I am officially up and running now in my 6th week here at Avaya and loving my new role. And what has been really interesting for me to see was the difference between organizations when it comes to things like social media.


One of the things I was pleasantly surprised to find in the first few days was that Avaya has their own Yammer account within their firewall. So naturally I signed up and started sharing.
Within days I had identified a group of really smart people inside Avaya that are totally switched on and not only sharing but discussing real issues in our Yammer forum with other like-minded individuals. I immediately asked my entire team to join since I wanted us to post some discussion threads and get reaction from sales people on our upcoming programs. And at last week's VoiceCon conference I got to meet some of these folks face to face and it was like we were already long time friends.
One of my biggest concerns about coming into a new environment and managing a whole new group of people was - how am I going to build a network of trusted peers and sales people who I can tap into? I am happy to report that within a matter of weeks that piece is well on its way. Now we can get down to the business of making an impact for the organization.
So often I read and see discussions of Social Media and Social Networking ROI but hidden in that discussion is the unique ability for new employees to get up to speed quickly and build a network while building credibility in the organization. It would have taken me months to do that the traditional way, but with the power of Social Media and Social Networks it took weeks. What's the ROI to Avaya on that? To borrow a phrase Social Networks like this are indeed Priceless.