The full presentation has already been made public so let’s just discuss here the main conclusions.  They can be structured around three questions we will approach step by step in the coming weeks:

-    What’s the state of development of Enterprise 2.0 projects in Belgium?  And do they have a clear future?
-    Do contemporary companies adopt some expected organizational characteristics of a typical Enterprise 2.0 firm – and to what extent?
-    Does the success of Enterprise 2.0 projects depend on a company’s organizational profile… and if well, on which dimensions of this profile?

Present and future of Enterprise 2.0 projects in Belgium

85 % of the respondents (mainly top & middle management, IT and marketing representatives) actually launched at least one Enterprise 2.0 project within their company.  Amongst them, 63 % are quite (49 %) to very (14 %) satisfied about it.

I would say this is a quite enthusiastic though a bit delusional result.  After all, still 15 % of the respondents have never been concerned at all by any Enterprise 2.0 project, whatever it was about deploying an online collaboration platform, launching a blog or a wiki or even starting to develop their online communication through e.g. public social networks or microblogs.  And if 63 % are satisfied, what about the other 37 %?

Actually, only 12 % of them claim to be quite dissatisfied about their launched projects, which represents a small part of the population.  More intriguing, 25% just do not have a clear opinion on that (“I don’t know”)!  I think this illustrates the persistent difficulty for companies to make a proper evaluation of such qualitative projects, mainly because they lack the appropriate tools, methods and – maybe also – mindset to do so (1).

By the way, when being asked about the budget they allocated to their projects, 2/3 either just do not know or say they did not have a specific budget for that.  Are such projects still a pure intrapreneurship issue?!  Or does it just show us that they are not always managed as « real » projects (that is with clear strategic guidelines, budget, deadlines, ad hoc project management methodologies etc.)?

Nearly 70 % of those who invested at least some K€ consider about half of it was spent in change management (vs. purchase of licenses etc.).  This result could be considered as a « good news » for a consulting company like ours :-), but more seriously it illustrates the fact that implementing tools – even if of a good quality – is just not enough to turn an Enterprise 2.0 project into a real business trigger (in terms of productivity, efficiency, innovation or employee and/or customer satisfaction) (2).

Another interesting result: launching an Enterprise 2.0 project could be seen as the best incentive to deploy other ones (3).  Hereunder table shows us indeed that people who already started a project are more inclined to foresee new projects in the coming year than those who did not start any project yet.  This is particularly true for collaborative spaces (“à la SharePoint”) and public social networks, but also for enterprise networking platforms, microblogs and – to a smaller extent – more “traditional” tools like blogs and wikis.

But in the same time, we also note that those respondents more than the experienced ones consider they will have a budget for that, whatever the kind of project it is about.  Public social networks and collaborative spaces are then the most probable budgetable projects.

In conclusion, we think these results give a quite good idea of how Enterprise 2.0 tools are making their way in contemporary Belgian organizations (in the private as well as in the public sector), although we should be honest and recognize our respondents may be quite “Enterprise 2.0 minded” (4).

Many of them (but not all) already started a project and are satisfied about it – which is good news, but still some issues deserve to be addressed deeper like the evaluation of such projects, their anchor in the line of business of the company and the strategic vision they rely on.

(1) This single point (measuring Enterprise 2.0 projects both qualitatively and quantitatively) would deserve a specific blog post as we have thoughts about that for some time.
(2) This last point will be even clearer when we’ll share our thoughts on the importance of organizational readiness to reach success (to be followed in our next blog post!).
(3) We should have a closer (qualitative) look at these results to evaluate if this is due to an existing mid- or long-term corporate strategy or just an emerging incentive based on the interest gained from previous projects.
(4) As illustrated by the roles of the respondents within their organization, generally more concerned with digital projects (IT, marketing, management…).  For example, only 1,3 % of them were HR representatives.

Ci-dessous, le discours de conclusion par Roald Sieberath, filmé par Philippe Back.

… et la présentation de Xavier.

Early Stage wordt K Company

Het e-business consultancy kantoor EARLY STAGE verandert van naam en wordt K Company. Dit ten gevolge van een investering door De Cronos Groep. De gevolgen zijn talrijk en zeer positief.

De groei van Early Stage

Sinds 2008 is Early Stage actief op het gebied van e-business, webstrategie, Enterprise 2.0 en e-governement heeft nu een kapitaalsinjectie aanvaard van De Cronos Groep, incubator met een eigenzinnig ondernemingsmodel en één van de belangrijkste ICT-actoren in Vlaanderen. Deze combinatie geeft aan Early Stage de mogelijkheid om een grote vooruitgang te boeken in zijn natuurlijke groei en het geeft Cronos de strategische expertise en een vlottere toegang tot het Franstalig landsgedeelte waardoor het een hoofdrolspeler kan worden in het digitale landschap van België. Het is uit deze symbiose dat “K Company” wordt geboren.

