recool

For this week’s blog I chose an architecture endeavour as my organization from the professional services sector. The major reason that I chose a blog instead of wiki or twitter use is that blogging in the enterprise 2.0 realm seems to be a perfect marriage with the architecture field. You design an amazing building and you can see what that building looks like etc.

you save someone a lot of money on their tax return and well, you will see black writing (hopefully black!) on a white page.

Enterprise 2.0 technologies allow these companies to showcase their talents, in much the same way one would a portfolio, especially blogging. In our very first lecture we talked about enhancing our digital identity, putting our talent online for the world to see. Architecture just by its visual nature has an inbuilt advantage over other fields. This is not to say that other fields should ignore the enterprise 2.0 movement as other aspects such as wiki or twitter may benefit these other fields more than the architect field. If given a choice: an architect firm blogging about their new sustainable roof design

Or an IT firm blogging which fiber optics technology is better

I know which one to me is more engaging... Ok the fiber optics do look sweet...

The organization that I chose is Westlake Reed Leskosky an architect firm out of the U.S.A. that runs the blog recool. According to Westlake Reed Leskosky (2013, para. 2) their aim is to explore different technology solutions for sustainable architecture that will allow them to create advancements to the architectural/engineering/construction (AEC) marketplace.

The value levers from the McKinsey Global Institute (2012) that I have associated with this blog are; value lever 4 (derive customer insights), 5 (use social technologies for marketing communication/interaction), 6 (generate and foster leads) which all form part of the marketing and sales organisational function. But with many of these enterprise 2.0 technologies you can argue for other value levers and function associations depending on the context of the argument.

Value lever 4 - Derive Customer Insights

recool uses comments sections for its blog postings for this value lever to get customer feedback. Most companies that have any type of feedback option should be reaping the benefits from this feedback. This is a cornerstone of web 2.0 anything that is posted online, a blog, a tweet, a facebook posting, you want someone to reply, you want to create a connection, you want that customer feedback as that is how you derive their insights. The value that I think gives the company is that it educates prospective customers and potentially a comment could be used to enhance aspects of their designs. In much the same way that crowdsourcing is used by foldit. Another way that Westlake Reed Leskosky (2013, para. 1) taps into this value lever and value lever 5 is that it promotes “open and candid discussion of design and product applications” on its blog, I think that by promoting an atmosphere of debate it is inviting people to think how can it be improved and how to get involved in sustainable AEC.

Value Lever 5 - Use Social Technologies for Marketing Communication/Interaction

Westlake Reed Leskosky (2013) state that one function of the blog is to emphasize their approach to sustainable AEC by showing what worked and what difficulties were encountered. As I said earlier blogging in enterprise 2.0 is a type portfolio, it is easy to show off your company, so it is easy to market the company by enhancing their digital identity to the world. The value comes with the engagement that is possible through social technologies, if I want to see green technology in architecture I don’t have to go to some conference in Scandinavia. This value lever I think is a by product of the internet as technically having a website, blog, facebook page, etc. is marketing yourself and interacting with the community. The value that is derived for recool.com is how it uses blogging as opposed to wiki (too technical perhaps) or twitter (not enough words) to promote its digital identity and the engagement and debate it tries to manifest not only with people that are for sustainable AEC but also those who are on the fence or against it.

Value Lever 6 - Generate and Foster Sales Leads

There has been a continued focus on sustainable everything, how to decrease the impact that everything has on the environment, so it is easy to argue that sustainable AEC is also a hot topic. By tying in value lever 5 as a portfolio recool.com is at worse passively generating sales leads, if there is anyone looking at sustainable architecture the blog can be construed as an extension of the firm and while it may not form the only reason for choosing the firm it is another way to enhance sales leads.

I think that using blogs, wikis, twitter etc. for this sector depends more on what value lever you are trying to achieve than in other sectors we have explored so far. The two previous sectors we looked at, depending on the enterprise 2.0 technology that was used could encompass several value levers and organisational functions. This I think its due to the niche nature of the services and who the services are primarily aimed at.

References

McKinsey Global Institute - The social economy: Unlocking value and productivity through social technologies.
recool - about