by Bill Ives
December 21, 2008 at 9:41 pm
· Filed under Enterprise 2.0
The Economist Intelligence Unit reported that Web 2.0 has moved from buzzword to reality in many of the world’s largest corporations. They conducted a survey of 406 senior executives worldwide and found that 79% of respondents see the collaborative web as a way to boost revenues and cut costs. They said that, ╥perhaps the most interesting finding is that a full 85% of C-suite executives see the sharing and collaboration aspects of Web 2.0 as an opportunity to increase revenue and/or margins, versus 75% of middle management. Nothing like having top down sponsorship delivered to a largely already convinced group of middle managers. This top down effect also extend to the view that Web 2.0 is transformative, affecting all parts of the business (35% versus 28%) and is making a significant impact on the company╒s business model (41% versus 22%). They asked good questions.
The top perceived potential for Web 2.0 was to transform the way that companies interact with their customers. Many of these study participants were part of large companies already using Web 2.0 tools and methods. The most cited use was the creation of online communities to help with product marketing or product development. Next was the use of blogs or wikis to initiate conversations and share knowledge inside or outside the company.
It seems that so far executives are more convinced of external uses of Web 2.0 than internal enterprise 2.0 efforts. The study found that 68% of executives expect Web 2.0 methods and tools to be the single biggest factor changing the ways their company interacts with customers. While 49% said these tools will change how employees interact with each other and the company. This is not surprising given the current usage patterns within the sample reported above and the broader awareness of Web 2.0 marketing efforts than enterprise 2.0 collaboration efforts.
Building on this nearly 60% of those surveyed said that their companies are asking customers to contribute their product development and/or enhancement, or that they plan to do so within the coming two years. In addition, about half of companies say they are, or are planning to, treat customers as co-developers of products that are in a constant state of improvement. The wisdom of crowds has caught on.
It is appropriate that I learned about this work through social media, Jacob Morgan’s blog post, Companies Believe Social Media Can Increase Revenue!. It was one of the three most popular for the week on Social Media Today.
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RussellDecember 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 am |
Great review of the report. One of the big questions for me is how the gap between the managers and the C-level is closed, as without the former’s support we may not see the full potential of 2.0. Any thoughts Bill, on if this really is an issue and if so, what might be done to reduce the gap and win over the middle managers?
Russell. Thanks for your comment. Middle manager support is essential for success. The middle managers were not too far behind the execs - 75% to 85%. I would more concerned if it was 45% to 85%. That said, hopefully peer pressure plus top down and bottom up surround for E 2.0 will help the final 25% to come around. Regardless of the current support, the E 2.0 implementations need to be targeted at real business issues to sustain the support. I wish we had this level of support in the early days of KM. Bill
I also suspect that, if put in useful and practical terms, many line managers will understand that a lot of Enterprise 2.0 dynamics are really more closely aligned with the way(s) people actually do things and get things done .. together.
IMO it’s always useful to remember that “teamwork” took about ten years to become a pervasive means of organizing and doing work. I suspect that interest and engagement with Enterprise 2.0 issues will accelerate and spread rapidly over the next two or three years.
Hi Bill,
Thanks a lot for linking to my post, I’m glad you found it valuable. I think in the future we are going to move closer to seeing social media or web 2.0 as a standard medium that companies will engage in. the challenge a lot of executives and companies are having is understanding exactly how social media can benefit them and where it can add value. however, simply being able to hear what your customers are saying about you and being able to engage with them is already quite powerful.
It’s great that we are seeing several large companies make use of social media but I think we still have quite a long way to go. There are many great examples and case studies out there that support social media in the enterprise.
thanks again for the link Bill,
Jacob
Hey, Bill,
The study you are commenting on was sponsored by FAST and published in April, 2007. It was also the subject of a joint keynote by Jeannette Borzo with commentary by Andy McAfee at the FASTforward event in February 2007, as well as the topic of a well-attended special lunch session at that event. Many FASTforward blog contributors were major participants in that discussion. The report is available on the FAST site and was the subject of multiple posts here around the time of publication.
I’m glad it can still draw crowds (as at Social Media Today), but it’s probably time to re-do the data!
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NaraDecember 22nd, 2008 at 9:49 pm |
Bill, it’s definitely interesting to see Execs gravitating toward Social media. At Appirio, we think this is something companies are going to figure out in 2009, not only in terms of connecting better with customers but also in terms of better leveraging employee networks. Whether this takes the form of social networks informing sales/leads (InsideView) or employees using their social graphs for better referrals, the possibilities are endless.
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DariaDecember 23rd, 2008 at 9:16 am |
I guess, that the “Web 2.0″ term is just familiar to more people, than the “Enterprise 2.0″ term. Then the Web 2.0 tools are generally free, there are more examples of their successful use. That’s why corporations are more open to blogs and wikis. Besides, people inside of a company already know how to use these tools and even use them in their personal activities. Enterprise 2.0 systems are more sophisticated, they will need more time to penetrate into companies. But on the other hand, these systems also offer more benefits than generic tools like blogs. It’s a good thing though that more and more companies are turning to Enterprise 2.0. I’m sure many experts will say that the economic downturn helps a great deal.
Thanks to all of the above commenters for adding to the discussion. I could not find anything I disagree with. i think the social media will become commonplace in the workplace as the phone and email. It is only a matter of time. As Hadley said, it is time to redo the data and I would predict the numbers are even more positive. Bill
It’s been nearly 3 months since the last post and I still believe that social media will have only a limited impact on business. While it will grow in use and popularity, business will continue to see social networking as an avoidable inefficiency and potential nightmare to police. IT and HR certainly don’t want to police it. For those reasons, I would not expect it to magically appear on every CSR’s desktop in the next three five years.
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