ATOS: The Zero Email Company (A)

Published 25 Mar 2019
Reference 6456
Topic Strategy
Region Europe
Length 13 page(s)
Summary

The case illustrates how Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, used a social networking based tool (blueKiwi) to replace email in its internal communications. The key to its successful deployment was the creation of professional communities (analogous to groups in Facebook) around specific issues. While the company was not able to rid itself of email completely, it did achieve increased efficiency in internal information sharing.

Teaching objectives

The case illustrates key concepts from “The Social Organization: How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of your Customers and Employees” by Anthony J. Bradley and Mark P. McDonald. For social-media-based tools to be successfully deployed, firms should: • Define how the community collaboration experience should function, with a clear statement of purpose as a starting point. • Develop a “tipping point” plan, i.e. a strategy to spread awareness; aim for “viral expansion” (voluntary participation rather than top-down) to reach a sustainable community that should be guided and monitored, but not too closely. • Develop a suitable environment in which the community can congregate and collaborate (social media software, appropriate user experience, etc). Case (A) looks at problems associated with email as a communications medium and describes how blueKiwi, a social media type platform, allows people to communicate within communities around specific issues. Case (B) describes the outcomes, including measures used by Atos to evaluate the health of communities. BlueKiwi did allow the company to become more agile and built the foundation for work based on self-organizing teams.

Keywords
  • organizational change
  • social media
  • social media communities
  • information technology company
  • consulting
  • agility
  • Q31819