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“A lot has happened in a year within the social software and collaboration space. The growing use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook by business users has resulted in serious enterprise dialogue about procuring social software platforms for the business,” said Mark R. Gilbert, research vice president at Gartner and co-chair of the Portals, Content and Collaboration (PCC) Summit. “Success in social software and collaboration will be characterized by a concerted and collaborative effort between IT and the business.”

Gartner offers five key predictions for social software:

By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.

Greater availability of social networking services both inside and outside the firewall, coupled with changing demographics and work styles will lead 20 percent of users to make a social network the hub of their business communications. During the next several years, most companies will be building out internal social networks and/or allowing business use of personal social network accounts. Social networking will prove to be more effective than e-mail for certain business activities such as status updates and expertise location.

“The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode. E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities,” said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner. “While e-mail is already almost fully penetrated in the corporate space, we expect to see steep growth rates for sales of premises- and cloud-based social networking services. “

Gartner recommends that organizations develop a long-term strategy for provisioning and consuming a rich set of collaboration and social software services, and develop policies governing the use of consumer services for business purposes. Companies should also solicit input from the business community on what collaboration tools would be most helpful.

By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5 percent penetration.

The huge popularity of the consumer-microblogging service Twitter, has led many organizations to look for an “enterprise Twitter,” that provides microblogging functionality with more control and security features to support internal use between employees. Enterprise users want to use microblogging for many of the same reasons that consumers do to share quick insights, to keep up with what colleagues are doing, to get quick answers to questions and so on.

“However, it will be very difficult for microblogging as a stand-alone function to achieve widespread adoption within the enterprise. Twitter’s scale is one of the reasons for its popularity,” said Jeffrey Mann, research vice president for Gartner. “When limited to a single enterprise, that same scale is unachievable, reducing the number of users who will find it valuable. Mainstream enterprises are unlikely to adopt standalone, single-purpose microblogging products.

Through 2012, over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.

When it comes to collaboration, IT organizations are accustomed to providing a technology platform (such as, e-mail, IM, Web conferencing) rather than delivering a social solution that targets specific business value. Through 2013, IT organizations will struggle with shifting from providing a platform to delivering a solution. This will result in over a 70 percent failure rate in IT-driven social media initiatives. Fifty percent of business-led social media initiatives will succeed, versus 20 percent of IT-driven initiatives.

Enterprises will need to develop entirely new skill sets around designing and delivering social media solutions. Until this happens, failure rates will remain high. A dearth of methods, technologies and tools will impede the design and delivery of social media solutions in the near term. But long term, enterprises will realize that social media is not a “hit or miss” activity naturally prone to high failure rates, and that a calculated approach to social media solution delivery must be an IT competency. At that point, post 2012, the social software market growth will accelerate as will the overall impact of social media on business and society.

Within five years, 70 percent of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smartphone collaboration applications.

As we move toward three billion phones in the world serving the main purpose of providing communications and collaboration anytime anywhere, Gartner expects more end users to spend significant time experiencing the collaborative tools on these devices. For some of the world, these will be the first or the only applications they use. The experience with these tools for all who use them will enable the user to handle far more conversations within a given amount of time than their PCs simply because they are easier to use. Just as the iPhone impacted user interface design on the desktop, the lessons in the mobile phone collaboration space will dramatically affect PC applications, many of which are derivatives of decades-old platforms based on the PBX or other older collaboration paradigm.

“IT organizations should continue to procure leading-edge smartphones for testing and to accumulate knowledge on how the collaboration applications on such devices accomplish business tasks,” said Ken Dulaney, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “As more organizations consider replacing deskphones with cell phones, they may wish to anchor their collaboration tools also on the cell phone.”

Through 2015, only 25 percent of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity.

Social network analysis is a useful methodology for examining the interaction patterns and information flows that occur among the people and groups in an organization, as well as among business partners and customers. However, when surveys are used for data collection, users may be reluctant to provide accurate responses. When automated tools perform the analysis, users may resent knowing that software is analyzing their behavior. For these reasons, social network analysis will remain an untapped source of insight in most organizations.

Before undertaking a social network analysis, Gartner recommends that the organization ensure that it has the trust and buy-in of the people it hopes to include in the analysis in advance. Issues of privacy and confidentiality must be addressed and a determination needs to be made regarding how the information will be used and communicated. Establishing the ground rules upfront will encourage more open and honest participation and reduce the resistance to ongoing relationship monitoring.

More information can be found in the report “Predicts 2010: Social Software Is an Enterprise Reality” which is available on Gartner’s Web site at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1243515.

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The Xperia X10 measure in at 119 x 63 x 13mm and weighs 130 grammes, so far pretty standard for an Android based device.  The handset incorporates a 4″ TFT screen with an impressive 480 x 854 resolution.  The screen is a capacitive touchscreen with the handy addition of having a scratch resistant surface, a feature which has long been desired on the new breed of large screened devices.  Auto rotate functions are possible due to the built in accelorometer chip.

