In order to improve communication in the ERP group, MWH decided to break up the California-based team. The company was in the midst of upgrading the J.D. Edwards software and saw an opportunity to create cross-functional teams, combining people from ERP and other parts of IT, in order to break down barriers. Some of the ERP team members were assigned to the large upgrade project, which also included IT staff from other divisions.

A year after the first SNA, Gulas decided to complete another analysis to measure where progress had been made. The results showed that connectedness and communication improved in the IT group and that "more people knew who was doing what." What’s more, the first SNA showed that average IT employees knew 29 people in the organization, while the second showed they knew 39.

As a result of the SNAs, Gulas has helped organize team-building sessions that brought people together from Europe and other parts of the organization who had never met before. He has used the SNA data to identify "strategic knowledge communities" in project management and client service management, which were largely unknown to senior staff. Gulas says his group is performing better after the SNA, and this improved collaboration has contributed to cost savings of about 8 percent. "It’s an important tool to help us make sure that people are talking to each other," he says.

Danger: Disappearing Knowledge

If SNA is a good tool to use to find out whom people are going to for information, it can also help flag a potential problem if a lot of those "experts" are about to retire. That’s a pressing problem given that, by 2010, more than half of all workers in the United States will be over 40—and that tens of millions of baby boomers turn 60 this year and will be contemplating retirement in the coming years. By mapping the social networks in their organizations, companies can find out ahead of time who has necessary knowledge and create ways of transferring it to younger employees before it’s too late.

In one case, the central IT unit in the Canadian government, with a staff of 1,600, decided to do an SNA to establish which skills they should retain and develop. The IT group, which provides IT services to most of the Canadian government, made the move because they expected to lose 40 percent of senior managers to retirement within five years. Using SNA software from Knetmap, the agency was able to determine who had the most important knowledge and experience, and it was better equipped to start succession planning.