Using Social Media Tools Within A Company

Once upon a time, circa 2004, a business in Trinidad and Tobago came to me with a problem - a problem that I can't give details on given the non-disclosure agreement I signed with them. Thus I will write it in an abstract fashion.

The problem was tracking assets of a multinational corporation - and the assets had quite a bit of information associated with them. Each asset had images, charts, documents and everything else associated with it. To develop a desktop application using C++ would have been the solution I would have suggested 10 years beforehand. The solution then, the same solution in use now, was to take a Content Management System (CMS) and (1) Customize it to the needs of the multinational corporation and (2) programmatically import data into the MySQL database backend. The CMS used and still in use: Drupal.

This had unexpected and very positive consequences. The Drupal installation was done on a local site and access was made available to all levels of the multinational corporation through a VPN. Suddenly, experts on the assets - and due to the nature of the assets, there were many - could work together, add attachments and data to the existing information. Meanwhile, the general public had no access to the information.

Content management systems are stereotyped for working only with websites - something that they were built to do. And yet it is possible to use them for so much more - adding so much more to knowledge management infrastructure within a company of any size.