Sony Ericsson have introduced a new interface on this model.  Named the UX, short for User Experience, it is aimed to make the day to day use of the phone, easy and fun.  It groups all media, social networks and contacts neatly together making each file or app easy to find and navigate to and from. For example, if you call up a name on your contacts list, you can then expand this tile and further information will be displayed about that person.  This information includes the display of photos they’re tagged in, history of text messages and updates on their social networking accounts.  It is a neat feature and I can see it becoming widely used in many future handset models.  The 1Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor the Xperia 10 houses is quick, not only for loading apps but also for browsing and general multimedia use. The multimedia facilities are neatly grouped together.

Perhaps the most standout feature of the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 is its hugely impressive camera facility.  Boasting a huge resolution of 8.1 mega pixels, the resulting images not only suffice when viewing on the device but also look clear and detailed when enlarged on a PC or printed.  An auto focus help keep the pictures sharp and other features include an LED flash, face recognition and smile detection.  Video capture is also supported complete with a quite rare video light for darker scenes.

Anybody hoping for a physical qwerty keypad will be disappointed, in an effort to maintain the slim profile Sony Ericsson have incorporated the keypad into the touch screen.  1GB of internal memory is incorporated in the Xperia X10, and an 8GB micro SD card is included, but for those who require more can purchase up to an additional 16GB.

Sony Ericsson have given us a lot to look forward too with the Xperia X10.  The stylish, slim design coupled with Google’s Android platform and a revolutionary user interface make this THE phone to watch for the first part of 2010.

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Available tomorrow for free downloading at www.blackberry.com/appworld, the new UPS Mobile(TM) App for BlackBerry enables users to track shipments, create shipments using the My UPS address book, calculate shipping rates and time-in-transit and then find the nearest UPS location.

“The UPS Mobile App for BlackBerry is a first-to-market solution for on-the-go professionals that’s arriving just in time for the busy holiday shipping season,” said Jordan Colletta, vice president of customer technology marketing at UPS.

Developed exclusively for use on BlackBerry smartphones, the new UPS Mobile App doesn’t require log-in for tracking. But when logged in, the application shows a history of tracked shipments and automatically refreshes when the application is opened. UPS tracking numbers also can be nicknamed for quick reference.

BlackBerry users can use their smartphones to access their My UPS Address Book and Preferences and create shipping labels, which can be e-mailed in a PDF file for printout. Once the label is printed, customers can use the application’s “find locations” feature to easily find a UPS drop-off location.

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“Savvy consumers will check 8coupons.com before they head out to eat, drink, shop, or do anything in their neighborhood”, said Landy Ung, CEO and Co-founder of 8coupons.com. “There’s a high chance that we can help shoppers get more for their money and let them know about a great nearby deal that they wouldn’t otherwise know about. 8coupons.com aggregates thousands of mobile coupons and local deals throughout the country.”

The newly designed site has been upgraded in the following areas.

Nationwide: – There are now deals all over the country, not just New York City.

Location Based: When a user visits 8coupons.com, the map on the homepage will automatically populate the Top 8 most popular deals based on his or her IP address. This ensures that anyone who visits the site will see the deals that are most relevant to them specifically. The Top 8 deals will change dynamically as the user moves the map around to different locations, zooms in on a specific street, or narrows down the deals by sub-categories such as restaurants, entertainment, beauty & spas, services and shopping.

More Deals: The deals on 8coupons.com now come from several different sources.

* Exclusive Mobile Coupons – Since launching in 2007, 8coupons.com has offered a self-service mobile coupon platform for small-businesses in New York City. The platform is now available nationwide, and to celebrate, 8coupons is offering an opportunity for any business to try the service free for 100 days (an $888 value!). Businesses can sign up here and use the promo code “MobileCoupons” at checkout to receive a credit of $888.

* User Submitted Deals – Consumers can use this form to tell everyone about the specials at their local bar or their local sandwich shop (or accountant, or dentist, etc…). To date, there have been over 100,000 user shared deals on 8coupons.com.

* Sponsored listings – 8coupons.com has partnered with Valpak, Money Mailer, and RedPlum’s SuperCoups as well as with several local bloggers and content partners to add over 50,000 local deals across the country.

The current economy and heightened demand for deals has sparked the entire industry, but 8coupons.com specifically is the fastest growing deals site on the Internet. Over the past year, and according to Google Analytics, traffic has grown 869% resulting in 770,345 unique visitors in November, 2009.

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“Easter European and Ex Soviet Union countries are still difficult to access for most of the western internet companies “, – says CEO Fortumo Martin Koppel. “Fortumo sees itself as a gateway, which helps those companies monetize their user base in region without risks and costs”, – adds Koppel.

