1. business and industrial
2. construction

AALTO UNIVERSITY
School of Science and Technology
Faculty of Information and Natural Sciences
Degree Programme of Computer Science and Engineering
Noora Korppi-Tommola
Establishing a basis for a company online community:
A case study
Masters‟ Thesis
Espoo, August 6th, 2010
Supervisor: Professor Petri Vuorimaa
Instructor: Päivi Puntila M.Sc. (Econ.), M.A.
Aalto University
School of Science and Technology
Faculty of Information and Natural Sciences
ABSTRACT OF THE MASTER‟S
Degree programme of Computer Science and Engineering
THESIS
Author: Noora Korppi-Tommola
Title: Establishing a basis for a company online community: a case study
Number of pages: 89+28
Professorship: Contents production
Date: 6 August 2010
Language: English
Code: T-111
Supervisor: Professor Petri Vuorimaa
Instructor: Päivi Puntila, M.Sc. (Econ.), M.A.
Abstract:
The objective of this Master‟s Thesis was to find the required next steps to make the case company‟s online
community meet the needs of its users and owners. The study was motivated by the hardship of case
company‟s online community development and earlier literature on building online communities barely
acknowledging the company perspective. The case study consisted of assessing different community
development-related needs and ultimate challenges. Research material covered literature and earlier companyspecific research results. In addition to those, needs and challenges were asked from employees via online
survey and by interviewing managers.
The main purpose of the case company‟s online community proved to be to create value for its users and
owners. During the study, the company environment was discovered to set specific requirements for online
community building: a clear strategic purpose, new policies and roles, and management‟s commitment. These
requirements also proved to create the challenges for the case company‟s online community development.
Moreover, the biggest challenge was discovered to be lack of information about the subject.
The study resulted in guidelines that suggest the next actions that the case company should take to continue
their online community building. These guidelines have also been presented as a generalized process, which
other companies may utilize when establishing online communities for customers. Both guidelines and the
most important result of this study can be summarized into the following sentence: Building a company online
community requires strategic user-centered design and support from the organization and technology.
Keywords: company online community, establishing company online community
Aalto-yliopisto
Teknillinen korkeakoulu
Informaatio- ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta
Tietotekniikan tutkinto-ohjelma
DIPLOMITYÖN TIIVISTELMÄ
Tekijä: Noora Korppi-Tommola
Työn nimi: Yrityksen ylläpitämän verkkoyhteisön perustaminen: tapaustutkimus
Sivumäärä: 89+28
Päiväys: 6.8.2010
Professuuri: Sisällöntuotanto
Julkaisukieli: Englanti
Professuurikoodi: T-111
Työn valvoja: Professori Petri Vuorimaa
Työn ohjaaja: KTM, TaM Päivi Puntila
Tiivistelmä:
Tämän diplomityön tavoitteena oli tutkia, kuinka kohdeyrityksen tulee jatkaa asiakkaillensa suunnatun
verkkoyhteisön rakentamista, jotta yhteisö vastaisi sille asetettuja tavoitteita. Tutkimuksen motiivina oli
kohdeyrityksen verkkoyhteisön kehityksen vaikeus ja se, ettei verkkoyhteisön kehitystä koskevassa
kirjallisuudessa ole aiemmin juuri otettu huomioon yritysnäkökulmaa. Työ koostui erilaisten yhteisöön
liittyvien tarpeiden ja kehityksen perimmäisten haasteiden kartoituksesta. Lähdemateriaalina käytettiin
kirjallisuutta sekä aiempia yrityskohtaisia tutkimuksia. Lisäksi tarpeita ja haasteita tutkittiin yrityksen
työntekijöille suunnatulla verkkokyselyllä sekä haastattelemalla johtajia.
Kohdeyrityksen ylläpitämän verkkoyhteisön tärkeimmäksi tavoitteeksi nousi arvon tuottaminen sen käyttäjille
ja omistajille. Tutkimuksessa huomattiin yritysympäristön asettavan verkkoyhteisön rakentamiselle omat
vaatimuksensa: selkeän strategisen tavoitteen, uudet menettelytavat ja roolit sekä johdon sitoutumisen.
Kyseiset vaatimukset osoittautuivat myös haasteiksi yrityksen verkkoyhteisön kehitykselle. Niiden lisäksi
suurimmaksi haasteeksi osoittautui aiheeseen liittyvän tiedon puute.
Tutkimuksen tuloksena kohdeyritykselle laadittiin ohjeet seuraavista toimenpiteistä verkkoyhteisön
rakentamiseksi. Ohjeet on myös esitetty yleistettynä prosessina, jota muut yritykset voivat hyödyntää
lähtökohtana verkkoyhteisön perustamisen suunnittelussa ja toteutuksessa. Sekä ohjeet että tutkimuksen
tärkein tulos voidaan tiivistää seuraavaan virkkeeseen: Yrityksen ylläpitämän verkkoyhteisön perustaminen
vaatii strategista käyttäjäkeskeistä suunnittelua sekä tukea organisaatiolta ja teknologialta.
Asiasanat: yrityksen ylläpitämä verkkoyhteisö, yrityksen verkkoyhteisön perustaminen
FOREWORD
I started my empirical studies on online communities already ten years ago. At that time I
spent hours in a chat room called Punaisen lepakon linna (Castle of Red Bat), submerged myself
in its imaginary world and storytelling role-playing games as a lovable half-elf, half-phoenix
wizard character. Soon I was involved in founding the Eridanus clan for my online friends – a
community that still breathes today.
It was a lucky flip of coin that set a chain of events into motion. In the autumn 2007, the coin
chose the topic of my Bachelor‟s Thesis: Yhteisöllisyyden syntyminen verkkopalveluissa (Emergence
of online communities). As a consequence, my studies on online communities were expanded
to the field of online community literature. Furthermore, it was probably thanks to the topic
of my bachelor‟s thesis that I was recruited to work at my case company Tekla. Almost a year
later, I was delighted to receive an opportunity to write my Master‟s Thesis about the
company‟s online community.
During the last year of conducting and documenting my research, it has been fascinating to
notice how my „childhood games‟ have developed into an interesting research topic, which
even combines the mishmash of all my studies into a one logical entity. My biggest motivation,
however, has been the interest that people around me have expressed towards my work. Thus,
I thank everyone who has been involved with my thesis, especially certain wonderful ladies at
Tekla and the people with the PROFCOM project.
I wish to thank my instructor Päivi Puntila for learning beside me and being always so
encouraging. I am thankful to Marjo Lehtinen for reminding me to question „why‟ and
practically being my second instructor. I value a lot the support I received from both of you.
Thanks to Professor Petri Vuorimaa for supervising my work and to Virve Juhola and Carmen
Boudreau-Kiviaho for proof-reading.
Thank you Tiia for acting as my mirror.
Finally, I express my gratitude to „Professor‟ Pasi Pekkanen who persistently educated me to
become a researcher. I am still amazed by your endless interest and eagerness to continuously
revise my work. I am deeply thankful for all your numerous and constructive ideas and
corrections, listening to my concerns and spurring. Without you this thesis would not have be
good as it is (although I maybe could have finished earlier). I owe you some.
Espoo, August 2010
Noora Korppi-Tommola
CONTENTS
1
2
Introduction .....................................................................................................................................1
1.1
Background ............................................................................................................................. 1
1.2
Objectives and research questions ...................................................................................... 2
1.3
Research process .................................................................................................................... 3
Theoretical background..................................................................................................................5
2.1
2.1.1
Community and sense of community......................................................................... 6
2.1.2
Online community......................................................................................................... 6
2.1.3
Company online community........................................................................................ 7
2.1.4
Social media .................................................................................................................... 8
2.1.5
Online communities and social media ........................................................................ 9
2.2
Online community building processes and principles .................................................... 11
2.2.1
Human-centered design process for interactive systems ....................................... 11
2.2.2
Online community building guidelines ..................................................................... 12
2.2.3
Refined online community development model ..................................................... 14
2.2.4
Guidelines for introducing social media to business use ....................................... 16
2.3
Online community -related requirements ........................................................................ 17
2.3.1
Requirement categories............................................................................................... 18
2.3.2
Online community prerequisites ............................................................................... 19
2.4
Challenges of online community development ............................................................... 23
2.4.1
General challenges in online community building .................................................. 24
2.4.2
Challenges with company online communities ....................................................... 24
2.4.3
Challenges for companies adopting social media ................................................... 28
2.5
3
Definitions and distinctions ................................................................................................. 5
Summary of literature review ............................................................................................. 29
The Case ........................................................................................................................................ 30
3.1
Environment of the study................................................................................................... 30
3.1.1
Tekla Corporation ....................................................................................................... 30
3.1.2
Building and Construction business area organization .......................................... 30
3.1.3
Introduction to Tekla Structures Extranet .............................................................. 31
3.1.4
Overview of the Extranet community development.............................................. 32
3.2
User study for old Extranet ................................................................................................ 32
3.3
Case study about Extranet community development ..................................................... 34
3.3.1
Summary of case study findings ................................................................................ 34
3.3.2
Tekla specific guidelines ............................................................................................. 35
4
Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 37
4.1
Research strategy: case study .............................................................................................. 37
4.2
Sources and methods for data collection.......................................................................... 37
4.2.1
Online survey ............................................................................................................... 38
4.2.2
Interview ....................................................................................................................... 38
4.3
5
6
4.3.1
Data analysis strategies................................................................................................ 40
4.3.2
Affinity diagram ........................................................................................................... 40
4.3.3
Root cause analysis ...................................................................................................... 42
Preliminary analysis of challenges .............................................................................................. 45
5.1
Categorizing earlier interview results ................................................................................ 45
5.2
Root cause identification for presumed challenges ......................................................... 47
5.3
Results of preliminary analysis ........................................................................................... 47
Online survey for company people ........................................................................................... 50
6.1
Targets of the survey ........................................................................................................... 50
6.2
Conducting online survey ................................................................................................... 51
6.2.1
Planning the questions ................................................................................................ 51
6.2.2
Promotion of the survey ............................................................................................. 52
6.3
7
8
Strategies and methods for data analysis .......................................................................... 39
Conclusions of survey results ............................................................................................. 53
6.3.1
Variance of awareness and attitude ........................................................................... 53
6.3.2
Social media enthusiasts ............................................................................................. 55
6.3.3
Other communities ..................................................................................................... 55
6.3.4
Benefits.......................................................................................................................... 55
6.3.5
Summary of online survey results ............................................................................. 57
Key person interviews ................................................................................................................. 58
7.1
Interview preparations ........................................................................................................ 58
7.2
Interviews in practice........................................................................................................... 60
7.3
Summary of interview results ............................................................................................. 60
Analysis of all findings ................................................................................................................. 62
8.1
Needs and goals for community ........................................................................................ 62
8.1.1
Business goals ............................................................................................................... 62
8.1.2
Customers‟ needs ......................................................................................................... 64
8.2
Perceived challenges ............................................................................................................ 66
8.2.1
Further analysis of challenges .................................................................................... 66
8.2.2
Discussion on challenges ............................................................................................ 68
8.3
Special features of company online communities ........................................................... 69
8.4
Organizational requirements .............................................................................................. 70
9
Conclusions and discussion ........................................................................................................ 72
9.1
Proposals for solutions........................................................................................................ 72
9.1.1
Suggested process for establishing a company online community ...................... 74
9.1.2
Identify and define users and their needs ................................................................ 76
9.1.3
Inform and involve people ......................................................................................... 77
9.1.4
Define purposes and set measurements ................................................................... 78
9.1.5
Internal organization ................................................................................................... 79
9.1.6
Further development ideas......................................................................................... 82
9.2
Answers to research questions ........................................................................................... 83
9.2.1
What are the needs concerning Tekla‟s online community? ................................. 83
9.2.2
What are Tekla‟s challenges concerning online community building? ................ 85
9.2.3
How to continue building Tekla‟s Extranet community? ...................................... 86
9.3
Evaluation and applicability of results .............................................................................. 86
9.4
Contributions and suggestions for further research ....................................................... 88
References.............................................................................................................................................. 90
Appendix 1: Preliminary listing of challenges .................................................................................. 96
Appendix 2A: Online survey questions ............................................................................................. 98
Appendix 2B: Online survey results ................................................................................................ 100
Appendix 3A: Interview questions................................................................................................... 104
Appendix 3B: Report of interview results ...................................................................................... 105
Appendix 4: Comparison of identified user needs ........................................................................ 115
Appendix 5: Perceived challenges from interviews ....................................................................... 116
Appendix 6: Draft of required roles and tasks ............................................................................... 117
List of figures
Figure 1. Case description .......................................................................................................................... 2
Figure 2. Case study research process .......................................................................................................... 3
Figure 3. Conditions of online community: people, common need, sense of community, and one or many
platforms that enable interaction................................................................................................................... 7
Figure 4. Social media involves user generated content, social interaction, and new web technologies ............... 9
Figure 5. Online communities and social media share common features, but social media do not always evolve
the sense of community ............................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 6. The design activities of human-centered design process for interactive systems (ISO, 1999) ........... 12
Figure 7. A refined online community development model (Eskelinen 2009a) ........................................... 15
Figure 8. Process and activities in introducing social media at work (Otala & Pöysti, 2008) .................... 17
Figure 9. Levels and types of requirements in software engineering (Kauppinen, 2008) ............................... 18
Figure 10. Challenges in community building according to company officials (Gossieaux, et al., 2008) ....... 26
Figure 11. Overview of firm-hosted online community research needs (Jantunen, et al., 2008) ..................... 28
Figure 12. Contents of Tekla Structures Extranet ................................................................................... 31
Figure 13. Example of challenge categories and notes in hierarchical order ................................................. 41
Figure 14. Various Post-it notes distinguish multiple sources of evidence .................................................... 42
Figure 15. Common characteristics of problems compared to a weed ........................................................... 43
Figure 16. Problems at different levels and the consequences of their elimination (Wilson, et al., 1993) ...... 44
Figure 17. Affinity diagram at its early stages .......................................................................................... 46
Figure 18. Causal factor chart of the core challenges in Extranet community development .......................... 47
Figure 19. A piece of news about the online survey on the Extranet .......................................................... 52
Figure 20. Rough distribution of different user groups. A: Heavy users; B: Social media savvies; C:
Accidental users; D: Ignorants ................................................................................................................... 54
Figure 21. Business goals of company and community connected together .................................................... 63
Figure 22. Customers‟ needs concerning the Extranet ............................................................................... 65
Figure 23. Cause-effect diagram of challenges in community building (OC = Online community) ............... 67
Figure 24. Suggested process for establishing a company online community ................................................. 74
Figure 25. Guideline for Extranet feature development ............................................................................. 82
Figure 26. Construction of company online community‟s needs and requirements ........................................ 84
List of tables
Table 1. Six social aspects that are vital for online communities and their contribution to a sense of community
(SoC) and sense of virtual community (SoVC) ........................................................................................... 22
Table 2. Presumed challenges and their expected severity ............................................................................ 48
Table 3. Online survey goals and their relations to challenges ..................................................................... 50
Table 4. Benefits of social media to Tekla or to daily work........................................................................ 56
Table 5. Interview goals and their relations to challenges ............................................................................ 58
Table 6. Positions of interviewees and interviewing languages ..................................................................... 59
Table 7. Proposed solutions in connection to challenges and organizational requirements ............................. 73
1
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The number of online communities and interest towards them increased significantly in the
mid 1990s. Since then, websites have allowed even more interaction between site visitors, and
the popularity of communities has risen exponentially. (Ridings & Gefen, 2004.)
Online communities have started to gain popularity also in business use (Mittilä & Mäntymäki,
2003). Some companies have successfully adopted maintaining an online community as their
business model. Meanwhile, some of the companies whose core competence lies somewhere
else endeavor building their own online communities besides offering their products and
services through other more traditional channels.
For the time being, the lifespans of this kind of „bricks-and-mortar‟ companies‟ online
communities have remained quite short. Therefore, related research and generally approved
guidance is yet in its infancy. There are some general guidelines for developing online
communities available, but their applicability in company use is yet unknown.
The target company of this study, Finland-based software provider Tekla, has attempted to
establish a customer online community for a few years. Their Extranet, the web platform for
the community, was recently renewed, and action plans included online community
development. Regardless of the new platform and plans, an active Extranet community has
not seemed to really take off to this day.
When the research began in the autumn 2009, the community development was on hold due
to lack of resources. The company had just received guidelines for online community
development that describe the situation of the community as follows:
“In Tekla‟s case, as the community project is on its early stages, it is recommendable to first establish a
common ground among persons involved with the community building process by constituting a set of
concrete actions before going any further on technical planning.” (Eskelinen, 2009b)
The time was favorable for examining what was meant by „a set of concrete actions‟ and how
the community building should be continued. I had worked 15 months at Tekla before the
beginning of research. My tasks had consisted mostly of Extranet requirements specification
and content production coordinating. I had been undergoing the troubles during the project
and thus decided to study the case more in depth in order to find solutions.
2
1.2 Objectives and research questions
Finding the required next steps to make Tekla‟s Extranet community meet the needs of its
users and owners is the ultimate motivation behind this study. Thus, the main research
question is:
-
How to continue building Tekla‟s Extranet community? (RQ1)
Answers are pursued by conducting an analysis on different community-related needs and by
identifying the challenges that hamper community development work. Additional questions
for this research are:
-
What are the needs concerning Tekla‟s online community? (RQ2)
-
What are Tekla‟s challenges concerning online community building? (RQ3)
The research frame is illustrated in Figure 1, which offers a high-level description of the case.
This image depicts how the current situation, needs, challenges and solutions are related to
each other. There is a gap between the current and desired situation. The desired situation is
regarded to consist of all community related needs. The difficulties in fulfilling those needs are
considered as the challenges. Identifying the challenges reveals where solutions are required,
which is the main interest of this study.
Figure 1. Case description
Assessment of all stakeholders‟ needs is a task that is bigger than the limits of this Master‟s
Thesis. Therefore, gathering the needs is primarily focused on the company.
3
1.3 Research process
Figure 2 presents the overall picture of the research process. The case study begins with a data
collection phase, which consists of collecting written material from literature and earlier
research concerning the case company. Also, a preliminary analysis of findings is made to
show directions for the second data collection. This second data collection is an empirical
research focused solely on company‟s employees and managers. The last part of the study is
an analysis that combines and arranges all the gathered data to answer the research questions.
Figure 2. Case study research process
The structure of this work follows the above-mentioned phases:
I - Data collection: The reviewed literature was mainly on the field of online communities. The
focus of literature review was chosen to support the research questions. Thus, the areas of
interest are online community building guidelines, prerequisites and challenges. The results of
literature review are presented in Chapter 2.
Earlier research consisted of two studies concentrating on the case company‟s online
community development. One of these focused on user needs and the other outlined
guidelines for development and also current challenges. Their results are summarized in
Chapter 3.
II - Data analysis: The collected data was analyzed before moving on with the research. The
analysis concentrated plainly on the challenges of the company‟s online community
4
development. The methods for analysis were affinity diagram and root cause analysis, which
are represented in more detail in Chapter 4. The analysis itself is described step by step in
Chapter 5.
III – Data collection: The second data collection phase concentrated on gathering the views and
experiences of employees and managers. The selected data collection methods were online
survey and interviews, which are described on a general level in Chapter 4. The survey goals,
progress and results are documented in Chapter 6. The corresponding aspects of the
interviews are reported in Chapter 7.
IV – Data analysis: The final analysis combined all previously found evidences in order to
answer the research questions. Needs, challenges and suggested solutions are organized and
separated with the help of an affinity diagram, electronic spreadsheets, and mind map
drawings. The analysis of the results is presented in Chapter 8.
Finally, proposals for solutions are presented in Chapter 9, which also includes evaluation of
the results.
5
2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Company online communities are a relatively new and challenging research area due to their
multi-disciplinary nature. Theoretical background for this study mostly consists of literature
on online communities and a few other closely related topics, which include social media,
user-centered design, and requirements management in software engineering.
This chapter has four sections. The first section introduces the field of the study by definitions
and distinctions surrounding online communities. The other three sections continue on the
subject relating to the research questions.
Online community building processes and principles offer the theoretical starting point for the
main research question (RQ1), which is about establishing a basis for a company online
community.
Prerequisites for an online community are discussed based on the literature. Community
prerequisites form one part of the needs for a community. Thus, they partly answer the
research question with regards to the needs of the case company‟s community (RQ2). In the
same context, different categories of requirements are presented, as the categories are used
later in sorting and analyzing results.
Challenges in online community building and maintenance are reviewed from different
perspectives. This establishes a baseline for finding answers to the research question that
concerns the challenges of the case company‟s online community building efforts (RQ3). All
findings are summarized at the end of the chapter.
2.1 Definitions and distinctions
The primary concepts that frame company online communities are relatively new and
manifold, and they therefore lack unambiguous definitions. This section presents how the
concepts are used in this research. Company online communities are given their own
distinctive definition besides online communities in general. In addition, the concept of social
media is introduced and the similarities and discrepancies between it and online communities
are discussed. There are two fundamental definitions that are needed to begin with:
community and sense of community are thus introduced first.
6
2.1.1 Community and sense of community
The concept of community has been argued by sociologists over the centuries. Different
dictionary definitions imply that a community is a group of people who have something in common, for
example a local living area or target of interest. Sense of community is a concept that is crucial
in the field of community research, and it is thus described next in more detail.
