See You in 2008 - The Enterprise in 2008

First of all I want to wish you all a Happy Holidays. I hope you are enjoying this time with family and friends, as well as, taking the time to relax and recharge the batteries. I know I will be. Since we've launched this blog, we've been covering so much across industries, vendors, and service providers it's tough to gauge what will come next in 2008. Much of what we've shared recently suggests a new wave in 2008, as organizations begin to fully invest not only financially, but in human capital, bringing new skills to the forefront to help maximize the use of such technology.

We're excited to continue to cover everything that will be happening in 2008, and we'll be sharing new plans and events in the new year. Stay tuned, and have a Happy and Safe New Year's, we'll see you back on the blog early next year!

Collaboration: The software is important, but not the most important part

So, we’ve seen the discussion of how important collaboration is when it comes to an enterprise fully adapting to 2.0 mode. So what is the most important part we are leaving out? I think we commonly overlook the people that allow the collaboration to happen. In James Robertson’s newest paper he highlights why the people are important.

First off, Robertson points out that a corporation should not give the tools to collaborate to everyone in the corporation. Why? This is because everyone will not understand how to use them. The tools should be given to those who already collaborate on a regular basis. These employees who do not will see the benefits of collaboration and slowly adapt the tools. Only once these individuals have learned to use these tools, their success will spread across the enterprise and the process and software will be more likely to be adapted throughout the corporation.

For collaboration tools to be used, the opportunity must present itself to the employees. Managers should be able to identify the need to collaborate and then give the opportunities to the employees. Collaboration can happen both in divisions and cross divisions. The collaboration must also fit in the right place in the company culture. After these two things are in place, then the collaboration software set up to provide the most benefit.

According to Robertson, the third step to full collaboration is social networking. Since the tools are in place with collaborating, the next step is allowing employees to network with each other. Robertson believes the most important part to this is allowing experts to be identified and that their contacts are highlighted within the social network.

IT Dept, Please Remove That Barrier!

The primary concern of the IT dept should be to aid employees in being more productive and also to help them do their jobs more efficiently, it shouldn’t be to create obstacles for them. IT managers are so concerned with safety that they restrict essential Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise such as RSS feeds and social networking, just to name a few. Oscar Berg shares his annoyance with the IT dept in his latest post. Oscar mentions a few things that provoke his “allergic reactions” to barriers in the enterprise. Here are some of the things:

• Not allowing employees to buy or download and install software on their computers
• Not allowing employees to set their own browser home page or not allowing multiple home pages in pages that support multiple tabs
• Not allowing browser plug-ins such as Flash
• Restricting access to information resources by default instead of only restricting access when it is really needed and having as default to let employees access information resources
• Not allowing instant messaging
• Not allowing external RSS feeds (simply because they are seen as something alien that the IT department cannot control)

These obstacles put on by the IT dept are crippling business strategy. After a long time of frustration, employees will start to seek ways to go around these restrictions, thus breaking some company rules. If IT pros want to avoid this conflict, then they must start to realize the value that Web 2.0 tools can bring to the enterprise.

Facebook moves one step closer

Yesterday, Facebook released its latest improvement, the ability to sort your friends into different categories. In its aspiration to become more usable by businesses, the new lists that you can sort friends in to can now be easily mass messaged, send invitations and a few other things.

ReadWrite Web analyzes the change in a recent post. They bring up the very important part of privacy yet again. Since Facebook was created for personal and private information, there may still be things on your page that you would prefer your coworkers and bosses didn’t know. I agree with ReadWrite Web that along with the groups, you should be able to tailor the information that each individual group is able to see. Maybe this will be Facebook’s next improvement. With each step the social networking site is taking, they are moving closer and closer into a world where people can network.

Quick Base’s New Software

We wrote a post earlier about how XM radio used Enterprise 2.0 to sync its many broadcasting locations so they could communicate more effectively. Bill Ives’ latest post he discusses more about the software that enabled XM to integrate Enterprise 2.0. Quick Base, that was responsible for that, has announced new software, Enterprise Edition. Their aim for releasing this software is:

“Striking a balance between the needs of both business users and senior management when utilizing online business applications.”

While, as with most Enterprise 2.0 software, IT staff may feel that they are loosing control of the IT functions. Quick Base has built in special tools to allow control of this product. It is a tool that is open ended, so it can be flexible for the needs of the company. It also allows IT to see all incoming and outgoing traffic, and who is accessing what data, no matter if they are in the enterprise or from the outside.

Features of this product are:
--Centralized policy administration screens
--LDAP integration
--IP address filtering
--Centralized user management

Bill Ives concludes his article with saying that it is the workers who will bring the concept of Enterprise 2.0 to the company, but it is the communication with the IT department that will allow full integration into the company.

Enterprise Ban on Social Networking: When Will it End?

In this previous post we mentioned to think twice before deploying a social networking platform in your enterprise. The truth of the matter is that half of all businesses that use filters like Barracuda block sites like Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. This latest article on ZdNet summarizes an organization’s main concerns in adopting a social networking strategy.

1. Potential damage from viruses or spyware
2. Drain on employee productivity
3. Bandwidth issues and potential liability exposure

Obviously there is some value to social networking sites, business professionals are already communicating with each other on LinkedIn, a business oriented social networking site. Employers should think of ways to include this form of communication into their business strategy, instead of putting a ban on it.

There is a challenge that exists in this day and age, organizations must find a way to boost employee productivity while fostering out any harmful intrusions. Over time, this dilemma will be solved. After all, organizations initially restricted all web access because employers thought that workers would spend all day shopping and surfing inappropriate sites. Businesses that deploy the best means of collaboration and communication will ultimately succeed in the end. In the future, I can not see any Fortune 500 company lasting without making an investment in a social networking platform.

Easy How-to For Your Corporate Wiki

As I continue to do research on Enterprise 2.0 and all the goodies that come with it, I just can’t seem to escape the praise for the book Wiki Patterns by Stewart Mader. Yesterday on the Social Media Today blog, Susan Scurpski posted about the perfect holiday present for your boss, coworker or even your mother-in-law. Surprise, surprise, it was the Wiki Patterns book. Here’s why: with this witty interpretation about Enterprise 2.0 this book can be useful to your enterprise. He also gives easy and straight foreword ways so everyone knows how to use wikis and blogs.