De overgang naar K Company

Dankzij deze investering en de synergieën die hierdoor gecreëerd worden kan K Company nu diensten aanbieden aan haar klanten die de doorgedreven strategische aanpak van Early Stage wensen te combineren met de uitgebreide technische knowhow van De Cronos Groep. K Company zal zich dan ook als een uniek merk positioneren op de Belgische markt waarbij de “digital business”-diensten van Cronos onder één naam zullen aangeboden worden. Door deze integratie kan K Company een geconsolideerde balans voorleggen van 15 miljoen Euro en telt het meer dan 120 experts in zijn rangen. Bovendien zorgt het gecombineerde uitgebreide netwerk ervoor dat K Company het hele Belgische landsgedeelte zonder problemen kan bedienen. “Cronos en Early Stage waren zowieso vaak aanwezig op dezelfde accounts maar met verschillende diensten die echter wel perfect op elkaar aansloten. Door samen te gaan zijn wij nu in staat om onze slagkracht te vermenigvuldigen, zowel bij bestaande als bij nieuwe klanten” bevestigt Bart Van Den Kieboom, Managing Partner van K Company.

Een uitgebreide dienstverlening

De positionering van K Company  omschrijft zich het best als een dienstverlening met hoge toegevoegde waarde voor grote accounts en publieke instellingen. Het dienstenpakket omhelst dan ook de volledige waaier van diensten die noodzakelijk zijn bij technologische integraties die ondersteund worden door een duidelijke strategische visie. “Wij waren gespecialiseerd in de eerste fases van digitale projecten zoals strategie, analyse en support, maar nu kunnen wij ook rekenen op een grote capaciteit aan experts en informaticaspecialisten op vrijwel alle technologische gebieden” stelt Laurent Kinet, Managing Partner van K Company. Hierdoor kan het bedrijf volledige e-business oplossingen aanbieden (portals, collaboration platforms, e-commerce, sociale bedrijfsnetwerken, enz.), e-marketing oplossingen (mobile web, interactieve televisie, sociale media) en ook CRM-oplossingen, telkens weer bekeken vanuit een strategische hoek waarbij we het geheel integreren in het economische, operationele en menselijke ecosysteem van onze klanten.

Le cabinet de conseil en e-business EARLY STAGE devient K Company suite à une prise de participation du groupe Cronos au capital de la société. Les impacts sont positifs et nombreux.

La croissance d’Early Stage

Active depuis 2008 dans les domaines de l’e-business, la stratégie web, l’Entreprise 2.0 et l’e-gouvernement, la société Early Stage vient d’ouvrir son capital au groupe flamand Cronos, important acteur technologique au nord du pays. Ce mariage offre à Early Stage l’opportunité de franchir un grand bond dans sa croissance, et fournit à Cronos l’expertise stratégique et l’extension nationale nécessaires à la constitution d’un acteur majeur dans le paysage digital belge. C’est ainsi que nait la société anonyme « K Company ».

La transformation en K Company

Grâce à cet investissement et aux synergies générées par ce rapprochement, K Company peut désormais proposer à ses clients une offre de services combinant l’approche stratégique qui fut au cœur des activités d’Early Stage et les larges compétences techniques disponibles au sein du groupe Cronos. K Company apporte au marché une marque intégrée en commercialisant les services de Cronos sous une bannière unique. Cette intégration permet à K Company d’afficher un revenu consolidé de plus de 15 millions d’euros et de compter 120 experts dans ses rangs. Par ailleurs, les réseaux de contacts combinés permettent à la nouvelle structure d’atteindre une clientèle élargie sur l’ensemble du territoire belge. « Cronos et Early Stage étaient souvent présents au sein des mêmes comptes, et la complémentarité des approches nous permet maintenant de multiplier notre force de frappe », affirme Bart Van Den Kieboom, Managing Partner de K Company.

Une offre de services étendue

Le positionnement de K Company s’inscrit dans le service à haute valeur ajoutée offert aux grands comptes et aux institutions. Son offre de services s’étend désormais à l’ensemble des prestations d’intégration technologique, supportées par l’approche stratégique qui a fait son succès initial. « Nous étions spécialisés dans les premières phases des projets digitaux : stratégie, analyse, support. Nous pouvons maintenant compter sur la compétence d’un vaste vivier d’experts et d’ingénieurs en développement informatique, sur pratiquement toutes les technologies disponibles sur le marché », affirme Laurent Kinet, Managing Partner de K Company. La société fournit désormais des solutions complètes en e-business (portails d’entreprise, plateformes collaboratives, e-commerce, réseau social d’entreprise), en e-marketing (web, mobile, télévision interactive, médias sociaux), et en CRM, chacune étant abordée sous l’angle stratégique, en intégrant ces solutions dans l’écosystème économique, opérationnel et humain de ses clients.