In 1986 McMillan and Chavis published their definition for the sense of community.
According to them, sense of community envelopes four elements:
- Feeling of belonging and identifying with the other members of the community
- Feeling that members matter and have influence on one another and the group
- Fulfillment of needs, e.g. by receiving and giving support
- Shared emotional connection: relationships, common history, the ‟spirit‟ of
community
This definition is nowadays widely recognized, and it can be applied to studies concerning
either location or interest-based communities.
2.1.2 Online community
If the definition of community has been controversial, so has the definition of online
communities (Korppi-Tommola, 2007). Views on the existence of online communities
represent three different schools. Some (e.g. Williams & Cothrel, 2000) hold a broad view and
see that online communities emerge whenever people with similar interests interact with each
other via the Internet. On the contrary, another school (e.g. Weinreich, 1997) denies that
communities or sense of community can exist at all in the virtual world.
A third group of researchers (e.g. Rheingold, 1993; Jones, 1997; Preece, 2000; Blanchard &
Markus, 2004) believes that online communities exist when specific conditions are met. This
research holds a similar view on online communities. The definition used in this work
condenses the vital conditions for online communities:
An online community is a group of people who share a common need, engage in repetitive interaction
online with each other, and feel the sense of community within the group.
This definition leaves room for the new forms of online communities. Earlier it was seen that
the communities require one specific platform, a virtual arena, which allows people to
communicate and acts as a base for the community (e.g. Jones, 1997). Nowadays when there
are various communication channels and networking sites online, the sense of community can
7
alternatively be experienced while bumping into familiar persons in different virtual
environments (Baym, 2007).
Figure 3. Conditions of online community: people, common need, sense of community, and one or many
platforms that enable interaction
Figure 3 illustrates the situation from the viewpoint of this case. Although there are many
different sites where Tekla is present, this study focuses only on the firm-hosted Extranet site
and the community within its boundaries.
2.1.3 Company online community
In 1996 Armstrong and Hagel stated that companies are slowly starting to exploit the
community-building capabilities of the Internet. Lately, the situation has changed at a rapid
pace, but the research area is still relatively new. Antikainen (2007, p.22) reports that “the
literature considering this research area [company online commun ities] is incoherent, lacking some
central assumptions and fixed definitions”. The terminology referring to company online
communities is diverse and used confusingly, without making a distinction between the
communities that aim at direct commercial purposes and those that do not (Mittilä &
Mäntymäki, 2004; Antikainen, 2007).
Concepts found in the literature include, for example, commercial virtual community (Hagel
& Armstrong, 1997), business-oriented online community (Cothrel, 2000), and firm-hosted
online community (Jantunen, et al., 2008). Regardless of name, company online communities
share two common characteristics that separate them from non-company online communities:
they are maintained by companies (Antikainen, 2007) and they typically seek profit for the
company, either directly or indirectly and either in short or longer term (Mittilä & Mäntymäki,
2003).
8
In this research, all online communities that fit the aforementioned definition of online
communities and are maintained by companies are seen as company online communities.
2.1.4 Social media
The term social media gained publicity around 2005 (Lietsala & Sirkkunen, 2008). Ever since,
the buzz around the term has been continuous. In spite of that, it does not yet have a
commonly accepted definition (Erkkola, 2008; Lietsala & Sirkkunen, 2008).
Different sources stress different aspects of social media. Some writers use social media as a
synonym for online applications that enable interaction and sharing of content (Lietsala &
Sirkkunen, 2008). Mayfield (2008) sees social media as a group of online media that share all
or some of the following characteristics: participation, openness, conversation, community
and connectedness. Lietsala and Sirkkunen (2008) emphasize the meaning of user-generated
content and its social use.
Erkkola (2008) devoted his research to fully clarifying the concept. He concludes that social
media is a structural process that is bound by the technology. In the process, individuals and
groups build shared meanings through contents, communities and internet technologies in
related use situations. He also sees social media as a post-industrial phenomenon that affects
society, economics and culture because of its new structure in production and distribution.
(Erkkola, 2008, p.83).
Erkkola‟s (2008) research material includes the English Wikipedia definition of social media to
be referred to the most. In September 2009, the definition read as follows:
“Social media is „an umbrella term‟ that defines the various activities that integrate technology, social
interaction and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio.” (Wikipedia, 2009)
This research acknowledges all the preceding definitions, but leans mostly on the Wikipedia
(2009) definition. The reason for choosing this definition is that it brings out the
characteristics of social media in the sense that they can be compared with online
communities. In the context of this research, social media are understood both as channels
and content, which is mainly user-generated, evokes social interaction, and is built on agile
internet technologies. Figure 4 presents the building blocks of social media from the
viewpoint of this study.
9
Figure 4. Social media involves user generated content, social interaction, and new web technologies
As social interaction and online technology are the pillar stones of online communities, they
are described in more detail later in Chapter 2.3.2 Online community prerequisites. The
following chapter discusses further similarities and discrepancies of social media and online
communities.
2.1.5 Online communities and social media
The significance of communities has been emphasized in association with social media. This
section describes relations between the two concepts in the literature and also how the
concepts fit together in this study.
Kangas, et al., (2007) claim that social media are actually based on communities in addition to
content and technology. The communities act efficiently on structuring and sharing interesting
content on social media services. In social media, an already existing community may produce
the content, or the community may form around individuals who produce content on the
same online service. However, the content may be consumed by the people who do not
belong to the community. (Kangas, et al., 2007.)
Otala and Pöysti (2008, p.19), who studied social media in a corporate setting, assert that
“social medium always creates a community”. According to them, a community is comprised of
people who collaborate in a shared virtual work space, regardless of their physical location.
These people are united by common interest instead of organization structure. (Otala and
Pöysti, 2008).
Some, for example Mayfield (2008), assume more careful consideration and determine that in
all cases communities are not necessarily a by-product of social media. Nevertheless, it
appeared typical, not just for all the studies mentioned in this chapter but also for many
10
others, that the sense of community is not mentioned when discussing communities in the
context of social media. One exception to this is an insight by Lietsala and Sirkkunen (2008,
p.24). They iterate that on social media sites, a feature that occurs often, but not obligatorily, is
an opinion that “it feels like a community”.
Figure 5. Online communities and social media share common features, but social media do not always evolve
the sense of community
Figure 5 presents how online communities and social media are connected to each other. An
online community is a group of people whereas social media refer to a channel and its
content. Users of social media form an online community when they share a common need
and sense of community. In that case, the common need is usually a shared interest towards
the content of a social medium.
First online communities already emerged a few decades ago through simple text-based
conversation tools, such as discussion forums and e-mail lists. However, social media as a
term has quite a strong connection to new kinds of web technologies, which also enable other
various forms of interaction. Hence social media are not regarded as a precondition for the
existence of an online community.
As a conclusion, online communities and social media may exist together or side by side,
regardless of one another. However, as they definitely share many common features, their
11
simultaneous existence both benefits and supports each other. A distinctive mark between
them is the sense of community among their users.
2.2 Online community building processes and principles
This section presents different processes and some good practices regarding the building and
development of online communities. First, the human-centered design process for interactive
systems (ISO, 1999) is introduced. It offers a good high-level framework for developing
online communities, as they are computer-based, highly interactive and user-centric entities.
After that, a few older guidelines concerning online community development by Preece (2000)
and Kim (2000) are presented. Newer approaches on online community building by Reed
(2009a, b) and Eskelinen (2009a) are also introduced and discussed. All presented guidelines
recognize online communities to be bound to one „place‟, for example a website.
Besides Eskelinen‟s (2009a) work, the literature does not seem to contain clear guidelines on
constructing company online communities, merely just dos and don‟ts. Instead, one detailed
process for introducing social media in business use was found. It is presented at the end of
this chapter, as nowadays many online communities utilize on social media tools and practices.
2.2.1 Human-centered design process for interactive systems
The ISO 13407 standard provides guidance for user-centered design (UCD). The standard
focuses on the “design activities throughout the life cycle of computer-based interactive systems”. It
holds a management and planning point of view, and thus does not include specific
techniques or methods for activities. Human-centered design activities form an iterative
process that has four stages: 1) understand and specify the context of use, 2) specify the user
and organizational requirements, 3) produce design solutions, and 4) evaluate designs against
requirements. The design process is illustrated in Figure 6. (ISO, 1999).
12
Figure 6. The design activities of human-centered design process for interactive systems (ISO, 1999)
In addition to iteration of design solutions, the standard addresses three design principles that
characterize the overall user-centered process. The first principle is active involvement of
users and a clear understanding of user and task requirements. The second principle is an
appropriate allocation of functions between users and technology. The third principle is multidisciplinary design. (ISO, 1999.)
2.2.2 Online community building guidelines
Preece‟s (2000) community-centered development (CCD) process for creating successful
online communities is based on the ideas of user-centered design. Both models appreciate
users and usability of the system, but Preece adds an important aspect to the design: planning
the social interaction, the „sociability‟ of the community. Online communities are different from
other software just because of their social nature, and they keep evolving after the publication
by their users‟ activities and social needs. Therefore, a community requires constant caring
through an iterative process that also involves community members in design. The process
consists of five different phases:
13
1) Assessing community needs and analyzing user tasks
-
Identify the users and the purpose of the community.
2) Selecting technology and planning sociability
-
Software is tailored or built to provide usability for the intended community.
The policies and social structures are planned in parallel.
3) Designing, implementing and testing prototypes
-
Focus on features supporting the needs of the community. This stage can
involve many small iterations of design-and-test.
4) Refining and tuning sociability and usability
-
Larger scale sociability and usability tests, fine-tuning.
5) Welcoming and nurturing the community
-
„Seeding‟ the community with interesting members and content before
publicizing it. Later welcoming and supporting new members. The key
question at this stage is what will entice people to keep coming back?
Preece also suggests that usability and sociability of the community should be evaluated
continuously during different stages. The results of evaluations can be used in further
development of the community or as summative reports for company management. (Preece,
2000.)
Another set of online community design guidelines that emphasizes their social nature is
written by Kim (2000). Her „nine timeless design strategies‟ are applicable for all kinds of online
communities. The strategies are: 1) define and articulate your purpose, 2) build flexible,
extensible gathering places, 3) create meaningful and evolving member profiles, 4) design for a
range of roles, 5) develop a strong leadership program, 6) encourage appropriate etiquette, 7)
promote cyclic events, 8) integrate the rituals of community life, and 9) facilitate member-run
subgroups. (Kim, 2000.)
Kim also recognizes „three immutable laws‟ that are fundamental design principles of online
community building. The first of them is to design the community so that its growth and
change are taken into account. The community should be small and simple at the beginning,
and as members join, more technical features can be added. The development of the
community should be influenced by the feedback from community members. The second
design principle is to create and manage feedback loops between the users and the
management. The third principle is to empower the members over time. If carried out
successfully, this leads to a situation where members contribute to the community more than
the staff. (Kim, 2000.)
14
Reed (2009a) strongly emphasizes people and relationships in his online community building
guidelines. He identifies eight steps that are required to build a community from scratch
(Reed, 2009a):
1) Search for potential members: who and where they are?
2) When found, observe from a distance and learn to know them.
3) Get involved and build relationships. Add real value, be genuine and honest.
4) When they know you, inform selected people about your community plans.
5) Invite and recruit the first members. Make them feel special.
6) Develop and tailor the community to benefit its members, NOT your business.
7) Retain the members and activity in order to keep the community alive.
8) Repeat the steps; community building is a continuous process. Get new
relationships, members and ideas, and don't forget your existing members.
This type of social approach for online community building is surely effective and may work
well for individual entrepreneurs, but probably it is not a straightforward solution in larger
companies. The sixth step especially, which incites focus primarily on the users‟ needs, may be
problematic for a profit seeking businesses.
Reed (2009b) has created an extensive list of 95 things he has learned while building online
communities. The list provides useful tips for any kind of online community development.
The tips highlight the importance of knowing the purpose of the community, its ease of use
(keep it simple, expand slowly, and change rarely), clear guidelines and rules, and thorough
planning and trust (Reed, 2009b).
2.2.3 Refined online community development model
Eskelinen (2009a) has revised the online community development guidelines by Preece (2000)
and Kim (2000). He has constructed a refined set of guidelines on their foundations, and also
on Reed‟s (e.g. 2009b) experiences. In contrast to others, his guideline makes a serious attempt
at taking into account the needs and constraints of today‟s companies. His new online
community development model introduces six stages: assessing needs, defining purpose,
planning sociability, designing usability, putting into practice, and nurture. The stages are
depicted in Figure 7 and are described in more detail in the following paragraphs.
15
Figure 7. A refined online community development model (Eskelinen 2009a)
In Eskelinen‟s (2009a) model, assessing needs and defining purposes include gathering needs
and crystallizing community goals, as the guidelines in earlier literature suggest. This guideline,
however, emphasizes that the needs and purposes very likely differ from the point of view of
the users and host, and that both sides should be examined. Thus, two purpose statements for
the community should be formulated. The public purpose statement communicates the users'
goals and objectives, and the private purpose statement explains how the company benefits
from the community. (Eskelinen, 2009a.)
Sociability and usability are separated into their own phases, as Eskelinen (2009a) saw that
Preece‟s (2000) community design process bound them too closely together. In Eskelinen‟s
(2009a) model, sociability planning involves people, policies, profiles, places and events. The
design usability phase has been allocated into two parts: online solution and offline solution.
Online solutions refer to design principles by Bouman, et al., (2007) that guide how to create
software to trigger social behavior (Eskelinen, 2009a). An offline solution means organizing
the roles and responsibilities of the community staff (Eskelinen, 2009a).
Putting this into practice includes implementing the technical solution, final testing, content
creation, community promotion, and finally launching the site (Eskelinen, 2009a). Nurture is
the last remaining stage of community building. It is about welcoming new members,
activating and empowering the former ones, and performing daily maintainance routines
(Eskelinen, 2009a).
What is notably missing from the refined online community development model compared to
other guidelines, are continuous evaluation of usability and sociability (Preece, 2000) and
following site traffic and interactions after the launch (Reed, 2009b). The model suggested by
Eskelinen (2009a) also has some flaws regarding usability design.
16
Eskelinen (2009a) first introduces usability as a feature of how well the software supports
users in their activities, for example in terms of effectiveness and learnability. This
presentation is in line with the ISO 9241-11 (1997) explanation on usability. The aspect of
traditional usability is further emphasized, as most of Eskelinen's (2009a) tips presented in this
context are usability heuristics. However, splitting design usability into online and offline
solutions represents a different view on the subject. Online solution-related design principles
aim to respond to the social needs of users. An offline solution has to do with resourcing and
structuring the work of community project participants. Neither of these solutions falls in the
domain of traditional usability.
Even though the model itself starts from needs assessment, it is not necessarily the point to
begin in the development of a company online community. For example, the UCD model
suggests planning the process and identifying the users and context of use before specifying
requirements (ISO, 1999). Also, the guideline written by Eskelinen (2009a) contains a list of
questions to consider before starting an online community building project. The questions are
mainly related to reasons and resources. The assessment of resources, finding enthusiastic and
skilled people and allocated time, is vital for companies that aim to develop and maintain a
successful online community. The same applies to introducing social media to business use.
This additional perspective regarding working in an online environment is represented in the
next chapter.
2.2.4 Guidelines for introducing social media to business use
Engaging in an online community is about being social, learning to manage with new software,
and policies. The same applies in the case of deploying social media at work. For that purpose,
Otala and Pöysti (2008) have constructed an introduction process for companies on how they
could adopt social media or virtual workspaces. They stress that in order to start the process,
the company must be able to answer affirmatively to the following three questions (Otala &
Pöysti, 2008, p.24):
Does the company have:
1) A real need for the use of social media?
2) A culture that enables openness and new working methods?
3) A critical mass of users?
If the conditions are met, the next steps are to plan, pilot and conduct the introduction of
social media. These are followed by starting to utilize the tools in work and measuring the
17
results. The process and actions related to each of the phases are described in more detail in
Figure 8.
Figure 8. Process and activities in introducing social media at work (Otala & Pöysti, 2008)
Of all the models presented in this chapter, this process has the most business-like
perspective. It shows in emphasizing the structuring of new ways of working and the
monitoring of this. The idea of piloting the use of social media tools in a smaller scale is
similar to Kim‟s (2000) online community design principle „start off small‟. Like the other
online community building guidelines, Otala and Pöysti (2008) highlight the necessity of a
clear purpose and codes of conduct.
2.3 Online community -related requirements
According to previously discussed online community building guidelines, assessing needs plays
a crucial role when beginning to build a community. This research has been done in an
attempt to understand the needs and requirements of online community building from various
perspectives. Therefore, this section presents ideas for categorizing requirements based on the
studied literature. Prerequisites for online communities derived from literature are also
presented. To combine both perspectives, this section also discusses how online community
prerequisites are related to different requirement categories.
18
2.3.1 Requirement categories
This chapter describes the background of requirements and needs categorizing. The described
issues are related to online community building later in this study. First the three levels of
requirements are presented from a software engineering angle. The categorization is then
widened with organizational requirements mentioned in ISO 13407 (1999), as the
organizational requirements are anticipated to be essential when developing an online
community in a company environment.
Three levels of requirements
Requirements are classified on three levels in the field of software engineering. The levels
represent three different viewpoints of software engineering: business, users and technology.
The requirements can also be categorized further into three different types: functional and
non-functional requirements and constraints. The requirement levels and types are illustrated
in Figure 9. (Kauppinen, 2008.)
Figure 9. Levels and types of requirements in software engineering (Kauppinen, 2008)
In this study the presented terms are understood in the following way:
A User is an individual interacting with the system (ISO 1997, 1999). A Customer is the person
who pays for the system and usually, but not necessarily, decides the requirements (IEEE,
1998). However, the customer is not always a user of a system. User needs describe problems
and opportunities that affect users' likelihood in achieving their goals (Kujala, 2002). Customer
needs are understood in a similar way.
Customer and user needs set the ground for business and user requirements. Business
requirements stand for high-level objectives of the organization or customer, who has requested
the system or product (Wiegers, 1999). Business requirements are referred to as business goals
19
later in this study. User requirements refer to functions, properties and constraints required to
satisfy a user‟s needs (Abbott, 1986). A technical point of view is represented by technical
requirements that describe how the system will be implemented (Kauppinen, 2008).
The types of requirements are explained according to the findings of Kauppinen (2008):
Functional requirements specify functions or services that a system must be capable of
performing. Non-functional requirements describe the properties of the system including, for
example, performance, reliability and usability. Constraints are standards, software and
hardware constraints, for example.
Organizational requirements
In addition to the aforementioned levels of requirements, the user-centered design process
(ISO, 1999) brings up organizational requirements besides user requirements. According to
Maguire (2001), organizational requirements are related to the use of a system in a social context,
e.g. social and organizational structures.
In this work, organizational requirements are seen to originate from the organization (i.e. the
company) that hosts the online community. The following aspects, also mentioned in ISO
13047 (1999) in the context of identifying requirements, are considered to belong within the
boundaries of organizational requirements:
1) Co-operation and communication between users and other relevant parties
2) The users‟ jobs (including allocation of tasks, users‟ well-being, and motivation)
3) Task performance
4) Work design and organization
5) Management of change, including training and personnel to be involved
2.3.2 Online community prerequisites
Online communities are shaped by their members and purpose and thus differ from each
other. Still, they all share some common characteristics and features that are required for their
emergence. In this study those features are addressed as online community prerequisites,
which were also studied in my earlier study of literature (see Korppi-Tommola, 2007). This
chapter summarizes my earlier findings and continues the work by refining the results based
on further findings from literature and experiences. This chapter also proposes how the online
community prerequisites can be connected to different levels of requirements.
20
The suggested online community prerequisites described in detail in this chapter are the
following:
-
Group of people
-
Common needs
-
Social aspects
-
Interaction
-
Virtual arena
It is notable that the list leaves out sense of community, which is mentioned in the online
community definition used in this study. Nevertheless, a sense of community is assumed to
develop when all prerequisites have been filled.
Group of people
People are the heart of a community, whether it is online or not. Some researchers (Rheingold,
1993; Williams & Cothrel, 2000; Hintikka, 2007) claim that a „critical mass‟ of users is required
in order for the community to come into existence. Just a few people do not necessarily create
enough communication, and then the community may not seem attractive to newcomers
(Preece, 2000). However, having too many people involved may overwhelm members and
make them think that they do not know anyone (Preece, 2000). Thus, the critical mass of users
required to make and keep the community alive actually varies from community to community
(Markus, 1990; Rice, 1994).
People engaging in online communities represent different roles classified by type and activity
of their participation. The roles include e.g. regular members, lurkers, leaders, moderators and
community managers. Regular members participate in providing content and are familiar with
the policies of the community (Kim, 2000). Lurkers only observe the community and do not
participate (Kim, 2000; Preece, 2000). Both leaders and moderators are usually facilitators of
discussion and sometimes allowed to handle some administrative tasks (Kim, 2000; Preece,
2000). Community manager is a term that lately has been topical in numerous blogs (e.g. Reed,
2009b). It usually refers to the person who holds the biggest interest towards the community
as she is responsible for its building and development.
Common needs
People join online communities because of their similar interests (Armstrong & Hagel, 1997;
Ridings & Gefen, 2004). Ultimately, people join online communities to satisfy their needs
(Preece, 2000). As online communities are interest-based, it can be assumed that there is a
connection between their members‟ interests and needs.
