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Business Adoption of Web 2.0 Tools Part 1

11 Jul 2007 @ 3:32 PM

What is Web 2.0 in Business?

We all think of MySpace and Flickr when we hear “Web 2.0” and, of course, these apps can be used in business but only on a limited basis. They don’t necessarily increase productivity, efficiency, or help considerably expand a company’s reach or scope. When Web 2.0 is truly embraced in business it facilitates collaboration, breaks down office doors, unifies a mobile workforce, and, most importantly, blows the walls off a business to expand its reach exponentially. More on that later, though, let’s take a look and how businesses are embracing Web 2.0.

Research

In studies released in the last six months by Forrester, and McKinsey we get a pretty clear picture of the current use of Web 2.0. Here’s a boiled down version of each study to give you the groundwork:

McKinsey:

In January 2007, McKinsey surveyed over 2800 C-level or higher executives to ask them about their companies’ investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

80% reported the current use of some kind of system that shared their data with their partners on an automated basis
48% claimed that they had some kind of collective intelligence tool in place to allow employees or customers to make collective decisions
47% utilized some kind of peer to peer file sharing
37% made use of some kind of social network
32% initialized blogs for internal or external communication
21% aggregated information by using mash-ups
78% claimed that web services were the Web 2.0 technology/tool most important to their business

It’s interesting that these companies labeled web sites as Web 2.0 tools. Perhaps their hesitancy comes from a lack of understanding of the difference between the web they’re used to and what new tools have to offer? Also, businesses who labeled themselves as late adopters were the least satisfied with the impact that their Web 2.0 technologies had on their companies.

Links about this report:

Forrester:

In a study of 119 CIOs of employees with over 500 employees released in March, Forrester found that businesses who are hesitant about integrating Web 2.0 technologies in their companies felt so because they were wary of the lack of polish that most of the technologies currently have. 61% of the CIOs said that if a major vendor such as Microsoft or IBM were to release a suite of products they would be more likely to use them. What’s most peculiar about these findings is that it was the CIOs whose companies were using the technologies who were most adamant that the tools would be better if they were offered by a bigger vendor. In addition, a large part of the companies using Web 2.0 tools cited a “snow ball” effect in their use. In other words, when they began using one tool they saw a clear need for another tool and began integrating it as well.