Enterprise 2.0: An evolution in social networking
Enterprise 2.0: An evolution in social networking
Month Date, 2007: 2008 is inching closer and aside from the usual predictions for the New Year, one idea seems certain for lift off. Enter Enterprise 2.0, a change that could see business respond to the fundamentals of human nature – interaction.
The consumer space is an ideal hunting ground for identifying the trends of interaction gaining momentum in a globalised environment. Facebook is a good start, where 2007 has seen massive take-up rates of impacting workplaces across the country.
So while some organisations are working on their strategy to control their end-users and the social networks they maintain, particularly around what might be considered ‘unproductive’ time spend on sites like Facebook, other organisations are finding ways to embrace the phenomenon.
Social Darwinism
According to Ross Dawson chairman of the Future Exploration Network, tools developed in the ‘open web,’ a phrase he uses to describe how consumers are creating and participating in their own time online, is increasingly being seen as adding value to an organisation. “Often it’s senior executives who have seen their children using at home, and realising they could be of value to their workplace,” he says.
There are many terms in the making to describe the increasing uptake of ‘open web’ style tools in the enterprise. However one term appears to be the shinning light amongst all of them in putting a business status symbol on a 2.0 cliché. That term is ‘Enterprise 2.0.’
According to Dawson, the terms covers tools many of us are accustomed to in our everyday lives including RSS feeds, wikis, blogs, tagging, social search, virtual worlds and social networking. “Many organisations are already experimenting with the basics like wikis or blogs but for most, it’s still early days in terms of understanding the best approach to using them,” he says.
Virtual Darwinism
Not many of us in Australia have entered Second Life for the purposes of work, but it’s becoming more common overseas. “Australia is certainly lagging behind their peers in the US and other European companies, where it’s beginning to get a critical mass of interest,” says Dawson.
Some local organisations however, are leading the way. De BorToli Wines located in inland NSW have established their own unique mashups, where they’re combining geographical data with wine harvesting information and maps to create insights into vineyards and assist with sales and marketing. Meanwhile larger organisations like NAB, Westpac and AMP are using blogs internally, and wikis for the basis of developing what they’re doing and collaboration.
“This is part of the whole shift to Enterprise 2.0,” says Dawson. “Instead of making users dependant on IT functions, they need to be more and more able to create the tools they need in the ways they need to use them.”
Facebook Darwinism
Back in an organisation where IT departments are dealing with a sudden increase in bandwidth coping with the Facebook addicts, Dawson believes organisations have four choices for dealing with the phenomenon. “You can ignore it, you can ban it outright, you can block it during officer hours or you can actually encourage it. Tell users it’s a useful tool, to make sure they have a profile and actually use it,” he says.
Globally, and across a number of different datelines, Deloitte has implemented a platform they’re calling DStreet where a social network of 55,000 people exists within the boundaries of their organisations.
Meanwhile closer to home, Yellow Pages New Zealand is also gearing up to launch their own Facebook style platform. According to Karl Wright, CIO of Yellow Pages, half the organisation’s bandwidth goes to sites like Bebo, Facebook and Ebay anyway so it makes sense to apply some controls.
“If you don’t give users what they want they will go out and find it in another way,” says Wright. “There is a self moderation of this stuff. If you ban it, they’ll do it in other ways, or all the sudden everyone needs a PDA! That’s just transferring the cost – the best answer is to take control of it.”
Yellow Pages NZ is currently looking at what Wright describes as a ‘Facebook style HR portal’ where individuals have landing pages and control their own content. “The aim is to get people to collaborate and communicate with each other in a more natural way,” he says.
According to Graham Pullen, Asia Pacific general manager for Vignette, the impact of Web 2.0 or tools in the ‘open web’ as Dawson refers to it, has already hit Vignette customers. “They’re asking us how to deal with it,” he says. “The communications we keep are what defines us as people and our customers are asking how they can make the Web more social and personal.”
Local Australian start-up and provider of modelling software, Holocentric sees Web 2.0 tools as the essence of human collaboration. “One challenge is that we all hold different perspectives on how things should be run, the biggest thing is to get people on the same pages,” says John Forrest CEO of Holocentric. “This is particularly true in complex environments where you’re dealing with technical workers, knowledge workers and senior managers.”
Forrest believes this style of collaboration could benefit anything from ‘mainframe’ guys working together with ‘java guys’ to senior executives debating how and where they want to take a business.
The idea of modelling, according to Forrest, is bring a structured approach into interactions occurring on more ‘traditional’ Web 2.0 platforms like wikis and blogs. “The benefit of the model structure is that it creates a better structure underneath and a link to what’s going on,” he says.
“I’ve heard people talk about Web 2.0 as talk-back radio, it’s nice to have a voice but somehow you need to channel all that,” says Forrest.
Survival of the fittest
Forrest points to the failed NSW government Tcard as an example of where modelling could minimise risks. The now dumped, $60 million project was complex by nature given the large amount of stakeholders involved, Forrest maintains that modelling would have provided a structure to this collaboration and the ability to audit the trail of progression.
“Projects like Tcard do not fail overnight. There are an iterative number of things that break,” says Forrest. “When a project like this is effectively modelled, you have much better transparency. You are continuously recalibrating.”
According to Ovum’s IT research director in Australia/NZ Dr Steve Hodgkinson, Enterprise 2.0 tools will hit the enterprise by net-savy employees whether the CIO likes it or not.
But dangers are lurking, particularly around the obvious, network penetration. Identity management alongside accidental data disclosure as well as archiving and retention difficulties are just some of the obvious problems that could eventuate from increased Enterprise 2.0 take-up. Realistically, Enterprise 2.0 is not a platform for every organisation just yet. Some may find the risks too weighty to warrant the increased collaboration benefits, but as more organisations go down a process of trial and error, these protective enterprises may soon cave in.
Others would argue Enterprise 2.0 technologies can grow an organisation by pushing the ‘innovation without permission,’ ideal. With many IT innovators often dealing with the ‘long-tail’ of IT, particularly around governance, disaster recovery and consolidations, innovations can quickly be left behind.
Any tool that can aid in innovation will help. If it’s cheap and as risk free as possible, it will also encourage IT users to simply ‘innovate’ without needing to ask, therefore creating and sharing useful business applications that may previously have been thought impossible.
Rene Bonvanie global head of marketing at Serena Software, speaks fondly about the ‘innovation without permission’ phenomenon. “In the Web everything is easy to get to, but in business everything is hard and difficult to get to. 2.0 is about doing it yourself, not needing to outsource anything,” he says. “In the past we had to be ‘web masters’ now you can just post it yourself and it’s easy”
Encouraged by easy to use APIs, mashups, and simple to negotiate platforms on social networking sites, Bonvanie says people are building applications in their millions. “They don’t ask permission to build yet they’re highly successful – why can’t you do the same thing in business?”
Meanwhile Australian wiki firm Atlassian has recently struck a deal with Microsoft, which may well see Enterprise 2.0 tools applied to SharePOint. The announcement proves that Microsoft is keen to ensure the phenomenon does not leave it behind, a message which other IT based organisations may soon look to adopt.