21
User needs define the purpose of the community, as the online community building guidelines
presented in section 2.2 imply. The fulfillment of user needs acts as one factor that produces
the sense of community (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Furthermore, the better an online
community manages to respond to the needs of its members, the more likely it is to succeed
(Armstrong & Hagel, 1997).
There was no consensus found in the literature about what are peoples‟ needs for belonging to
a community. Despite the lack of consensus, there are three needs and reasons to join the
communities that appear to rise above others: exchange of information, entertainment and
social needs. Receiving and giving information is one of the most typical reasons to belong to
a community (mentioned by e.g. Armstrong & Hagel, 1997; Blanchard & Markus, 2004; Otala
& Pöysti, 2008; Ridings & Gefen, 2004; Äkkinen, 2005). The information content is usually
related to a topic of common interest.
Besides, or as an alternative, to informational benefits, people seek entertainment from online
communities (Antikainen, 2007; Äkkinen, 2005). The word „entertainment‟ is used here to
cover different expressions and dimensions such as recreation (Gefen & Ridings, 2004), fun
(Reed, 2009a), and fantasy games (Armstrong & Hagel, 1997). In addition to information
exchange and entertainment, there are social needs to belong to a community. The various
social aspects are discussed next in their own chapter.
Social aspects
People are social beings and thus naturally gravitate towards communities. Based on the
literature, six prerequisites were identified as the social aspects of online communities. The
first three represent the social needs of individuals, which are also reasons to belong to an
online community: social support, friendly relationships, and need to be accepted and
recognized. The latter triad is vital regarding the fulfillment of the previous needs: trust,
identification of users, and behavioral norms. All of these social prerequisites for online
communities are presented in Table 1.
22
Table 1. Six social aspects that are vital for online communities and their contribution to a sense of
community (SoC) and sense of virtual community (SoVC)
Social prerequisites
Social support
SoC SoVC Mentioned by
Blanchard & Markus, 2004; Ridings & Gefen, 2004
x
x
Friendly relationships
x
Armstrong & Hagel, 1997; Jones, 1997;
Ridings & Gefen, 2004; Boyd, 2007
Need to be accepted and recognized
Trust
x
Rheingold, 1993; Blanchard & Markus, 2004
Identification of users
Behavioral norms
x
x
Preece, 2000; Blanchard & Markus, 2004;
Reed, 2009b
x
Blanchard & Markus, 2004
Preece, 2000; Blanchard & Markus, 2004;
Boyd, 2007, Reed, 2009b
Table 1 also presents how the social needs and identification of other community members
are connected to the traditional definition of sense of community by McMillan and Chavis
(1986, see also Chapter 2.1.1). In addition, Table 1 represents results from Blanchard and
Markus (2004) who have studied the emergence of virtual sense of community. They
concluded that it emerges via exchange of support, identification of users and trust.
These prerequisites can be interpreted as non-functional user requirements for online community
software. There are technical functions that can support actions affecting these social features;
they are discussed in their own chapter. However, the behavioral norms of a community make
an exception. Their evolution should rather be supported with guidelines and rules of
conduct, which are to be clearly visible in the community (Preece, 2000; Reed, 2009b).
Interaction
People engage in interaction with other people in order to fulfill their social needs. Two-way
communication is necessary when people want to get to know each other, form relationships,
or discuss shared information. Interaction brings communities to life and is thus seen as a
prerequisite for an online community to exist (e.g. Jones, 1997; Preece, 2000).
Available online technology has both facilitated and restricted interaction between community
members. In the earliest online communities, interaction was merely exchanging text-based
messages. Nowadays different online sites offer various ways to interact; for example, users
may produce, share and rate content, or they can play and network with each other. Despite of
23
all new forms of action, public discussion is still, as it was in 1993 according to Rheingold, the
most common form of interaction an online community cannot live without.
Interaction refers to users‟ actions. Thus, users‟ needs for interaction form the basis of
functional user requirements of an online community.
Virtual arena
Virtual arena refers to the technical solution behind an online community. A virtual arena is
the meeting place where community members gather and interact online. In its simplest form,
a virtual arena is an interaction tool that mediates social interaction online and supports
identification of users. For example, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or a discussion forum are
virtual arenas.
Newer interaction tools include blogs, wikis, social network services, and virtual worlds,
among others (Antikainen, 2007). As discussed above, the new forms of interaction set new
requirements for the online platforms that aim to satisfy their user community‟s needs. For
example, on sites that concentrate on content production and sharing, speed of use and a
good search function are vital requirements (Hintikka, 2007). In addition, user accounts and
profile pages are important (Hintikka, 2007) because content can then be connected to its
creator. Profile pages have a central role especially on social networking sites. These sites
respond to people‟s social needs by allowing them to identify their friends and join interesting
groups (Baym, 2007).
Virtual arenas benefit from good usability (Preece, 2000; Hintikka, 2007). A good practice is to
develop them according to users‟ actions and feedback (Preece, 2000; Hintikka, 2007). All in
all, a virtual arena attempts to respond to its community‟s needs by the means of technology.
Therefore, requirements concerning a virtual arena, a few of which this chapter presents, are
of a technical nature.
2.4 Challenges of online community development
In this section the challenges regarding company online community building and maintaining
are introduced from different viewpoints. The first insights concentrate on reasons why most
online communities fail in general. The perspective then turns towards the special challenges
that companies face when building their own online communities. In this context, guidance
concerning the company online building is also presented, as ignoring advice will lead to an
unsuccessful community. Finally, experiences on introducing social media in business use are
examined. They reveal some interesting challenges that are closely related to this area of
research.
24
2.4.1 General challenges in online community building
Online community manager Martin Reed (2008) asserts that “Nobody wants to join a community
without members or content.” Achieving both definitely requires time and effort as well as
marketing the community. He notes that online communities are easy to start but hard to
establish. Setting up a community is a different thing than making it successful. This is what
people fail to realize and also the biggest reason why most online communities fall through.
Reed (2008) emphasizes that communities require a long term vision to be successful. He
reminds that reaching results demands both persistence and patience. (Reed, 2008.)
Eskelinen (2009a) studied reasons for the failure of online communities through various
online community building-related blogs and discussion forums. The most commonly stated
troubles include poor community management, lack of attraction, inactive users, static and
bad quality content, and too much focus on technology (Eskelinen, 2009a). In addition to
these, unsuccessful communities typically have unclear purposes and goals, not enough people
to maintain the community, and wrong metrics for measuring success (Eskelinen, 2009a).
Furthermore, Eskelinen (2009a) points out that lack of competition may make some online
communities immune to failure even though all of these troubles would prevail. This kind of
situation is possible especially for those firm-hosted online communities that have been built
around a particular product (Eskelinen, 2009a).
2.4.2 Challenges with company online communities
Armstrong and Hagel (1996) are among the pioneers who focused their research on business
online communities. They identified a „daunting array of issues‟ of community management.
These issues are listed briefly as follows:
1. Assessing strategies for competition
2. Designing the community
3. Operating the community
4. Partnering to compete
The strategy issue involves figuring out the economic potential of the community and the
intensity of possible competition (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). In community design, two
important points need to be taken into consideration by the management. One is structuring
the community into segments (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). A community with finer
segmentation can better serve its members‟ special needs, but its effects decrease
proportionally when compared to the size of the community (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). The
25
other more controversial problem is to decide whether a company should host the community
on their own web platform or lean on some proprietary service (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996).
This could nowadays be compared to a company‟s choice between utilizing well-known social
media services or constructing their own site. Proprietary services already have the
technological infrastructure and numbers of users (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). While a thirdparty entity lies between the community and the organizer, the agreements concerning the
ownership of the content and the possible transactions may get complicated.
By operating a community, Armstrong and Hagel (1996) refer to a number of new roles and
tasks that need to be organized and carried out in order to manage an online community.
Partnering is again an issue to be considered when deciding whether a company should build a
community by themselves or form alliances with partners (Armstrong & Hagel, 1996). They
also believe that marketing should chase up the potential value and possible radical changes
that electronic communities entail.
An increasing number of studies around the topic have been published recently. The
Tribalization of Business study by Gossieaux, et al., (2008) discovered several obstacles in the way
of company online community builders. Major barriers are the demand for changes in
management thinking and marketing approach and widely adopted bad design practices.
(Gossieaux, et al., 2008.)
Gossieaux, et al., (2008) report a significant mismatch between the expectations that have
been set on the community and associated investments and conclude that „for many large
companies – there is an under-investment and scale problem.‟ There is a lack of employees
managing online communities as well as lack of funding. In many cases the target of
investment is technology. This often happens at the cost of establishing social relations with
the customers. (Gossieaux, et al., 2008.)
In addition to the lack of resources, there is a lack of skill and experience regarding online
community management. Furthermore, it was found that measurements and community
business goals are poorly bound together. The stated goals usually include generating more
word-of-mouth marketing and increasing brand awareness and loyalty, but many companies
stare at sales-focused metrics even though that was not the community‟s objective.
(Gossieaux, et al., 2008.)
Gossieaux, et al., (2008) assert that communities will transfer most business processes. This
leads to new strategic and organizational challenges. For example, the researchers suggest that
the role of chief marketing officer should be evolved into chief community officer. They
26
suspect it to cause radical shifts in attitude and approach to marketing and business.
(Gossieaux, et al., 2008.)
Figure 10 demonstrates different challenges perceived by the Tribalization of Business survey
participants. In addition to the aforementioned obstacles, the survey respondents see
community attractiveness and member engagement as substantial challenges.
Figure 10. Challenges in community building according to company officials (Gossieaux, et al., 2008)
Researchers Näkki, et al., (2008) see that the main challenge for companies building online
communities is to create an attractive community. Nowadays competition for users is fierce,
and the other communities lay just a click of a mouse away. They also emphasize the meaning
of time and effort spent in creating content and networking with members. Members become
committed and come back if they get value with every visit. (Näkki, et al., 2008.)
Näkki, et al., (2008) see that building an online community entails challenges with new ways of
working. “The first step of pain” is to convince everyone that the new ways working, e.g.
sharing knowledge and networking, are more effective compared to old habits. Another
complex area is public discussion about a company where individuals act as company
representatives (Näkki, et al., 2008). To manage well with the new situation, a company should
stay up to date on discussions, react quickly, and learn to be open (Näkki, et al., 2008).
27
Näkki, et al., (2008) also encourage communication with clients on other community sites and
internal communications between the departments of a company.
Antikainen (2007) brings out two new aspects concerning the difficulties in online community
building. She indicates that one cannot build a ready-made online community and then launch
it (Antikainen, 2007). An online community develops by itself, and community members play
a big role in this (Antikainen, 2007). Another problem, which stems from the first one, is that
an online community cannot be directed in a predetermined way (Antikainen, 2007).
Firm-hosted online community research project PROFCOM, by Jantunen, et al., (2008)
identified some issues regarding the building of a company online community. According to
their preliminary studies, companies struggle with five problematic areas in their community
development: internal alignment, culture, individual users, technology, and changing
environment.
Internal alignment encompasses questions about realizing the potential of an online community,
unclear community-related responsibilities, and the effects of employees' online participation.
Online participation is assumed to cause changes in daily tasks and internal work organization,
and it requires discussion guidelines. Culture-related questions include how to create and
maintain a collaborative culture and how the community's roles and responsibilities affect it.
The extent of moderation and employees' participation in comparison to end users has also
been contemplated. (Jantunen, et al., 2008.)
Individual users refers to challenges concerning understanding and responding to users' needs,
especially in supporting the development of users' identities. Technology concerns are mainly
about enhancing the user experience: for example, how users' participation and sociability
could be supported with the user interface and tools, and possibly also with mobile services.
(Jantunen, et al., 2008.)
Changing environment challenges the development of a firm-hosted online community in all its
previously mentioned dimensions. Predicting changes and users' reactions to them is
considered difficult. Figure 11 illustrates how the five areas found are assumed to overlap with
each other. At the core of intersections lies a community‟s purpose, as Jantunen, et al., (2008)
anticipate that it influences all other aspects of development. (Jantunen, et al., 2008.)
28
Figure 11. Overview of firm-hosted online community research needs (Jantunen, et al., 2008)
2.4.3 Challenges for companies adopting social media
Adopting social media in business use has many similarities compared to establishing a
company online community. In both cases, managers need to make decisions concerning the
new technology and how it will be utilized. They need to agree on new rules and roles
required, and communicate them to employees.
Otala and Pöysti (2008) discovered a number of obstacles that may occur when a company is
introducing use of social media as a part of their daily work methods. The broadest
problematic area that they discuss is management and its different dimensions. Managementrelated challenges include absence of management‟s commitment and reactions, difficulty in
calculating economic benefit, insufficient resourcing, and finding the right balance of guidance
between being too distractive or too loose. Lack of time typically causes the introduction of
social media not to succeed. This means that the introduction has occurred without
determining a real need for utilizing social media. Also, usually not enough time is reserved for
the users to familiarize themselves and to work with the new tools. (Otala & Pöysti, 2008.)
According to Otala and Pöysti (2008), other issues that complicate the adoption of social
media are prejudice, organization structure, and culture. Prejudices commonly include fear of
losing work efficiency and control (Otala & Pöysti, 2008). Otala and Pöysti (2008) suggest that
hierarchical organization structure and authoritarian management model may prevent
implementing necessary changes in ways of working. They also report that unclear
responsibilities about social media, besides the resistance of change, slow down the
introduction process. Moreover, openness in organizational culture is needed to create an
innovative and collaborative social media environment (Otala & Pöysti, 2008).
29
In using social media tools, technical problems can occur. Nevertheless, Otala and Pöysti
(2008) see that encouraging and activating people to contribute is a more significant challenge
than tools and technology.
2.5 Summary of literature review
No commonly agreed definitions or descriptions exist on how to build online communities,
especially for companies, because the research area is relatively new. Regarding online
communities, this research emphasizes the importance of the sense of community among
community members. Sense of community differentiates online communities from other
interactive social media sites and tools. Nevertheless, social media depend on the participation
and interaction of their users, and thus social media-related processes and challenges need to
be understood when studying online communities.
Online community building was examined in this study through a few suggested online
community building processes, as well as processes for human-centered design and
introducing social media in at company level. All presented processes included several
common and good design practices: involving users, defining purpose, policies, supporting
sociability, and usability. However, none of the presented processes is perfectly applicable to
the case company‟s needs.
Online communities require specific conditions in order to emerge. The conditions, or
prerequisites, are a group of users, common need(s), social aspects, interaction, and a virtual
arena. In this study, online community prerequisites are categorized according to four
perspectives: business, users, technology and organization. The general prerequisites for online
communities concentrate on fulfilling users‟ needs, which sets requirements for technology.
However, building and maintaining an online community in a company environment requires
taking the business and organization perspectives into account.
Special prerequisites for company online communities would have been worthy of discussion
in this chapter. However, literature concerning those remains scarce, and thus they are
discussed later in connection with the results of this study.
Challenges in building and maintaining online communities were also explored. The literature
suggests that the following challenges are common: insufficient resourcing, unclear purpose,
and lack of attraction and users‟ activity. The challenges faced especially by companies hosting
online communities include: unclear roles and responsibilities, organization culture, guidance
and policies, and measuring success with the wrong metrics.
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3 THE CASE
The case company and the situation of its online community are described in this chapter.
First, the characteristics of the case company‟s organization are outlined and light is shed on
the current state of the Extranet platform and project. After that, results from two earlier
studies regarding the company‟s Extranet are presented.
3.1 Environment of the study
This chapter provides background information on the case company. Since the study is
focused on its Building and construction business area, it‟s the structure of its organization is
described briefly. In addition, the contents of the web site, ‟Tekla Structures Extranet‟, that
encloses the community is introduced. Company‟s community development attempts thus far
are shortly presented at the end of this chapter.
3.1.1 Tekla Corporation
Tekla is an international software company, established in 1966 in Finland. Tekla develops
model-based software products that support and streamline their customers‟ core processes in
two business areas: Building and Construction and Infrastructure Management and Energy
Distribution. The customer base is spread to nearly 100 countries. Tekla headquarters are
located in Espoo, Finland, and in addition the company has offices in 14 other countries.
Tekla Group currently employs approximately 470 persons, of whom 40% work outside
Finland. In addition to own offices Tekla has a worldwide partner network. (Tekla, 2010a.)
3.1.2 Building and Construction business area organization
This study focuses on Tekla‟s Building and Construction business area and their efforts in
building an online community for customers. Building and Construction business area is in
charge of developing and marketing Tekla‟s best known product, Tekla Structures software.
Tekla Building and Construction employs nearly 300 people. The organization consists now of
three (four in 2009) customer segment teams and three units, who are responsible for
marketing, business administration, and product development.
Tekla organization structure of units and segments is neither hierarchical nor matrix. It has
been playfully claimed to resemble an ameba. The segments, units, and area offices work in
collaboration and have their own areas of responsibilities. Actions concerning sales, direct
31
customer communications and support belong to the area offices and resellers. There is no
global unit for sales or support.
3.1.3 Introduction to Tekla Structures Extranet
Tekla offers a private Extranet service for their registered customers. On the Extranet,
customers may download products, use self learning materials, and find out about news and
events. There is also a discussion forum available for customers‟ questions and suggestions.
The part of Extranet that is targeted for Building and Construction customers is called Tekla
Structures Extranet. It is available in five different language versions. Of those, this study is
limited solely to examine the issues concerning the English Tekla Structures Extranet. It is
referred later in the study plainly as Extranet.
Figure 12. Contents of Tekla Structures Extranet
The Extranet in question has contents that are demonstrated in Figure 12. The image reveals
that Tekla Structures Extranet includes an internal section that is not accessible to customers.
It is mainly used for sharing material to area offices and resellers. The image also shows
master content sections highlighted with red. Master content refers to the most important
content that has to be available in every language version of Tekla Structures Extranet.
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3.1.4 Overview of the Extranet community development
The Tekla web renewal project was set into motion already in 2006. Even the earliest renewalrelated ideas include hopes for a community and interactive content. The renewed company
website was launched in May 2008, and after that the majority of web resources were centered
to the Extranet. Extranet‟s requirement definitions (Friberg, 2007) dating back to that time
reveal plans for a separate community area. The new Extranet was finally launched in March
2009. The project was prolonged due to numerous changes in personnel and other challenges.
Moreover, the new Extranet ended up not including any more community features than its
previous version, except that the discussion forum was switched to a fancier one.
After the Extranet launch there was time to take a break: to look back and consider the
lessons learned during the project. During the years of web renewal, two Extranet user studies
were conducted and their results were examined more closely. Tekla had been engaged in a
firm-hosted online community research project, PROFCOM, which involved online
community seminars. The seminar held in May 2009 offered new insights to the employees
who were engaged in building the community, and especially the thoughts of Martin Reed
(2009a) were considered useful. As a result, visions of an online community shifted from
creating a separate community section in the Extranet to thinking that the community could
exist throughout the site. The company had also started to plan to utilize outside social media
sites to reach their audience. At that time, the web team manager Bergström saw the situation
of Extranet development as follows:
“Before Tekla can start a project like this, a lot of things have to happen, especially organization-wise
(and in mentality). What we need is an engaged, committed and resourced team coordinating,
supporting and helping Tekla to mature to a virtual global community.“ (Bergström & KorppiTommola, 2009)
3.2 User study for old Extranet
This chapter presents the findings of a user study carried out by a group of students from the
Helsinki School of Economics, Ahonen, et al., (2007). Their interviews and survey targeted
Teklans and customers from all over the world. The study was conducted in 2007 at the
beginning of the renewal project of Tekla‟s old Extranet. The goal of the study was to find out
the methods and the content that would maximize the value that Extranet creates for its users,
both customers and Tekla (Ahonen, et al., 2007). The emphasis of the study mostly leaned
towards content creation and content management. The study also examined recent web
trends, an area closely related to content creation and management (Ahonen, et al., 2007).
33
For this case study, the most significant source of Extranet users‟ needs was the study
conducted by Ahonen, et al. Even though the report by Ahonen, et al., (2007) is now three
years old, a great part of the wishes and pieces of advice presented are still current. The
customer objectives derived from the results of the study by Ahonen, et al., (2007) are the
following:
Why customers use the current Extranet:
-
To get and share information
-
To interact with other users
-
To download different files
What they wish form the new Extranet:
-
More information about the users
-
Knowledge data base
-
Even more material to download
-
Better organized discussion forum
-
Better all over search
-
More speed
The study also reveals some challenges related to the old Extranet. Most of the challenges
reflect the technical issues complicating the use and missing features desired by users. Ahonen,
et al., (2007) predict that especially the absence of user profiles and groups is a challenge to the
community‟s future. Yet another important challenge is the activity of discussion forum and
its tracking. Furthermore, Ahonen, et al., (2007, p.31) state that „the most noticeable
requirement for the Extranet is to foster more active interaction among users‟. They stress
that Tekla employees should participate even more in customer communication. (Ahonen, et
al., 2007.)
In addition to the challenges of community development from customers‟ point of view,
Ahonen, et al., (2007) identified a few risks that are closely tied to the procedures of the
organization. Their concerns are crystallized in the following citation (Ahonen, et al., 2007,
p.31):
“A large cultural shift is required inside the company when moving towards collaboration with
customers. It is not just about implementing fancy new features to a website; it's about implementing a
completely new culture.”
