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The Bank of Nova Scotia, earlier this week, launched a new social networking initiative to enable its staff worldwide to interact and collaborate via Web 2.0 tools such as blogs and wikis.

The system, based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is the first of its kind in Canadian financial community, according to a Microsoft release.

It is being pilot tested with some 800 members of Scotiabank's International Banking Division in Toronto.

An additional 2,000 employees will eventually be given access to the network before implementation across the company's global offices, said Mark Richardson, director of business innovations at Scotiabank.

Bank employees involved inthe program are being encouraged to create Internet user profiles, set up online communities, write blogs, and build wikis using SharePoint's collaborative tools.

"We are targeting a 72 per cent participation rate," said Richardson.

Traditionally, Richardson said, Scotiabank employees communicated through journals, posted correspondences, phone and e-mail.

These channels had some certain shortcomings that hindered effective knowledge sharing and collaboration, he said.

For instance, he said, because communication was mainly on a one-to-one basis, it was very difficult for personnel to get a sense of which key experts are available in the enterprise in a certain area.

Also, as staff did not have a corporate view of the network, data duplication in the knowledge pool was not uncommon.

With the use of a social network, Richardson says Scotiabank employees looking for information can simply visit a specific forum or wiki to get the data they need to carry out their duties or improve current processes.

"Best practices used in an office in another country can more easily be noticed and probably adopted in another location. A worker in need of expert advice, can more easily identity and reach the ideal person even if that individual is thousands of miles away."

Such access to information via Web 2.0 technologies also came in very handy when developers implemented Open Text's Livelink enterprise content management system at the Bank of Montreal (BMO) last year.

Jeff Brown, an analyst who oversaw the rollout said he found plenty of useful material for the implementation through discussions groups, wikis and downloadable Webinars available at Open Text Online (OTO).

OTO is Open Text's online customer community, where more than 9,000 members participate in online discussions, post blogs and Webinars to keep one another appraised of developments in their fields of interests.

Web 2.0-based social networks do not have a strong adoption rate among banks but are becoming more popular among smaller financial brokerages, according to Tim Hickernell, senior analyst for Info-Tech Research Group based in London, Ont.

"More and more small brokerages are finding out that social networks are effective in targeting clients and generating positive word-of-mouth referrals," he said

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