SINGAPORE, November 30, 2013 – 60 percent of Singapore employees report that social tools at work help increase their productivity, yet 43 percent (against 37 percent across Asia Pacific1) feel that their companies underestimate the value of the tools, often restricting their use, according to a Microsoft research study.
The survey, conducted for Microsoft by research firm Ipsos among 2,132 information workers across Asia Pacific earlier this year, also found that 42 percent of Singapore employees feel there isn’t enough collaboration in their workplaces while 55 percent feel that social tools could foster better teamwork.
According to survey findings, 58 percent of employees in Singapore would like to be more involved in the decisions to add new technologies and tools at their workplaces. Additionally, one in four surveyed would be willing to spend his or her own money on social tools to drive company efficiencies.
“Employees are already bringing their own devices into their workplaces but now are increasingly bringing their own services as well,” said Charlene Li, founder and managing partner at Altimeter Group, a firm that studies social media and other technology trends. “Employees expect to work differently, with tools that feel more modern and connected but are also reflective of how they interact in their personal lives. Enterprise social represents a new way to work, and organizations that are embracing these tools are improving collaboration, speeding customer responses and creating competitive advantage.”
However, some employees are facing challenges as their companies are hesitant to implement social tools. Singapore respondents reported more conservative IT departments than the regional average. Of the survey respondents, 49 percent (almost 10 percent more than the 40 percent reported for the region) said their IT departments can be a barrier to using new tools, with eight in ten (81 percent) naming security concerns and 55 percent citing the fear of productivity loss as the top obstacles in their organizations. Even as they face these challenges, 21 percent of employees in Singapore say they have ignored their organization’s IT policy to install social tools, and 38 percent say they know someone who has.
The potential of social tools
Done right, enterprise social can drive significant business value by improving how employees connect, share information, and work across teams and geographies, as well as beyond the organizational walls to customers, vendors and other key relationships.
“Just as email accelerated the pace of business in the ’90s, enterprise social will be the driver of greater agility and transformation in the 21st century workplace,” said Gerald Leo, Lead, Microsoft Office Division, Microsoft Singapore. “As we look ahead at how collaboration and communications continue to evolve, we believe that the tools people use today — email, IM, voice, videoconferencing and social — will come together and be deeply integrated into apps in ways that will speed collaboration and truly transform the way people work.”
Microsoft envisions enterprise social as the fiber connecting all collaboration tools within an enterprise, not as a separate website or app that must be added into employees’ daily mix of activities. Companies stand to benefit as they start to use social tools such as Yammer — and embedded social capabilities within Office 365, Lync and Microsoft Dynamics CRM — for collaboration, sharing, and communicating outside and inside their organizations. Advantages include an increase in team collaboration, employee engagement, organizational connectedness, and the flexibility required to react nimbly and quickly to business changes and demands.
Leo added: “We would encourage organizations to work closely with their employees in selecting and embracing Enterprise Social tools to help their teams to collaborate, engage, connect and innovate. Essentially, this decision would help break down organizational barriers, open up effective communication channels and enable better access to information.
“Our familiar collaboration tools such as Microsoft Lync, SharePoint and Yammer unify into a great social platform that helps productivity collaboration and operational cost-savings too.”
Microsoft’s enterprise social momentum has accelerated in all areas since Microsoft acquired Yammer in June 2012, whether measured through new users, paid customers, user engagement, innovation, or the ecosystem of partners selling and connecting to the Yammer platform. Registered users on Yammer have grown to 8 million, and paid networks increased more than 200 percent year over year, evidence of the strong confidence customers and partners have in enterprise social.
In early November, Microsoft also announced that all Microsoft Office 365 plans now ship with Yammer Enterprise, and all existing Office 365 customers will receive Yammer Enterprise licenses. In addition, Office 365 customers no longer have to purchase individual new licenses for external users within their external networks. Microsoft has also created the Yammer Partner Enablement Program, designed to provide deeper insight and best practices for how to sell, implement and integrate a successful enterprise social solution.
More information about the Microsoft survey is available here and additional details about Microsoft’s enterprise social offerings can be found here. Interested parties can also sign up for free trials of Yammer or Office 365 for Business.
Additional notes:
1. Asia Pacific constitutes Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea.
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About the survey
These findings are from an Ipsos poll of information workers (defined as employed adults working at a company with at least 100 employees who use a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone for at least 75 percent of their job function) conducted online March 25 through April 24, 2013. A total of 9,908 interviews were conducted across 32 countries. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to, coverage error and measurement error.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.