Social Web 2.0 has hit a critical mass and the interest has become this huge tidal wave. It's impact has spread beyond the under 25 crowd to include all demographics. So much so, that it has become an embedded part of our lives where the distinction between our online lives and our offline lives has become blurred. An often sited example is that when you find something in your attic – traditionally would sell it at a yard/garage sale – today the first inclination is to “sell it on eBay”.
Naturally with Web 2.0 having such a strong impact socially, it's starting to make its way into the enterprise. More and more employees are using consumer tools (such as cell phones and iPods) and personal applications (like Facebook and AOL for IM) as a way to communicate and collaborate with colleagues. The lines between employee and user/consumer are blurring and thus the "user/consumer as the employee" is born - driving the future direction of enterprise IT. Blogs and wiki's are another example of Web 2.0 tools making their way into the enterprise in a rogue fashion, unsanctioned by the line of business or IT. My personal experience has been that there are too many rules and layers of bureaucracy to create a formal corporate blog/wiki. It so much easier to go to a free, web-based service outside the firewall.
This brings us to Enterprise Web 2.0 Lesson #1: Enterprise Web 2.0 is going to happen - with or without IT.
In fact, these rogue activities are not limited to individual knowledge workers. Entire teams and lines of business are acquiring Web 2.0-based tools without IT involvement. According to an article by CIO Insight which cited Forrester Research findings, 25% of non-IT executives directly select tech tools on their own. The reasons are simple: i) IT is often mired in major projects and don't have the bandwidth; ii) business process outsourcing; iii) availability of software as a service (SaaS). The third point is the one I find most interesting (often referred to as the "No CIO needed" model). For example, a VP of Sales wants to implement better sales cadence tools for forecasting and reporting. He/She could go through formal processes of requesting IT to research, put out an RFP and implement a solution over a number of months or years. Or, he/she could look to a SaaS provider like Salesforce.com to provide access to a hosted, web-based service that could be up and running in a matter of days. It shows up as an operational expense vs. a capital investment and and could simply be a line item on an AMEX card.
IT (led by the CIO/CTO) has two options as me move into the era of the user-driven enterprise: 1) Try to pull back control - which will inevitably lead to a standoff between departments and IT-Business leadership which is counterproductive and will more than likely lead to the ousting of a CIO. 2) Anticipate business needs - get ahead of the curve and take solutions to the business users proactively, talk to the users and find out what tools they need to be successful.
As I stated earlier, Web 2.0 is making its way into the enterprise with or without IT. The winds of change are blowing in IT - just like when voice over IP (VoIP) was first introduced. But as we've seen with VoIP, if IT embraces the opportunity, Web 2.0 can drive business transformation, making IT a strategic organization and solidify the CIO's place in the board room.
Next blog we'll talk about some of the management fears about adopting Web 2.0 in the enterprise and what you can do to mitigate those fears while showing measurable returns for the business.
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