Besides mobile payment, with Fortumo everyone can create SMS-services without any technical background or cost in 5 minutes. Basic services are targeting at users without any technical skills, while advanced services enable experienced service providers to benefit from the multi-country functionality, flexible user interface and competitive revenue sharing.

“Typical Fortumo users are online game portals, social media application developers and different internet entrepreneurs, while radio stations, local newspapers and ad agencies also benefit from the media convergence.” says the CEO of Fortumo Martin Koppel. “At the moment people have created nearly 85 000 revenue generating SMS-services,” adds Koppel.

Fortumo is providing its services in 29 countries from Nordics, Europe to Southeast Asia, and is available at Fortumo.com without any startup or monthly fees.

Fortumo Ltd, headquartered in Estonia, provides a simple mobile payments platform for internet entrepreneurs to monetize online games, social networking sites and other web-based businesses. With ready to use solutions, there is no need to complicated setup and additional technical knowledge. Fortumo services are available in 29 countries, which makes the market with more than a billion mobile subscribers available to everyone. Founded in 2007, the company is experiencing rapid growth, having launched its service in 29 countries in Europe and Asia. In 2009, Mobile Monday chose Fortumo as one of the TOP20 most potential mobile startups in the world and TechCrunch featured Fortumo in its list of the TOP100 most interesting startups in Europe.

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The very idea of unwanted advertising streaming through our Blackberries is abhorrent. Mobile devices are the ultimate opt-in medium and, therefore, a great way for marketers to connect with users…if that’s what the users want. “WANT” is the key word here. How should marketers approach the medium?
There are three main ways to achieve this. They are:

1.    Offer exclusive content. Anyone can offer ring tones. It’s the unique content, such as exclusive mobile images of new brand concepts, that drives interest and calls them out in other media like e-mail campaigns, newsletters, websites, etc. So a wireless campaign is most effective when it offers exclusive content for wireless devices.

2.    Make it useful and timely. Think about what would be handy and helpful to have on a mobile device. Last year, for example, Food Network enabled Sprint customers to download shopping lists for their Thanksgiving dinners. There was a lot of “Sprint-envy” going around among non-sprint customers.

3.    Clearly define objectives. Usually, one of two business objectives drives successful mobile experiences: incremental revenue of brand intimacy. On the intimacy factor, a text message usually takes priority over almost any other form of communication. Why? Because we haven’t yet been saturated with mobile spam, and this is what causes us to prioritize wireless messaging over voice.

Mobile marketing has been out there for a while but we marketers have new territory to explore. Video offers fantastic opportunities for engagement. Consumers already bypass their filters for highly useful or entertaining content and will do so for rich exclusive, compelling content.

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According to the company, “Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.”

“We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money,” said Mary McDowell, EVP and Chief Development Officer, Nokia.

Mobile payments will be the next step for delivering financial services to hundreds of millions of people, both urban and rural, who are underserved by existing payment means, especially in emerging economies.

“Rural consumers will particularly benefit from money transfers and, for urban consumers used to online services, we are enabling services such as payment of utility bills, purchase of train and movie tickets, top-ups, all through their mobile phones. Nokia Money is simple to use, secure and available across different operator networks and on virtually any mobile phone. This means millions of new consumers will soon be able to manage all their financial needs from their mobile phone,” said Teppo Paavola, VP and Head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia.

The Nokia Money service will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. The service is based on Obopay’s mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.

“Obopay shares Nokia’s vision for bringing mobile financial services to millions of people worldwide. We’re excited that Nokia has chosen Obopay’s platform. Nokia’s leading market position, strong brand recognition and global distribution channel, using the Obopay platform with uniquely developed mobile elements, means the Nokia Money service is well positioned to bring the next generation of mobile payment services to the world,” said Carol Realini, Founder and CEO of Obopay.

Nokia Money is the result of a powerful collaboration Nokia is forging between different partners in different markets around the world. It is designed to work in partnership with mobile network operators and financial institutions, involving distributors and merchants in a dynamic ecosystem to seamlessly provide the new services.

“As a result of the innovative partnerships and comprehensive ecosystem we are forging with the banking and financial industry, as well as leading network operators, we believe Nokia Money will bring financial inclusion to many who currently have limited or no access to financial services. Uniting the strengths of the mobile and financial services industries will change the way people around the world can manage their money in the future,” added McDowell.

“Mobile financial services present a high growth sector for Nokia. Nokia’s asset strengths, including consumer brand awareness, distribution capabilities and global relationships should serve as logical and necessary extensions to drive innovation in the mobile payments and banking sector. To be successful Nokia must provide a legitimate bridge between operators, banks networks and security infrastructure in order to unlock the broad uptake of mobile financial services,” said Bob Egan, Global Head of Research and Chief Analyst, Towergroup.

The Nokia Money service will be shown for the first time at Nokia World on the 2nd and 3rd of September 2009 in Stuttgart, Germany, and it is planned to be rolled out gradually to selected markets, beginning in early 2010.

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