way the word sounds, how often it is used or because the word is not appropriate for the situation. At the moment, the word that is being used to describe the positive consequences that often arise in a “pull society” (see Learning to Pull by Richard Hughes for more info.) is serendipity, or a “happy accident”. I’m not a fan of this word, because I think it undermines what is really happening.

For the record, I know that several factors of the above scenario are disputed (it was actually a day-dream, Kekule was kidding, etc.) but I think the way Milch tells the story does a great job of illustrating what happens in a “pull society”.

We have been extensively using our own ESN, Clearvale, for some time here at BroadVision, and I have seen many projects, queries and general thoughts written as blog posts. While responses come from expected places, such as within the community the blog was posted, or from a team member from the author’s same department, many discussions occur company wide, with ideas and answers coming from every department. When this happens, it’s not serendipity but the result of preparedness. The more people that are “pulling”, the greater the pool that is being drawn from, the more intelligent and creative the answers. Likewise, people begin to respond to other responses; with the whole process allowing for far greater opportunities then might be produced in a series of emails or chatting by the coffee pot.

The above image illustrates our new SET program, which will help companies go beyond the step of simply creating a Clearvale network. Participants of the 90 day SET program will learn how to transition into a social enterprise, one that is in a constant state of preparedness, getting the most of its talent and resources. For more info about the Clearvale SET program, please visit: http://www.clearvale.com/mkt/en/set.php.

“Let’s begin to tap the astronomical, incomprehensible amount of talent in the brains of the 6 billion people on this planet, compared with which Newton is a match in the dark at 100 miles.” James Burke – Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, Episode 18 “A Fly on James Burke’s Wall”

How many moves does it take to get from the philosopher Goethe’s obsession with a friend of Beethoven to the invention of margarine? According to James Burke’s Knowledge Web, only 8 (visit http://www.k-web.org/public_html/Mystery-tours/Goethe_to_Margarine.html for the full story).

James Burke is a science historian and author, and anyone who has seen his “Connections” series is probably familiar with this line of thinking: progress is not the outcome of individuals or groups working in isolation, but the product of multiple individuals and groups, interacting and connecting, seeking to fulfill their own interests, and rarely having any concept of the ultimate innovation that comes about as a result.

Many innovations are the result of coincidences. But it’s not the coincidences themselves that lead to the innovation, but rather the creativity and ingenuity that were set free on a path paved by coincidence. Coincidence has led to two strangers coming into contact with one another, or someone recommending a book to a friend, or someone remembering a colleague’s previous failure. That last one is a reference to the Post-It note, which was born from Spencer Silver’s failed attempt at creating a strong adhesive. His colleague, Arthur Fry finding the need for a weak adhesive remembered Silver’s failure, which led to the Post-It note (full story here: wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note)

But that never had to happen. Fry didn’t have to remember Silver’s failure. It’s not like there was some cloud-based, easy to navigate repository for this kind of thing. The point is, it’s not really the coincidence that is important to innovation, so we might be able to take that out of the equation.

In fact, if we take the opposite approach, I think we can speed up and multiply opportunities for innovation within the enterprise. This is most easily evident via the activity stream, and some theoretical examples can include:

• I learn of a coworker’s project that does not involve me, though I might have some previous experience, and can easily offer some ideas
• Sales informs the company of a new prospect, which turns out to be the former employer of someone from engineering, who can now offer some insight into the company
• Marketing posts about working on a video, and someone from finance has experience with video editing and volunteers to help

Of course, the above examples would only represent one “move”. Think about the potential for multiple connections, all working in harmony.

This 2-day conference and supporting exhibition aims to establish London as the Digital capital of Europe, putting London’s tech City ‘on the map’ as well as helping to develop the local and national economy. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has actively championed the event and he will open the conference with a keynote presentation on 13^th March.

“Digital London is a fantastic showcase for the city,” said Johnson. “London’s position as a centre for technology, innovation and creativity underpins its growing position as the digital capital of Europe.”

BroadVision is one of the 5 founding sponsors and has been working closely with their partner and Digital London event organisers, Maven Cast, to deliver a new approach to event engagement through BroadVision’s enterprise social network solution, Clearvale. Clearvale has been configured and branded as Maven Connect to connect delegates, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors associated with Digital London in a single collaborative platform. Maven Cast are the pioneers of hybrid events and Digital London is no exception; the event is designed to mix the immediacy and intimacy of a live conference and exhibition with the versatility and broad reach of digital.

