Social evolution of enterprise information systems: A first interpretive framework for benefits and risks

Abstract

What are Enterprise Information Systems going to be in the next 5 years? How are employees, customers, partners and suppliers going to interact within and throughout the company borders in the next future? Social software irruption in the EIS world is already a reality for CRM, SALES and HR modules, so can EIS really become “socio-professional” systems? Which is the value of embedding social functionalities into EIS systems? Which are the potential benefits and risks? These are just few of the numerous questions this research would like to answer about the changes that social software is leading to the business environment and information systems. In this perspective, this paper suggests a first interpretive framework in order to assess a systematic in-depth investigation.