Cisco has been on a Web 2.0 spending spree lately, and they may not be done yet.  Cisco obviously does not want to compete with MySpace, FaceBook, Orkut, and LinkedIn in the public social networking space, and I can only guess that Cisco doesn’t want to start its own social network of customers since many of its customers are direct competitors with each other.  This poses an interesting question:  What does Cisco want to do with this technology?  What possible use does social networking technology have in the enterprise?

Chris thinks that they’re planning to offer social networks to their customers as an extension of online user forums, as part of an integrated offering to help defray customer service costs by deflecting calls from the contact center.  This could be part of the reason, but social networks are typically more about user-generated content and less about pushing content to the user.  So here are my thoughts on the subject.

What Cisco is really trying to do here, and it really is genius, is to provide their customers with an integrated platform that they can use to learn about and profile their customers—gain insight into what their customers are thinking about and what their customers want from them—and open an easy integrated communications channel between the customer and the company.  It’s not about extending social networking into the enterprise itself, it’s about providing a way for companies to keep their fingers on the pulse of their own customer community.  John Noh, a Cisco spokesman, seems to confirm this:

“John Noh, a Cisco spokesman, told internetnews.com that the company plans to follow up its recent acquisitions with additional "Web. 2.0" technologies to help push the "consumerization of the enterprise." But, he added, CMSG's next acquisitions might involve social media technology other than social networking.

However, Chan said it was hard to ignore the impact social media sites such as YouTube, MySpace and Facebook were having on the consumer space. Now, the group is convinced the same Web 2.0 technology behind those properties can help Cisco's customers get to know their own customers even better.

For example, Chan said a company such as Mattel could more easily learn what kind of new Barbie dolls to sell if it developed a social network for its customers. He said observing their behavior online would be more effective than any surveys or focus groups. “

Now, I haven’t heard anything about the capability of social networks to profile their customers (and I do keep a pretty close eye on the space), but the data is all there for the taking.  I would assume that each of the social networking companies Cisco has or will purchase each bring a piece of the puzzle that will let Cisco build the social networking platform they ultimately want, which seems to be capable of profiling customer behavior and integrated with Cisco’s contact center (ACD, IVR) offerings.  The possibilities to look and analyze customer behavior coming from a vibrant social network are just incredible.  As a business intelligence technology geek, the thought of building dashboards and scorecards on top of this data makes me drool.

Cisco seems to be moving from an integrated voice and telephony (contact center) offering towards an integrated CUSTOMER CONTACT offering, spanning all types of potential customer contact and interaction:  voice, video, Internet, and user-generated content.  They’re attempting to connect companies more intimately with their customers in a unique way, and I love it.  I do have some questions about the way Cisco is going about this, because acquiring three different code bases usually doesn’t lead to a coherent product.  Perhaps they’re primarily going after the talent, people, and experience, I don’t think that piece is clear yet.  However if they manage to pull it off and provide a completely integrated suite works wieht their other products in a plug and play fashion, it'll be incredibly powerful.  Even if it doesn’t result in direct cost savings, the resulting feedback loop is a HUGE carrot at the end of the stick for just about any company.