10 facts you should know

Businesses have incumbent technology platforms, multiple data sources and many regulations and policies. Employees are drowning in a sea of information and are often unable to access the people and knowledge they need. Enterprise 2.0 is an evolutionary step forward releasing employees from the constraints and limitations of our legacy communication and productivity tools.

1 / Openness encourages participation

If people feel like they can make a difference, they will. The Enterprise 2.0 approach promotes open communications that encourage respect and participation, even across geographic and cultural boundaries. Access to knowledge empowers and motivates people to strive towards common goals together.

2 / Centrally captured knowledge

Enterprise 2.0 addresses ‘knowledge silos’ by enabling a common space for knowledge capture and sharing. Unlike information locked-up in email and discrete documents, this centrally captured knowledge is easier to find and use when people actually need it. It is more likely to be up to date, and it can be fully searched by all who have access.

3 / Generation Y will make or break your business

High calibre people are attracted to companies using cutting edge technology. This is particularly true for ‘Generation Y’ people (today’s 18–25 year olds) who already use Enterprise 2.0 technologies in their everyday lives and expect to be able to use them in the workplace too.

4 / Retirement of Baby Boomers

As with many things, it takes the passing of the older generation from executive status into retirement before a true shift can occur. Over the next three years, millions of baby boomers will retire and the younger workers brought in to fill the void will not only want, but will expect similar tools in the office as those they use at home in their personal lives.

5 / Greater efficiency. Less duplication

Enterprise 2.0 enables a diverse, distributed workforce to work together efficiently on projects. Information is more accessible, and subject-matter-experts can be found quickly. This avoids duplicated effort and saves time, leading to greater efficiency and improved productivity.

6 / Combination of existing (mash-up)

Enterprise 2.0 technologies are not really "new" technologies but more the combination of already existing ideas in a professional environment.

7 / An emerging market

The Enterprise 2.0 market (also known as the Social software market) is fully exploited by established firms but also by start-ups who are trying to position themselves in this new market. However, at this time, there is no real leader yet.

8 / A growing market

Forrester Research predicts in a recent report that enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies will reach $4.6 billion by the year 2013.

9 / External Spending Will Beat Internal Spending

External Web 2.0 expenditure will dwarf internal spending, by 2013, by a billion dollars. Internally, companies will spend money on internal social networking, blogs, wikis, and RSS; externally, the spending patterns will be very similar. Social networking tools that provide customer interaction, allowing customers the ability to create profiles, join discussion boards, and read company blogs, for example, will receive more investment and development over the next five years.

10 / Pass the gatekeepers of traditional IT

One of the main challenges of getting Web 2.0 into the enterprise will be getting past the gatekeepers of traditional I.T. Businesses have been showing interest in these new technologies, but, ironically, the interest comes from departments outside of I.T. Instead, it's the marketing department, R&D, and corporate communications pushing for the adoption of more Web 2.0-like tools.

"More than 2.0 for business"