The IPM Blog

I found an article this morning about how social media is evolving in organisations to become more than just a marketing tool. Social media is now becoming a part of many departments in big organisations from HR right through to project management. And even smaller companies are jumping on board. So that got me thinking, what are some of the ways you could use social media to manage your projects?

The important thing to remember about social media is it is not confined to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Blogs, wikis, online pinboards and team websites all fall under the social media umbrella. Organisations are even creating their own in house social media platforms, or adopting software with integrated social media tools to help incorporate this growing trend into their everyday operations.

So how can social media help you manage your projects? Here are four ways:

1. Communication
As Gen Y and Gen Z’s enter the workforce, we are beginning to not only see a trend of multi-generational project teams, but also less reliance on email. As the article I mentioned above shows, many of the younger people entering the workforce don’t like email and prefer a more team oriented communication. As such, some companies such as IBM are adopting Facebook and Twitter style communication platforms, where team members can share project information quickly and collaboratively. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, you can find and follow other users in the What’s New section, which gives you a chat-like feature to share comments and insights with team members about projects. This reduces a huge amount of internal email communication in favour of succinct responses.

2. Collaboration
Similarly to helping with communication, products like SharePoint that can be integrated with your project management software allow for the creation of team wikis and websites, where all team members can contribute and store appropriate project information for other team members to access and edit. This really fosters a collaborative approach to managing your project, no matter how far spread your project team members are around the world. The project also ultimately benefits, with ideas and solutions continually evolving as team members contribute their expertise.

3. Keeping up to date with contacts
Another tool that can be integrated with some project management software products such as IPM is the Outlook Social Connector. The Outlook Social Connector enables you to look at your Outlook contacts’ activity in social networks such as Linkedin, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Viadeo and Xing. This way, you can stay up to date with contacts as the project progresses, build up your network for the future and keep up to date with new projects that may be coming up.

4. Keeping track of lessons learned
This way of using social media has been mentioned on the PMI Voices on Project Management blog as a way of keeping track of lessons learned and project review. Using some of the tools above, internal social media pages can be set up to capture comments for lessons learned. As Bernadine Douglas says, this allows you to reach stakeholders in their habitat, which could result in more candid and useful comments for future projects.

Whilst it has traditionally been viewed as a consumer product or a marketing tool, social media can also have very effective applications in other areas, in particular project management. Can you think of any other way social media can help manage your projects? Feel free to post a comment below.

With 2011 drawing to a close and 2012 on our doorstep, many predictions and trends for the new year are beginning to emerge in the media and on the Internet. From consumer trends, to economic trends, everyone has something to contribute about what they think 2012 will bring. IT is no different of course, with Gartner releasing its Top 10 IT trends for 2012 last month.

And as IT continues to evolve and push new boundaries, the list is definitely exciting. From cloud computing to developments in social media and collaboration tools for business, IT in 2012 will consolidate and build on trends from 2011 and push us further forward by changing the way we work.

One such company already embracing the trends in collaboration and file sharing is tech firm Atos, which has eliminated all internal employee email communication, instead opting for online collaboration tools. The positive response from employees and the fact Atos has managed to cut down on email spam shows a more collaborative framework in our working life is not only a trend that will stick, but also one that could bring big improvements to the way we communicate and operate in teams at work.

Of course, IPM users will not be left behind in 2012 either. IPM’s compatibility with Microsoft’s collaboration tool Sharepoint means users can create websites to share content, manage documents and publish reports online. IPM’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM framework also means users can take advantage of the developments in social media tools and social CRM that Microsoft has been making this year and will continue to move forward with in 2012.

So even though social media and online collaboration started out as consumer oriented applications, all reports suggest 2012 will be the year this kind of technology will start to impact on the way we conduct business and how we communicate in our offices and project teams. And at IPM, we can’t wait to see what the year will bring.

What about you? Are there any trends for IT in 2012 you are particularly excited about? Feel free to leave a comment below.

When most people hear the term social media, they immediately think of teenagers using applications like Twitter and Facebook to let their friends know how cool the party on the weekend was, or who is in a relationship with who.

But although this may have been how social media started out, it is becoming so much more than that, and something that has become ingrained in both our personal and professional lives. Erik Qualman’s Social Media Revolution 2011 shows just what a huge impact social media is having on us, and that it really is something to sit up and take notice of.

As technology tends to do, social media has evolved as we have found more and more ways to utilise this tool. Social media is not just about Facebook and Twitter anymore, as there are many other tools out there that are helping people communicate and collaborate more effectively. So instead of thinking of social media as a trivial way for teenagers to pass time, we need to start seeing it as groups of people communicating and collaborating with each other and contributing content to further develop ideas.

If we think of social media in these terms, it has huge impacts for project management, as communication is one of the most integral parts of the project management process. The nature of project management itself is also changing, becoming more about team collaboration and idea sharing rather than a top down command-and-control approach. With a team collaboration approach, just think of the benefits a social media mindset could have on a project team.

At IPM Global we already have some of the principles of social media in our software. Web based project management systems such as IPM mean everyone in the team can log in and check the progress of the project each day, and contribute to status updates, timelines and task lists. Being built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM framework means IPM users have access to all the features of Microsoft Outlook integration, including the Outlook Social Connector. The Outlook Social Connector enables users to click on individual Outlook contacts to see their activity in social networks such as Linkedin, Facebook, Windows Live Messenger, Viadeo and Xing. Users can also send contact requests to connect on these social media sites, all without leaving the IPM environment.

 IPM is also able to integrate with collaboration tools such as Microsoft Sharepoint, which allows for the creation of team wikis, workflows and team websites. One of our clients, Murphy Pipe and Civil even plans to implement an organisation wide collaboration tool through IPM using this kind of integration in order for their teams to better communicate and collaborate.

As IPM is a fluid and constantly evolving platform, it can easily adapt to new trends and advancements in both technology and project management practices. Being able to adapt to the changes in the way social media is now perceived means we can keep our clients at the forefront of the exciting new development that is social project management.

What are your thoughts? Have you found any good social media applications to use in managing your projects?