It focuses on the two basic things that enterprise uses today in their slow roll to join the evolution to Enterprise 2.0: blogs and wikis. Another highlight is the ease of collaboration software when it comes to editing documents around the office. Once people see that there no longer has to be fifteen different copies of the same document edited by fifteen different people, in addition to it being an easy process, the basics of Enterprise 2.0 will catch up at the office. So if you’re confused on what to get that one person who hasn’t quite caught on to the ease of Enterprise 2.0, this might be the perfect book

Enterprise 2.0: As said by one of the innovators

We spend a lot of time on this blog talking about Google. Most of the time, it’s about Google. Now, we get to talk with Google. Erick Schmidt sat down with the New York Times and discussed the topic of how technology in the workplace is changing so fast and how companies are evolving to make it work for them. In this article, he discusses these five downfalls of having instant information:

1) No falsehood can last.
2) People expect an immediate answer.
3) You can measure everything.
4) Managers will need a new way to listen to the information and uncover the gems.
5) Managers have to obtain everyone else’s good information, and avoid sinking in the vast sea of words

This may be difficult now, but as the next generation moves up, they have always worked with technology. How will the help with the adaption of these tools?

Collaboration: Where Do We Go From Here?

Looking through these different sites I came across an interesting array of questions brought up by Michael Sampson regarding collaboration and where it is headed in 2008. We have come so far in terms of maximizing collaboration efforts, but here are some of the questions Michael poses:

• How do we reduce reliance on email within a team?
• How can end users be most effective with SharePoint for team collaboration?
• "Traditional" team collaboration tools vs. Enterprise 2.0 team collaboration tools: Do they lead to different behaviors and outcomes?
• Team collaboration via a wiki vs via a collection Word documents: Which is better?
• Should a firm continue with its incumbent collaboration environment or shift to a new one?
• How does a firm get the best return on investment when staying the course with its current collaboration environment?
• What does the IT department need to look like in 2008 to encourage rather than hinder team collaboration efforts?
  

What aspect of enterprise 2.0 applications worries your company in the new year? As for 2008, I will be looking forward to seeing improvements in Web 2.0 apps that can help businesses run more effectively. What will the new year hold in store for the enterprise?

Reactions on Enterprise 2.0

Andrew McAfee’s latest blog post is about his conclusions after spending a day talking with managers about how they feel about Enterprise 2.0. He came to two conclusions: People who are working with others are more open to the new E2.0 concept than those who work with the computers (like IT). They are also very fearful about what will happen if they allow an open community with the whole corporation, even with the external benefits it could possess.

He was surprised to find out that the executives were really excited to see what this could do for their company. HR executives surprised him the most. They were the most excited about these new social platforms. The IT managers were quick to focus on the security and the risks, and they believed it was not worth trying. As a whole, the managers all believed that the workers would use the new technology for the benefit of the enterprise. They were not really concerned over possible threats, because they saw the huge benefits that could evolve from a company with this kind of software on their side.

The negative part of the session was that he discovered that it would take a very long time to actually accept this software into the company. Companies just aren’t ready for the lateralization that comes with having a whole communication being able to communicate from top to bottom in one community. They are more fearful of this than allowing an open community with their customers that could allow better insight to the company and the value of customer feedback that could improve the way they run their company.

Is open communication in your company more worrisome tan the value you could gain with an open door community with your customers?

Think Twice Before Committing to Enterprise Social Networking

The latest ZdNet article urges companies to think carefully before implementing an internal-based social networking platform in the Enterprise. For the last year or so we have stressed the various benefits of creating a social networking platform, better collaboration and easy to find content were some of those benefits. Out of all Web 2.0 tools social networking receives the most skepticism because it is tied down to many nonprofessional external networks such as Myspace, Bebo, and Facebook.

According to the Gartner report, social networking just isn’t a mature enough technology to make is suitable for the Enterprise. If IT departments do not take their time and rush into building a social networking platform, there is no doubt that the project would probably fail, but if the right restrictions are put in place then the possibilities for success are endless.

Introductory Portal Strategy Questions

I was recently pulled in as an advisor to a portal strategy consulting project and came up with a quick five-minute questionnaire to get a feel for the situation before our first meeting. I thought it would be helpful to post these questions up as anyone being thrown into a portal strategy project should have these answers lined up before the initial meeting or get to them in the first five minutes.

There are tons of question one could ask of course, but in my experience these are the ones that result in the most useful answers most often. So if I only have five minutes to do a kind of end-user portal request for information (RFI), this is what I would ask. Once I have the answers to these questions I can engage in a useful conversation about any number of portal strategy dimensions (product selection, infrastructure impact assessment, portal timing and roadmap, portal requirements gathering, portal pricing, portal consolidation and rationalization, portal business justification, etc.).

For information gathering about a portal strategy project I want to know:

Introductory

• What do you mean by portal? To Burton Group, portal products are website factories that aggregate a wide variety of content to deliver dynamic, contextual websites. They provide their users (website builders) with a common set of back-end integration and front-end contextual, dynamic displays that can be used to quickly create websites on a similar foundation. All the websites will share the same infrastructure integration, look and feel, development tools, and management UIs. (from the CCS document “Communication and Collaboration in Portals: Half the Battle”)

Business

• What is the scope of the portal in question (e.g., just intranet, just a dealer extranet, just as a front end for Oracle Applications, intranet for Division X, intranet for the whole company except our subsidiary ABC which was just acquired) and where does it fit into the other portals the company has?
• What is driving you to revisit your strategy at this time? Pain points? New initiatives that need to be supported?
• How much funding have you been given to support the new strategy? Or is the current project being undertaken to determine the funding required?
• Are there specific metrics that you are aiming to improve? Have they been benchmarked before starting on this project?
• What products are currently in use today (describe what each is being used for and number of users) and which are being evaluated for the future?
• What is the timeframe for the portal project (or is determining the timeframe part of this project)?
• Is this project dependant on any other projects underway or being planned? Do other projects underway or being planned depend on this project?
• Is there a need to build Web 2.0-type end-user content creation and feedback loops into the portal?

