Freer access to social networks for employees of many global companies. This seems to be the path in which many companies are moving, no longer convinced, as before, that employees are more productive once social applications are blocked. On the other hand, today most telephone users, perhaps company employees, own a smartphone with which to access Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube (just to name the most used sites) whenever you wish.
This is confirmed by a survey carried out by Easynet Global Services and Ipanema Technologies which reveals how, compared to last year, the number of CIOs and IT managers who prohibit the use of Facebook within their companies has decreased by 15% compared to 2012 (26% in Italy), while YouTube blocking decreased by 17% (11% in our country).
“Social media offers great benefits for businesses,” said Thierry Grenot, vice president of Ipanema Technologies, “so IT leaders are easing the controls. But the challenge for IT departments now is to ensure that social media traffic is managed effectively and without impacting the performance of business-critical applications.” Because, Grenot explained, an explosion of employees accessing YouTube video content or sharing photos via Facebook can cause more traffic on corporate networks than they can support, and it remains necessary to prioritize the traffic of applications that are truly essential for user and company productivity.
On a global basis, it is evident that instances of social media blocking are most common in the US with 69% of enterprises restricting staff access to Facebook and 65% to YouTube. Compared to the average of the countries studied, US companies more frequently restrict access to all applications, except LinkedIn.
“It's a relief to see that there are fewer CIOs and IT leaders blocking access to social media sites,” said Lisa Myers, CEO of SEO & Social Media agency Verve Search. “It is also naive – he added – to think that employees are more productive once these applications are blocked, which are part of everyone's life in 2013. It is not a question of whether or not we can stop what is already happening, the only question is: do you want to be part of it or be a tiny pebble about to be swept away by a tide?”.
Christophe Verdenne, Easynet's managing director for Southern Europe, also argued: “Any productivity-enhancing application needs to be properly supported by the IT department. And social media is no exception. We are striving to provide maximum application visibility into our customers' networks so they can understand what is going on and take appropriate action to ensure full functionality of critical applications, even generating secondary traffic."