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The mentioned cultural change consists of three aspects: activating critical mass, embracing
openness and taking the change seriously enough overall. The critical mass of participants,
their content and interaction is vital for the community‟s ability to attract and engage people.
Participants‟ activation should be started by promoting new possibilities and benefits of the
Extranet to employees and superusers. Empowering them as content providers calls for trust
and openness from the company. (Ahonen, et al., 2007)
Ahonen, et al., (2007) suggest that the company should form a clear and mutual understanding
about openness and Extranet administration. Further, they see that the Extranet plays a
central role in establishing competitive advantage. In addition to the best possible product, it
would be worth adding the best service and interaction with customers to the company‟s
business model.
3.3 Case study about Extranet community development
Eskelinen studied the company‟s Extranet, and his findings have had a major impact on this
thesis. He did his Master‟s Thesis on online community development methods (reference
Eskelinen, 2009a) as part of the PROFCOM research project, in which Tekla was one of the
stakeholders. Based on the findings from online community literature and surveys within the
company, he constituted Tekla-specific guidelines (reference Eskelinen, 2009b) for company‟s
internal use to support the community project at its first stage. This chapter summarizes his
results concerning the needs, challenges and suggested solutions for the case company‟s online
community development. Also, highlights from company specific guidelines are presented and
discussed.
3.3.1 Summary of case study findings
During the spring 2009, Eskelinen (2009a) scanned the Extranet use with an online survey,
which took place in the freshly launched new Extranet. The survey drew only 21 answers of
which nine were from the customers (Eskelinen, 2009a). The answers indicate that not much
had changed since the earlier user study was performed by Ahonen, et al., (2007). Once again,
the discussion forum and downloads were highlighted as the most useful features of the
Extranet, followed by learning material and news (Eskelinen, 2009a).
In addition to the survey, Eskelinen (2009a) interviewed nine employees who were involved
with the Extranet development. The interview questions concentrated on the exchange of
information, features of organization, and possibilities and risks related to Extranet. The
interview results reveal that while some people were enthusiastic, others were disposed
35
somewhat skeptic towards the possibilities company online community would offer. Eskelinen
(2009a, p.54) reports that among the interviewees, the “biggest concerns [regarding the community]
were getting people to volunteer on various tasks and general time allocation”. (Eskelinen, 2009a.)
The interviews disclosed that overlapping work was being done due to lack of communication
inside the company. Therefore the roles, especially between headquarters and area offices,
should be clarified with open communication. Also, the online community could be utilized in
removing some of the redundant work. However, Eskelinen (2009a) emphasizes that the
company should first resolve its organizational issues and make sure that there are enough
resources available for the project before continuing the development of Extranet and its
community supporting features. (Eskelinen, 2009a.)
One of the organizational challenges is that the community project appears to lack leadership
(Eskelinen, 2009a). Another complicated matter presented by Eskelinen (2009a) is that
employees‟ responsibilities should be reformed, but at the same time the managers have very
little knowledge on online communities. He recommends that the managers should be
informed about the benefits of online communities and the competitors‟ efforts in the field.
Moreover, Eskelinen (2009a, p.86) concludes:
“Managers should get more involved with the process or it has a real risk to fail. Well planned strategy
and rightly allocated roles are vital in making a successful community.”
3.3.2 Tekla specific guidelines
In the company specific guidelines, Eskelinen (2009b) describes the company online
community development as a process of two iteration cycles. The first iteration cycle should
solely focus on preparing the company to establish an online community. The initializing
actions include: “clarifying the purpose, setting up goals, selecting people, defining roles, acknowledging
current situation (resources), and allocating tasks” (Eskelinen, 2009b, p.9). The second round is
involved more closely with users and technology, and it follows the steps presented in Chapter
2.2.3. (Eskelinen, 2009b.)
The company specific guideline was compared to the Extranet community‟s situation, and the
most relevant pieces of advice were selected for closer examination. This chapter next
presents how the recommendations by Eskelinen (2009b) were interpreted and implemented
in this study.
36
Perform a need analysis
The need analysis forms the foundation for this work, as case description already indicates.
“The purpose of a need analysis is to find out differences between a current and desired situation”
(Eskelinen, 2009b, p.11). An overall need analysis is a big and a time-consuming task. During
this study, the needs are gathered on a smaller scope than the guidelines recommend. The
need analysis is focused on the Extranet, community and social media, as opposed to the
suggested overall situation of the company.
Distinguish problems and opportunities
When the needs have been gathered, the guidelines suggest to prioritize them and to
distinguish problems and opportunities. Eskelinen (2009b, p.12) describes this step as:
“Analysis of people, their tasks and organization. How things are done vs. how they could be done. ”
Instead of an overall task analysis, this research distinguishes problems and opportunities
concerning the establishing of the company online community. The problems are seen rather
as challenges in fulfilling the desired needs.
Inform skeptics
According to the guidelines, “in order to get the community function the staff has to have the support
of the management” (Eskelinen, 2009b, p. 13). The managers‟ skepticism can be overcome by
telling them the facts about the positive influence that the community has for the business and
by presenting an analysis on competitors‟ communities (Eskelinen, 2009b). Instead of
informing, the goal of this case study was to deepen the understanding of the type of lacking
information, especially among decision makers.
Set different roles
The role-setting chapter in the guideline asks what roles and responsibilities are needed to
maintain the community (Eskelinen, 2009b). The advice given there is to pay attention to
knowledge, skill and motivation when selecting people to community management tasks
(Eskelinen, 2009b). It is assumed that the roles and responsibilities will get clearer once the
needs concerning the community have been analyzed.
Gather enthusiastic people
In the guidelines, it was not declared whether the „most valued members‟ meant customers or
employees, but they were assumed to include both. During this study, the employees who are
interested in participating in the community building process are scouted with an online
survey.
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4 METHODOLOGY
This chapter introduces the strategies and methods used for the research. First, the reasoning
for a case study is explained. Then the relevant data collection and analysis methods are
introduced and argued. The most essential data collection methods concerning this case were
online survey and interviews. Data analysis was mostly carried out through affinity
diagramming and root cause analysis. All these methods are described further in their own
chapters.
4.1 Research strategy: case study
Case study was chosen as the research strategy of this study. According to Yin (2003), it is
characteristic for a case study that the boundaries between the studied phenomenon and its
context are not clear. Such phenomena appear especially in the field of social science and
business (Yin, 2003). Hence, a case study sets a good strategy for this particular research, as
the focus is on online communities in business use. A case study aims to describe, understand
and explain complex issues (Yin, 1989), which also suits the purpose of this company online
communities-focused research.
As a comprehensive research strategy, the case study is not a data collection tactic of merely a
design feature alone (Stoecker, 1991). Instead, it is an all-encompassing method, which covers
the logic of design and both data collection techniques and specific approaches to data
analysis (Yin, 2003). Proposed data sources include documents, interviews and observation
(Patton, 2002; Yin, 2003). In a case study, data can be analyzed e.g. by relying on theoretical
propositions and developing a case description (Yin, 2003). Both data collection and analysis
methods used in this single case study are described more closely in the following chapters.
4.2 Sources and methods for data collection
The data sources selected for this case study consist of written documents, interviews and
observations. They all are considered to be good sources of qualitative data (e.g. Marshall &
Rossman, 2006; Leedy & Ormrod, 2005; Patton, 2002; Yin, 2003). An online survey was also
utilized, as it is an effective way to elicit requirements (Davis, 2005). Multiple sources of
evidence were used in order to increase the validity of data and to provide a deeper
understanding of the case, as recommended by Patton (2002) and Yin (2003).
Written documents as a data source refer mostly to literature and earlier company specific
research reports, which were presented in chapters 2 and 3. Online survey and interviews were
38
used in collecting the most relevant data concerning the case. Both data collection methods
are introduced in the following chapters 4.2.1 and 4.2.2.
Observation of co-workers, managers, and the Extranet community remained quite passive as
it was meant to give merely extra information about what is going on. Observation was
strengthened by informal discussions around the topic. The information received both ways
was mainly used to decide where the study should concentrate on.
4.2.1 Online survey
This study utilized online survey as the type of questionnaire, aimed at the company
employees. Questionnaire was chosen as the data collection method because of its strength in
eliciting user needs (Davis, 2005). According to Preece (2000), a digital survey is a good tool
for evaluating the use of an online community. Moreover, questionnaire provides a convenient
way to collect a large amount of data from many stakeholders in a reasonable amount of time
and effort (Lazar & Preece, 1999). Its other important advantages, relevant to this case in
particular, are that it is not restricted by the time zone or the location of respondents (Lazar &
Preece, 1999).
A web-based survey was preferred over an e-mail survey because of three reasons. The results
were stored into a database and arranged for viewing automatically. The format of answers
was more flexible thanks to versatile web-based input options, e.g. checkboxes and radio
buttons were available. To an online survey people could answer anonymously. This last
reason was essential since the survey included sensitive questions about the attitudes and
knowledge of the users.
The survey consisted of a structured set of questions with fixed and open-ended answering
options resulting in both quantitative and qualitative data. Most of the questions were fixedchoice ones as these were considered to yield more answers and reduce the risk of
misinterpretation. Creating the survey and its results are described in detail in Chapter 6
Online survey.
4.2.2 Interview
The target of this study was to collect needs and business goals as well as expectations and
beliefs concerning the development of the company‟s online community. Thus, the most
significant data collection method for this case study was interviewing people at management
positions.
39
Interview was chosen as a method for the data collection because it is widely used and
approved in qualitative research and case studies (e.g. Kvale, 1996; Patton, 2002; Yin, 2003).
Interviewing has an important role also in eliciting requirements (Davis, 2005). One of the
most important advantages of using interviews in this study is that they can reveal things an
observer is not able to see: feelings, thoughts and intentions (Patton, 2002). Interviewing aims
at entering into another person‟s perspective (Patton, 2002), and thus it provides in-depth
information that helps acquire a better understanding over the topic.
The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner, which means that the theme is
determined beforehand, and some questions may be pre-planned (Kvale, 1996). This kind of
approach is recommended by Marshall and Rossman (2006) for qualitative in-depth interviews
that retain conversational style. In addition to traditional one-on-one interviews, pair
interviews were conducted for this study. This method was chosen due to the assumption that
they would facilitate some key persons to talk more freely and their counterpart would
provoke them to think and tell more.
How the interviews were planned and conducted in practice is presented in Chapter 7 Key
person interviews. The results of interviews are included in the same chapter.
4.3 Strategies and methods for data analysis
Analysis of qualitative data attempts to constitute order, structure and purpose for the
collected data (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). There is no correct way to do data analysis
(Marshall & Rossman, 2006), and there is no such thing as a complete analysis (Patton, 2002).
Nevertheless, literature suggests some good practices and methods to be used in data analysis.
The most important method for organizing and analyzing qualitative data that was used
throughout this study was the affinity diagram. It provides a good way to identify and analyze
issues (Gaffney, 1999). Another analysis method used in this study is called root cause analysis.
It is especially applicable for problem solving (Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006). These data
analysis methods are not very widespread or familiar as methods for data collection.
Therefore, they are described at more length in their own chapters straight after the data
analysis strategies.
This case study also included analysis of quantitative data, since most of the online survey
results are of quantitative nature. In this study, the quantitative results from the survey were
processed with an electronic spreadsheet. They were arranged so that it was possible to draw
some conclusions that could further be associated with the qualitative results.
40
4.3.1 Data analysis strategies
This study was set in motion by drafting a case description that was presented in Figure 1 in
the introduction chapter. The case description has served as a comprehensive framework for
constructing the whole study and the analysis. The idea behind case description strategy is that
it leans on general characteristics and relations of the phenomenon (Yin, 2003). In addition,
theoretical propositions were exploited to guide data analysis. Propositions from theoretical
backgrounds were utilized especially in constructing different data categories while analyzing
needs and challenges.
Developing a case description and relying on theoretical propositions are suggested by Yin
(2003). They are both general analytic strategies for case studies (Yin, 2003). Yin (2003) states
that a general analytic strategy is the key to successful analysis. A strategy facilitates
concentrating on certain data and ignoring irrelevancies (Yin, 2003). Determining a purpose
for data analysis has been stressed also by Patton (2002). The purpose for analysis is usually
inherited from research questions.
4.3.2 Affinity diagram
Affinity diagram formed the heart of the analysis process of this study. This chapter describes
the principles of affinity diagramming based on the literature and how they were applied in
this study.
Affinity diagram is not very widely used but a powerful analysis tool for combining and
organizing plenty of qualitative data from different sources. The analysis aims at revealing new
concepts and patterns from gathered data and thus gaining a deeper understanding of the
subject. Affinity diagram is constructed of findings from user studies, each of them written on
a separate note. The notes are placed together according to similar issues and themes. Then,
the groups of notes are named and arranged hierarchically. The hierarchy in the diagram is
created inductively, so that single details lead to general structures. (Beyer & Holtzblatt, 1998.)
An example of the hierarchical ordering of notes for this research is depicted in Figure 13. In
the research, the hierarchy of the affinity diagram was mainly built bottom-up based on the
groups of similar themes and their relations, as proposed by Beyer & Holtzblatt (1998).
However, a top-down approach was also experimented in a few suitable situations. It was used
to examine how the findings from the literature matched this particular case.
41
Figure 13. Example of challenge categories and notes in hierarchical order
In the affinity diagram, the findings from literature were placed as categories, which facilitated
the grouping of the notes that described the evidence gathered on the field. The notes that
didn‟t match any of the expected categories were grouped under new categories. This kind of
analysis technique, which compares empirical patterns with predicted ones, is called pattern
matching (Yin, 2003).
The role of an affinity diagram was not merely to be a tool for data analysis in this study. The
diagram acted as one kind of a case study database, since it stored all the relevant evidence
collected from multiple sources and written on their own notes. Creating a case study database
for storing and keeping the collected data together is recommended by Yin (2003).
Notes from different sources were separated by the color and shape of the Post-its, in order to
maintain traceability of evidence. The names of categories were written on their own notes
with a colorful and thick felt-tip pen, and again, the colors and sizes of Post-its separated the
categories from observations. The following image (Figure 14) illustrates the variety of notes.
42
Figure 14. Various Post-it notes distinguish multiple sources of evidence
The diagram was constructed iteratively as the study went along and more data was collected
and processed. As the amount of evidence and different perspectives grew, the notes and their
groups were again analyzed and rearranged. As a consequence of this iterative analyzing
process, understanding about the topic gained depth by every new grouping. By using this
approach, a profound overall view of the case was reached.
In this study, affinity diagram was first utilized in analyzing the preliminary challenges. The
process is described in Chapter 5 Preliminary analysis of challenges. The further analysis done
by an affinity diagram is discussed in detail in Chapter 8 Analysis of all results.
4.3.3 Root cause analysis
This case study aims to form a deeper understanding of challenges (RQ3) to facilitate
outlining solutions (RQ1). As root cause analysis is a tool for effective problem solving and
prevention (Wilson, et al., 1993), it was considered an appropriate method for this work. This
chapter explains the nature of problems and root causes and the role of root cause analysis
concerning this work.
Root cause analysis was utilized as one of the explanation building data analysis techniques in
this study. The purpose of explanation building is to give an explanation about the case and to
identify a set of causal links (Yin 2003). This is exactly what is achieved by root cause analysis,
because it helps identifying not only what has happened and how, but also aims to explain
why an event occurred (Rooney & Vanden Heuvel 2004).
43
The main purpose of root cause analysis in this research was to find out the possible ultimate
challenges, which obstruct case company‟s community building. This application is typical for
root cause analysis, as it is most often performed to uncover the reason for problems that
have already occurred (Wilson, et al., 1993). Furthermore, the analysis can reveal potential
problems. Preventing potential problems from realizing is more effective than solving troubles
afterwards (Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006).
Figure 15. Common characteristics of problems compared to a weed
Root cause analysis solves problems that typically have causes and visible symptoms. A
problem could be compared to a weed, which has leaves that are easily observable and roots
hidden underground. The comparison is illustrated in Figure 15. Root cause is „the evil at the
bottom‟, the true cause that sets the whole chain of problematic causes and effects in motion
(Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006). Furthermore, the causes and problems form different levels
that are faced while digging deeper towards the root. The causes above the root can be called
higher level causes (Andersen and Fagerhaug , 2006) or apparent causes (Wilson, et al., 1993).
In this study, ultimate challenges were seen to ascend from root causes. The root cause needs
to be identified and eliminated, since it is the only means the recurrence of the problem can be
prevented (Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006; Wilson, et al.,1993). Thus, tracking the roots of
ultimate challenges offers keys to their solutions. Eliminating the symptoms of higher level
causes can only fix the problem temporarily (Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006). Figure 16 shows
how the elimination of different causes affects the problematic situation.
44
Figure 16. Problems at different levels and the consequences of their elimination (Wilson, et al., 1993)
Rooney and Vanden Heuvel (2004) outline four major steps of a root cause analysis: data
collection, causal factor charting, root cause identification and recommendation generation
and implementation. In the scope of this research, root cause analysis was performed until the
recommendation generation phase. The progression through first phases, which lead to
identification of potential root causes of challenges, is described in Chapter 5 Preliminary
analysis of challenges. The recommendations are included in the answers of the main research
question that are given in Chapter 9.
The root cause identification method used in this study is called „the five whys‟. Identification
begins by defining the starting point for the analysis and by discovering causes below the
starting point. The next step is to ask why this is a cause for the original problem. The
question is repeated for every new answer. During the process, the chain of causes is depicted.
This method often requires five rounds of asking why. The root cause can be identified
among the answers that cannot be explained any further. (Andersen & Fagerhaug, 2006.)
45
5 PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS OF CHALLENGES
The studied literature and earlier company-specific research revealed a heap of challenges that
could complicate company online community building. However, the goal of this study was to
gain a profound understanding of the most critical challenges concerning the case. Thus, the
work was continued by scanning through previous interviews by Eskelinen (2009a). The old
interview results were categorized into an affinity diagram according to the earlier findings.
Thereafter, the most apparent challenges were examined by a root cause analysis.
This chapter describes the preliminary analysis process for challenges: how the categories were
constructed, merged and excluded. The preliminary analysis resulted in 12 potential challenges
that are presented at the end of this chapter. The results of preliminary analysis were later
utilized and verified during the next steps of this case study, the online survey and interviews.
5.1 Categorizing earlier interview results
Earlier interview results refer to interviews that were made by Eskelinen (2009a) during the
spring 2009. During this study, earlier interview transcriptions were analyzed in-depth, in
order to attain an overall comprehension on the situation. This chapter explains how interview
material was processed, analyzed and categorized using an affinity diagram.
At the beginning, the interview transcriptions were revised and each observation was written
on its own Post-it note. There were nearly 300 different observations from 9 interviews. The
notes were grouped according to similar themes. The first grouping followed the classification
of interview questions and answers. Thus, the first upper level categories included
communication, organization and Extranet community. They were all divided further into
needs, challenges and solutions, following the research questions of this study.
Thereafter, different challenges were taken into closer examination. They were organized into
smaller groups and categorized by various types of challenges proposed by literature and
earlier researchers. However, some groups did not fit under suggested topics, and thus they
received completely new labels for their categories. Those groups contained issues of
organization procedures and communication. Although these issues were not directly related
to online community building, they were not overlooked. Their influence was considered to be
important regarding the management and coordination of a community building project.
All categories of challenges in the affinity diagram at this phase are included in appendix 1
„Preliminary listing of challenges‟ and its first table „Potential challenges regarding case
46
company‟s online community building‟. The second table of the appendix 1 contains
alternative challenges that were proposed, but did not match observations and thus were left
out from the affinity diagram.
The organization of notes at this point is illustrated in Figure 17. The categories of challenges
are written on small pink Post-it notes, and related observations are attached right underneath.
The groups of challenges occupy the left side of the picture, whereas observations concerning
needs and purposes lie yet disorganized on the right.
Figure 17. Affinity diagram at its early stages
The chosen challenge categories were reviewed before the root cause analysis. Some of the
categories were merged or excluded. Excluded categories are also presented in the first table
of appendix 1. Excluded categories mostly describe consequences of bigger challenges, and
thus they were not seen as proper candidates for root causes. For example, „changes in daily
work‟ could not happen before roles and responsibilities are cleared and „prejudices‟ prevail as
long as there is not enough information about the topic. „Other communities‟ and „not enough
volunteer people‟ were also excluded from root cause analysis, since they were regarded as
minor challenges. Their correctness was decided to be validated by an online survey.
Merged categories include „openness‟ and „culture‟, which were united in „hard to adopt open
culture‟. Furthermore, „internal communication‟ and „e-mail related problems‟ were seen to be
included in both „communication with areas‟ and „ineffective ways of working‟.
47
5.2 Root cause identification for presumed challenges
Next step in analyzing challenges was to identify problems with the most impact on
company‟s online community building. The most critical problems were explored by a root
cause analysis. The steps of root cause analysis conducted within this study and discussed in
this chapter are: data collection, causal factor charting and root cause identification.
The data for analysis was gathered and categorized during the previous phases of this research.
Challenges and causes that were investigated with root cause analysis are presented in
appendix 1 in the first table. Causal factors of challenges were drawn using a mind mapping
tool (XMind). The chain of causal factors was formed for each of the presumed challenges.
The causal factor charting, which finally led to root cause identification, was done by applying
the five whys method described in Chapter 4.3.3. Root cause analysis.