Technology

• How are the portal products you’re currently using working? Are there problems?
• Portals pre-integrate with a collection of infrastructure services that are surfaced through the portal UI. These services include security/identity (authentication and authorization via single sign-on and directory), content management (document management and web content management at a minimum), search, business process management and workflow, and application server and development environment (J2EE server or .NET). What do you currently use for these infrastructure services and are they expected to change?
• What is the political context that drives usage of the portal products (particularly with regard to overlapping capabilities of multiple incumbent products) and may affect attempts to change the mix? Are there certain products that must automatically be on the shortlist or are not allowed on the shortlist?
• What is the mix of development skills (Java, .NET) available for the portal effort?
• Of the many features that portals can provide or integrate (e.g., collaborative workspaces, discussion groups, document libraries, workflow, access to enterprise applications, search, document management, end user web content creation), which are being used? Which are needed for the future?
• Personalization and context are a foundation of portals. What are the main categories of roles that the portal addresses? Will need to address? How is personalization utilized?
• Which enterprise applications will need to be surfaced through the portal?
• Are mobile or offline capabilities important for your user population?
• Where do you stand with service-oriented architecture? Composite application development methods?

Note: This is a cross-posting from my KnowledgeForward blog.

A New Abbreviation for Enterprise: “ERP”

As I’m sure most people have read all the blog postings relatable to the discussion whether Enterprise 2.0 is “sexy or not”, Ross Dawson decided to post his comments.

He mainly focuses on business processes. He divides them into two main categories.

1) The Easily Repeatable Process (ERP)
These are processes that handle anything from human resources, parts and products in the supply chain, also distribution and production. SAP is one of the main players in this.
2) The Barely Repeatable Process (BRP)
The BRP is when it can’t be done through a computer. In most cases, this is like anything that involves forms and waiting on someone that has to get back with you. In this process, a lot of valuable information is lost in translation.

Enterprise 2.0 is going to be best used and developed to form collaboration and compile knowledge that will result in product and strategy innovation along with service excellence that is different from. Enterprise 2.0 can do this by utilizing the Web 2.0 tools that are out there on the internet.

Ross believes the key point to all of this is that enterprise 2.0 is not sexy, but it does bring people together to and allows for free thinking and innovation that does not happen on a normal day to day basis. This is an exciting process that is soon going to become standard in the business world.

Google: An Enterprise Wiki?

Could the enterprise wiki Google Knol be viewed as a threat to Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers? According to the latest article on ZdNet the answer is no. Even though Google Knol is a service that aggregates knowledge from individuals, there is a big distinction between this service and Wikipedia. Google Knol will only highlight authors, or experts on a certain subject matter, whereas Wikipedia is a community effort.

But will this knowledge management application catch on in the Enterprise? Knowledge Management software is nothing new in the Enterprise, but what is inhibiting its success, since collecting information is so critical in businesses. Some say that employees do not want share knowledge because it might make them seem “less valuable.” In order to make this work, companies must reward their employees when they share information.

Finally an easy system to share knowledge within the enterprise has emerged. Google Knol provides a way to store key information that make the business more efficient. Do you think the enterprise world will catch on? I certainly hope so…

Alfresco: It Keeps On Getting Better

We quickly mentioned Alfresco’s new platform that would satisfy a company’s need for enterprise content management in a previous post, but aside from its social networking capabilities it will also provide rich mashups and widgetry into the Enterprise. This latest blog goes into detail on how Alfresco has stepped ahead of the game by integrating its ECM software with other Web 2.0 tools like Facebook, Flex, Skype, RSS Readers, and iGoogle just to name a few.

A couple of interesting features I particularly liked was Google Gadgets, which they will use for ECM. This will allow businesses to edit and manage data all within an iGoogle homepage. Their new mashup architecture, provided by Flex, will allow internet applications to be created on top of Alfresco. This will definitely give SharePoint a run for its money.

Everyone at this point should know by now that collaboration and communication is vital in maintaining an effective workplace. What else does Alfresco have in store for us in terms of Enterprise 2.0 technology? Alfresco is living proof that businesses should not fear Web 2.0 tools, but that they should fully embrace integration with their software. After all, look at all the good it has done for Alfresco…

Next for Google: Accounting?

In a recent post at ReadWrite Web, they believe that the next breakthrough application from Google will be the next an online accounting application.

What are some of the advantages they list for Google having an accounting system? Since it would be online, the possibilities are endless. ReadWrite Web believes they are: collaboration, retention of records, and accessibility. The drawbacks would be simplification and cost.

So why would Google take this approach for their next application? They have a knack for simplification as we saw with Gmail for email. This accounting system, due to simplicities among other things, could be of most benefit for those who own small businesses and have little training.

They already have several applications that would be able to play a key role in accounting: Google Scan, Google Docs, and Google CheckOut. Do you believe this is the next step for Google? Would you be worried if Google had access to your small business’ financial information?

Are you scared of letting social media into your enterprise?

Richard Dennison at the Inside Out blog recently wrote this post listing five reasons not to let social media into your enterprise.

They are:

1. What if rude or derogatory information gets posted on the intranet?
2. Information governance
3. Wisdom of crowds with no crowds
4. Loosing control of the message
5. Mixing business and personality

Surf over to his blog to find out how he counters each of these worries. Are there any other issues that arise in your mind when you think about letting social media into your enterprise?

Productivity: The Next Generation

In this recent article at Ziff Davis IT Link, it discusses the current Generation Y entering the workforce. Along with many of the other worries that are plaguing this generation, it contemplates the productivity and how best to capture their potential.

Davis is quick to show that this may be one of the first generations that can multitask successfully when it comes to digital media, often doing quite a few things at once. So how does a company take this asset and translate it into a successful business? Not to mention the fact that the generation entering the work force is nowhere near as large as the generation retiring. Enterprise software is the key to making up this huge difference as well. But who will make collaborative software that can capture the information and the talent?

