Graebe and SAS's development team launched the pilot, which "accidentally went viral," she says. More than 1,400 signed up to use The Hub before it went on production. "It's bringing global expertise to each individual at SAS. What's not to love about that?" Graebe says. "Within five minutes of one question being asked in Europe, answers come in from places we wouldnt have been able to access via email: Europe, Latin America, Australia."

Sherrod says that one unexpected challenge they faced in the pilot that went viral was the demand for off-network participation, which they had not architected. "The install was initially intranet only with an on-premise appliance," he says. "Based on that change, we may have compared the hosted and on premise offerings a bit closer."

Once The Hub officially launched, SAS saw continued adoption and enterprisewide success. To date, the company has more than 8,500 users onboard, which is about 67 percent of their employees worldwide.

Unlike many other , SAS was successful by all measures. Here are five tips that Graebe, Lee and Sherrod say were key in promoting user adoption.

Lee says they met with executives within the first few days of launching The Hub to tell them about new tool. They hosted a town hall event to feature Socialcast and get the word out.