The challenges were strongly dependent on each other, and thus no single root cause was
identified. However, the challenges that most often caused other problems were considered as
the most critical ones. The challenges that appeared most critical, the core problems of
Extranet community development, are depicted in causal factor chart in Figure 18.
Figure 18. Causal factor chart of the core challenges in Extranet community development
5.3 Results of preliminary analysis
After root cause analysis, the most probable challenges concerning the case were collected and
grouped according to their assumed severity. At that point, the results were reviewed by a
48
couple of colleagues and based on their feedback a new category, „interaction with customers‟,
was added to the list. The final list of challenges and their severity classifications are presented
in Table 2. Assumptions concerning the presented challenges, their meanings and severities
are discussed further in this chapter.
Table 2. Presumed challenges and their expected severity
MAJOR
Unclear roles & responsibilities
Culture
MEDIUM
Unclear purpose & goals
Importance & commitment
Interaction with customers
Unclear user needs
Too much focus on technology
Resources
Communication with areas
POSSIBLE
Technical problems
Content is not updated frequently
Ineffective ways of working
Some challenges were again merged after root cause analysis. „Unclear roles and
responsibilities‟ enclosed troublesome decision making and community management. „Culture‟
refers to openness, but to ways of thinking and conducting the work as well. Importance and
commitment by management were seen so close to each other that they were treated as one
common challenge.
Severity categories selected include major, medium and possible. Both major and medium
challenges were regarded as critical barriers for community development. The major category
involves the most crucial, organization-wide challenges. Their resolution was predicted to be
more difficult than finding solutions to medium challenges. Possible challenges were not seen
that relevant at that point, but their recognition was supposed to be noteworthy considering
the future of community building.
„Lack of information‟ turned out to be the underlying reason for many causes. Root cause
identification suggested three areas that lacked information: online community building in
general, its benefits, and user needs. Furthermore, other interesting challenges regarding the
49
case are marked in bold in Table 2. Besides the lack of information, the bolded challenges are
addressed as root challenges in this work. Their further investigation, as well as scanning the
need for different types of information, are described more closely in the following chapters 6
Online survey for company people and 7 Key person interviews.
50
6 ONLINE SURVEY FOR COMPANY PEOPLE
The online survey for the company people enquired their views and habits in the use of social
media. The survey was created in order to verify some of the previously perceived challenges.
Another function of the survey was to collect reasons and needs on why people are using
Tekla Structures-related web resources. This chapter specifies the survey goals, presents how
the survey was created, and discusses its results.
6.1 Targets of the survey
The goals of this online survey are represented in Table 3 below. They are to verify the
challenges found earlier and find solutions to them and suggestions for the purpose of the
company‟s online community. In addition, the survey attempts to find employees who are
interested in representing the company in social media or on the Extranet community.
Table 3. Online survey goals and their relations to challenges
Online survey goals
Verify challenges found earlier:
Lack of information
Culture
Not enough volunteer participants
Other Tekla Structures communities
Find solutions for:
Unclear purposes and goals
Not enough volunteer participants/resources
The target group for the survey was mainly Tekla‟s employees from the Building and
Construction business area. The target group was extended with resellers, as it turned out that
it would be useful to collect the same information from them at the same time.
Instead of the research theme, online communities, the survey was focused on social media.
As declared in Chapter 2.1.5 Online communities and social media, social media and online
communities are quite similar phenomena, as they both involve social interaction in an online
environment. Therefore, studying employees‟ awareness and views about interactive online
tools and social media services was regarded to provide the needed information.
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6.2 Conducting online survey
Conducting the survey was divided further into three phases: planning, implementation and
promotion. The implementation of the survey question form was done with a web-based
application. The chosen application was Webropol, which is a tool designed for conducting
online surveys and gathering and reporting data. Planning and promoting the survey was not
that straightforward, and these phases are discussed more closely in this chapter.
6.2.1 Planning the questions
Planning started by drafting a list of questions. Questions were reviewed by six people
altogether. With the help of their comments and after clarifying the goals of the survey, the
questions evolved into their final form. The survey questions are represented in appendix 2A.
Lack of information, or rather awareness of available tools and new ways of interaction, was
mapped with questions about discussion forums, blogs, wikis and popular social media sites. If
respondents had no experience with social media, they were given a chance to explain the
reason for that. The answers to these questions were assumed to give some indication about
the attitude that the respondents have towards social media. Their attitudes were regarded to
reflect company cultural conditions.
Volunteer participants, the so called „social media enthusiasts‟, were sought by asking if
respondents were willing to participate in the company‟s social media related actions. In the
case that enthusiasts were be found, the challenge „not enough volunteer participants‟ would
be disproven. Further on the resourcing problem would be lightened by creating a social
media virtual team of eager participants, which is recommended by Eskelinen (2009b).
As earlier interviews implied, there was a slight uncertainty about other, possibly competing
Tekla Structures-related online communities. In order to find some evidence to support the
assumption, a very brief investigation was conducted with an online search engine, Google,
and within the most popular social media sites. Only a few cases were found using Tekla
Structures as the search word. The benchmarking continued with the survey when people were
asked if they knew about these or some other Tekla Structures-related online resources.
The main goal behind open ended question „What benefits would social media bring to Tekla
or to your daily work?‟ was to collect ideas and needs, the information from which the
purpose of company‟s online community could be derived. Answers could be used again in
analyzing awareness and attitudes of respondents.
52
6.2.2 Promotion of the survey
Eskelinen (2009a) suggests stating the reasons for a survey in order to get more answers.
Accordingly, a short introductory text was compiled, which first clarified the term social
media, spiced up with two links, and then explained why the survey was being conducted,
where the results would be used, and that anonymous answers were allowed. Recently, there
had been news about companies that had blocked access to social media sites from their
employees. As the objective of this study was not to monitor the employees and their use of
social media during working hours, some extra caution was required in stating the reasons so
that they were understood properly.
Another tip from Eskelinen (2009a), also emphasized by Lazar and Preece (1999), is to make
the online survey visible. This was followed by sending a notification of the survey by e-mail
to Tekla‟s Building and Construction employees and resellers. The message consisted of the
introduction text and the link to the survey. Moreover, news pieces and colorful banners were
placed on the company‟s Intranet and to the internal section of Extranet and its discussion
forum. Figure 19 illustrates a piece of news on the Extranet.
Figure 19. A piece of news about the online survey on the Extranet
53
The best opportunity to reach out to the target group of the study was at the Building and
Construction info meeting at the company headquarters. I gave a 15-minute presentation
given about social media, plans for my Master‟s Thesis and asked everyone was to answer the
survey. At the same time, I promised to a follow-up with the results of the survey in a later
company meeting, which I also did.
6.3 Conclusions of survey results
The survey was open for 10 days in the beginning of September 2009. Apparently the
promotion of the survey was quite successful within the company because it received as many
as 90 responses. This means that approximately 30% of the target employees answered the
survey. Instead, there were just a few resellers who participated, so the results can be
understood as a generalized idea of what employees think.
The results of the survey are represented in more detail with descriptive diagrams and tables in
appendix 2B. The following sections cover the most interesting findings that are related to the
goals of the survey.
6.3.1 Variance of awareness and attitude
Examining the column graphs of interactive online tools and services-related survey‟s results
in appendix 2B gives the first impression that around 50% of the respondents seem to be
familiar with forums, blogs, wikis and social media sites. Equivalently, the same number of
participants were able to claim some benefits of social media use. In addition, the diagrams in
appendix 2B reveal two interesting and clearly distinguishable phenomena: there are a few
questions with less „yes‟, „often‟ and „sometimes‟ answers that pile-up around the limit of 15%.
There are also two 10 percent-sized gaps at the tail of the diagrams that indicate unfamiliarity
with some of the most common tools.
The answers were divided according to their percentage into four categories by these
suggestive limits. Categorized answers turned out to describe different levels of users‟
awareness, activity and prevailing attitude. Thus, answers seemed to profile four types of users.
These identified types of users were descriptively named as follows: heavy user, social media
savvy, accidental user, and ignorant. Distribution between the types is depicted in Figure 20.
Their typical answers to survey questions that can be seen as their distinctive features are
represented in the list below. Adjectives describing their attitudes towards social media were
deduced on the grounds of the other results.
54
A: Heavy user (15%):
-
Writes her own blog
Has contributed to some wiki
Is an active LinkedIn user
Follows tweets in Twitter
Passionate about social media
B: Social media savvy (40%):
-
Follows discussion forums and has participated in discussion
Probably also follows some blogs and has commented on them
Has browsed some other wiki than Wikipedia
Is an active Facebook user and has a profile on LinkedIn
Can tell some benefits of social media use
Interested in social media
C: Accidental user (35%):
-
Has seen YouTube videos
Has read blog articles
Careful with social media
D: Ignorant (10%):
-
Hasn‟t tried any of above
Doesn‟t see benefits of social media use
Suspicious towards social media
Figure 20. Rough distribution of different user groups. A: Heavy users; B: Social media savvies; C:
Accidental users; D: Ignorants
55
Considering earlier studies the level of social media awareness is surprisingly high. However, it
is presumable that the survey attracted people who were the most interested in the topic. It
can be concluded that the challenges related to the lack of information and culture are closely
intertwined, and that there is still room for work in spreading information about social media
practices and benefits.
6.3.2 Social media enthusiasts
A total of 33 people (37% of participants) were willing to participate in developing Tekla‟s use
of social media. The majority of them work at the headquarters in Finland. Another area
office that stood out was Tekla Inc. located in the USA. Hence, the problem is not whether
there would be enough enthusiastic and skilful volunteers for a virtual team. The question that
still remains unanswered is who will take the lead of the team and guide them.
6.3.3 Other communities
The possibility of other Tekla Structures communities luring Tekla‟s users is not a threat at the
moment. People could not name any other competitive Tekla Structures community, except
for one discussion forum that was mentioned four times. It is not as big and popular as the
discussion forum on the Tekla Structures Extranet but worth keeping an eye on. The
YouTube videos were the only well-known Tekla Structures-related web resource outside the
company‟s Extranet, and yet most of them are created by Teklans. Under these circumstances,
it is obvious that the time is right for the company to start building their own online
community.
6.3.4 Benefits
Half of the participants shared their ideas on the different benefits that social media could
bring to Tekla or to their daily work. Respondents were keen to figure out reasons why Tekla
as a company should join social media, but substantially fewer ideas were received about the
use of social media in daily work.
The results were sorted with an electronic spreadsheet by grouping the answers that had the
same repetitive key words and then by concluding what was the idea behind the answers that
did not include the most popular key words. The occurrence of the most commonly suggested
benefits is listed in Table 4 below.
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Table 4. Benefits of social media to Tekla or to daily work
Benefits of social media?
Externally
Free marketing
Direct feedback & better understanding of our client's needs
Better brand awareness
Closer relationship with customers/potentials
Peer-to-peer support
Networking
News & events, etc.
Internally
Better knowledge sharing (wiki)
11
9
8
6
6
4
4
4
Applicability of these benefits to a firm‟s own online community, or social media site, is quite
straightforward. The following paragraphs clarify this connection with a few quotations
among the answers that crystallize some of the most popular ideas:
“It would help communication/relationships. We rely on the customer being proactive in regards to o ur
extranet or internet sites. These social networks are places that we could ‟advertise„ to our customers
and keep them better informed.”
Those of the listed advantages that are the most useful for the customer are actually typical
characteristics of an online community: Support, whether it is technical or social, can be seen
as a driving reason to belong to a virtual community. Two-way communication between the
company people and customers helps in building trusting and friendly relationships, again
raising the sense of community. Networking also facilitates people to get to know each other
and become business partners, if not even friends.
“This is a good way to get users who are off maintenance to have a glimpse of what we are doing. It
could sell maintenance for us.”
On the other hand, a lively and successful customer community results in the top three
occurrences, which mostly profit the company. Free marketing in this context can be
understood so that the users are sharing their success stories and recommending the
company‟s products or services to each other. This kind of peer-to-peer advertisement
happens easily on the social media sites that are public for everyone. Yet for now, only the
registered customers have access to the Extranet community, so the site itself cannot act as a
showcase displaying the flourishing community and the discussions within. Respectively the
brand image, shaped by the Extranet and its services, reaches only the registered customers.
57
The leak of experiences and recommendations outside the boundaries of the closed
community can happen only via its users, who spontaneously share their thoughts elsewhere.
“Since I do not deal with Tekla external customers, I think it would be a good learning experience for
me to see what customers are talking about. I would learn a great deal about Tekla products in that
manner.”
Direct feedback and better understanding of clients‟ needs attained thereby is simply beneficial
for both parties. It would not only serve as a learning experience for developers, but also
guiding the way for the company to choose the right web strategy.
As a conclusion, it seems that a firm-hosted online community would increase customer
satisfaction and commitment, which would profit the company in the end.
6.3.5 Summary of online survey results
A little more than half of the respondents seem to be quite well aware of the tools, services
and benefits that are related to social media and its use. Around a third of all participants were
keen on helping the company to exploit social media in business and work.
Awareness seems to go hand in hand with the attitude towards social media. Those who were
not that experienced with social media were probably not that well informed or interested in
it. Sharing concrete and rousing examples of benefits and use should help in getting more
people excited about the topic. It would be worthwhile to display a few examples on how not
to use social media and what happens if the company is opted out from social networks and
online communities. Luckily there are no competing communities to be reckoned with, but as
long as the company does not improve its own, there is room for some better and bigger.
Purposes for this firm-hosted online community could also be derived from the suggested
benefits. Closer relationship with customers, peer-to-peer support, and networking would be
useful for both Tekla and customers. If the community was made at least partially public, it
would increase viral marketing and boost Tekla‟s brand.
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7 KEY PERSON INTERVIEWS
Interviews with key persons regarding online community development from a business
perspective offered the most valuable case specific information for this study. The interviews
aspired to assess business goals and verify and identify challenges and solutions. This chapter
presents how the interviews were prepared and conducted. Thereafter, the interview results
are briefly reported. They consist of what was said and observed during the interviews. During
the interviews, the term Extranet was used to comprehend both the platform and the
community, and it is used accordingly in this chapter.
7.1 Interview preparations
Interview planning was started by clarifying a purpose and selecting persons for interviews, as
recommended by Kvale (1996). Purposes and goals, themes and questions guiding the
interviews as well as the target group are all described in this chapter.
The overall purpose of the interviews was to examine key persons‟ beliefs and views
concerning the development of Extranet community. However, the actual goals behind the
interviews were ultimately inherited from the research questions. Interview goals were further
modified on the basis of earlier findings and preliminary analysis. Therefore, the interviews
aimed to asses needs concerning the community, especially from a business point of view, to
verify presumed root challenges and find suggestions for solutions. The interview goals and
related challenges are presented in Table 5 below.
Table 5. Interview goals and their relations to challenges
Interview goals
Verify challenges found earlier:
Lack of information
Culture
Importance / commitment
Interaction with customers
Find solutions:
Unclear roles and responsibilities
Unclear purposes and goals
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An array of questions was prepared to guide the discussions on the foundations of interview
goals. The questions roughly cover three different topics: background information, business
goals concerning the Extranet, and development challenges. Background information involves
questions about current tasks and customer communication. Business goals and the purpose
of the Extranet were assessed by asking about the role of Extranet now and in the future. By
the same intention, the Extranet‟s affect on the Tekla brand and its connection to the
company strategy were inquired. Questions about challenges concerned the responsibility of
community development and charting other possible challenges. All planned interview
questions are attached in appendix 3A.
The interview questions were reviewed and refined with a product development director and
one product development unit manager. Due to their participation in the planning, they were
not included among the interviewees. Instead, the interviews targeted a dozen of other
directors and managers of Tekla‟s Building and Construction business area. In total 14 persons
were interviewed, eight of them in pairs. Their positions and languages used in the interviews
are listed in Table 6. As a few of the interviewees do not speak Finnish as their mother
tongue, their interview questions were translated and interviews held in English.
Table 6. Positions of interviewees and interviewing languages
Interviewee
Language
Vice president
FI
Business administration director
FI
Marketing manager
FI
Segment marketing manager
EN
Product development unit manager
FI
Product development unit manager
FI
Pair interviews
Segment director & marketing manager
EN
Segment director & marketing manager
FI
Segment director & marketing manager
FI
Country director & marketing manager
EN
The reason for interviewing people in supervising positions was that they were regarded as
important decision makers concerning the future of the Extranet online community. Selected
interviewees are responsible of setting business goals and deciding on their subordinates‟
tasks. Therefore, it was regarded essential to explore their beliefs and views on online
community development from different angles.
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The key persons were sent an invitation to interviews via e-mail approximately three weeks
beforehand. The message stated, that the interview would be about finding out the unit‟s or
segment‟s wants and needs regarding the Extranet community and about discussing related
business and organizational challenges. They were also told that the interview was a part of
this Master‟s Thesis. The time reserved for each interview was one hour.
7.2 Interviews in practice
The interviews were held during September and October 2009. The interview situation was
intended to resemble a natural conversation as far as possible. Thus, a suitable environment
was usually the office of the interviewee or some meeting room nearby. All interviews were
recorded with an audio recorder for later review. The most interesting points and notes were
written down during the interviews.
Each interview was begun with a short briefing about the research topic. In the briefing, the
concept of online community and the current content in the Extranet was introduced first.
Then, the interviewees were reminded of the three-level-model of requirements in software
development. Last they were told that the interview concentrates on eliciting business goals. It
was also mentioned that the results would be used later in planning concrete actions for how
to move on with the company‟s online community building.
As stated earlier, the model used was a semi-structured interview. It allowed conversation to
fly freely, and thus it was not always necessary to stick to the question list. Additional
questions were asked, especially based on ideas that were brought up in earlier interviews. For
example, the importance of the Extranet was asked whenever the situation became suitable
for that. Also, many of the interviewees were asked to give their opinions on the company
hosted networking service and on the ‟best practices„ data bank.
The interviews were conducted so that all planned topics were discussed within the timeframe.
However, the interview was ended earlier if the intended information was gathered before an
hour had passed. Right after the discussions, the recorded tracks were listened to and the
relevant content was written down to text documents for later analysis.
7.3 Summary of interview results
The interviews resulted in ideas for goals and purposes for the community from business and
also customer point of view. Identified business goals include indirect marketing, customer
feedback, and crowd sourcing. Moreover, it was seen that the primary purpose of Extranet is
61
to offer value for customers, which is beneficial for both parties. Interviewed key persons
thought that the core value that customers gain through Extranet is support. The support was
understood to be both technical and emotional, since customers seek solutions for their
technical problems as well as company of co-users on the Extranet. In addition to business
benefits, Extranet‟s influence on company‟s brand was acknowledged, both in a positive and
negative sense.
Interviewees reported many challenges regarding the company‟s online community
development, and root challenges identified earlier appeared to be as critical as surmised. Most
often mentioned the challenges were unclear roles and responsibilities in addition to
insufficient resourcing. Many were also troubled by the lack of interaction, static content and
poor usability. Issues concerning the lack of information became evident as well. Informing
about Extranet and community building in general, about community benefits, users‟ needs
and overall goals for the Extranet was regarded necessary. As though as a consequence of
unawareness, approximately half of the interviewees represented slightly skeptic views towards
the community. Furthermore, they did not consider it as important as the other half of the
interviewees who stated that Extranet is not paid enough attention.
The interviews revealed a couple of new challenges outside the list of preliminarily identified
company related issues. Firstly, the online community related competence of company‟s
personnel was suspected to be inadequate. Secondly, Extranet community‟s ability to attract
customers was questioned. Moreover, not measuring and following the use of Extranet and
not integrating community to other business were seen issues that need to be fixed.
The need for changes that community maintaining entails in the organization structure and
employees‟ daily work was recognized, but no directly applicable recommendations were
given. Nevertheless, various pieces of advice concerning the community development were
shared during the interviews. Advice includes suggestions for creating a roadmap or strategy
to steer community‟s future development, informing decision makers on aforementioned
unclear subjects (i.e. the results of this study), and guiding and activating employees in online
behavior and Extranet use. Furthermore, customer needs and behavior should be studied even
on a wider scale than before.
A more comprehensive report of interview answers can be found in appendix 3B.
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8 ANALYSIS OF ALL FINDINGS
This chapter presents the results of analysis, which combines all the previous findings from
different sources in order to answer the research questions. First, the needs concerning Tekla‟s
community are represented from a business and customer perspective. Thereafter the further
analysis of challenges and its results are described.
The latter part of this chapter reveals analyzed findings that were assumed to be fundamental
when considering actions that are required when establishing a company online community.
Therefore, special features of company online communities and deduced organizational
requirements are presented.
8.1 Needs and goals for community
One goal of this case study was to identify different needs, goals and requirements that are
related to this company online community. The main emphasis was on finding out the
business goals. Clarifying the business goals as well as user needs is vital in order to define the
purpose for the community, according to Eskelinen‟s (2009a) community development model.
All findings concerning business goals and customer needs analyzed are presented in this
chapter.
8.1.1 Business goals
Business goals were constructed mainly of the information that was gathered in management
interviews. The business benefits of social media that employees suggested in the online
survey proved to be very similar and thus they backed up the interview findings. The
meanings of identified business goals are discussed and their relations analyzed in this chapter.
Figure 21 presents high-level business goals of the company, business goals for its community,
and how they are connected to each other. The connections are made through the main
purpose of the community that is the value that the Extranet provides for both customers and
company. Thus, all business goals illustrated in Figure 21 and discussed in this chapter are
instances of values that the community may provide for the company.