That is still yet to be seen, but odds are it’s probably Google. They’ve shown the fact that they can create easy to manage enterprise software that is easy to both use and understand. Will other software giants step up to the plate? Microsoft has a lot to be worried about, especially if they don’t understand the current generations work process.

Enterprise Software Can Do Better

The main theme discussed in Ross Mayfield’s recent weblog, is that enterprise software still has a long way to go. If asked, most employees would agree that they do not love using enterprise software. It’s clear that usability of enterprise 2.0 applications must improve, but we seem to be ahead of the game with introductions to new models such as Open Source and SaaS. There is a huge demographic shift occurring now in the work place as NetGens replace Baby Boomers; collaboration within the enterprise is vital in Web 2.0 apps, especially during this monumental shift.

I say this time and time again, we are still not there yet in terms of Enterprise 2.0 technology, but we are slowly making progress. Consumers use this technology on a daily basis; it is only a matter of time before we remove this barrier in the enterprise. On that note, I’m going to leave with an interesting yet slightly humorous quote from Ross Mayfield… Enjoy!

“We're also doing a lot of experimentation around social software, which in consumer markets helps get them laid. Enterprise social software can't do that without risk of lawsuits. But it can help people get promoted.”

Wetpaint to Target Businesses?

According to the latest article in eWeek this afternoon, the consumer wiki company Wetpaint has now decided to move its social platform over to the business realm. Just Add Wetpaint, the new service, will allow organizations to let their consumers connect via forums, blogs, and wikis on a branded social network.

This new platform application is an example of how the enterprise is beginning to see the value and potential of Web 2.0 technologies. Ben Elowtiz, Wetpaint CEO, recently told eWeek:

“We started off focusing just on the consumer and what we found out is that brands want to get in on it, too."

Businesses are realizing that providing consumers with up-to-date information on products and services that they want is the only way to succeed in today’s digital age. Features in Just Add Wetpaint will aid in collaboration by allowing users to gather and share content, creating social profiles, and even including a one-click widget insertion for videos, pictures, chat, etc.

Another interesting point is the ability for businesses to tailor and customize their wiki environment to reflect their brands. Wetpaint seems to have the edge with their unique offereings in the marketplace. What will this new product release do to more enterprise-focused wikis like Atlassian Software and SocialText?

Software’s Year in Review

What would December be without “Year in Review”? ReadWriteWeb recently published their year in review chronicling what major software companies have done in the year of 2007. Here is a brief summary of what the players in the enterprise software industry are doing. For a more in depth view, read the article.

The biggest change of the year according to them was Google Apps. And the biggest disappointment was the lack of reaction from Microsoft. They’ve not done anything to show that they are reacting to the major movements in Enterprise 2.0.

Now a summary of what everyone’s been doing this year! Google acquired several platforms that they will use to redesign Google Docs. The only flaw that ReadWriteWeb sees is that they had no presentation software, but it was fixed when Google introduced a platform in September. Another attempt that surprised the market was when they teamed up with Gem Capitol to further push their software in corporations. Microsoft promptly released a 10-point list that listed reasons not to use Google Docs. Zimbra also released a statement attacking them. To further Google’s innovation in the Enterprise 2.0 category, there have been rumors of the past few months that they would release a corporate wiki application, but nothing has come out yet.

Now onto Microsoft! As stated earlier, they have done nothing huge publically this year when it comes to their applications and making them Web 2.0 friendly. In October, they did announced Office Live Workspace and Office Live was renamed to Office Live: Small Business. They also partnered with Atlassian and Newsgroup to make Sharepoint more Web 2.0 friendly.

Zimbra was purchased by Yahoo! For $350 million in September.

Zoho filled their year with steady updates to improve their Web 2.0 capabilities.

ThinkFree announced in August that they hosted one million documents and had over 335,000 users.

The company that is gaining the most traction is Dark Horse. They are an online IM club that announced a platform that has potential for web office applications.

Finally, as always, we look foreword to next year. ReadWrite sees Google Apps maturing into a more functional site that will be enterprise oriented. There is lots of high potential for next year to include lots of partnerships and acquisitions for the smaller companies that are expanding in the Enterprise/Web 2.0 world. However, the most interesting thing everybody should look out for is how Microsoft to the new online document capabilities of the internet.

Facebook: Is it Right For Your Enterprise?

Steve Richards’s latest blog entry argues whether or not Facebook’s social networking application has real business value. He does not see Facebook’s technology as an enterprise solution, but Facebook continues to change with each growing day. We all remember how Facebook was geared towards college students in its initial launch, but now we have experienced a shift in registered users, which includes many business executives within the enterprise.

We’ve recently posted an entry highlighting Serena Software and their announcement to start using Facebook as their corporate intranet. Facebook provides real business value in this sense because it improves collaboration efforts ten fold. Facebook’s platform is completely free and allows for flexible open communication within the Enterprise. Even though Facebook has not enhanced all aspects of the business networking experience, it is well on its way to tackle all obstacles. LinkedIn already allows users to post questions to intake expertise information, it’s only a matter of time before Facebook will follow suit with other business networking sites like Xing and LinkedIn.

A Manifesto for Social Computing in the Enterprise

John Newton’s recent post on the Content Log is a manifesto for social computing in the enterprise. With all the advances on the internet, particularly with bandwidth speed and a new generation entering the workforce, significant changes are coming and things must be up to date. This will lead to major advances in the use of social computing in the enterprise.

To fully empower and utilize the social networks, Newton believes that the social computing platform must have the following capabilities:
--People
--Context of networks
--Social collaboration
--Content as a service
--People-centric tools
All the current things we use in today’s enterprise such as word documents and filing systems will not be threatened, just enhanced by the use of Web 2.0.

Some of the enterprises that have discovered Social Computing are:
--Consumer oriented companies
--Enterprises hiring the new generation
--Financial services
--Government and non-profit
--Enterprises that have faster cycles of product innovation
These companies are usually ahead of technology, and have seen the benefits that Enterprise 2.0 software in combination with Web 2.0.

