Social Network Analysis Helps Maximize Collective Smarts

By Susannah Patton
Wed, June 15, 2005

CIO

At first glance, it looked like your typical networking event. Three hundred research scientists from packaged-food giant Mars gathered in a Las Vegas ballroom last June, wearing name tags and working the floor. But instead of discussing the latest in M&M packaging or pet food nutrition, the scientists were roaming the room like a band of eager salespeople. Their RFID-enabled name tags lit up each time they met someone they didn’t know, and their eyes widened as they watched diagrams of their social networks form on giant screens at one end of the ballroom. The diagrams expanded like giant molecules each time a manager spoke with a person new to him or her. To encourage the networking, Mars promised prizes to those with the most contacts or "points." The scientists—a largely introverted group from separate divisions in Los Angeles and New Jersey—were moving in a blur of handshakes, nods and cards changing hands.

Welcome to social networking for geeks. This particular exercise followed a yearlong study of social networks in Mars’s sprawling research and development division. Top executives there wanted to improve the company’s ability to innovate and were concerned that their scientists weren’t networking enough with outside colleagues. To find out who was working with whom and how scientists were getting new ideas, they decided to map the group’s professional contacts using a process called social network analysis (SNA). In an online survey, R&D managers were asked to name the 15 people they work most closely with and whom they go to for advice, as well as further details of their professional network. Working with Rob Cross, assistant professor of business at the University of Virginia and SNA expert, the company was able to map the network and examine data on how the scientists work—and don’t work—together.

John Helferich, senior R&D vice president for Masterfoods USA, says Mars has used the SNA results to sort out relationships among key researchers. The company has determined, for instance, which scientists were overburdened (too many people were going to them for help) and is working on eliminating the need to go to senior people to get approval for things. "This speeds up innovation," Helferich says.

Companies that have been frustrated by traditional knowledge management efforts, such as Mars, are increasingly looking for ways to find out how knowledge flows through their organizations. Looking at the company org chart, it turns out, often doesn’t tell the real story about who holds influence, who gives the best advice and how employees are sharing information critical for success. This all takes on greater urgency as millions of baby boomers prepare to retire over the coming decade. Social network analysis provides a clear picture of the ways that far-flung employees and divisions are working together, and can help companies identify key experts in the organization.

Continue Reading

Half the respondents to a new survey on collaboration are using FTP servers-servers that are based on aging protocols that were not designed to be useful to virtual teams. Something far better is needed-and is actually available.
For your IT organization to keep pace with the business, you need a new, faster approach to infrastructure deployment-an approach that increases agility and accelerates time to application value. That's HP Converged Systems. Built on Converged Infrastructure, these systems deliver the industry's first portfolio of pre-integrated, tested, and optimized infrastructure solutions for applications running in virtual, cloud, dedicated, or hybrid environments.
Even though virtualization has brought positive change to enterprise IT over the last decade, some skepticism remains about how valuable virtualization can be in the way companies deliver and run business applications. Uncover the truth about how you can run your business critical applications with confi dence without sacrifi cing
availability or service quality-and at lower costs.
This IDG whitepaper highlights key findings based on the Quickpoll Survey conducted with more than 300 Enterprise and Commercial IT decision makers worldwide about the state of their virtualization of business critical applications. This paper answers such questions as: What drivers are pushing companies to extend virtualization beyond servers? and What value are they realizing? Central to the paper are key results that expose risks of the past (fears of limited ISV support, performance impact) no longer are a factor for companies moving to 80+% virtualized.
This guide focuses on key considerations for IT Architects who are in the process of migrating Java applications from UNIX to Linux as part of their VMware server consolidation project.
This IDC white paper explains how much of the Enterprise IT community is at a crossroads in extending their journey to the private cloud: Companies must virtualize their business critical applications in order to reap the benefits of cloud computing. The paper also includes two case studies and a sidebar highlighting the experiences of three enterprises with virtualizing their business-critical applications, which include Oracle and Microsoft SQL databases, SAP and enterprise Java, and a Microsoft Exchange email system.
Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as support considerations
Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and disaster recovery and support considerations.
Virtualizing business-critical applications has become a key focus for organizations as they move along their virtualization journey. With the launch of VMware vSphere® 5, VMware is helping customers accelerate the deployment of business-critical applications, including Exchange, SQL, SAP and Oracle.
Want to say goodbye to missed SLAs? VMware can help you virtualize mission-critical applications such as Oracle, MS Exchange and SharePoint to achieve dramatic improvements in uptime, performance and responsiveness. In this webcast, we'll discuss the key benefits of virtualizing your agency's most critical applications and Oracle databases as a necessary first step in fulfilling OMB's mandate to move IT services to the cloud. With VMware, you'll be on the way to quick, effective and full compliance.
The complexity, cost and technological bloat of traditional Java EE application servers are often barriers to running a lean and efficient IT organization. Increased need for scalability and rapid application delivery are driving businesses to reconsider the platform they use for application deployment. By combining the portability and agility of the Spring framework with a lightweight application server, your organization can meet business demands while staying within budget constraints. VMware vFabric™ tc Server is a modern, lightweight Java application server based on Apache Tomcat. It improves developer productivity, control and manageability-and is the most flexible platform for virtualizing Java applications and workloads for the cloud. View this webcast to learn about real-world examples of companies that have adopted VMware vFabric tc Server and how to plan for future cloud deployments.
Traditional disaster recovery solutions are often too expensive, complex and unreliable to meet business requirements. As a result, IT departments are hesitant to expand disaster protection beyond their most critical applications, largely because they are uncertain whether the quality of the protection is really worth its cost. VMware vCenter™ Site Recovery Manager 5 is the market-leading disaster recovery product that addresses this situation for organizations of all kinds. It complements VMware vSphere to ensure the simplest and most reliable disaster protection for all virtualized applications.
Newsletter Sign-Up »

Receive the latest news test, reviews and trends on your favorite technology topics

Choose a newsletter
  1. View all Newsletters | Privacy Policy
Resource Center