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Figure 21. Business goals of company and community connected together
Ultimately, the company aims for profit and growth that is attained by more sales and costefficiency. The sales revenue comes from both new and existing customers. According to
interview results, the Extranet is therefore a crucial element in providing additional value for
the existing customers who pay a software maintenance fee.
“Extranet and the materials and discussions within should become so valuable that one cannot opt out
the maintenance.”
In the value creation chain, the company first creates something valuable for customers i.e.
what customers need, which is described in the next Chapter 8.1.2. When the customers‟
needs are fulfilled, they are satisfied with the offering of the company and thus they are willing
to invest more in their products and services. This produces again value for the company. For
now, Extranet generates maintenance sales merely by increasing customer satisfaction. Direct
sales are not possible since Extranet lacks web shop features. Nevertheless, this kind of
service is planned to be added in the future.
Besides more sales and customer satisfaction, cost-efficiency is displayed among business
goals in Figure 21. It is regarded as a welcome by-product of successful community building.
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Also, the benefits of community maintaining are rather eligible community business goals.
They support business and offer value to company in different ways.
The suggested business goals for the community include indirect marketing, crowd sourcing
and feedback. Indirect marketing includes sharing recommendations, success stories and best
practices among Extranet users. Positive word-of-mouth information strengthens the existing
customer relationships and attracts new potential customers. Crowd sourcing means
harnessing users in maintaining the community by creating content and sharing ideas or even
by product development, for example via beta tester groups that communicate through the
Extranet. Versatile feedback can be easily collected through the Extranet, but it requires a
planned process. Feedback would guide the company to better serve and satisfy their
customers and work smarter. Both crowd sourcing and feedback result in cost-efficiency of
the company‟s actions.
Finally, increasing all kinds of interactions between company representatives and customers
results in closer relationships. This creates again customer satisfaction and makes customers
more committed to the company and community.
8.1.2 Customers’ needs
Previous chapter discussed the purpose of Extranet to offer value for its users. From
customers‟ point of view it means fulfilling their needs. Customer needs concerning the
Extranet were sought from earlier research results represented in Chapter 3. In addition, the
employees interviewed suggested ideas on what Extranet could offer for customers during this
and the earlier case study conducted by Eskelinen (2009a). Both customer needs and ideas
from employees were compared to online community prerequisites found from the literature.
The comparison of needs is presented in appendix 4.
The comparison shows that customer needs correspond well to the community prerequisites.
In fact, two out of three main goals of customers using the Extranet are reasons why people
engage in online communities: exchange of information and social interactions. Moreover, the
sense of community is both the cause and effect of both actions. Thus, it can be said that
customers really wish to encounter community-like features and feelings in the Extranet.
Central customer needs are displayed in a diagram in Figure 22 and discussed more in the
following paragraphs.
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Figure 22. Customers‟ needs concerning the Extranet
Downloading files, especially the new product versions, has long been the main reason for
customers to use the Extranet. Customers told that they would like to have even more
material to download. Nowadays Extranet offers a lot of product-related information, which is
another attraction. Customers look for learning materials, and hints and tips on the use of the
software. They would like to have some kind of knowledge base, for example of best
practices. They are also interested in news and would like to read blog articles. Furthermore,
customers would like to get more information about other users on the Extranet. User profile
pages were suggested alongside with introductions of Teklans. A good search function was
also emphasized to be important, since otherwise valuable information will remain
undiscovered.
Discussion board was, and probably still is, the most loved feature of the Extranet. Its main
purpose is to serve as a support channel for customers. They can express their problems and
questions there, and either company experts or other customers reply with solutions. The
customers place a high value on this kind of online support. Some interviewed employees
even suggested that the company should be prepared to support customers online around the
clock.
For now, the discussion forum is practically the only way for users to interact with each other.
Customers wished for more interactivity and features that support connecting with other
people, for example possibilities to form subgroups and networks of colleagues. Further,
interactions were requested in forms of sharing and rating user created information and files.
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8.2 Perceived challenges
All challenges that interviews unfolded were considered to be most relevant regarding the
case. The first part of this chapter represents their further analysis aiming to point out the
major challenges. The latter part discusses the meanings and relations of the challenges.
8.2.1 Further analysis of challenges
The challenges that were reported and observed during interviews were listed and categorized
according to their fields: organization, strategy, users, technology. The categorized list is
presented in appendix 5. According to the categorization, most of the challenges are of
organizational or strategic nature.
In further analysis, the challenges and their symptoms were drawn in a cause-effect diagram
that is depicted in Figure 23. The colors in the image refer to earlier severity classifications of
challenges. Now the major challenges can be distinguished by their location in the diagram:
the farther left they are, the closer to the roots of community development problems they can
be seen to relate. On the other hand, the severity of a problem can be assessed by the number
of undesired consequences it causes.
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Figure 23. Cause-effect diagram of challenges in community building (OC = Online community)
The image shows that lack of information is the root cause. Also, organization culture has
been placed nearly on the same level. This is because lack of information cannot be seen as a
direct cause of prevailing culture but it probably has influence on its development. Increasing
knowledge especially on online communities in general could have an effect on all culture
related issues. Lack of information appears to be clearly bigger problem than supposed
challenges of culture, which refers to ways of working and thinking, because it breeds so many
other problems. Moreover, more painful nodes, other than culture, turn out to be unclear
goals and purposes as well as unclear roles and responsibilities.
All in all, preliminarily assumed root challenges proved to play a significant part on the field of
challenges according to this analysis approach. The only exception is the meaning of lack of
interaction. Nevertheless, the lack of interaction involves here both customer and internal
communication. Earlier interview results showed remarkable flaws in internal communication
and information management, which can actually have some influence on the root cause, the
lack of information.
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8.2.2 Discussion on challenges
The analysis revealed that the major challenges of the company‟s online community
development are lack of information, importance and managers‟ commitment; unclear goals
and purposes; unclear roles and responsibilities; and organization culture. Next paragraphs
discuss how they were perceived, why they occur, and what are their consequences.
Lack of information
Lack of information was proven to be the deepest and widest problem according to the results
of the online survey, interviews and this analysis. Lack of information was discovered on four
different areas related to online community: general building principles, benefits, user needs
and internal organization. All interviewees expressed uncertainty on one or more of these
areas, and online survey results implied that at least half of the employees would require more
training on the field of online interaction.
Lack of information causes unclarity regarding the community‟s goals and purposes as well as
roles responsibilities. Moreover, unclarity of goals and unawareness of benefits were assumed
to affect the importance and commitment given to community development according to
interviewees.
Importance and managers’ commitment
The managers‟ commitment to the development is crucial since the community‟s resourcing is
dependent on their decisions. In addition, the managers are responsible for setting the
business goals of the community and resolving issues concerning roles and responsibilities. In
the interviews, managers regarded the importance of Extranet as follows: “Extranet is not
important enough,” “It requires more attention in the future,” “It is just one important thing among
others,” or more descriptively, “We devote one finger of left hand to Extranet”. The received
answers imply the lack of importance and manager‟s commitment to be a very distinct
challenge.
Unclear goals and purposes
The community‟s goals and purposes seem unclear because of insufficient understanding of
user needs, community benefits, and also of community building principles, which stress that
a community should have a purpose. On the other hand, the analysis suggests unclear goals
and purposes to be a reason for various issues that were categorized being strategic. These
issues include customers not perceiving the value, community not being connected to core
business and strategy, not having measurements, and not standing out, which means knowing,
showing and reinforcing the community‟s assets. What is remarkable is that all these strategic
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issues are new additions to a preliminary analysis of challenges, and they were brought out by
the interviewees during this research.
Unclear roles and responsibilities
The reason for unclear roles and responsibilities in a community project is probably that there
is not enough information on how to structure a suitable internal organization. This was
proven in interviews, since none of the interviewees recognized applicable solutions. As long
as the roles and responsibilities remain unsettled, the community development and employees‟
active participation are hampered. These result in a lack of interactions and static content.
Also, the decision making and management of the community as well as training and making
employees adopt changes in their daily tasks all require a decent organization of roles and
responsibilities.
Culture
Organization culture did not receive that much attention in the interview answers compared
to other major challenges. In this analysis, three areas were connected with Tekla‟s
organization culture: openness, too much focus on technology, and ineffective ways of
working. The last mentioned might very well be a consequence of the second one. Many of
the company‟s employees have a background in engineering and their education has been
focused on technology instead of sociability, which may explain the technology-centric way of
thinking and working. Too much focus on technology has already backfired in the Extranet
development, since it has the minimum possibilities for interaction and numerous usability
issues. Both are crucial from the customers‟ perspective. Cherishing openness, however, is
probably not that critical in a closed community than in public social media. Nevertheless, it is
useful when building trust between community members.
8.3 Special features of company online communities
The company‟s environment and business objectives bring some new aspects into its online
community building. In this study, the perspective is on a company that wants to utilize an
online community to support its core business, which focuses on something else. Similar
company online communities probably enclose special features that separate them from noncompany online communities. These features were identified among all the information
gathered, especially in the interviews. Found special features of company online community
include:
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- Value for customers and company
- Connection to company strategy
- Effect on brand image
- Decision making concerning the community
- Employees‟ participation
Company online community‟s main objective is to create value for its members and the
company (Antikainen, 2007), which was proven also at this case. The value creation for
customers is critical. If the company‟s community site fails to offer value for customers, they
have no reason to visit it (Näkki, et al, 2008). As a consequence, there will be no community
to benefit the company. The value that defines the purpose of a community is different for the
customers and company. The objectives concerning both perspectives were expressed earlier
in chapters 8.1.1 Business goals and 8.1.2 Customers‟ needs.
Building an online community should fit in with the company‟s business. As a consequence,
community development is affected by the strategic alignment and decisions of the company.
On the other hand, the discussions within and outside of the online community may have an
effect on the company‟s brand. The interviewees suggested a look and feel for the community
Moreover, at least some of the employees participate in social activities in the community
where they are regarded as company representatives. Considering all this, the decision-making
model, processes, and managing company online community should be more disciplined than
in non-company online communities.
8.4 Organizational requirements
The aforementioned features of company environment set their own requirements for
successful online community building. In the context of this study, they are called
organizational requirements. They mostly concern the strategic nature of company online
communities and internal organization. Deduced organizational requirements for company
online communities include:
-
Value creation through community
-
Clear and strategic purpose
-
Policies
-
Adequate resourcing
-
New roles and tasks
-
Management buy-in
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Above all, “online communities need management buy-in” as Reed (2009c) states it. Company
management plays a crucial role here since their decisions affect the development of the
community. Managers are responsible for establishing business goals, strategies and policies,
planning actions and allocating resources. Building an online community in a company
environment requires all these, and thus managements‟ commitment to the project is
important. However, knowledge on online communities is also required since decision makers
should be aware of topics they are making decisions about.
Company‟s task is to establish the community‟s value creation, which means that it has to
fulfill the needs of users while meeting its business goals. Clear and strategic purpose
statement should communicate the value of the community. The importance of an online
community having a clear purpose was highlighted in all studied development guidelines (see
Chapter 2.2). For companies, a clear purpose in building a community is vital. It explains why
the community exists, and it helps in constructing a development strategy for the community.
The community‟s connection to the company‟s strategy and brand should also be taken into
account. This especially calls for guiding and training employees on how they should behave
online as company representatives. Moreover, the community should have common policies
for all users. In addition to rules of conduct, policies should cover security, privacy and
copyright.
Building and maintaining a company online community takes resources: time and
commitment of employees and money. It also calls for a reform of roles, responsibilities and
tasks. Managers need to decide who will participate and how much time chosen employees are
allowed to spend in their online community related tasks. Furthermore, the management of an
online community needs to be thought out carefully. It may cause changes in the organization
structure and decision making system.
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9 CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
Finding suggestions for the next steps that Tekla should take in their online community
development was the main motivation behind this study. The first section of this chapter
presents suggestions for these steps and concludes all findings of this study.
The second section summarizes and discusses research results as answers to the research
questions. Their validity and applicability is evaluated in the third chapter. The final section
summarizes the contributions of this research and offers suggestions for further research.
9.1 Proposals for solutions
In effect, the company should next fulfill the requirements and remove the challenges. This
section presents discussion on how this should be done. The suggestions are based on the
literature studied, research results, and further conclusions. Organizational requirements are
significant in forming a foundation for most of the solution proposals and actions that should
be taken.
Table 7 displays the solutions as responses to challenges and special features of company
online communities. Solutions include informing and involving the key persons, establishing a
strategy, and organizing community management, development and participation. These form
the basis in establishing a company online community, in addition to a needs analysis. The
next step is to create a roadmap, which provides clear guidelines for development and thus
prevents development related challenges to emerge. All steps are first presented in an overall
company online community establishment process. Thereafter, solutions are discussed in
detail from the case company‟s perspective in their own chapters.
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Table 7. Proposed solutions in connection to challenges and organizational requirements
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
CHALLENGE
1. Scan situation
(assess needs and challenges)
Lack of information
Unclear goals and purpose
2. Informing and involving
key persons
(management buy-in)
Lack of information
Importance / managers'
commitment
3. Establish strategy
(purposes, policies,
measurements)
Unclear goals and purpose
4. Organize roles and
responsibilities
(management, development
and participation)
Unclear roles and
responsibilities
Resourcing
5. Create roadmap
Poor content and usability
Lack of interaction
Technical problems
COC FEATURES
Value for users and owners
(= customers' needs and
business goals)
Value for users and owners
Connection to company
strategy
Effect on brand image
Employees' participation
Decision-making concerning
the community
Employees' participation
Value for users
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9.1.1 Suggested process for establishing a company online community
Figure 24. Suggested process for establishing a company online community
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Figure 24 presents in a general format a proposal for the process of establishing the company
online community. Although the process is primarily designed for the case company,
following a similar process could help any other company establish their own customer
community. In the following chapters of this work, the details of each step are described from
Tekla‟s point of view. However, the next paragraphs offer a quick overview on the suggested
process.
The first suggested phase in community development is to scan the overall situation. This
means identifying all stakeholders and user groups, assessing needs and challenges, and
gathering information that is needed with the next steps. The second step includes spreading
information on various online community related topics. Informing is one way to involve key
persons, who are important considering the future development of the community: the
company‟s decision makers and community‟s most active members.
The third phase has to do with the strategic aspect of the company online community. The
suggestion is that assets should be first identified, and they should be highlighted in a public
purpose statement. The community should also be given an attractive and descriptive name.
Targets and measurements should be set, where involvement of managers is again important.
The community‟s policies should be created, and they should support the company‟s strategic
alignment and the brand.
The fourth phase includes everything about the whole internal organization: arranging
decision-making, community management, development and participation, finding suitable
participants, assigning and training new tasks and roles to employees and constructing related
processes. Organization structure should probably be reconsidered throughout the company.
Literature on organizational changes and managing projects is worth reading for additional
tips regarding this phase.
The fifth phase suggests that a roadmap for development is also needed. Content creation,
communication and interaction should be planned in advance. It is also good to consider the
services that the online community could offer. Technical development plans should be based
on these needs.
It is noteworthy that the steps described in this process are only the first steps for establishing
the company online community. Developing and maintaining the community is an iterative
and continuous activity. Ideas for further development and maintenance were described in
Chapter 2.2 Online community building processes and principles.
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9.1.2 Identify and define users and their needs
This research scanned the situation concerning business goals and development challenges.
The remaining actions that Tekla should carry out on their way to establishing an online
community are described in this chapter. The actions are gathering users‟ needs, identifying
user groups, and continuing benchmarking.
Assess users’ needs. There are user needs concerning the community yet to be discovered.
Old studies of customers‟ needs may still be valid, but a survey with wider sampling and upto-date questions would be in order. A thorough understanding of customers‟ needs is vital,
since it is fundamental to value creation (Kauppinen, 2008). Moreover, the needs of
employees, especially from the area office personnel and resellers as suggested in interviews,
should be charted. This would help in planning how utilizing the Extranet community could
facilitate their work with customers and colleagues.
Identify different user groups. Needs assessment should take into account that there are
numerous different user groups with various needs. All, or at least the primary, groups of
users should be identified in order to assess and fulfill their needs.
Understand users. Identifying different users and needs should aim at better comprehension
of the community‟s users: what kind of people they are, what motivates them, what things
they regard important, interesting or fun, how they communicate etc. Creating this kind of
understanding probably requires more than just a simple online survey. One good method for
gaining a deeper understanding of users is contextual inquiry described by Beyer & Holtzblatt
(1998).
Build relationships and trust. Community builders should also build relationships with the
community members, as Reed (2009a) suggests. At the early stages of community building, it
would be worthwhile to get to know the key persons: the decision makers in the company as
well as the most enthusiastic and potential community driving members, whether they are
employees or customers. Getting to know each other creates trust between the people
involved in the community. Trust is a required element for the emergence of the sense of
community (Blanchard & Markus, 2004) and additionally facilitates collaboration.
Follow competitors and trends. Benchmarking competitors‟ efforts with their online
communities and following web trends should be continuous. Information on both is useful
in planning actions for the company‟s own community building.
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9.1.3 Inform and involve people
The biggest challenge was lack of information, which seemingly influenced on how important
the managers regarded community building and how closely they were committed to it.
Executives and managers need to be provided with enough information to facilitate their
decision making concerning establishing the community. This chapter concentrates on
contemplating what kind of information should be shared and how people, especially the
management, could be involved and engaged even more to the project.
Inform about community benefits connected to business goals and challenges.
Community benefits for business should be presented to managers in order to get them
interested about communities (Eskelinen, 2009b; Reed 2009c). From strategic point of view, it
would be worth communicating how the benefits contribute to company‟s higher business
objectives (as in Chapter 8.1.1 Business goals) and overcoming current business challenges.
Inform about examples, competitors and trends. Presenting the following material to
decision makers was regarded useful by interviewees: examples of successful and unsuccessful
communities and how they were done, benchmarking results of competing communities and
competitors‟ community building efforts and web trends in general.
Inform about users’ needs and behavior. The interviews disclosed that managers were also
curious about customers‟ wishes concerning the Extranet. Analysis showed that building an
interactive online community would definitely satisfy customers‟ needs (see Chapter 8.1.2
Customers‟ needs). Managers also expressed their interest towards users‟ current activities in
the Extranet. In the future, different measurements concerning community use should be
collected and reported to decision makers frequently.
Inform about online community development principles. The main online community
building principles in general (in Chapter 2.2) and special features (Chapter 8.3) and
requirements concerning company online communities (Chapter 8.4) should be shared,
especially among those who are responsible for organizing and carrying out work regarding
the community. Displaying the user-centric guidelines and emphasizing the social nature of
communities would hopefully turn the focus from technology to users.
Promote community. Promote community. Community building activities involve
community promotion (Butler, et al., 2002). For a start, interviewees suggested reminding
users that Extranet exists. In addition, Extranet and benefits of communities could be
promoted in company meetings and in context with related user surveys. In addition, Extranet
campaigns, competitions and theme days could be considered. The goal of promotion and
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informing employees is to prepare the organization‟s atmosphere to working in web 2.0
environment – to embrace openness and rapid responses to changes.
Involve key persons. Managers would probably be best informed about the suggested topics
in their meetings and personal discussions. Involving them to discuss and agree on
community‟s goals and purpose would probably increase their commitment to community
development. Involving key persons in eliciting requirements already at the early stages of a
project to increase their commitment has been recommended by Kujala (2002) and
Kauppinen (2008). Moreover, engaging all kinds of users in online community building project
is an action approved by Preece (2000) and Kim (2000). Reed (2009a) suggests finding and
recruiting a group of active members to create buzz within the community even before it has
been launched.
9.1.4 Define purposes and set measurements
Building a company online community is not only a user-centric design activity, since it should
involve the company‟s strategic aspects as well. Interviews showed remarkable deficiency
concerning this area of the case company‟s community establishing. This chapter gives
suggestions on how Tekla should take its community‟s strategic issues, such as purposes,
assets and measurements into account in community development.
Identify assets. When agreeing on community‟s purpose, its assets should be considered.
This should be done because community needs to stand out from its competitors to attract
visitors, as Reed (2009b) and three interviewees pointed out. Thus, it is presumable that the
community will draw more members if its purpose leans on assets; when it offers something
more than others and succeeds in communicating it. The distinguishable feature and strength
of case company‟s community is that there are experts involved in conversations and content
creation. As discussed earlier, this is the point that requires attention and development.
Suggestions for public purpose: As a conclusive suggestion concerning the public purpose
of Extranet community, the elements of purpose statement could be: connect with other
Tekla Structures users and experts, learn together and support each other. However, the
purpose statement should not promise anything that the community does not fully offer. For
this reason, the community and related processes still need development to meet these
promises before a purpose is published.
Suggestions for private purpose: The private purpose statement for the company should
communicate the Extranet‟s importance regarding maintenance sales, customer commitment
and feedback as well as its function as a versatile communication channel.
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Validate purposes with managers. After formation, the statements should be evaluated by
people who make decisions concerning the company‟s strategy. This ensures that the
community‟s purposes are in line with the company‟s strategy and that key persons understand
and stand behind them.
Consider purpose for employees. In addition to purposes that respond to customers‟ needs
and company‟s business goals, it would be good to consider if a third purpose should be
formed for employees, who participate in the community actions. Although they act and
engage in the community as company representatives, they are still people with their own
personalities and motivations. Thus, they need a reason to join and act in the community, and
the better it suits their motivations, for example performing faster and better in their tasks, the
more likely it is that they will become active participants.
