We're announcing the first set of winners of the Forrester Groundswell Awards -- the management division winners, with applications aimed at employees. These awards are being announced today at the Forrester Content & Collaboration Forum in Boston. Congratulations to the winners and finalists -- with 205 entries this year, being selected for one of these awards is a real accomplishment.

Collaboration System (Management)

Finalists

An Agenda For Social Sales by IBM
Alcoa Fastening Systems by Alcoa

Winner: Collaboration (Management)

Deloitte Australia Yammer Network by Yammer

The Australian affiliate of Deloitte, the global services company, deployed Yammer in 2008 with no plans for mass adoption. But usage rapidly exploded, spreading to 5,000 of the company's staff and 12 national offices. Yammer users have lower staff turnover (2% vs. company average 15-20%) and Deloitte says Yammer has reduced costs, broken down silos, and accelerated innovation. It also builds culture, improves connections for mobile workers, and makes it easier to leverage knowledge and expertise.

Employee Mobile Application (Management)

Winner: Mobile (Management)

Enabling Medtronics’ Global Sales Force with Mobile Content by Fishbowl Solutions

Medtronic's Mobile Content Management System enables sales reps to download collateral and other material into folders on their iPads. As a result, sales reps can quickly call up the latest videos, presentations, and PDFs when visiting customers. The result is one-on-one conversations that are as much about continuing education as they are about selling medical devices. Over 2,500 users use the system over 11 global regions, and business units have rolled it out independent of the company's IT department. Sales reps can now travel to meetings with just their iPads and share product information quickly and accurately.

Innovation System (Management)

Winner: Innovation (Management)

Innovation @ HCL: The Value Portal by HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies is a $6 billion global IT services company. All HCL employees have access to the Value Portal, a platform for innovation and collaboration. Successful innovations that the system surfaces are then showcased within the system to all the other employees. The key factor leading to the success of the system was management's encouragement of rank and file employees to contribute ideas. Employees using the Value Portal have generated 7,312 ideas so far, of which 860 have been implemented.