The event brings together industry innovators, entrepreneurs, solution providers, business leaders, and executives to discuss digital innovations & enabling technologies, and to explore opportunities in the digital economy.  The conference has 4 key themes: digital solutions, content and services; innovation, creativity and technology; digital cities and smart infrastructure; investment, skills and resources. It has been developed with everyone from solution buyers in business, public and consumer sectors to CTOs at technology companies and service providers in mind. Sessions will showcase the latest innovations and advances, and consider how the latest digital devices, solutions and services are being harnessed to sustain and vitalise private enterprise and the public sector.

Adam Malik, founder and CEO, Maven Cast, said:  “We will be inviting visionaries, policy makers and technology leaders from around the world to share their experiences on delivering digital services for both public and private sectors and creating an environment for innovation. At Digital London, event delegates will benefit from increased value by having a single platform of engagement prior to, during, and after the event so relationships can build and continue post event.”

Maven Connect has been designed to foster engagement not only for Digital London but also for other future events. It will provide a forum for discussion and guidance to compliment event topics, and deliver a legacy after each event to unite all parties: continuing conversations, collaboration activities and helping to shape future agendas, providing added value for everybody involved in Digital London and beyond.

Awhile back we had a contest, asking our customers: how has Clearvale helped you and your company? The purpose of the contest was to better understand how our customers are using Clearvale and what we can do to improve it. We picked our favorites from the first round of written responses and asked them to send us a video based on their submission. Entertaining, thoughtful and educational, the videos were fun to watch and really helped us understand all of the different ways Clearvale is helping people and organizations get work done.

We’re grateful for all of the hard work the entrants put into this contest and are very happy to announce the winners of the Clearvale Success Awards (in alphabetical order):

Gemeente Tilburg
A municipality in the Netherlands that manages the City of Tilburg as well as providing support for the surrounding towns and villages within the wider region of Brabant. Using Clearvale, Gemeente Tilburg has seen increased collaboration among businesses, the public and government organizations. It has also proven useful in their “Twinning” work with the Same District in Tanzania, in which the two municipalities share knowledge and collaborate on projects.

Gruppo Reti
An Italian IT consulting agency with more than 160 certified IT professionals, Gruppo Reti covers four main areas: business solutions, infrastructure and networking, business analysis and project management, and home and building automation. Using Clearvale, they have seen an increase in company performance and better collaboration and knowledge sharing among departments and employees.

People Tree Education Society
People Tree Education Society in India helps create new entrepreneurs. Relying on an active, participatory approach to education, PTeS connects students with industry professionals. With Clearvale, they have created Virtual Campus, a user-friendly site that is attractive and easy to navigate. Student and faculty are able to share notes, upload exam papers, and stay up to date with news and events.

TechTree IT Systems
Specializing in building high-performance business applications for mid-market companies in the Asia-Pacific region, TechTree IT Systems is a growing company that is adding customers, partners and employees at a rapid pace. Clearvale has helped their large, mobile, geographically dispersed workforce to coordinate their efforts working towards new leads who are often on the move themselves.

QuickLogic
Based in Sunnyvale, CA, QuickLogic provides semiconductor solutions to handheld consumer device manufacturers. Using a Clearvale network for internal collaboration, QuickLogic now has a centralized location for marketing materials, meetings minutes, design files and more. Employees in the field can easily share and retrieve information, helping them quickly respond to customer issues.

For more customer stories and case studies, please visit: http://www.clearvale.com/mkt/en/customers.php

So perhaps unsurprisingly, most current Social CRM solutions focus on B2C, leaving B2B organizations wondering how to get started.

Earlier this week, Emmanuel Drouynot of BroadVision presented on the subject of B2B social CRM at Social CRM 2011 in Paris. You can see his slides (in French) here, but I also have a recording of me delivering the same presentation in English. So for anyone who missed the event in Paris (or didn’t understand the French version!), here it is. You can also find recordings of the presentations I gave at the London and New York events in the Social CRM 2011 series here.

http://app.wistia.com/embed/medias/bbcc9732c5?width=640&height=480&autoplay=false&playbutton=true&controls_visible=true&end_video_behavior=default&smallPlayButton=false&playbar=false