Give community a name. In addition to purpose statements, community should have a
descriptive name (Reed, 2009a; Eskelinen, 2009a). The name is also good to be accepted by
management, since it may later have an essential influence on the company‟s brand.
Measure with purpose. Both purposes and measurements are valuable guidelines concerning
the development of community. The evolution of community should be followed and
measured against the targets, just like it is done on other areas of business. The measurements,
however, should be tied to the goals set for the community (Gossieaux, et al., 2008). For
example, if the community‟s purpose is to increase customer satisfaction and decrease the load
on other support channels, then fulfillment of these targets should be measured instead of e.g.
community‟s member count.
Think about people, not just numbers. Community‟s web analytics software provides some
hints of use but it does not provide an overall picture of use. Users‟ opinions should be
collected by other means, for example with an online survey. Furthermore, the reports of use
should not rely solely on numbers (Reed, 2009a). The community is a living entity, and it
probably breeds interesting stories that would be worth sharing with decision makers and
other community members.
9.1.5 Internal organization
Settling the roles and responsibilities of online community management and maintaining is
probably the hardest of issues to resolve. Neither interviewees nor literature gave
unambiguous instructions for solutions. Therefore, this chapter is rather a collection of things
that community organizers should be aware of. The topics cover ideas and discussion about
decision making concerning the community, new roles and tasks and employees‟ participation.
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Extensive decision making
Reconsider the whole organization structure. In the interviews it became clear that the
current organization structure does not include any evident location that could be placed with
the ownership of the community and the responsibility for its development. Building the
community seems to involve everyone who is attending in strategic decision-making, action
planning, customer communication, providing support and producing content to the Extranet.
Thus, it looks like that the structure of the organization has to be reconsidered throughout the
whole company.
Empower a steering team with multiple skills and know-how. The case company‟s
community related decision-making requires understanding of the following areas: company‟s
business objectives, expertise in the field of business, web trends, online community
development and strategic user-centered design. At this point, it is probably very hard to find
one person with this broad a view on all aforementioned topics. Thus, a small steering team of
insightful people could be founded to take care of early decision-making and coordinating the
community establishing efforts. In addition to responsibility, they need to have enough
influence and support from the company executives.
Establish new roles and tasks
The actual development and maintaining of the online community requires people to take care
of technical administration and social interactions (Butler, et al., 2002). In addition to those,
content is an essential element in the case company‟s community. For now, the responsibilities
concerning technical development have been shared between web team and information
management unit. At the same time, Extranet development responsibilities regarding content
and interaction are scattered around the organization. Their centralized coordination should
be considered. Moreover, a higher-level strategic guidance and follow-up concerning all these
areas is needed. The missing responsibilities could be met by establishing new roles and
reforming old ones. Several suggestions for required roles and tasks were found from
literature, and they are next presented briefly.
Hagel and Armstrong (1996) found a number of roles for operating a community, which are
played or overseen by the „producer‟ or general manager of the community. They address
these first three roles as the most important: executive moderator, the „moderator of moderators‟,
who follows discussions, community merchandisers marketing interesting goods and services
unobtrusively to community members and the executive editor, who develops an inclusive
programming strategy for the community. The remaining three roles are archivist maintaining
and organizing user generated content, usage analyst reporting participants‟ behavior and newproduct developer full of fresh development ideas (Hagel & Armstrong, 1996).
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Preece (2000) identifies a typical three-person development team that involves a team
manager, a technical specialist and a human-computer interface specialist, who acts as a
community advocate and takes care of collecting users‟ needs. Seybold (2006) notes that
customer communities tend to have 'an internal champion and a group of key employees or
stakeholders who participate (without injecting their agendas) in the customer community.‟ This
„internal champion‟ could be paralleled to „community manager‟, a position that has
lately been argued a lot in online community related blogs.
Suggested list for company community maintenance activities: Based on all findings
during the study, a list containing case company‟s community maintaining activities was
drafted to facilitate organizing roles and tasks. The preliminary list was as follows:
-
Activating and rewarding members
-
Promoting community
-
Keeping participants and content creators up to date
-
Trainings and guidelines
-
Technical support
-
Requirements gathering and analysis
-
Development planning
-
Planning related processes
-
Monitoring and measuring
-
Competitor benchmarking and following trends
Suggestions for allocating roles: The activities were experimentally attached to different
roles in order to gain a comprehension on how many full-time employees maintaining a
community takes. The mind map about roles and responsibilities is displayed in appendix 6.
The result of outlining responsibilities was that in addition to current web team at least a
community manager is required. Furthermore, accompanying her by someone managing the
content creation would be welcome.
However, it is notable that the list of actions and tasks will be reformed once the community‟s
purposes have been set, which may have an influence on the required roles and activities.
Employees’ participation
Find volunteers and activate participants. Creating an expert community primarily requires
participation of product experts, instead of web team members, whose profession lies on a
different field. There are already a dozen of experts answering to questions on discussion
forum, but their number and forms of interaction will probably increase in the future.
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Especially area office personnel and resellers should be encouraged to become involved in the
community activities, according to interviewees. However, the most enthusiastic and
potentially active community members should be preferred to ensure the liveliness of the
community. During this research, employees‟ interest was queried with online survey, and a
group of eager volunteers was found.
Prepare policies and train for new tasks. Participating in community causes changes in job
descriptions and overall work design. In this kind of situation, it is important to communicate
to new participants the purpose of the community, what is expected of them and what are the
guidelines for online behavior. Enough time should be reserved for training employees to
work in the community environment. Luckily, the company has already prepared instructions
for social computing, but its contents should be made known more widely among employees.
Resolve other responsibility issues. Earlier interview results by Eskelinen (2009a) indicated
that there are unclarities in roles and responsibilities also on other areas of working than in the
community building. These should be examined more closely and cleared out at the same time
as designing the ways of working related to the customer community. Overcoming these
troubles is important, since unclear conceptions of the work may cause misunderstandings and
restrain people from participating (Otala & Pöysti, 2008). Again, clearly stated purposes and
policies for the community could be of help there.
9.1.6 Further development ideas
Interviews conducted the during earlier and this case study gave various hints on community
development. This chapter summarizes the development ideas for Extranet platform, content
and services. Figure 25 displays the development ideas according to their topicality.
Figure 25. Guideline for Extranet feature development
83
Ongoing development issues describe topics that have been recently discussed: updates to
download pages, support center and marketing, and sharing new products. However, their
development is still quite slow because of scarce resources in the web team. Moreover, ways
of utilizing discussion forums, blogs and internal communication in general should be
considered in order to increase interactivity and productivity among employees. Also, getting a
properly functioning and all-inclusive search function is crucial regarding the usability of the
community.
User profile pages displaying information about users should be added soon, since they help
users to identify each other, which facilitates emergence of the sense of community
(Blanchard & Markus, 2004). The same applies to the users‟ ability to form groups and
networks, but their absence is not regarded as critical. Even less critical development targets
from the community perspective are the best practices wiki and e-commerce features of the
Extranet, and thus their design can be postponed further to the future.
What is missing from the picture is the redesigning of the front page, which was pointed out
by a few interviewees. It should promote community‟s activity and updated content, or its
display could even be adjusted by the users. Also, new ways to serve customers via the
Extranet should be thought about. Interviewees suggested, for example, sharing webinars and
constant online support. In the longer run, development of the community should concern
how it is developed side by side with the public web pages and intranet. Also, internal
information processing and management and related tools should be reconsidered in
association with online community development.
9.2 Answers to research questions
This chapter provides a summary of the findings and lessons learned during this case study.
The contents are formulated as answers to research questions: what are Tekla‟s needs, major
challenges and suggested solutions concerning online community building.
9.2.1 What are the needs concerning Tekla’s online community?
The results of this study show that Tekla‟s online community‟s purpose is to create value for
its users and owners by fulfilling their needs. Thus, the needs concerning the community play
a crucial role, since they define its purpose and guide its development.
During this research, the needs were mostly gathered from the business perspective. Tekla‟s
high-level business goals, to which company benefits could be connected, are increasing
84
maintenance sales and customer satisfaction. Business goals related to community include
offering value to customers, closer relationships with customers, direct feedback, free
marketing and crowd sourcing.
Customers‟ needs were studied from earlier research results. The customers‟ needs concerning
the community consist of receiving information and support and being in contact with other
Tekla Structures users. Customers‟ needs were compared to general online community users‟
needs suggested by literature. The general needs related to online communities include desire
for information and sociability, and thus can be concluded that Tekla‟s customers would really
benefit from an online community.
The needs from the community‟s users and owners set requirements for different features that
online community setting has to fulfill. At the case of company online community, these
requirements concern the organization and technology. Figure 26 displays how goals and
needs are related to requirements. This figure also shows origins of some of the organizational
requirements for Tekla: strategic purpose, policies, participation and content creation. In
addition to these, the organizational requirements include involvement of the management
and an internal organization that supports community building.
Figure 26. Construction of company online community‟s needs and requirements
85
Specifying technical requirements was out of the scope of this study. Nevertheless, they
should be formed to support users‟ needs and actions, for example communication and
identification of other users. Literature offers further examples and heuristics for designing
social software (Bouman, et. al, 2008; Malinen, 2009) and good usability (Nielsen, 1994).
9.2.2 What are Tekla’s challenges concerning online community building?
The research results indicate that the biggest challenge in Tekla‟s online community building is
lack of information in the following areas: users‟ needs, community‟s benefits, internal
organization, online communities in general, and possibilities of the Extranet. These lead to
other online community development related problems: unclear goals, purposes and strategies,
unclear roles and responsibilities, and managers‟ commitment to project. Also, problems with
insufficient resourcing and tendency to focus too much on technology were perceived.
Minor problems were discovered with different cultures and languages inside organization.
Other minor problems, that significantly affect user experience, are inflexible technical
platform, lack of interaction and poor content and usability.
Interpreting all the findings and considering everything that was learned during this research, it
seems that the biggest problem after all is the extent of the project that probably is much
greater than anyone could expect. Establishing an online community requires a lot of attention
and effort, careful plans and strategy, new actions and participants. Establishing a company
online community may also have an effect on overall business model, organization structure,
communication and information management, both technically and in even wider in ways of
working. Transferring work even more and more into online environment causes changes in
sales, marketing and support methods. As Gossieaux, et al., (2008) put it: “Communities will
transform most business processes”.
The whole big picture concerning company online community is hard to grasp, since it
requires so much comprehension from a variety of areas. In addition to all areas mentioned
above, also understanding about strategic user-centered design, requirements engineering and
management, content production, web technologies and leading organizational changes are
necessary. It is very challenging to find persons with this wide knowledge and competence, so
close collaboration between experts representing different fields seems an inevitable solution.
86
9.2.3 How to continue building Tekla’s Extranet community?
The ultimate goal of this study was to find „a set of concrete actions‟ that Tekla should next
take in its online community building. After studying the literature and case in depth,
especially from the business perspective, the following steps are suggested:
1) Assess customers‟ and employees‟ needs
2) Inform and involve decision makers
3) Set strategies, targets & measurements
4) Organize management, development and participation
5) Plan further development of content, interaction and technology
Actions related to each of these steps have been described in detail at the beginning of this
chapter.
As discussed above in context with the challenges, the development of online community may
entail huge changes. Therefore, it is important that the company considers developing online
community in association with all its other operations and not just as one corner of Extranet.
The web as business environment seems to become even more dominant day by day, and thus
mastering its possibilities is probably the key for success for companies in the future.
9.3 Evaluation and applicability of results
Multiple sources of evidence were collected in order to increase the validity of data and to
provide a deeper understanding of the case, as proposed by Patton (2002) and Yin (2003).
This case study relied on literature, earlier research, online survey for employees, and
interviews of managers. Both online survey and interviews met their goals. They resulted in
ideas for business benefits and goals. They also provided information that was useful in
verifying the challenges found earlier and in planning suggestions for company‟s next
community building actions.
Online survey gathered 90 responses, which is approximately 30% of the target audience. The
survey results are regarded to indicate employees‟ views and experiences on the inquired
topics well. However, it is likely that the survey attracted more persons who are interested in
social media than those who are not, which may bias the results a bit more towards their
answers. The sampling in interviews was comprehensive. Interviews reached all persons who
were invited, which means all key persons from the management of Building and
Construction business area at the company headquarters.
87
The business goals were deduced primarily from the results of key person interviews. The
results concerning business goals did not reveal any contradictions, and they can be regarded
reliable. Moreover, similar goals and business benefits recurred in the online survey results.
Also, literature acknowledges chosen community business goals as benefits company online
communities may entail (e.g. Warms, et al., 2000; Mittilä & Mäntymäki, 2004; Antikainen,
2007).
The validity of online community development challenges was examined even more
thoroughly. The analysis was done in two phases, both included categorization and
examination of causes and effects. The purpose of latter analysis was to verify the results
found in the first phase. Analyses combined variety of findings from literature, earlier research
and this case study, which increases the reliability of results. The results suggest that there are
challenges that are easy to observe and those that are actually their root causes. The literature
supports this observation, since the most obvious challenges, for example resourcing, were
mentioned more often than underlying reasons such as lack of different types of information
and managers‟ commitment.
It is notable that the results should not be interpreted to provide a holistic view on the
situation of the company‟s online community development. There are still undiscovered areas
concerning the project. For example, the roles of the Information Management unit and
Corporate Communications unit were excluded from this study. Also, there is a broad
spectrum of customers‟, employees‟ and resellers‟ needs from all over the world waiting to be
studied, and they all should have an impact on the community‟s future.
Still, the suggested solutions for Tekla‟s following online community development steps stand
on a firm ground founded by literature and all findings. Studied subjects offer a decent
overview of the company‟s online community development situation from a management and
business perspective. The management usually represents the force that drives changes in an
organization. Therefore, the role of management and their actions is regarded central during
the first steps in the process of establishing a company online community.
The applicability of the suggested process, however, remains to be seen in practice. The
overall process has been constructed to meet the needs of a medium-sized software company
that attempts to establish online community as an additional, supportive service for their
customers. Even though the study involved only one case, the suggested company online
community establishment process, as well as the other research results, can be useful to other
companies with a similar situation and goals.
88
9.4 Contributions and suggestions for further research
The contributions of this study to the fields of online community research and company
online community research consist of various contemplations of related topical issues. The
contemplations include reasoning and suggestions, and offer starting points for further
research.
The contributions concerning online communities include examining the following topics:
-
Relation between online communities and social media (Chapter 2.1.5)
-
Prerequisites for online communities, including social aspects (Chapter 2.3.2)
For the first topic, the literature does not offer clear specifications. Also, a concrete list of
„building blocks‟ of online community seems to be missing. It is warmly recommended that
future studies regarding either of the subjects should acknowledge sense of community.
The contributions concerning the development of company online communities are even
more significant, since the company‟s perspective has not been the focus of many studies
before. The following topics were examined during this research:
-
Classification of company online community related needs and requirements
-
Common features of company online communities
-
Organizational requirements for companies building online communities
-
Company online community maintenance tasks
-
Biggest challenges for companies developing online communities
-
Proposed process for establishing company online community
The classification of company online community related needs and requirements is displayed
in Figure 26. It utilizes ideas from requirements engineering and user-centered design, which
were easily applicable to the context of study. The validity of suggested classification could be
confirmed with further studies.
It was assumed that company online communities have some common features that separate
them from non-company online communities. This study gives suggestions on those features
(Chapter 8.3), but their further research is required. These features and company environment
set specific requirements for community hosting organization, which were addressed as
organizational requirements in this study (Chapter 8.4). Also, their further investigation is
recommended. A guideline representing prerequisites for company online communities would
probably be welcomed in many companies.
89
This study outlined major challenges of the case company‟s online community building. The
challenges were studied carefully, and it is presumed that similar findings wait with
corresponding companies. Of the challenges, especially the effect of organization culture on
online community development could be studied further, since its meaning remained a little
unclear.
The most important contribution of this study is its emphasis on the strategic and
organizational issues in context of company online community research. Although they form
the basis for the proposed process of establishing company online communities, the
significance of strategic and organizational aspects seems to be overlooked in the literature
referring to company online communities. The future studies should thus acknowledge both
aspects. Also, the proposed community establishment process requires further verification and
completion.
90
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APPENDIX 1: PRELIMINARY LISTING OF CHALLENGES
Table 8. Potential challenges regarding case company‟s online community building
CHALLENGES
Literature
Earlier studies
Not enough resources
Eskelinen, 2009a; Gossieaux, et al., 2008;
Näkki, et al., 2008; Otala & Pöysti, 2008;
Reed, 2008
Eskelinen, 2009b
Unclear purpose and goals
Eskelinen, 2009b
Poor community management
Eskelinen, 2009a; Jantunen, et al., 2008;
Otala & Pöysti, 2008; Reed, 2008
Gossieaux, et al., 2008; Jantunen, et al., 2008;
Näkki, et al., 2008; Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Armstrong & Hagel, 1996; Jantunen, et al.,
2008; Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Jantunen, et al., 2008; Näkki, et al., 2008;
Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Eskelinen, 2009a
Managers' commitment
Otala & Pöysti, 2008; Reed, 2009c
Eskelinen, 2009b
Culture
Unclear roles and responsibilities
Starting points for root cause analysis
Importance
Eskelinen, 2009b
Ahonen, et al., 2007
Not enough information about
community building & management
Not enough information about
community benefits
Unclear user needs
Gossieaux, et al., 2008; Jantunen, et al., 2008
Technical problems
Otala & Pöysti, 2008; Jantunen, et al., 2008
Too much focus on technology
Eskelinen, 2009a; Gossieaux, et al., 2008
Content is not updated frequently
Eskelinen, 2009a
Eskelinen, 2009b
Eskelinen, 2009b
Jantunen, et al., 2008
Ahonen, et al., 2007
Lack of clear processes
Troublesome decision making
Ineffective ways of working
(information & knowledge
management)
Communication with areas
Lack / difficulty of executive
informing
Other communities
Excluded from root cause analysis
Challenges that were supported by earlier interview results => Affinity diagram categories for challenges
Guidance and policies
Ahonen, et al., 2007
Armstrong & Hagel, 1996; Näkki, et al., 2008
Not enough volunteer people
Eskelinen, 2009b
Openness
Näkki, et al., 2008; Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Ahonen, et al., 2007
Changes in daily work
Eskelinen, 2009b
Internal communication
Gossieaux, et al., 2008; Jantunen, et al., 2008;
Näkki, et al., 2008
Näkki, et al., 2008; Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Prejudices
Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Eskelinen, 2009b
No critical mass of users
Reed, 2008
Ahonen, et al., 2007
E-mail related problems
Eskelinen, 2009b
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Table 9. Other challenges of online community building, suggested by literature and earlier researchers
CHALLENGES
Literature
Ownership of Extranet
Ahonen, et al., 2007;
Eskelinen, 2009b
Ahonen, et al., 2007
Activity tracking
Encouraging and activating people
Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Success is measured with wrong metrics
Member engagement
Eskelinen, 2009a; Gossieaux, et al., 2008;
Reed, 2008
Eskelinen, 2009a; Gossieaux, et al., 2008;
Näkki, et al., 2008
Gossieaux, et al., 2008
Inactive users
Eskelinen, 2009a
Changing environment
Antikainen, 2007; Jantunen, et al., 2008
Not maintaining the community
Reed, 2008
Not enough content
Reed, 2008
Bad quality content
Eskelinen, 2009a
Org. Structure
Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Changes management thinking and
marketing approach
Realizing the potential of community
Gossieaux, et al., 2008
Data security
Otala & Pöysti, 2008
Segmentation
Armstrong & Hagel, 1996
Hosting
Armstrong & Hagel, 1996
Excluded from root cause analysis
Challenges that did not match earlier interview results
Lack of attraction
Earlier studies
Jantunen, et al., 2008
Ahonen, et al., 2007
98
APPENDIX 2A: ONLINE SURVEY QUESTIONS
I work at… [radio button choice]
* HQ
* Area office
* Reseller
Discussion forums: [yes/no radio button choice for each]
I regularly follow conversations on the Tekla Structures Extranet discussion forum
I follow conversations on other discussion forums (e.g. software, games, sports)
I have participated in the discussion on other forums
Blogging: [yes/no radio button choice for each]
I have read a blog article
I follow some blog(s) actively
I have commented to a blog post
I write my own blog
I would like to write job-related articles
Wikis: [yes/no radio button choice for each]
I know what is the difference between wiki and Wikipedia
I've browsed some other wiki than Wikipedia
I've contributed to some wiki
I use... [radio button: often / sometimes / (almost) never]
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Other social media sites that I use: [TEXTFIELD]
This question is only for AREA OFFICES: I would like to participate in these social media
sites as a Teklan: [TEXTFIELD]
Tekla Structures-related online resources outside the Tekla Extranet:
Are you familiar with...
[ ] Tekla Structures tutorial videos in YouTube
[ ] Tekla Structures discussion groups (Yahoo, Google). Which one(s)? [TEXTFIELD]
[ ] other Tekla Structures discussion forums? URL(s): [TEXTFIELD]
Do you...
[ ] belong to LinkedIn Tekla Structures Users group?