The best platforms that incorporate social networking are:
--Open source
--Integrating inside out
--Integrating outside in
--REST-style architecture
--Choice

Would you add anything to his manifesto? Is there anything different you feel would need to be included?

Salesforce and Social Networking

The latest article on eWeek describes how Salesforce.com recently added a new service to allow customers to add other Salesforce.com customers as friends, very much like LinkedIn and Facebook. Finally customers, partners, and application developers will have access to different ideas all over the world. Many business gurus would agree that the best business ideas derive from customers. Well, this new application platform allows customers to collaborate on the status of leads, as well as objects developed as individual customizations. How will competitors like Netsuite and SugarCRM react to the latest Enterprise 2.0 trends and applications? It appears as if Salesforce.com is beginning to view the bigger picture. Quite an interesting read…

The Evolution Pattern of Enterprise 2.0

Bex Huff in a recent blog interprets the slow evolution of how companies are moving to Enterprise 2.0. He is amazed by how everyone claims to pick up to concept so fast. According to Huff, Enterprise 2.0 is allowing employees to access tools that are easy to use and give the customers’ power to communicate with the company, as well as customers to give instant responses. Wikis are all the rage, but are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to adapting to Enterprise 2.0. The real evolution process begins when a company fully hands power over to the employees and customers with their fully interactional blog.

You should understand the tools, you can start using them for free on the internet. What are you going to do to continue to evolve your business into the coming tide that is Enterprise 2.0?

Mashups and Microformats in the Battlefield

Aggregating information contained in web pages is getting simpler for organizations with the adoption of Enterprise 2.0 applications and web services. It was only a matter of time before our national security departments would take notice of the easy accessibility and the wide variety of uses made available through these applications.

The latest article in eWeek discusses the future plans of the U.S. Department of Defense to start using mashups and microformats to help better communicate with soldiers and high ranking officials on the battlefront. Ann Malloy, an expert from Pentagon contractor Mitre mentions:

"The new generation of war fighters is aware of this kind of technology. They are using this stuff to communicate on the battle field... So let's bring it into the fold."

Clearly, the DOD seems to be starting on the right foot, but when will an announcement be made regarding plans on establishing a file-sharing system to improve on collaboration efforts? Innovations in Enterprise 2.0 applications will provide national security departments with an abundance of web services that can be utilized. How soon will they incorporate these Web 2.0 technologies is the next question to be answered…

Janssen-Cilag’s Corporate Wiki

Here’s a great post on E-gineer about how Janssen-Cilag has used a wiki to improve input into their system with the voice of their employees. They don’t quite yet know the best ways to collaborate and communicate in the company, but this wiki is proving to be a great start.

They feel that their employees who are contributing to their blog are not contributing to basic policy of their enterprise and they’re also not learning to collectively edit posts. They see two cultural barriers that could stand in the way of this:

-- Sharing knowledge adds more work ("I don’t have time to share"); and
-- Sharing knowledge increases personal risk ("I don’t want to share").

Continue reading the post here. What are your thoughts on how can a company most effectual encourage their company to contribute to a wiki?

More on Serena Software

After posting this morning about Serena Software allowing their employees to use Facebook, I decided to find out more information about it. At ZD Net, Jo McKendrick wrote this blog. The entire intranet was replaced with Facebook. McKendrick believes that the traditional intranets are expensive, stiff and hierarchal, while Facebook is free, flexible allows open communication. By utilizing the new apps features and creating groups, the flow of information throughout the company is trackable and manageable. It has also proved for better communication between managers and employees, even with the open door policy at Serena.

Six Apart on Linking Communities

The genre of blogging has currently shifted as people realize that communities, not individual bloggers, actually move markets. The latest news article on CNet discusses Six Apart’s plans to sell off its blogging service LiveJournal to several companies including Typepad, Movable Type, and Vox.

This new transition will bring about many new features; the product will let end users mark people as friends (just like in social networks) and track projects that they are currently working on. This is a great Enterprise tool, since corporations are bombarded with unsuccessful intranets. Stepping away from its Enterprise features, it also has a great system that restricts who can see personal posts. Read the entire article to get the full picture of the incredible technology being used to at Six Apart to create these content management systems.

Finally, organizations are beginning to see the importance of social networking, and the effects that communities can have on the Enterprise workplace. Communities and groups have long been used on a personal level, but its transition to the business side has not been so quick. But, there is hope

Social Networking in Business: Nick Carr’s Opinion

Recently on the Rough Type blog, Carr puts a different spin on the benefits of using social networking in a business environment. The things that really gel a company can not really be captured in today’s email systems and talks around the water cooler. Instead, he believes that opening up to Facebook or MySpace allows the opportunity for employees to fully communicate, and all of the information is in one spot. Further more, it’s all available in one spot and can be used in the future by other employees. Also, in the comments to this blog, someone posted a link to an article about how Serena software has started to use Facebook for a hour a week world wide. Would your company be able to do this? Why or why not?

Future Product Releases for Google Apps

I stumbled across this blog this afternoon written by Michael Arrington at TechCrunch, and it spotlights cutting-edge upcoming plans at Google. Portal giant Google seems to a pioneering the movement to innovate Web 2.0 technologies within the enterprise. First off, Google is planning to launch Google Sites, which will be based collaboration tools featured on Jotspot, to allow businesses to create extranets, project management systems, as well as intranets.

Another announcement that I find particularly interesting is the expectation that Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs will soon work offline via Google Gears. This prediction has been heavily awaited, and I’m personally delighted to hear that it is currently in the works. Editing docs, presentations, and spreadsheets offline will soon be made possible, even if the document is being edited by another user on the online version. Changes will simply be made based on chronological order.

This is definitely a starting point for Google in the long road of constant updates in Enterprise 2.0 applications. Google is leading in collaboration efforts for now, but it will be interesting to see if other search engine giants like Yahoo and MSN will begin to mimic Google’s model.

How Businesses Use Web 2.0: A Study

The McKinsey Quarterly’s latest edition came out today and there was an article that caught my eye: How Businesses are Using Web 2.0: A Global Survey. The overwhelming response was that the majority of companies are seeing the need and stepping up the process to fully adapt their companies to Web 2.0. The reason most cited for doing this was to increase collaboration and communication. Three fourths of all companies surveyed were pleased with their spending in the sector and they plan to keep increasing the funding.

