Many companies are already using an Enterprise Social Network (ESN) and have a clear idea on the business value ESN´s can bring to the workplace. Organizations considering to implement an ESN may need to run a Proof of Concept or a Pilot to get insight in its business value.

The most typical reasons to run a pilot include:

• No prior experience with ESN
• Top management not convinced of ESN business value
• Decide the purchase of a specific ESN software
• Get Key Users on-board first to spread adoption later

Therefore, doing a pilot looks like a good idea in many situations. Unfortunately we have seen many pilots fail. Not because of the software value, but because of a lack of strategy to run and evaluate them.

This guide is intended to help our customers go through this process in a smooth way, with a clear strategy and evident results.

This whitepaper includes the following sections:

1. Define your pilot project

• Define your business purposes
• Turn them into valuable use cases
• Choose the pilot users
• Define evaluation indicators
• Set the right period for the evaluation

2. General recommendations

• Make it real, not a mere play
• Avoid Analysis Paralysis
• Include Top Management

3.  Appendix with frequent use cases examples.