Serge Fontinoy was also interviewed by Gil Durand, journalist at Le Soir, on the daily trends in the days preceding June 13.

You can see the pictures here :
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Just for the fun : some pictures of the team in front of the castle :

Since March 31, Early Stage is quartered in the Nagelmackers Castle, in a large open-space on the first floor. The Castle is located in Angleur, in the neighbourhood of Liège. We are the first company to settle in this prestigious monument. The Région Wallonne acquired it 4 years ago and invested tons of dollars to renovate it and restore its ancient atmosphere, while injecting some pieces of modernity, such as aluminium shutters or concrete stairways. As a result, the whole site is a pleasant place to work in, and we were seduced by the relationships we saw between that environment and the style we wanted to give to our consulting activity, made of both silent cerebral work and noisy brainstorm sessions.

The RTBF devoted a small reportage on the Castle (in French).

Our installation in Nagelmackers will be celebrated by a cocktail reception we organise on May 6. If you’d like to be invited to the party, just give us a call.

The 5 paradigms are:

1. The landscape of visibility has evolved
2. Individuals act as human neurons
3. Enabling plasticity enhances the information ecosystem
4. Communication takes more than a web page
5. Time has become a key dimension of content dynamics

Today we’ll discuss about the first paradigm: Time has become a key dimension of content dynamics.

Of course, the notion of a dynamic website dates back to the early days when web development moved beyond static websites. Still, the influence of time on the web has radically changed in the past couple of years, and needs to be taken into account in a new way.

Real-time web is different than the web

Like physics behaves differently when taken at ‘nano’ level, similarly, web communication offers different characteristics when taken real time. Because it lowers the effort needed to share, or to comment on content, microblogging can appeal to a larger share of the public. Tools such as Twitter allow content (tweets) to be shared instantaneously, even on the go (see e.g. the Iranian uprising, where Twitter was just about the only news source). This very important trend has now been picked up in business tools such as SocialText Signals, Jive SBS, etc.

Spreading of links; rise of trends

We have seen in previous sections the importance of the link, and of the ‘impulse’, the transmission from one ‘human neuron’ to another. Search engines monitor and index these tweets and links, and can detect trends (sometimes also called ‘memes’ ; see Tweetmeme, MicroPlaza,…)

We’re always interested in discussing those trends and pragmatic applications for businesses and institutions. If you’d like to share ideas or submit challenges, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.

// Approach

Early Stage used a strong methodological approach to systematically:

• clarify the main guidelines & fundamental orientations of the websites (centralization of information, openness & transparency, multimedia integration…)
• identify the targets (end-users) and analyze their needs & constraints
• define the key features aimed at boosting the websites’ attractivity
• propose a first user-centric information architecture

All this was achieved by means of focus groups & workshops, individual interviews, deep documentation analysis… and of course a lot of braistorming within the team as well as personal reflections!

// Challenges

Our mission for the International Press Center covered – at least! – three challenges:

1. Professionality

Because the main targets of the websites are professional actors (journalists, spokesmen, Europe’s civil agents…), our main challenge was to give the websites a real feeling of what we call « professionality » – the art of maintaining a professional appearance and attitude while projecting a tremendous amount of personality.

It is of course of huge importance for both the end-users and the International Press Center & the Belgian Government that clear, precise and official information & services be provided on the websites.

2. Citizenship

Another important challenge was to improve Belgian and other European citizen’s engagement towards public life & institutions.

Achievement of that was made (1) by providing « rich » (through the use of multimedia contents, e.g.) and accessible information, and (2) by affording appealing and useful tools (cf. widgets like tag cloud, Twitter block, polls, quizzes…) and services (« My Press Center », e.g.) to visitors.

On top of that, a huge work on user experience issues was done by means of benchmarkings and qualitative user testing.

3. Technology

A last – but not least – challenge of the project was a technological one.  The open source Drupal platform was chosen as an underlying layer for developing and maintaining generic and website-specific modules & features as well as for providing the content editors a rich and easy-to-use end-user interface.

When you know that Drupal – a Belgian product – is used as the White House’s website underlying platform, you have a good feeling it can help achieving professionality & citizenship challenges..

As a matter of fact, eGovernment & Government 2.0 projects definitely embrace key aspects of our daily life such as vision, values, emotion, creativity, innovation and democracy.  And this is why cutting-edge projects like this one make us proud to just do what we do!