Most companies were focused on using the web services, peer to peer networking and collective intelligence tools. One of the reasons to step up efforts is the competitive edge when it comes to using the Web 2.0 tools. These tools also offer unique competitive advantages and the ability to more clearly communicate with customers.

The numbers show that the race to adapt to Web 2.0 is equally balanced through out the world. For now, blogs are the most utilized tool. This is because they are free and are usually the gateway to more complex Web 2.0 technology. They have also seen the advantage of using these tools both internally and externally.

Does your company show similar interests into Web 2.0?

Are Car Manufacturers Finally Getting it?

There’s no doubt that the German luxury car market is quite competitive; how do you improve efficiency in the enterprise with car giants like BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Audi? The latest article in PressMediaWire describes Audi’s most recent announcement that it would be using a new portal platform based on IBM Websphere Portal in an effort to improve upon collaboration between employees.

All Audi employees also have a single-sign on, and can easily access information they need. This new platform presents individualized information to each employee tailored to their roles within the organization. This makes assigning tasks in the enterprise workplace so much simpler! Sebastian Krause, Vice President of the Software Group in IBM Germany voices his opinion on the matter:

"The new employee portal puts a flexible information and communication platform at the disposal of Audi that allows all business processes to be integrated independently of their respective application platforms. This enables the company to optimize the working, information and knowledge processes that are indispensable to keeping up with the relentless pace of change in today's market."

How long will it take for competitors to follow suit in their collaboration efforts? For now, Audi seems to be standing alone in its efforts to innovate enterprise 2.0 applications, but I’m sure industry giants will begin to play copy cat once it realizes Audi’s success in evolving its portal strategy.

Facebook: Is there enough room for your business contacts and friends?

Do you already have a personal Facebook page before it was opened up to everyone? Continuing with the Facebook and LinkedIn debate, how do you keep your personal profile separate from the business profile on Facebook? Some professionals would rather use Facebook than LinkedIn. Jim Rapoza of EWeek wrote about this problem in his recent blog. With the one-size fits all mentality of these websites, Facebook occasionally does not work in both the business setting versus a personal one. How do you deal with your Facebook profile?

Combining Virtual Worlds and Social Networking

I came across an interesting article on eWeek today highlighting IBM’s newest plan to mash their Second Life virtual reality world with Lotus Connections, which is their social networking platform. Exactly what features from there social networking platform is IBM looking to fuse with virtual worlds? IBM’s programmers are currently working on creating avatars on Second Life that are able to display content from their respective Lotus Connections profile. In other words, you’ll be able to view their skills, projects they’ve worked on in the past, experience, and possibly their blogs exposed somewhere in the virtual city.

Even though Second Life provides a great visual and is far more immersive than Facebook, is it appropriate for the Enterprise workplace? After all, the main purpose of this fusion is to improve on collaboration therefore executing tasks at a much quicker pace. Gartner analyst Adam Sarner makes an interesting comparison:

"If I want to buy a car or somebody I know comes down with a medical condition, I'm not going to go into a virtual world and ask other people their experiences. Text is a perfect tool to go in and get other opinions."

There’s no doubt that within the next couple of years organizations will invest heavily on building virtual reality platforms. Does this merge fit in with your enterprise needs?

Taking the Customer Seriously

Organizations are slowly shifting their train of thought to truly understand the customers’ needs. An example of this is the new Alfresco Facebook Platform mentioned in the previous post which allows for customers and employees to interact and share content. HP is currently brainstorming ways to allow end users to merge with the organization using a variety of Web 2.0 applications.

This latest blog highlights some of HP’s ideas on incorporating customer input to improve enterprise innovation. Phil McKinney, CTO of the Personal Systems Group of HP mentions:

”’We were missing the DNA of an organization that had its finger on customer desires”

Other enterprise organizations like Dell, Xerox, and Sun have already jumped on the bandwagon, finally taking customers seriously. It will be interesting to see how these prominent organizations will tweak Enterprise 2.0 applications to allow for customer interaction within the next couple of months. After all, a happy customer is a repeat customer…

Alfresco makes ECM easy

In yesterday’s post on Collaborative Thinking, the themes throughout the blog were collaboration and using free social networking software to rise to Enterprise 2.0 online. The goal was to propel corporation to begin the journey on Enterprise 2.0. Alfresco's making it easier.

Alfresco has teamed up with Facebook and created a platform that can satisfy a company’s need for enterprise content management. Below is their application architecture. It serves with all the regular functions of Facebook, and allows all employees to see the enterprise content. The benefits of this new collaboration on Facebook:

• Application registration
• Facebook authorization and single sign-on
• FBML support
• Facebook model support including:
  • Friends
  • Application Friends
  • Users
  • Mini Feed
  • News Feed

The majority of your employees know how to use Facebook. Could this be the right solution for your EMC online?

Tag, You're it!

Researching today, I came across this report. It focuses on the importance of tagging keywords in blogs and web pages. Even though it was released in January, I learned a few things as I was reading through it.

--On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.
--Taggers look like classic early adopters of technology. They are more likely to be under age 40, and have higher levels of education and income.

Since this report was written, there has been this new trend that has gained speed. Since I felt that this report may have been a little out of date, I dug deeper into the Internet and found the revolution that is following it. This bulletin from ASIS&T published in October delves into the new concept of folksonomies. Folksonomies is the practice of collaborative tagging.

Thomas Vander Wal was the pioneer of this word, and he defines it as, “folksonomies are created when people tag items online for their own later information retrieval purposes.” The two main benefits according to Vander Wall are:

--Online personal information management since the tags are coined in the user’s own words, not in the words imposed by the system
--The social aspect, including the ability of other users to use those tags for search and retrieval of previously undiscovered items and the community created by and centered on users’ tags.

Collaborative tagging is also an important part of this concept. Since it comes from the user’s vocabulary, so many different tag words can be used to describe just one object. This can cover all bases and every one can find the different tags according to the way they think. All the different words can come together in the tag cloud, and at once new communities can be born.

