Using

Enterprise 2.0

to prepare or recovery

WHITEPAPER

2Using

Enterprise 2.0

to prepare or recovery

Executive Summary

The current circumstances and challenges are unparalleled in recent times. Changes in business cultu-re are accelerating to satisy the individual demands o customers, employees and collaborators.In recent years Web 2.0 technologies have acilitated individual participation in generating webcontent and reect a demand rom internet users and at the same time acting as a catalyst or urtherempowerment. Enterprise 2.0 covers the deployment o these technologies or collaboration andknowledge management within the organisation.Organisations that have already embraced Enterprise 2.0 fnd it contributes to many i not all areaso their business including; improved employee, customer and supplier relations; enhanced resourcemanagement and cost containment; marketing edge and perhaps most importantly innovation. The increasing value o knowledge amid capital devaluation highlights the need or a culture changeembracing the key business drivers o an organisation; their customers, markets and resources.Enterprise 2.0 can provide solutions to enhance the perormance o these key business areas, usingtools that can be easily tested and verifed or their Return on Investment.

“ This is what web2.0 means ”

Jessica Hagy

3Using

Enterprise 2.0

to prepare or recovery

Introduction

Recent advances in web based technologies have acilitatedeasy collaboration, sharing o inormation, communicationand integration o results. Initially these tools were broadlydefned as Web 2.0 driven by content generated and enri-ched by the users rather than by an inormation supplier. Al-though the social aspect o the Internet has been around ormany years as orums or message/list servers, Web 2.0 hasenabled collaborative sotware to evolve into an easy to useexperience or creating, tagging and sharing o data, media,comments and cross-reerences. These technologies applied within the enterprise are mostcommonly reerred to as Enterprise 2.0, encompassing thebenefcial aspects o people centric technology and exten-ding it into a business context. Its deployment benefts romthe skills and experience that many individuals have already acquired in using blogs, wikis and inor-mation sharing. At the same time Enterprise 2.0 acilitates a high degree o interconnection outsideo traditional hierarchies and signals not only a procedural change within the organisation but acultural one as well.In contrast to traditional Enterprise Sotware which supports procedures vital or primary businessprocesses, Enterprise 2.0 is exible and lends itsel to supporting unstructured and complex issuesby enabling individuals to collaborate according to the nature o the task, mirroring natural commu-nication patterns rather than that o a predefned structure. This paper will demonstrate the value o Enterprise 2.0 and how that value can be realised.

Background

The current economic environment is only one o several actors that are likely to impact uturebusiness and administrative practices. Climate change, the demographic time-bomb o an agingpopulation, and concerns over irreplaceable natural resources are all orcing markets to re-evaluateoptions or the uture.Despite the current disruption, it is technological innovation that has had most impact on personaland business cultures over the last 15 years including: GSM (mobile telephony), Internet, broadbandcommunications, and ecommerce to name but a ew. Undoubtedly ground breaking technologiesare already waiting to have their impact as soon as market conditions are avourable.Surviving the current market disruption will require strong management, quality resources and theexibility to operate in environments radically dierent to those previously encountered. Current cir-cumstances clearly distinguish themselves as being exceptional and so the responses or survival andrecovery need to be exceptional too. Just reducing capacity, costly sta, stock levels, or R&D spendmay contribute to short-term survival, but be crippling in the recovery.

“Peer-to-peer learning enabled by Web 2.0 technologies in anorganization can yield pheno- menal results such as reduced time to market, increased inno-vation, improved productivity, and engaged employees”