Social Networking: My People Know Your People

Computerworld - London-based international venture capital firm 3i Group PLC wanted to buy part of the chemical business of a German company going through a management upheaval. The problem was that 3i's German team lacked good contacts at the chemical company, says Rod Perry, 3i's director of technology investing.
So 3i turned to the social networking function of InterAction, a CRM product from Interface Software Inc. in Oak Brook, Ill. The software showed that, unbeknownst to 3i's German team, the firm's Italian team had good contacts at the target company. The Italian team made the introduction, and a deal is now in the offing.
This all came about thanks to social networking technology, which mines databases of contact names, interests, former employers, colleges attended and other information to identify a network of acquaintances.
Like instant messaging, social networking is a hot technology that started in the consumer market (examples include Friendster.com and Meetup.com) but has now emerged with business-oriented applications. It could turn out to be a big success in business -- generating sales leads and connecting deal-makers -- or it could flop like "push" technology did in the 1990s. But corporate IT managers should at least be aware of the phenomenon.
In essence, social networking is "a search engine for people and relationships," says Jas Dhillon, CEO and president of Santa Monica, Calif.-based ZeroDegrees Inc., which was recently acquired by online conglomerate InterActiveCorp. Dhillon figures that his software cuts the average time it takes a salesperson to reach a buyer by 35%.
Antony Brydon, CEO and president of Visible Path Corp. in New York, claims that people using his software have reduced the sales cycle by 27% and increased the close rate by 22%, while the average deal size has gone up 10%. Efficiency is improved, he says, because cold calls are replaced with personal introductions, and salespeople get access to decision-makers.
That's how it worked for Curtis Estes, founding principal at Strategy Benefits Group LLC, a financial planning practice in Los Angeles.
Estes tried over and over again to meet a certain wealthy individual, without success. Then he went on Spoke, a social networking service from Spoke Software Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif., where he found 10 people on the network with connections to this person.
Within days, Estes had an introduction. "I expect Spoke will increase our revenues by 25% this year," he says. "It saves countless hours and dramatically increases our ability to get in front of our best prospects."
Inside or Outside The Firewall
The technology