As companies come into the modern 2.0 era and focus on being sought out on the Internet by their consumers, tagging will become more important. Even here at the PCC blog, we rely heavily on our tags to bring new readers into our posts. Folksonomies can be found everywhere on the internet, from Flickr to different work blogs. How can these two concepts benefit us in Enterprise 2.0? With the wide variety of information available, not everyone will use the same words as descriptors. I believe that this concept will expand and grow, and everyone from the regular Flickr user to the enterprise with thousands of employees can benefit from collaborative tagging. We can especially all benefit from community taggings, as new perspectives are frequently discovered when collaborating on subjects together. How can folksonomies bring new perspectives into your business world?

IBM Walking the Walk, Talking the Talk

Came across this video post at Redmonk, its a video clip discussion with Anant Jhingran of IBM about their own use of Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Hope you find it interesting.

Building a Better Wiki

I just received one of several emails from eWeek with a link to a new slideshow entitled, 25 Tips for Better Wiki Deployment. While some slides would fall under the category of obvious, there really are some tidbits of useful information, highlighting critical issues that any organization can face when launching their own internal wiki. I’m going to take a look at some specific slides but highly recommend you take a look at the full deck to really grasp the valuable perspectives they’ve brought together. Couple of points stand out, and I feel will help you to consider many of these slides as they relate to them:

Who’s in Charge? How Will It Work? What Will They Get Out of It?

Slides 1, 2, 6, 8, 20, 24, 25

As I mentioned, many of these slides can come across as obvious or just simple logic applied to any new information management tool an organization might implement. But the point here is particularly important when launching an Enterprise 2.0 toolkit: finding the right level of administrative control, defining the parameter of participation and level of expectations. Now purists will quickly shout out that any administrative control is the death knell of a good wiki; that the community is there to police itself and define what it hopes to derive from it. Unfortunately, as many of us know, an internal enterprise community is a beast of a different color than the WWW.

Anonymity, lack there-of, internal politics, interpersonal issues, etc, all play a very real role as people begin to use such tools. Authority in the workplace has always been important to lay critical decisions at the feet of the right individual On a wiki, anyone can be an authority, but without the right administrative controls, you can find that perspective and focus can quickly breakdown, therefore, the goal has to be very specific and clear to ensure that users do not waste too much time coming to some conclusion while contributing appropriately.

So like any new productivity tool, you have a responsibility to communicate what you expect users to get out of it – even if those expectations are incredibly general. Also, lay down a set of rules to ensure that participation does not become a free-for-all. You’re goal is clearly mass collaboration, but it must be focused and tied to general guidelines that are clearly defined and managed.

Who’s the Leader of the Pack, and Give out Gold Stars

Slides 3, 4, 7, 13, 15, 17, 19,

In some of our prior posts regarding wikis you can see a definite common theme, a black and white perspective of the value or lack of value in utilizing wikis in the workplace. Often IT and business leaders approach tools like wikis as a magic wand that can be waved and valuable interactions will magically appear. Well maybe not that simply, but too often the viral nature of wikis and other Enterprise 2.0 tools overshadow the reality that a great deal of focus on the right people to push and pull folks along is necessary.

Well, for me, having been a corporate denizen for more than a decade, I expect that for people who are usually working 9+ hours a day, producing work in tools that management already expects them to use, results in very little incentive to recreate such work on a wiki – the current reality for many companies: multiple locations of knowledge dissemination until one particular toolset clearly rises above the rest.

People need incentives, especially in the workplace. First, having particular wiki leaders from within the organization - not necessarily at the highest level – can really open up the concept that the wiki is meant for everyone. Then, creating incentives for promoting valuable insight and content can propel others to join in.

Just like the “Employee of the Month” or “Top Sales Person” posting in the company common room or intranet, people want to be recognized for doing valuable work; ideally financially, but at least publicly. Not to mention bringing out the competitive nature in many of us. The expectation that people will simply get onto a wiki and start using it with no particular recognition will inevitably lead people to post less and less over time. It doesn’t take much to recognize someone, but can certainly go along way to making them feel valuable in building your wiki.

Let Your Wiki Grow…Like a Weed

Slides 4, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 23

Yep, a weed, as in virally. All companies face the issue of being able to share information quickly, easily, and deeply. Often information becomes pooled in pockets of an organization, either because of controls in place, or the tools that do a poor job of automatically reaching individuals who may need that information. Wikis are not necessarily a panacea but they can certainly help an organization to distribute information more evenly by allowing individuals to establish what kinds of information they want and when they want to receive it.

Now you’re creating bridges across those information gaps, where different teams can communicate directly on projects even when they are not directly impacted, or to discuss product/service information when a particular need arises. What in the past might take several calls and emails across an organization to find the right individual who has the answer; it becomes more readily available to a broader employee base. Naturally, it’s important that the correct information is there in the first place, but even in the act of asking for such information creates awareness that someone does need it; that it should be shared with the community at large.

In the end, wikis may not be the ideal solution for your particular organization on a whole, but a particular group or set of teams may benefit immensely. With the relative low cost, and minimal learning curve, the pros can certainly outweigh the cons. But only real experience can say if it will ultimately work. I think spending time considering the points of these slides and what your own organization is trying to achieve can at least create an opportunity for your organization to consider, is there a need for such a tool – if not this one?

Like to highlight the sources mentioned at the end of the slideshow:
Gerald Kane, assistant professor of IS, Carroll School of Management, Boston College; MindTouch; eTtouch; Cyrus Christianson, Citrix Webmaster; and “Corporate Wiki Users: Results of a Survey,” by Ann Majchrzak, Christian Wagner and David Yates.

Online Networking: A Successful Example

Yesterday, I posted about the Economist and how their internal efforts to create the next big thing for their website failed. The relevant part of yesterday’s blog was that they turned inwards, focused on people already in their company to produce a new an innovative project that would propel them into Web 2.0.