[ ] belong to some Tekla Structures group in Facebook? Which one(s): [TEXTFIELD]
[ ] know some Tekla Structures-related blogs or blog articles? URL(s): [TEXTFIELD]
What do you consider the most suitable social media for Tekla Structures users in your area?
[TEXTFIELD]
What benefits would social media bring to Tekla or to your daily work?
99
[TEXTFIELD]
If you have no experience in social media, why not? [radio button choice]
* I'm just old fashioned
* I see no benefit
* I'm a little afraid of presenting myself out there
* Other reason... [TEXTFIELD]
I want to participate in the development of Tekla‟s use of social media. [radio button choice]
* Yes, my e-mail: [TEXTFIELD]
* No
I can participate by…
[ ] writing blog articles
[ ] discussing on a discussion forum
[ ] planning
[ ] telling/teaching people about social media
[ ] sharing my know-how/competence in the field of social media. Tell more about your
competende [TEXTFIELD]
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APPENDIX 2B: ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS
Reseller
5%
Area
31 %
HQ
64 %
Figure 27. Distribution of respondent‟s positions
Interactive online tools and services
Figure 28. Familiarity of discussion forums
101
Figure 29. Familiarity of blogs
Figure 30. Familiarity of wikis
Figure 31. Visits on social media sites
102
Table 10. Reasons not to participate in social media
If you have no experience in social media, why not?
I see no benefit
9
I’m a little afraid of presenting myself out there
6
I’m just old fashioned
5
Not enough time
4
Other reason
3
Total
27
Reseller
3
Other
area
7
HQ
14
US
9
Figure 32. Virtual team volunteer members sorted by office
Figure 33. Known Tekla Structures-related online resources outside Tekla Extranet
103
Table 11. Benefits of social media to Tekla or to daily work
Benefits of social media?
Externally
Free marketing
Direct feedback & better understanding of our client's needs
Better brand awareness
Closer relationship with customers/potentials
Peer-to-peer support
Networking
News & events etc.
BIM awareness
Crowd-sourcing
Terminology glossary (wiki)
Recruitment channel
I don't know
Internally
Better knowledge sharing (wiki)
Feeling of community
Same tools for private / professional life
Benchmarking
Various tasks
I don't know
11
9
8
6
6
4
4
2
1
1
1
2
4
1
1
1
1
2
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APPENDIX 3A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS
Now
1. What are your unit/segment’s basic tasks?
2. What are the most important services that you offer to customers?
3. How do you communicate with customers?
4. What are your objectives concerning the Extranet?
5. What is the role of Extranet services and community in the interaction between
customers and Tekla?
6. What is the role of Extranet and community in enhancing the Tekla brand?
Visions
7. How is the Extranet /community implementing or how could it implement our strategy?
8. In which direction should the Extranet be developed?
9. If you were a customer, what would you wish from the Extranet?
Challenges
10. Whose task is developing the Extranet community? (main, in general)
11. What are the biggest challenges in developing the Tekla community?
General information
Assess needs and business goals
Outline challenges
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APPENDIX 3B: REPORT OF INTERVIEW RESULTS
INTERVIEW RESULTS
This report describes and discusses the interview results. The representation and analysis of
results is guided by the purpose of research and interviews. Thus, the result sections cover
business goals and purposes, challenges and suggested solutions for case company‟s online
community development. However, the observations from interviews are introduced at first.
They are followed by interviewees‟ answers related to business goals, challenges for business
and online community development. Thereafter, the state of root challenges is evaluated. In
addition, interviewees‟ solutions for organizing community management, advice and requests
concerning community building are revealed.
Observations from interviews
All the interviewees appeared to be interested about the interview and the topic. Only one
person was wondering why he was invited to an interview about the Extranet online
community. The participants were keen on pondering about the challenges and solutions,
quite many of them even unprompted. All of them had visions concerning the Extranet
community future development. Most of the ideas had quite much in common. Nonetheless,
there were also several unique ideas that usually reflected the position and the beliefs of the
person behind them.
Half of the interviewees seemed to have a positive and hopeful feeling towards online
communities, whereas the other half represented a cautiously curious or even a skeptic part.
The division was best observed during the question about aligning community to company
strategy. The positive first half responded with more concrete development plans, and thus
they also appeared to be better familiar with web trends in general. Moreover, the differences
in interviewees‟ awareness about the topic were discovered in a way they talked about
challenges. Although everyone pointed out uncertain issues, in four interviews people
concentrated mostly on sharing advice and solutions for community development. Their ideas
had quite much in common with the studied literature, which further indicates that they had
knowledge over the topic or at least a suitable mind set for community development.
The interviewees with greater awareness, in addition to one with positive outlook who claimed
to be unsure about solutions, also had very similar views on biggest challenges that complicate
company‟s online community building. In three other interviews, people recognized most of
these challenges, but displayed their unawareness by asking questions about overcoming
106
challenges and overall development instead of suggesting solutions. However, the remaining
two persons came up with remarkably less insights on development goals and challenges, not
to speak of solutions.
Proposed business goals and purposes
Online community related business goals and purposes were gathered among the answers that
explained the objectives and visions concerning Extranet, its role in relation to customer
communication and company strategy. The answers between these subjects included similar
themes regardless of the question. The following themes, or business goals, were noted to
recur in several responses:
1) Customer feedback
2) Indirect marketing
3) Crowd sourcing
4) Offering value to customers
Customer feedback was regarded as a valuable outcome of customer community by five
interviewees. The interviewees were interested especially on feedback about product
development, learning materials and license deliveries. The following quotation addresses
additional wishes concerning feedback:
„We would need comments on plans and validations for ideas. Extranet would serve this, if we were
actively involved in there.‟
Indirect marketing as Extranet community‟s purpose was noted in four interviews. Indirect
marketing refers to possibilities to increase customers‟ awareness of available solutions that are
suitable for their use. According to one interviewee, indirect marketing could happen in
following ways:
‟Show different use cases and best practices without „buy this with this price‟ direct marketing approach.
The subject should be introduced through different routes, for example in forum discussions, which
catches customer‟s interest.‟
Other interviewees‟ proposals regarding indirect marketing include sharing references,
recommendations and success stories related to the product offering. A few also supposed
that the recommendations and success stories gain more credibility in the eyes of customers if
they are told by their peers.
Crowd sourcing was not mentioned as such, but the term encloses five interviewees‟ wishes of
customers‟ and resellers‟ contribution via community. Their contribution was wanted on
107
discussion forum and in producing best practices material. This was regarded to be beneficial
for the company:
„Increasing sense of community and thus customers‟ willingness to help each other would cause less effort
and more benefit for us.‟
One interviewee stated that customers sharing experiences and advice to each other‟s
problems would result in faster responses and also lighten the supportive workload required
from company personnel. He also suggested that the customers could be asked and rewarded
for hunting down and reporting pirate versions of software.
Offering value to customers one way or another was mentioned as the purpose of Extranet in
many interviews. The following quotation crystallizes the importance and idea behind offering
value to customers:
„Extranet and the materials and discussions within should become so valuable that one cannot opt out
the maintenance.‟
Interviewees anticipated customers to benefit from the support that online community may
offer. The support was recognized both in technical and emotional nature. Technical support
aims helping customers to perform better in their work, which was mentioned by several
interviewees. Technical support is available in Extranet in forms of discussion forums, self
learning materials and databanks of frequently asked questions and the already mentioned
collection of best practices.
From emotional point of view, a few interviewees supposed that people appreciate belonging
to a group of another, living users of the same product. It was said to be encouraging them
and confirming that their investment was correct. Furthermore, the meaning of networking
was emphasized in many interviews. It was suggested not be done just alone with industry
partners, but also forming relationships and collaboration among customers should be enabled
and spurred.
In addition to community related goals, two business goals were identified that benefit of the
web platform that facilitates interaction and transactions. The first goal is Extranet facilitating
the operation of internal virtual teams and the second is Extranet being the primary sales
channel for existing customers. However, the realization of both goals lies ahead in the future,
because the present platform does not support well enough neither of the objectives.
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Current business challenges
A few challenges faced by business in general were acknowledged. They are reported here,
because they may have an influence on Extranet development. The most significant of these
business challenges is probably increasing maintenance sales to existing customers. The
customers should be offered value in exchange of their maintenance fees. Extranet‟s role in
that purpose is increasing, since offering more value through generating new features to
already multifunctional software is getting harder all the time. For the same reason, another
challenge is developing the consultancy and other services offering and sales.
Representatives of business segments pointed out challenges regarding diversity among
customer groups. Diversity of skills and knowledge occurs both between and inside segments‟
customers and resellers. Also, divergence concerning maturity and position of market has been
observed within the same groups as well. These challenges set their own requirements for
communications and materials directed to different customer and reseller groups through
Extranet.
Reported challenges in online community building
„Why do we do it, how do we do it and then comes resourcing.‟
The challenges acknowledged by most of the interviewees were unclear roles and
responsibilities and insufficient resourcing. Quite many answers also reflected influences that
community‟s unclear purpose and goals entail. Whether the absence of goals was mentioned
directly or unawareness of benefits and related measurements was discussed.
It was also speculated whether the customers would perceive enough value through Extranet.
As the greatest value for users would probably be informative content and interactions, their
maintenance was regarded both important and challenging. Stated reasons for that were that
maintaining online community is not company‟s core competence and it is considered as extra
work. Furthermore, the amount of interaction was seen influenced by language barriers and
the number of users, which a few suspected to remain too small because of restricted access.
Some of the content related problems, however, were caused by technology. Technical
problems concerning the search prevent users from finding relevant information, whereas
troubles in big file transfers complicate the work of content producers.
There were also a few challenges that were emphasized by different participant groups with
similar beliefs. The ones with greater awareness concentrated on challenges with community
management, internal organization and anticipated change in ways of working. They were also
concerned about the increasingly though competition of users‟ attention online. They
109
reminded that the community has to have something special to offer to stand out and attract
customers. On the contrary, the other half of respondents with less insight on community
development practices focused on the difficulty of Extranet use. They claimed that it is too
hard to access or its existence is hard to remember.
The online environment in general was characterized as being hard to control and changing
quickly. From strategic point of view, the difficulty of predicting changes was seen
challenging. It was also noted that changing online environment requires active following of
discussions and ability to react to changes immediately, which both call for resources.
However, two interviewees argued that online discussions are „dangerous‟ due to their
uncontrollability. First of them was worried about customers expressing their numerous
wishes concerning the product and that they all could not be answered positively. The other
was concerned about employees‟ expressing their opinions and how they could be
misinterpreted as official company statements.
Extranet‟s effect on brand image was also recognized. The association that Extranet gives
about the company brand and products was considered relevant. Many stated that there is a
room for improvement of the Extranet. The most commonly reported reason for that was
that the current Extranet suffers of some technical problems. Another mentioned deficiency
was that as a merely static site it does not meet the current web trends and thus fails to reclaim
the brand promise of innovativeness.
Evaluation of root challenges
The presumably most interesting challenges regarding the case, the root challenges, were taken
under closer examination during and after interviews. This chapter contains analysis evaluating
the situation around the root challenges based on observations and interviewees‟ answers.
However, the evaluation of unclear goals and purpose has been omitted, since Chapter 7.3.2
concerning business goals of community strives to offer a decent solution.
Lack of information
Observations concerning lack of community building information were confirmed in four
interviews where doubts concerning company personnel‟s competence online community
building were articulated. In addition to community building, the lack of online community
related information was divided in four other areas that findings suggested. These areas of
unawareness include the purpose of community, benefits, users‟ needs and use of Extranet in
general. All interviewees expressed uncertainty on one or more of these areas. Moreover, all
the mentioned areas, except the information on general use of Extranet, were earlier identified
110
with root cause analysis. Therefore, the lack of different types of information can be seen as a
real, and probably the biggest challenge of case company‟s online community building.
Culture and beliefs
Better awareness on online communities appeared to be directly proportional with cultural
circumstances according to interview results. The suitability of cultural conditions for online
community was assessed by interviewees‟ perceived openness and tendency to focus on users
instead of technology. It was also assumed that activity and interest in use of online tools and
communication were signs of a culture that supports maintaining an online community.
As described in context of interview observations, half of the interviewees represented clearly
greater awareness and higher hopes towards online communities. In contrast, the other half of
interviewed key persons embraced the thought of company online community development
with slightly lesser favor. Compared to the first half, they were more concerned about pitfalls
of communities and flaws of Extranet than recognizing their possibilities and benefits.
Although no-one regarded community building as an impossible or a bad idea, it can be
concluded that cultural change is required at some level in order for the company to succeed
in their online community building.
Importance and commitment
The importance of Extranet was questioned in eight interviews. The people who better
acknowledged the benefits of Extranet answered that it is not important enough. Two other
respondents said that it requires more attention in the future and that it is just one important
thing among others. In remaining two interviews people admitted that they do not regard
Extranet very important. One of them descriptively stated that their efforts devoted for
Extranet were managed with „one finger of left hand‟. The received answers correspond to the
current situation and earlier analysis results very well. Hence, the lack of importance and
manager‟s commitment to Extranet has proven to be an existing challenge.
Interaction with customers
„Extranet has always been one-way communication channel. It should be changed.‟
In addition to adapting two-way communication, the current challenge with Extranet
interactions appears to be that most area offices and resellers do not much utilize it as their
communication channel. It was speculated, that areas and resellers do not recognize Extranet
as their own since it has been set up by people at headquarters. The situation is problematic,
because areas and resellers are regarded responsible for majority of customer communications.
Conversely, the personnel at headquarters are not that accustomed with direct customer
communication. The role of headquarters is rather to provide strategy and targets and also
111
some supporting material for area offices and resellers. Nevertheless, a few people from
headquarters engage in communication with customers and even travel every now and then to
meet their key account customers face-to-face.
Interviews also revealed some regional differences in communication habits, for example
French tend to call whereas Japanese prefer e-mail instead of Extranet discussions. However,
nor people or their habits should be solely blamed on the lack of interaction. The current
Extranet platform simply does not offer possibilities to interact, except the discussion board.
Thus, planning and enhancing different means of interaction should be taken into account in
Extranet‟s further development.
Unclear roles and responsibilities
The question about the responsibility of the Extranet community management and
development turned out to be hard to answer. All respondents acknowledged the problem of
unclear roles and responsibilities, except one who glossed over the question. Many noted that
the confusion of ownership is a consequence of that Extranet belongs a little to everybody.
They also suspected that a common responsibility of its management does not work.
However, it was supposed that the current organization structure and decision-making models
are unfit concerning the community management. This further complicates designing and
implementing changes in daily work of employees participating in community, which was also
seen as a great challenge.
The following two quotations indicate the difficulty of situation:
„The organization tends to act spontaneously and responsibilities are unclear, for example in the case of
Extranet. However, we are dealing now with that huge entity that the spontaneity of single people is not
enough.‟
„This [situation] calls for consideration, and it is probably a common perception in any company that
existing typical organization structures are not prepared for this type of action [online community
building]. Another structure should be created, but then the question arises: what it is.‟
Besides the lack of community building information and competence, clarifying company‟s
internal roles and responsibilities regarding the community seems to be crucial.
112
Suggested solutions for clarifying responsibilities
Only one person answered the question about Extranet development responsibility exactly
and without hesitation. His answer was the following:
„I think it is a collaboration of marketing and services. A couple of reasons: there‟s messaging, imaging,
branding – marketing is responsible for these. The quality of content should be guided by services.
Services are responsible for training and solving people‟s problems, they should be responsible for that
kind of supporting content.‟
He also had an opinion on who should set business goals:
„Now it would be segment management along with functional managers like marketing management.
Services management, but I don‟t think that there‟s an official position now. They have to establish
what is important for each product line, messaging and servicing customers. More functional goals, they
should not be set from too high.‟
Others who had views on who should be setting community business goals and making big
community related decisions followed similar thoughts. The responsibility on these issues was
suggested to be on management group of Building and construction business area. The role of
marketing unit was also seen significant, especially in implementation, because of community‟s
effect on brand.
The technology and content development was proposed to be coordinated and prioritized by
web team. A few presumed that easy solution for coordination would be one full time worker
overlooking and pushing the content producers. However, one interviewee considered that
neither one person nor just one team can build a whole community alone. Many shared the
view that community activities, i.e. content production and interaction, should involve nearly
everyone in customer interface. Especially people at area offices should be activated, since
they are responsible of customer relationships in the end. Yet again, the competence of
participants was highlighted:
„We need people who have competence on online environment and expert content in the frontline so that
community development can happen.‟
The design of new roles and allocation of tasks was assumed to happen more easily if it were
backed up with a list of community related actions. The required actions, however, should
become clearer once the purposes of the community have been set.
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Interviewees’ advice on community development
Even though the interviews did not include questions on general advice on community
building, quite many of the answers happened to include such advices and hints. This chapter
presents pieces of advices and requests for information collected among interview answers.
The topics that are covered are closely connected to the found challenges: goals and purposes,
importance and commitment, user needs, measurements, content, internal trainings and
guidance.
Interviewees agreed that clear goals and targets are vital for community. The goals and
purposes would guide constructing a roadmap or strategy for community development, which
was regarded as the key. In addition, it was pointed out that developing online community
should be integrated to other business objectives, or even to products.
The importance and commitment of managers was seen to increase once the top executives
clearly state that they want the community to be built. However, it was discovered that only
the willpower is not enough, since a decent resourcing is needed as well. Furthermore, the
significance of clear business goals was mentioned in the context of improving commitment:
„Once the goals are set, it has been shown what can be achieved and that this really is important and
what our customers want, then we can prioritize this high.‟
The commitment was assumed to increase if benefits achieved by community and threats
caused by not building it would be examined more closely and elucidated to decision makers.
It was also regarded that the decision makers would need explanations on following subjects:
„What we have, what we could have and what is in between that we can actually pull off.‟
Customer needs were considered to play a remarkable role in guiding the community
development. Thus, it was proposed that needs should be collected from customers all over
the world, and also from area office personnel. Interviewees also expressed their interest
towards different measurements describing the activity and ways of Extranet use. They wished
to know the amount of registered users, how many of them have visited Extranet only once
and how many daily visitors there are. One interviewee regarded that not only the statistics of
user count indicate the success of community. In addition, he asked to follow and analyze
discussions, activities and atmosphere.
A popular advice concerning the content of Extranet was that it should be kept dynamic. It
demands that new content is actively added and outdated material removed. Moreover, the
content should be placed and structured so that the users are able to spot the interesting
114
things easily. It was advised that Extranet in general should be developed so that it is done
well and carefully piece by piece, especially if the resources are scarce. In the same sense, an
idea of encouraging the forming of smaller interest groups instead of developing one huge
community was uttered.
Several interviewees stressed that Extranet is easy to forget, because there is nothing that
reminds of it. As a solution for that, automated notifications of updates were suggested. It was
also mentioned that Extranet should be advertised more to customers, and also to employees
and resellers. Furthermore, the meaning of internal training on how to use Extranet and
behave in social media was emphasized. It was reminded, that one function of Extranet is to
serve a communication channel to areas and resellers, and that it should be utilized more for
that purpose. Activating area and reseller personnel participation in Extranet was considered
important, and it would also reduce the challenge of resourcing.
115
APPENDIX 4: COMPARISON OF IDENTIFIED USER NEEDS
User needs
Online community prerequisites
Customers' needs
Employees' ideas
(Literature)
(Earlier research)
(Earlier research, interviews and online survey)
Fulfilling the needs of users
- Exchange information
Get information
- Learning materials
Success stories
- News
Best practices
- Blogs (type of content?)
Interesting front page
- Knowledge data base
- Hints and tips
- Support
24/7 Online support
Consultancy
Share information
Wiki
Download files (product, extensions, etc.)
- More material to download
- Entertainment
Competitions, quizzes, prices
- Sociability*
Interaction with other users
- Discussion forum
-- Friendly relationships
Subgroups
-- Need to be accepted and
Ratings
recognized
-- Identification of users
Networking
User accounts with history data
User profiles
Introductions of Teklans
-- Trust
-- Behavioral norms
-- Social support
Online technology
- Usability*
Better search
Alerts of updates
Content
Technical feature
* Sociability combines interaction and social needs. Usability is added to the list as a required feature of online technologies. Both
sociability and usability are foundational community building elements according to Preece (2000).
116
APPENDIX 5: PERCEIVED CHALLENGES FROM INTERVIEWS
ORGANIZATION
Importance / commitment
Unclear roles & responsibilities
* Decision-making, community management
* Organizing
* Change in daily tasks
Resources
* Reactivity
Own community building competence
Not enough community build. Information
Culture
* Ways of working (communication)
* Openness (O)
Too much focus on technology
STRATEGY
Unclear purpose & goals
Not known benefits
No measurements
Standing out
Community not integrated to other business
USERS
Unclear user needs
* Customer cannot perceive the value
* No critical mass
POOR CONTENT & USABILITY
Content is not updated frequently (dynamic content)
Front page not interesting
Finding information
Difficult to access / remember Extra
LACK OF INTERACTION
Interaction with customers
* User engagement / activation
Communication with areas (and resellers)
Language barriers
TECHNOLOGY
Technical problems (big file transfers 2)
Earlier severity classification:
Major
Medium
Possible
New (found in interviews)
Presumed root challenge
8
8
3
4
3
6
1
4
5
1
2
2
3
4
4
4
3
2
2
4
3
5+6
4
1
2
5
5+3
4
4
3
2
3
117
APPENDIX 6: DRAFT OF REQUIRED ROLES AND TASKS