More organizations shift to Web 2.0 while IT departments remain wary
There’s an interesting post at ZDNet today about how many traditional companies are quickly adopting Web 2.0 concepts on their customer-facing web services, while at the same time, internal services aren’t utilizing these as quickly (if at all):
More organizations shift to Web 2.0 while IT departments remain wary by ZDNet’s Dion Hinchcliffe — A couple of recent announcements from two large, very well-known organizations provides some interesting data points on how Web 2.0 is affecting the product designs and business processes of otherwise very traditional institutions. Both USA Today and the U.S. Patent and Trademark office have recently unveiled strategies for letting their users use two-way Web capabilities to contribute directly to the products and services they offer. And many other mainstream companies, such as Pepsi as well as GM and XM Radio have been exploring externally-facing Web 2.0 concepts in their products for a while now.
Perhaps the biggest issue most IT departments have (and really, the managers who juggle worker productivity concerns), is the worry users will spend too much time contributing to these social services than otherwise being productive. “Thus, the best that Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications like blogs and wikis can do it increase the productivity of existing business processes by improving efficiency as well as allowing them to self-improve through emergent structure and behavior.”
I certainly believe that over the next year or two, we’ll start to see more social interactions built into otherwise tried-and-true services. Take, for instance, a CRM package (there’s a lot of them out there): an organization implementing one could easily realize benefits by implementing the right form of social interaction built into that CRM. Sales people across the country could share their thoughts and experiences with other members of their team, improving the overall effectiveness. But it has to be done right: a Wiki for sales people makes sense; a YouTube-like application probably wouldn’t.
It’ll be interesting to see what IT departments start picking up on in the coming years. Some additional reading:
Open Call From the Patent Office
Web 2.0 meets the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
A Web 2.0 Tour for the Enterprise
The social enterprise: When MySpace meets your HR department
