techwatch

WHEN MOST FOLKS THINK OF SOCIAL MEDIA, THEY THINK of personal communication: Using Facebook to get in touch with friends and family. Or sharing information with fellow hobbyists on a wiki website.

But social media tools can also facilitate business communication.

For example, logistics professionals could use them to collaborate with
colleagues across the globe and work together to solve distribution
problems. “With social media, we can implement a social model of col-
laboration,” consultant and social media proponent Tony Martins told
me. Martins himself began using social media while working as a sup-
ply chain executive for a pharmaceutical company before becoming a
consultant. “When social media [are] used to solve
problems, what we see is that people of multiple
skills react spontaneously to posted issues and the
stream of conversations that ensue from the posting
of problems leads to their solutions.”
Generally, social media refers to networking web-
sites like LinkedIn, collaborative project sites like
Wikipedia, or content communities like You Tube,
all of which are considered “Web 2.0” technologies.
But companies can set up their own special websites,
using software like Jive, SharePoint, or eXo Platform
to create a space for folks to exchange messages in
real time and post documents for all group members
to view, no matter where they’re located.

One supply chain software company—Manhattan Associates—has even developed a way (dubbed SCOPE Social) to connect the dashboard portals in its applications with an enterprise social networking tool, Yammer. “By linking a social networking tool to a dashboard, that promotes sharing that information,” says Peter Schnorbach, a senior director for product management at Manhattan. For instance, if a logistics application’s dashboard indicated a problem had developed with a shipment, a manager could share that information with co-workers right away and work with them to solve the problem.

Logistics managers could also use these technologies to set up a “res-
olution team” to solve a specific problem, says Theodore Garcia, an
executive vice president at FilmTrack. During a recent Supply Chain
Council presentation on using Web 2.0 to enable a “connected supply
chain,” Garcia offered the example of a team established to tackle the
problem of repeated delivery delays. The group would meet in an
online session to review the matter and devise a solution. One advan-
tage to this approach is that the team members
sitting in front of their computers have ready
access to data and pertinent documents.
The use of social media can speed up the
problem-solving process because team mem-
bers spread across the world don’t have to make
multiple phone calls after searching for relevant
data. They can also take advantage of online
tools to set up a timeline for action and to cen-
tralize documents in an online repository for all
team members to access in real time.
Martins, for one, believes
that social media are more
effective than traditional
communication channels
because the use of this tech-
nology breaks down organi-
zational barriers that might
have inhibited problem solv-
ing in the past. In his view,
the hierarchical structure
prevalent in most companies
makes it difficult for peo-
ple at the top and the bot-
tom of an organization to
discuss issues freely. Social
media creates a community
of equals in which managers can interact and
exchange ideas without those constraints.

Despite the potential for social media to promote supply chain and logistics collaboration, few companies have embraced the idea. “It’s still early in the curve,” says Schnorbach. “Younger people think it makes sense, but people comfortable with social networking tend to be younger. A lot of management is still not comfortable with it. But that’s all starting to change.”