IDC on Enterprise 2.0

Bill Ives points to two IDC papers on Enterprise 2.0. They’re funded by Serendipity, a software company, but anyway, it’s interesting stuff, if only because IDC papers get wide circulation and have credibility.

One is called “Getting Results by Empowering the Information Worker: What Web 2.0 Offers Beyond Blogs and Wikis” and is basically a brief and nicely laid out executive summary … you’ve got to register, but the papers are free.

Here’s the introduction for a start:

Like a symphony conductor presiding over an orchestra, enterprise workers complete their daily tasks by processing many pieces of diverse information, and then combining them in a meaningful way. This “orchestration of data” is becoming increasingly difficult, as organizations store more and more data (for performance analysis, compliance, and so on). Furthermore, each type of data is stored, managed, and viewed through a different application, each with its own login, password, and user interface. Consequently, employees spend more time searching, accessing, retrieving, and then using the information to do their jobs. New applications purport to streamline this process, but are usually deployed in business silos, with little or no coordination between business teams. Workers must still access multiple applications to complete a task. The burden on the enterprise information worker intensifies while productivity suffers.

Furthermore, information workers also rely on information stored outside the enterprise network. As business processes become more dependent on real-time feedback, the amalgamation of enterprise business data with publicly available data, in a meaningful and contextual manner, is becoming m ore im portant… and difficult.

Adoption Success Factors

More on the marketing side of enterprise 2.0, this is interesting:

[…] enterprise software vendors [should] focus on ease of adoption, instantaneous value and a minimum IT footprint

[…]

[…] vendors need to make it easy for users to get started and provide real value to the customer before she is required to pay. The user experience should be personalized and contextualized and the product should spread through the enterprise organically, via user recommendation, rather than by management edict.

But unless Francois I don’t think that most Enterprise 2.0 tools will remain confined to geek-heavy groups, and this for good reason, as (again) McAfee holds:

these tools will be competitive differentiators, [not just] levelers

Collaboration Trends

This is interesting, pointing out a study and benchmark on how enterprises are supporting their virtual workforce (e.g. by shared workspaces for collaboration (real-time- and non-real time applications), some early results:

– 90% of enterprises consider themselves “virtual”, that is, they operate organizations in which team members work in separate geographic locations.
– Revenue growth and boosting employee productivity were the biggest drivers for collaboration projects.
– Demand for collaboration applications is primarily end-user driven.
– Enterprises are moving toward unifying their planning for collaboration and convergence.

and

The bottom line for enterprises and those wishing to sell into the enterprise market is that enterprises seem to understand the opportunity that collaborative applications present to improve their operations, and the demand is pull-based rather than push-based.

Lotus Connections – Some Initial Thoughts

Luis Suarez promises to offer some insights and reflections into Lotus Connections, i.e. Dogear, Roller, Profiles etc.

Looking forward to it, Luis.

And yes, it’s interesting to see whether IBM will offer this as a packaged, integrated solution or if they will push this via the consulting guys? Technology issues are important, but the real groundwork must be done in implementation (and change management).

It’s the people that are missing …

… in many discussions around the tools and methods of Enterprise 2.0, Social Software in the Enterprise or whatever you name it.

Especially intranet discussions are too often charaterized by a portal focus – or may I say obsession. When technology is our starting point, it’s no wonder that we care more for corporate memory, information management and systems, than actual users.

The people factor deserves more consideration, unless Enterprise 2.0 (or … you get the point) will fail again, much like technology focused KM efforts of old have.

Shifting mindsets from technology to people is hard, yet it’s essential, because it’s the creativity and motivation of people that drive innovation and knowledge usage – and they deserve to be supported.

Enterprise social software supports and builds upon connectivity and adaptivity (and lays out the groundwork for emergence), and thus leverages the complex systems nature of organizations to their advantage.

Hierarchien und Netzwerke

Michael Schuster von System One im Interview mit Mario Sixtus aka “der elektrische Reporter”, der Videocast ist hier.

Wer seine Freizeit in den Weiten des Web mit all seinen neuen, kollaborativen Tools und sozialen Netzen verbringt, seine Brötchen hingegen in einem mittleren oder großen Unternehmen verdient, erlebt jeden Tag erneut einen Kulturschock.

Statt leichtgewichtiger, moderner Web-Technologien, herrschen in Unternehmensnetzen nach wie vor Gigabyteschwere, umständliche Anwendungen, von denen kaum jemand weiß, wie man sie bedient oder warum sie überhaupt angeschafft wurden.

Mehr dazu im Handelsblatt:

Das Internet hat sein disruptives Potenzial bislang nur in Ansätzen gezeigt. „Diese Veränderungen werden nicht vor Unternehmen Halt machen“ […] die fortschreitende Vernetzung [wird] unser aller Denken beeinflussen. […] Das Denken und Handeln in strengen, quasimilitärischen Strukturen entspräche nicht unserer Natur und sei der Funktionsweise des Denkapparates entgegengerichtet.