Tuesday, December 15, 2009

What is Enterprise 2.0?

Just when you think the coining of Tech terms might have finally ebbed away, here comes another one! Enterprise 2.0. The question then is - What is Enterprise 2.0? As Andrew McAfee put it, it is "the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers". A better definition is from AIIM which defines it as "a system of web based technologies that provide rapid and agile collaboration, information sharing, emergence and integration capabilities in the extended enterprise". It involves utilizing collaborative, social media and networking, and productivity tools in a business setting.

Examples of Enterprise 2.0 tools are blogs, twitter, mini wikis, mashups. Some examples utilized in class were twitter, blogging, YouTube, Google Wave, aggregation tools such as - Yahoo Pipes - (I so miss Microsoft Popfly though.....)and iphone apps that we learned how to develop (some...).

While this field is still in the early stages of development and growth, some benefits of Enteprise 2.0 include:
  1. Employees have tools that enable the free flow of communication/information. This might in turn encourage participation and foster a creative environment where ideas that help boost productivity can be born.
  2. Greater knowledge capture and retention.
  3. Transparency of information.
  4. Better collaboration of information.
Cons
Social media tools e.g. blogs can be valuable when it comes to sharing knowledge, better agility and more fluid dissemination of information, but the issue then arises - how does an enterprise control access and dissemination of information, ensure information integrity, organize information gathered and realize any ROI with these tools?

Impact on ROI of these technological applications is another concern.

Another issue is that businesses are always continually in the process of adapting technologies as the technological landscape evolves. With that said, I believe it is safe to assume that businesses will organically evolve, progress, and adapt to technology as it changes and in ways that will add to their business value - social media platforms or otherwise. Which begs the question is Enterprise 2.0 a fad or a trend? The jury is out on this one and only time will tell if Enterprise 2.0 will be a 'one-hit wonder' or if it is here to stay.