Editor's Note: Interested in Web 2.0 and the Enterprise, then you cannot miss ebizQ's upcoming Enterprise 2.0 virtual conference on Wednesday, July 23. Sign up here!
What follows is my podcast with Rob Koplowitz, Principal Analyst of Forrester Research, where he leads Forrester's Research in the areas of basic content management, instant messaging, blogs, and Wikis as they relate to the enterprise. In this podcast we discuss Web 2.0 and the future of the enterprise, basically providing an introduction to ebizQ's upcoming virtual conference, Enterprise 2.0, where Rob will be a keynote speaker.
Listen to or download the 5:57 minute podcast below:
First off, what type of companies are experiencing the most success with Web 2.0 applications?
Well, there's a couple of different profiles, Peter. Number one would be certainly smaller organizations that didn't have a big investment in collaboration technology in the past that have picked these tools up and started using them very aggressively and they've seen some great case studies there. But oddly enough, the other group that is actually showing a great deal of success are organizations that are highly regulated, and highly secure, and they really have an interest in a path of getting there.
They start off with risk mitigation. They start off looking at patterns where people are starting to use these applications out on the open internet and they need to think about shutting them down but they very quickly realize that's not a good idea, people are getting business value from them. So they looked to providing sanctioned alternatives and they very quickly come to the conclusion that these are anything but toys.
There's business value to be gained from these, that these drive organization efficiency. And more importantly, they drive some really important cultural changes that change the profile of these organizations pretty dramatically so they see the value very quickly. They start off with risk mitigation but they very quickly see the business value in these tools.
Interesting. Now, what are some of the best practices that allow companies to have their Web 2.0 applications be widely accepted and useful and also, what practices should be avoided?
Well, I would certainly say that the "If you build it they will come" mentality can be problematic. You do need to have a great deal of critical mass around these tools in order for them to really gain their maximum value. But with that, there are firms that are providing a great deal of prescriptive guidance in the use of these tools.
And some of them are taking it down to the level of very specific business processes, and business scenarios where certain types of key planning processes, certain types of content are being generated using these tools. And what they're finding is they're simply more efficient tools for handling certain types of business tasks.
But beyond that, once this starts to gain momentum, you start to see some social networking effects take place and that can be very, very powerful towards moving the value of these tools forward in some very interesting ways that can drive some organizational changes that are certainly not caused by the tools but the tools can lower the friction around some of these organizational changes.
When you start to see some interesting hierarchies develop where some of the folks who are your go-to-folks for creating ideas, and the go-to-folks for providing value start to get turned on their head a little bit, and we start to see new voices emerge, and new patters of communication emerge, and that's really when the power is tapped into.
I'm sure a lot of companies will still hear Web 2.0 and think it's all about their employees IMing their friends, or updating their Facebook, and pretty much although just slacking off. That's not really the right way to look at it though, correct?
Well, I certainly haven't seen that pattern. I mean, number one; it's not necessarily fair to say that a little bit of social interaction among employees is a bad thing; it actually can be a very good thing. But the patterns that I'm seeing emerging around these tools are really focused on the business value that they add.
There is a tremendous magnification of the value your employees when that community broadens across organizational boundaries and across geographic boundaries. And a community is involved in solving a business problem or driving a business process as opposed to an individual.
So I think there's some initial fear at the beginning as there was with instant messaging, for example, that folks will get off task quickly and not be getting their jobs done but that's really not how people work. People want to get their jobs done; they want to be effective in their jobs. And to the extent that these tools allow them to be more effective and the [0:04:08] is really quite significant. Folks use the tools wisely.
Great. And I just want everyone listening to note that this is just a prelude to ebizQ's Virtual Conference coming up on July 23rd, Enterprise 2.0. Rob will be a keynote and make sure you sign up for his event here. And if you have any questions, please do ask so Rob can address those questions at the conference.
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