Almost one in three organisations have an enterprise web 2.0 or departmental web 2.0 deployment in place according to a survey conducted by Open Text at last month’s Records Management Association of Australia (RMAA) 26th International Convention.

Another 9 per cent of survey participants are in the process of deployment while 13 per cent are currently considering how best to implement an enterprise web 2.0 solution. Only seven per cent of respondents have decided against deploying the technology in the foreseeable future.

The results support separate research recently conducted by independent IT industry analyst firm, Hydrasight which found that almost one third of organisations have adopted enterprise web 2.0 solutions and that use of the technology is on the rise throughout the Asia Pacific region.

The Open Text survey notes that organisations have high hopes for enterprise web 2.0 with 44 per cent believing that the technology is a “must have” at some point while a further 29 per cent consider it as something that would be “nice to have”. Only 1 per cent feel that enterprise web 2.0 is “more hype than reality”.

The major benefits that organisations are seeking from their enterprise web 2.0 applications focus on social aspects of the technology including improved knowledge sharing within the organisation (nominated by 80 per cent of participants) and the creation of communities between employees, suppliers, customers and/or business partners (80 per cent). Secondary advantages include traditional business aims such as improved decision making and employee productivity, improved employee record keeping and compliance practices, and the social benefit of enhanced connectedness among employees.

The three biggest barriers to enterprise web 2.0 adoption are: concerns relating to organisational culture change (52 per cent), the need for executive sponsorship (35 per cent) and lack of a business case (30 per cent).

Graham Pullen, Vice President Asia Pacific, Open Text, a leader in enterprise content management said, “It's clear that organisations understand there are benefits to be obtained from enterprise web 2.0 and that a great many are now pursuing such solutions at both enterprise and departmental levels. As these deployments mature the benefits of their applications will become more tangible, delivering quantifiable results that resolve the business case. Once this occurs you can expect to see greater executive sponsorship starting to flow.”

When it comes to actual deployment of web 2.0 applications most organisations (67 per cent) believe that improved employee productivity and decision making are important or very important factors. These considerations were closely followed by cost and value for money, ease of integration with other tools, applications or environments, and compliance to the organisation's existing technology architecture.