It’s time for the enterprise to exploit the technology behind the social media boom - Why Web 2.0 Matters To Your Business

by Tim Sharpe, Director, A&W Ltd

Email: tim.sharpe@argentwaugh.co.uk
Twitter: @timjsharpe

In 2010, Facebook continued its exponential growth, racing past 500 million users. It only launched in late 2006, yet every month 700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook (ref1). In July 2010, Twitter (also launched in 2006) passed 190 million users and LinkedIn shot past 90 million users, with 4 million in the UK alone. The traffic to social networking sites like these is huge – in fact, 7% of business web activity is to Facebook (ref2). Their market domination makes them great examples of what has become known as ‘Web 2.0’ in action.

Web 2.0 is technically nothing new – the term denotes a move from static, broadcast web sites (brochureware) to interactive, social web applications. It’s impact though, is vital as it changes how we work and organise ourselves through personalisation; networks of people working together; reduced reliance on hierarchies and increased organisational agility. Mark Zuckerberg, controversial creator of Facebook, describes it as ‘elegant organisation’ – we’ve always shared photos, sent updates and discussed embarrassing moments but it’s so easy to do, everyone’s doing much more of it.

Understandably, a lack of credible corporate Web 2.0 solutions means that industry is behind the personal computing curve. The personalisation, network benefits, efficiency and agility of our home lives hasn’t yet made it to the office or plant. Yet now that credible solutions are beginning to appear the evidence is that they bring real business benefit. McKinsey’s Quarterly Review (ref3) describes how the technology has “found its payday”, using the term “networked enterprises” for organisations that adopt Web 2.0 technology, noting amongst other statistics that;

“...27% reported having both market share gains against their competitors and higher profit margins... Highly networked enterprises were 50 percent more likely to fall in this high-performance group than other organizations were.”
 
As Web 2.0 has now matured it’s time for corporates to assess its benefits. Whilst IT services have to retain crucial governance and compliance responsibilities, these technologies allow business users to own data distribution, networks of users and business processes. Focused internally these capabilities produce great returns – 30% of companies report increased speed of access to knowledge or experts, while 20% report decreasing travel costs, increased employee satisfaction and reduced time to market for products/services.

If internal networking is powerful, the step change is to be found in combining both external and internal networking; using technology to build closer relationships with the supply chain, peers or partner organisations. Such organisations are in the top 3%, seeing greater benefits for employees, customers and partners.

With mature technology and proven business benefit there are compelling reasons to move to a networked enterprise model, which is why organisations like SABIC Petrochemicals UK have chosen to work with A&W Ltd to develop and implement their information integration and collaboration platform, Sabisu.co.

Thanks to SABIC Petrochemicals UK for their assistance with this article.

References:
Ref1: Facebook Statistics
 http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

Ref2: Facebook, YouTube Dominate Web Traffic at Businesses
http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Social-Networking/Facebook-YouTube-Dominate-Web-Traffic-at-Businesses.html

Ref3: The Rise of the Networked Enterprise: Web 2.0 Finds Its Payday click here

About A&W
A&W Ltd is a technology company building the Sabisu information integration and collaboration platform for enterprise services.