Screenshot of the I'm On Discussion

Detect the hidden value in the organization: a crowd-sourcing exercise in the banking Operations and ICT environment

Exploring web 2.0 opportunities seemed an unavoidable choice for UniCredit’s Group Operations & ICT Factories Business Unit, which is pioneering Enterprise 2.0 tools within the European banking giant. The Business Unit, whose perimeter includes over 12,000 people in 7 countries providing back-office and ICT services for UniCredit, was the first one to use UniCredit’s internal social networking platform OneNet.

In an ever-changing world enterprises cannot afford running the risk of not being innovative. Detect the hidden value in the organization and leverage on it is the only way to survive competition. In this perspective web 2.0 tools are essential to generate new ideas, facilitate and reinforce networking, share knowledge, accelerate and ease internal processes. OneNet’s pilot project involving the above BU was launched in July 2010 and has since succeeded in introducing a horizontal peer-to-peer communication approach, enabling all levels of the organization to become visible and discuss topics in an immediate, non-hierarchical and simple way.

OneNet is based on two core environments: My Site and the Communities. My Site is the personal profile of each employee, who can introduce him/herself, add information on his/her skills (in the “Ask me about” section), which in the Operations & ICT environment often go well beyond one's daily job, particularly in countries like Romania, where UniCredit has established part of its back-office activities and the average employee is a well-educated 25-year-old digital native. This site enables users to connect to their colleagues by “following” them. 

To address this wide audience, encourage discussion and go beyond a top-down communication approach, the BU’s Top Management has opened blogs and organized forums and discussions.

The most notable example of the use of OneNet to generate and discuss new ideas, as well as share best practices and foster networking was a two-day crowd-sourcing exercise (“I’m On” discussion) which took place on September 13 and 14, 2010. The whole population of the Group ICT & Operations Business Unit, i.e. 12,300 colleagues from 7 countries, was invited to join the discussion. People were asked to come up with ideas concerning two topics, namely how to improve customer relations and increase employees’ engagement. On-line discussions were held simultaneously in three languages to involve as many colleagues as possible (Italian, English and German) and were moderated by a team of 20 multilingual users. 171 topics were created, and 63 were selected as “hot topics”.

The discussions generated 1,510 exchange of opinions and led to the identification of several easily implementable actions which were classified in 6 categories. The whole population was then encouraged to vote their favorite action in each category. The best voted idea in the customer relations folder was a customer-centric training proposal for new hires, while under the employees’ engagement point of view the choice fell on an action to highlight the application of UniCredit’s Integrity Charter values in everyday activities.