Inaugural 2011 NewsGator Collective a Crucible of Social Computing Knowledge

DENVER, Feb. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Business leaders from some of the world's most recognizable companies wrapped up an exclusive retreat in the Rockies last week with new insights, best practices, and strategies for social computing. It was an exhilarating two days of learning for nearly 100 NewsGator customers and invited attendees at the 2011 NewsGator Collective User Group Meeting, which took place Feb. 2 and 3 at The Ritz-Carlton, Denver.

"It was valuable to hear what other companies are doing to help spur innovation and knowledge-sharing in their organizations using social networking," said Charlene Provost, senior manager of the Knowledge Center and Open Innovation, and Mary Maida, information solutions manager, with Medtronic, Inc.

NewsGator partners and executives presented on a wide range of social computing topics, including user adoption, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 migration and mobile Enterprise 2.0. There were speed networking sessions, birds-of-a-feather roundtables, hands-on labs, technology demos and one-on-one consulting sessions.

Attendees were predominantly business and technical users of NewsGator Social Sites, the only social computing suite fully integrated with the SharePoint 2010 collaboration platform, or NewsGator Tomoye. A detailed survey of attendees revealed some interesting facts about social computing programs under way in attendee organizations:

• 63% of respondents (the majority of whom work at companies with 50,000+ employees) are using NewsGator for enterprise-wide deployments vs. pilots, proof of concepts or departmental implementations
• Activity streams are the most used social computing capability among respondents
• The top three most measurable internal business benefits from E2.0 technology were:
  • increasing speed of access to knowledge (83%);
  • increasing speed of access to internal experts (55%); and
  • increasing employee satisfaction (42%).

Highlights of the first annual NewsGator Collective included presentations by industry thought leaders such as AIIM (the Association for Information and Image Management) President John Mancini. In his presentation, titled "Implementing Social Technology Responsibly – Thinking about Governance, Policy and Compliance through a Social Lens," he charted the evolution of content management from its roots as "systems of record" and addressed the challenges of balancing social engagement with risk management.

"While enterprise social computing is more prevalent than ever, we are still in the early days and need to learn from each other to ensure success – that's what the Collective is all about," said NewsGator President and CEO, JB Holston. "The Harvard Business Review calls enterprise social networking 'the most significant business development of 2011;' no better way to fuel the revolution than connecting those leaders who are ushering in a new world of work."

Collective sponsors included: Ascentium, Aspect, Avanade, Cognizant, HiSoftware, Microsoft, Orbital RPM, Rightpoint, and Slalom Consulting.

About NewsGator Technologies

NewsGator, founded in 2004, offers award-winning enterprise social computing solutions. Our flagship product – Social Sites® – is social computing software built directly inside Microsoft SharePoint. With over 2.5 million paid enterprise users, NewsGator helps the Fortune 2000 and the government to better collaborate, share content, expand employee knowledge, and improve productivity. Customers achieving results include Accenture, Biogen Idec, CME Federal Credit Union, Deloitte, Fujitsu, Novartis, the United States Air Force, and the United States Army. Get social at www.newsgator.com.

SOURCE NewsGator Technologies