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Avanade, a global business technology solutions and managed services provider, has released results from a global survey (PDF) on adoption of social collaboration technologies by 4,000 end users and 1,000 business and IT decision-makers in 22 countries. Data from the research shows that the majority of businesses are using social networking technologies in the enterprise.

However, Avanade’s research also reveals common misconceptions when it comes to social collaboration. Those who have adopted social networking technologies in their company reported using consumer-oriented social technologies. Sixty-nine percent of Canadian companies use Facebook (74 percent globally) for collaboration while 49 percent use Microsoft SharePoint (39 percent globally), 20 percent use IBM Open Connections (17 percent globally) and 18 percent use Salesforce Chatter (12 percent globally).

But, data shows this trend may change in the next 12 months. Canadian decision makers planning to adopt social technologies report Microsoft SharePoint and Salesforce Chatter at the top of their list of collaboration deployments planned in the coming year. Though Facebook is currently ranked No. 1 among social collaboration technologies in use today (69 percent), when asked what social tools businesses wanted to adopt in the next year, Facebook fell to the very end of the list with only 8 percent of decision-makers respondents, both in Canada and globally, noting it as a priority.

Avanade’s research also shows the majority of businesses that have adopted social collaboration tools are seeing benefits and making plans to adopt more social tools in the future. Key data findings include:

• Eager adopters are leveraging social technologies at work – 87 percent of Canadian decision makers (77 percent globally) and 67 percent of Canadian end users (68 percent globally) report using enterprise social networking technologies.
• Of those Canadian businesses currently using social collaboration tools, 84 percent (82 percent globally) want to use more of them in the future.
• Across the board, IT and business decision makers, along with end users, report positive outcomes from their use of social collaboration technologies in the enterprise. IT decision makers report these social technologies make their jobs more enjoyable (62 percent in Canada, 66 percent globally), make them more productive (72 percent in Canada, 62 percent globally), and help them get work done faster (66 percent in Canada, 57 percent globally).
• With all the positive perceptions and business outcomes, a healthy minority of business and IT decision-makers (13 percent in Canada, 23 percent globally) have not yet adopted social collaboration tools in the enterprise.

“We see the rise of social collaboration technologies as a huge opportunity for Canadian companies to empower end users and see positive results when they have the right strategy in place,” said Benoit Bertrand, Avanade Canada CTO and vice president. “The presence of consumer technologies in the workplace is creating demand for new ways of working, and the majority of Canadian business and IT decision makers believe social collaboration technologies will help enable greater productivity and achieve business goals.”

To learn more about Avanade’s views on social collaboration, please visit www.avanade.com/socialcollaboration.

About the Global Survey
Avanade’s survey was conducted by Vanson Bourne, an independent specialist in market research for the technology sector. It surveyed:

• 1000 C-level executives, business unit leaders, and senior decision makers within the IT department in organizations of 1000 employees or more in the following countries: United States, Canada, Brazil, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. This fieldwork was conducted between March 13 and April 16, 2013.
• 4000 end users in organizations of 500 employees or more in the following countries: United States, Canada, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore. This fieldwork was conducted between January 31 and February 20, 2013.
• Since the time of the survey, there have been some changes in the marketplace (including the decision by Salesforce to apply the Chatter interface to their entire application suite) that continue to highlight the business opportunity around Social Collaboration.