Yes, you heard me right, I didn't misspell it! Intranet of Things, not Internet of Things, is what organisations must be using to get their feet wet before going out there to act digital.

I was reading an interesting post on TNW or The Next Web and according to Forrester the European Online market is about to explode. Well, hold on, it is about to explode in the GIIPS (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal) regions starting with Italy and Portugal. Wow! So we are talking about economies where morale has reached an all-time low, consumption has dropped dramatically and basically the fact that people are simply not buying anymore, to make them buy?

Well this may come as a surprise to some but it might be the only way the Southern European economies can really do the big bang and get their economies up and running. We know that the traditional way of doing things is not going to work. Banks are hurting, economy is in shambles and joblessness is at an all-time high. It's 2015 and WSJ painted a pretty gloomy picture.

(Note: This is an excerpt; Read the full article here)

Courtesy WSJ: 2nd January 2015

So, what the hell is going on? Why aren't organisations finally doing something? Economists are going crazy and calling for political action. This is today's news! Yes, 5th January 2015!

Courtesy: Financial Times, 5th January 2015

It’s all about web behaviour, and it's changing dramatically!

The web constitutes to anything that is being done in the context of a browser. Naturally the behavior of the customer that is extremely web conscious is very important in enticing him/her to make a purchase from your website. Sounds easy, but how are you going to bring them to your website? You can spend millions in marketing and sales campaign and hope that your product will stick, but in this technological environment where literally everyone/everything being hooked on to the internet, it is bound to become a big race of me-too’s and also-rans.

If that was the case, then all firms would have been extremely successful in launching their web only, web+BNM* models or plain brick-and-mortar models. Naturally the whole spectrum of improving your supply chain, consolidating your S&OP (Sales and Operational Planning) etc are very important factors for getting things moving towards improving your top margins and reducing your stock.

To get genuine customer engagement, you must first get your employees engaged

I firmly believe that you have to get your workforce mobilized for this change. They are after all consumers as well. Ask yourself the following questions before you go our selling your services to your clients:

• Would I buy these services myself?
• Would my colleagues buy these services/goods?
• Would my friends buy these services/goods?
• Would I be interested in promoting these to my network – real and digital?

CEOs, CMOs and business heads are very concerned on mobilizing and energizing your workforce. Look at the figures yourself. Things are horribly wrong! People are barely motivated and do not even associate with the brand they work for. At least that is what recent surveys have proven.

To be successful on internet, organisations must succeed with intranet

It is extremely crucial to get your “insides” in sync with your “outsides“. By this, I mean that you must start behaving and/or encouraging a behavior that is similar to the way a consumer – who you so wish to cajole and woo, behaves. Current intranet environments are considered the least productive platforms and employees, workers shun it to use other means – yes you got it, the internet, to do their work.

Imagine the huge benefit that awaits a firm. A workforce driven satisfaction wave that paves the way to sale of goods, services and products. Traditional internets have failed to lift company or employee morale, neither has it made it easier for firms to integrate its productivity applications to encourage workers to work within the portal. It has merely turned into a static bucket with information that is barely accessible to employees.

After all, the father of knowledge economy, Peter Drucker wasn't wrong when he observed this decades ago.

This new knowledge economy will rely heavily on knowledge workers. …the most striking growth will be in “knowledge technologists:” computer technicians, software designers, analysts in clinical labs, manufacturing technologists, paralegals. …They are not, as a rule, much better paid than traditional skilled workers, but they see themselves as “professionals.” Just as unskilled manual workers in manufacturing were the dominant social and political force in the 20th century, knowledge technologists are likely to become the dominant social— and perhaps also political— force over the next decades.

Read the full article here.