Business Week Mentions the Conference

This week, Karen Klein’s Smart Answers column in Business Week has a mention and a link for our upcoming Blog Business Summit conference and a lead-off quote from yours truly.

In the article, I was quoted as saying that even the best workflow software can be clunky and difficult to work with. Klein (who has no relation to me) did not misquote me, but I would like to qualify what I said with a bit of information that has since come my way.

I’ve been reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and loving every minute of it. In his chapter on outsourcing and India, he talks about how workflow software has paved the way for these great interactions between American businesses and the folks on the other side of the world who are handling outsourced sections of their workflow.

In one example, Friedman explains the process by which small and midsize accounting firms in the United States outsource the preparation of tax returns to India while protecting clients against identity theft. Many of them use a proprietary, custom-built workflow system that seamlessly secures the needed documents, strips them of identifying information, and gives the workers in India the necessary tools to prepare the return–all in one screen.

Workflow software is the absolute ideal way to conduct this particular piece of communication. An internal blog could not come close to the level of sophistication required to keep these kinds of transactions secure. Nor would it provide the workers with the necessary tools to complete their task. I would never recommend an internal blog to these folks, it just wouldn’t make sense.

Internal blogs are more useful than workflow software in situations where coworkers who are collaborating together on a project need to share ideas, edit documents and have conversations. They could use e-mail, but that often descends into a frustrating morass–as I pointed out to Ms. Klein. They could use a workflow “solution” like Celoxis–which in my experience is clunky and frustrating. Or they could use an internal blog.

Of the three, the internal blog is the most flexible. It also offers an RSS feed, which allows all team members to be instantly notified anytime something is updated. And the robust content management system on which all blogs are based provides for easy categorization and cross-referencing of information.

That’s what I meant when I told Karen Klein that blogs are the best software for internal communications. I should have added, “in most instances.”