The phenomenal interest in social networking and Web 2.0 technologies
at the enterprise level is both unprecedented and growing rapidly.

But why? What’s the allure? What’s its usefulness to business
environments?

Well, there appears to be two driving factors:

Younger workers are entering the workforce:
A new generation of professionals, adept at using social media and
networking tools/platforms are entering the workforce. A recent joint
Unisys and IDC study suggests these younger information workers will
drive changes in corporate interaction and communications, predicting
that the number of information workers using social networking
platforms will almost double between 2009 and 2014.

An increasing number of business interactions:
The same Unisys and IDC report also estimates that the number of
business interactions will grow four-fold from 3.5 trillion in 2010 to
12.7 trillion by 2013. Naturally, businesses are searching for more
efficient methods of communication to deal with expanding information
volumes and the necessary business interactions that accompany that
trend. Social media style communication platforms facilitate faster
and more efficient communications compared to traditional
communication mediums (faxes, phone calls, face-to-face meetings,
etc), and with a growing number of employees able to utilize them with
minimal training, it’s an enticing prospect for many businesses.

How does Yellowfin drive efficient and effective analytics based
collaboration?

Yellowfin is the only Business Intelligence (BI) vendor that offers a
complete ‘out-of-the-box’ collaborative decision-making (CDM) module.
Yellowfin integrates popular Web 2.0 features and functionality into
its current BI solution – Yellowfin 5.1: Visualize, Socialize & Decide
– to enable all appropriate organizational stakeholders to share BI
reports, discuss their content and collectively decide action.

Internal report-based collaboration and decision-making

Internally, Yellowfin’s Web-based discussion forum – Yellowfin
Collaboration – enables all relevant organizational stakeholders to
create and participate in real-time analytics-based threaded
conversations within the BI portal.

Providing a social media style forum within the BI tool itself, for
the discussion and dissemination of ideas surrounding reporting and
analytics, creates a knowledge-sharing network that improves the reach
of information and analysis throughout an organization and across
departmental lines.

External report-based collaboration and decision-making

Yellowfin’s CDM module also supports the ability to share content
across platforms by allowing users to embed reports into wikis,
internal or external corporate blogs – wherever it’s needed for
decision-making; either:

1. Within the BI tool’s social layer or enterprise portals (intranet
system) via a web services application programming interface (API),
or;

2. Outside the enterprise, on any platform, via a YouTube style Java
script export that enables users to embed live interactive reports or
other information by simply copying the Java script fragment into any
HTML page.

The ability to embed information allows multiple people to view that
information, discuss it and contribute their own, in an accessible/
convenient, uniform, real-time, recordable, contextualized
environment. By embedding information in an open access environment,
there’s no need to distribute information to individual stakeholders.
Everyone can remain directly involved in the conversation –
information is not consumed in isolation. Embedding information
allows the right people to view the right information, in the right
context, at the right time, improving the communications process by:

* Eliminating logistical hurdles: The need for complex and costly
travel arrangements is significantly reduced, with geographically
dispersed stakeholders able to participate in the exchange of
information faster

* Enabling all relevant stakeholders to participate: All relevant
stakeholders can contribute to discussion at their convenience

A social and collaborative dawn

With the maturation of enterprise social computing technology, social
and collaborative features/platforms will become a standard and
expected inclusion in a range of enterprise applications, not just
reporting and analytics solutions.

Yellowfin is prepared for the merging of enterprise applications and
Web 2.0 technologies. Yellowfin is leading the Social and
Collaborative BI market. Yellowfin is making analytics-based
enterprise collaboration and decision-making easy.