Robert Jaques

There is more than a slight hint of old wine in new bottles about the hype surrounding web 2.0 technology. And the nagging scepticism is hardly surprising as firms of all sizes have long been successfully using IT systems such as email, shared documents and instant messaging to improve collaboration and communication among staff members.

Given that these technologies are now well proven, why should firms need to resort to anything as exotic as a wiki (a collection of web pages that enables anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, says the ultimate wiki, Wikipedia), or as apparently puerile as a social networking site? It is argued in more conservative corporate circles that this new-fangled social networking fad should remain the preserve of Facebooking and Twittering teenagers.

Plausible though this view may seem, companies risk missing potentially valuable productivity and efficiency by avoiding these technologies. A study from Forrester Research argues that web 2.0 technologies represent a “fundamentally new way” for firms to connect with customers and prospects, and harness the collaborative power of employees. Such is the scale of potential benefits that Forrester Research estimates corporate spending on web 2.0 technologies will surge over the next five years, growing 43% each year to reach $4.6bn globally by 2013.

It is worth taking a step back and seeing how the term web 2.0 was originally defined. The expression was coined by open source technology advocate Tim O’Reilly in 2004 and placed firmly in the corporate domain by his describing it as “a business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.”

At its core, web 2.0 is nothing more or less than a catch-all term describing web technology designed to boost collaboration among specific user groups. It doesn’t matter if these groups are the board members of a multinational or the Dagenham Girl Pipers. This collaboration can take a number of forms and be hosted on a number of web 2.0 platforms, including socialnetworking sites, wikis and blogs.

Reflecting the potential commercial value of these technologies, some of the biggest corporates have already plunged into the web 2.0 waters. Large enterprises such as General Motors, McDonald’s and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance have all made heavy use of web 2.0 tools, and 56% of North American and European enterprises consider web 2.0 to be a ‘priority’ in 2008, according to Forrester’s research.

These are the firms that have the vision to look beyond the consumer reputation of social software and have the strategic IT plans in place to harness the power of the technology, to support and improve collaboration. They realise the way staff interact via social software can be beneficial when it comes to undertaking non-routine work, or one-off projects undertaken by virtual teams put together from staff who traditionally work in different business divisions.

These companies represent the vanguard of the web 2.0 charge. But the majority have yet to venture into social networking. Many are unsure where to start or what business areas could benefit from deploying social software.

The question is, who pays for web 2.0 in the enterprise? IT departments are wary of what they perceive as insecure, consumer-grade technology. In addition, ad-supported web 2.0 tools on the consumer side have set the expectation that such software should be free. A further complication comes from the fact that web 2.0 technologies enter a crowded space dominated by legacy software investments. As a result, large businesses are spending more on web 2.0 technologies as employee collaboration tools than as customer-facing tools, but Forrester expects that trend to reverse by next year. By 2013, investment in customer-facing web 2.0 technology will “dwarf” spending on internal collab oration software by nearly a billion dollars, Forrester predicts.

Having said that, web 2.0 technologies are expected to effectively die out as standalone offerings in the short-term. The enterprise web 2.0 tools currently being touted will be subsumed by an inexorable tide of commoditisation until they are simply add-ons incorporated into mainstream collaboration suites. In Forrester’s view, web 2.0 will disappear into the fabric of the enterprise within five years, but not before it has left a major mark on the way businesses market their products and helped optimise collaboration among workers.

Whether they embrace it now or have it forced upon them, it is clear that even the most reticent and conservative companies cannot afford to ignore social networking. Put simply, if workers are not offered a secure, enterprise-class offering many will turn to consumer social software – with potentially serious implications for IT security.

So the advice to savvy firms is clear: whether you like it or not, social software is coming your way and cannot be ignored. While the bottles in which the technology is packaged may appear a trifle dusty, the smart thing to do is raise your glasses to the brave new(ish) world of web 2.0.