Today, Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) announced two Business-To-Employee Forrester Groundswell Award winners for excellence in effective use of social media to advance an organizational or business goal. The winners were announced in conjunction with Forrester’s Forum For Technology Management Leaders in Orlando, Florida. The eighth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards support and recognize the principles outlined in the Forrester books Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies (Harvard Business Press, 2008) and Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business (Harvard Business Review Press, 2010)

“Once again, we received many outstanding examples of how companies are empowering employees with social business programs,” said Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst Ted Schadler. “The entries in both categories this year highlight a growing sophistication in how companies are applying these technologies to transform their operations. The 2014 winners successfully engage their workforce with social and collaboration technologies to solve customer and business problems.”

Winners of the Forrester Groundswell Awards were chosen across a range of categories based on Forrester’s Marketing RaDaR research, and they represent the strategic goals that Forrester advises organizations to consider when using social media to interact with their customers. A detailed overview of each winning entry, along with the finalists in each category, is available on the Forrester Groundswell Awards website.

This year, there were more than 100 Forrester Groundswell Award entries. The awards announced today represent the top entries in the Business-to-Employee (B2E) division.

Here are the winners of the 2014 Forrester Groundswell Awards:

Business-To-Employee (B2E) Division:

  • Employee Collaboration: Atos Journey to Collaboration by Atos and blueKiwi Software

  • Employee Empowerment: Tech Zone — A Social Knowledge Management Environment for Engineers by Cisco and Lithium

Forrester’s Forum For Technology Management Leaders 2014

At Forrester’s Forum For Technology Management Leaders in Orlando, Florida, technology management leaders received practical advice for positioning their firms as thriving digital businesses that embrace change as a matter of routine. The Forum served technology management executives in a variety of professional roles, including Application Development & Delivery Professionals, CIOs, Enterprise Architecture Professionals, Infrastructure & Operations Professionals, Security & Risk Professionals, and Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals.