In his July 15th Spend Matters post titled “Ten Reasons Why I’m Finally Sold on Twitter (and Tips for Making it Work for You),” Jason Busch indicated that he is “back on Twitter with a vengeance.” In fact he even used the word “addict” to describe his renewed level of Twitter activity.
While recent articles such as the one which appeared in the April 18, 2009 edition of the Financial Post asked the question “Should You Twitter Your Business” (based on the opinion of some pundits that Twitter is just a vehicle to kill time, filling any moment with useless drivel), it is nonetheless promising to see the purchasing profession begin to break out of the manacles of the stagnated thinking that has led to its steady decline in relevancy over the past few years. Note: do not confuse my last statement pertaining to relevancy as being applicable to an organization’s supply practice itself. Procurement within the global enterprise has in fact gained significant recognition relative to its increasing importance to a company’s bottom line. What I am referring to is the inability of the profession (including associations) to help professionals keep pace with this heightened awareness.
And it is in this area, and in particular the awareness of what a Twitter-type platform can provide beyond the albeit exciting realms of expanded communication and collaboration, upon which industry experts should be focusing their attention.
To this end, I am happy to share the comments I posted on Jason’s blog relative to his awakening (or perhaps reawakening) to the Twitter phenomenon.
My Comment Posted on Spend Matters
In preparation for my interview with author and social media guru Shel Israel for the PI Window on Business segment “We’re Not In Kansas Anymore: Welcome to “Twitterville” and the New Business Paradigm,” I had augmented my research material that resulted in a few interesting posts relative to supply chain practice.
Here is a summary:
July 1st – Sourcing Through Twitter!, which touches on the fact that as part of their Summer Release Coupa has already incorporated the ability to access a broader supply base through Twitter.
July 2nd – Syndicated PI Ping: Is Oracle Twitter’s Hidden Competitor?, which discusses Twitter’s recent move or conversion to a persistent queue server (written with SCALA – a multi-paradigm programming language), and how it shares similarity to Transaction Oriented Middleware such as Oracle’s Tuxedo. In fact at its core, Tuxedo is a “message routing and queuing system.”
With SaaS companies such as Coupa already “building-in” the capabilities to use Twitter as a means of communicating with suppliers, is this an indication that Twitter may enter or expand into the business realms of transactional processing? Or, will it remain solely a public or open communication vehicle or platform?
Alternatively, will Oracle or even SAP (which has an internal network of 1 million people operating within a Twitter-like platform) leverage their own capabilities to extend their reach in terms of broadening a client’s ability to reliably engage a larger pool of suppliers. Preliminary feedback from people-in-the-know relative to Oracle is needless to say interesting.
Suffice to say, looking beyond Twitter and the semantic-based Web 3.0 to Web 4.0, and its intelligent engagement capabilities, there is a clear indication that we are now experiencing the early phases of social media’s impact on business processes.
Baby Steps . . .
Given that 10 percent of the population currently utilizes social networks such as Twitter, the concepts presented above are exciting to be sure but, does not circumvent the need for a general understanding of the Twitter platform.
To this end, and beside listening to my July 7th interview with Shel Israel, I would strongly suggest that you purchase Shel’s Book “Twiterville, how businesses can thrive in Global Neighborhoods,” to really appreciate the present day reach of this exceptional tool.
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Posted on July 15, 2009
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