Webinar Recap: How Nalco is weaving social into the fabric of their business

In NewGator’s recent webinar with Dan Flynn, Knowledge Management Manager at Nalco, we explored how McKinsey and a corporate study showed a need for a more robust set of tools for tiered services and for a higher quality knowledge system, inspired a three-prong community strategy for weaving social into the fabric of their business.
 
An Ecolab company, Nalco selected SharePoint 2010 and Social Sites 2010 to power their social and community activities, search functions, and mobile enterprise. As the platform began connecting people with content and other people, Nalco decided to focus their efforts on four areas:

• Libraries for explicit knowledge
• A social element including communities
• A search center
• A mobile component

The Power of Communities

The goal was to foster a culture change around knowledge access. Nalco discovered that communities with strong leadership and good reasons to exist thrived, while other communities with a lack of focus and leadership tended to flame out.

Nalco developed governance through previous experience, benchmarked learnings, pilot results, and consultant input. This included using the “Thou Shalt” model and dividing community types between those with clear business objectives, and those without. Nalco also identified several community success factors including:

• Strong leadership and sponsorship
• Business alignment
• Adequate resources and defined roles
• Engaged members
• Clear deliverables and activities
• Development of trusted relationships
• Standard collaborative practices
• Technology support
• Motivation and recognition
• Community measurement

They use a Health Check process on a quarterly and yearly basis as an effective way to keep communities focused and thriving. The Health Checks also serve as a roadmap to leaders.

Check out the full webinar with Nalco to learn more about their pilot process, three-prong community strategy, “Thou Shalt” process, benchmarked learnings, routine community Health Checks, and how their biggest advocate on the executive team has helped drive change and reinforce the business value of social throughout the organization.