Today, I read a blog about a company that did the opposite. Proctor and Gamble turned to Web 2.0 and networked all across the globe, and the result was high productivity in a short amount of time. The CEO decided to network using Web 2.0 tools to generate new ideas to increase productivity. The result was 1/3 of the new ideas coming from outside of Procter and Gamble, as well as 80% of the project launches being successful. This goes to show that Web 2.0 can benefit the entire business world and also that many productive things come out of collaborating with other businesses.

This is just another example of how Web 2.0 is alive and ready to take off in the business world. Do you have any examples of this in your company?

Technology Priorities for 2008

What are your technological priorities for 2008? The CEO of EMC listed his in a recent blog post at EWeek. They are:

1. Virtualization
2. Storage
3. Security
4. VOIP
5. Enterprise 2.0
6. Software in the cloud
7. Green computing

The two most interesting ones for me are Enterprise 2.0 and Software in the Clouds.

Even though EMC is a large enterprise that specializes in helping other business run and create technology to manage data, Enterprise 2.0 is still a priority. The social networking aspect is something that is new to business, and but it will be around for years to come. Many companies are trying to use these applications to improve their business, even their clients and networking skills. It’s nice to see a company acknowledging that they will make it a priority for their advancement in 2008.

The other is software in the cloud. Many times in this blog, we have written about Google and how they’re striving to keep their new applications up to date such as Google docs. This is just one example of how the future of software and applications is on the Internet. What’s next? Does your company currently use software that is in the clouds?

What are your company’s priorities for 2008? Are they similar to EMC’s?

Project Red Strip

In a recent post on the TechnoFile Europe blog, they discuss The Economist and their latest venture to create the next big thing on the Internet for their company.

The Economist recently gave a group of internal employees six months to work on nothing but the future of their potential online service and what content they were going to use. It turns out at the end of six months the internal employees produced little valuable information and the project was a complete failure. The inside employees were in the drivers seat, yet they were unable to produce a concise long term plan that could impact the future of their website. All efforts are chronicled in this blog, Project Red Stripe. This company was bold enough to display their efforts from start to finish.

Have there been any attempts like this at your company? How did they turn out?

Sharing is Caring

As we transition ourselves to new ways of acquiring information on the web through Enterprise 2.0 applications, we realize that the trend of finding information on the net has shifted from browsing to searching and then to sharing within a network of relationships. David Sacks’s blog explains how portal giants like MSN and AOL are experiencing declining pageviews because of their ancient browsing philosophies.

Web users are no longer interested in browsing the web; they want to be able to search what they are looking for and be able to subscribe to the ever-changing content via RSS feeds and news alerts. We are living in a user-generated era where web-savvy users want easy and fast access to information. Unlike Yahoo and AOL, Google’s platform makes it possible for this type of aggregation. Even though the iGoogle platform is fast-growing, it does have a potential flaw. David Sacks mentions:

“But iGoogle has a serious limitation: it doesn’t involve sharing; each user has to make an individual investment in set-up and can’t benefit from the work of others. It’s not really a Web 2.0 product.”



Lying on the other side of the spectrum is Facebook with its information sharing platform. Facebook’s developer platform makes it relatively effortless to access information on their network of friends and business contacts. While browsing and searching requires work, a web user can do nothing and receive a constantly streaming array of information tuned to their exact specifications. Where will this sharing application take Enterprise in the future when users want to learn about news instead of updates on their friends and contacts? Facebook and other portals clearly have their work cut out for them as the trend is constantly evolving.

Yahoo seems to be making the right move with its sight on Facebook, but will it take advantage of its sharing capabilities? Will Google finally launch its long awaited networking platform to keep up with Facebook? Even though its popularity has declined, browsing and searching will never go away. The portal that can utilize all three methods will most definitely remain on top…

Is Your IT Dept Inhibiting Enterprise Innovation?

When talking about the transition from Enterprise 1.0 to Enterprise 2.0, it seems as if the bulk of innovation is coming from different individual and group levels within the business, not the IT dept. The IT dept of today is primarily focused on governing business resources, but they must leave room for creating innovation especially with the ongoing growing trend of Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 applications. While researching the topic, I came across a pertinent blog written by Oscar berg highlighting this phenomenon. He brings up an interesting point:

“Business people that (rightly or not) were collectively perceived as computer illiterates by the IT people now sometimes are one or even two steps ahead of the IT department when it comes to seeing and acting on how modern information technologies can help to support and innovate the business. Business innovation with IT comes more often from trial and error and ad hoc adoption of new technologies and new ways of working by individuals on the business side.”

Business individuals must effectively collaborate with the IT dept in order to close the gap that currently exists between IT systems and how the businesses needs to be designed and operated. The IT dept must be able to react quicker to business changes, and only then will it be able to stay only one step behind the business, not two steps or more. It’s only a matter of time before IT engineers start to play catch with the industry giants.

Part Two: Reactions to the future success of Facebook and LinkedIn

Facebook and LinkedIn are two very important mediums to social connection in the business world. I think many of these bloggers fail to remember that Facebook has been around since 2004.

Business Week in March of 2006 wrote an article on the importance of Facebook to college students and how it is targeted towards:

The leading social networking sites are an increasingly popular form of communication among college students because of the tools offered by each site including photo posting, messaging, blogs and friend lists which gel perfectly with the digital lifestyle habits of today’s college students. Facebook adds an additional element of exclusivity for college students since a user needs to have an “.edu” email address to register.

It was created as a social network for college students. Therefore, many of the aspects on the site were developed to target the interests of the 18 to 23 year olds who joined to network and keep friends up to date on what’s happening in their personal lives with their profiles. According to TechCrunch in March 2005, 85% of college students then had a profile on Facebook.

As stated by Forbes, only within the past year has Facebook been opened up to anyone without a “.edu” address. The basic layout of Facebook has not changed since then, but there are many little changes that have taken place. I feel that Facebook sees the problems that are discussed in many of the blogs, and the opportunities that a business population can provide and are working to fix this. They also see that their current audience is moving into the professional world. They see the opportunity that is available to be the social networking site for professionals, and are aiming to keep their current audience and expand into the future. On the contrary, LinkedIn was specifically created for the purpose of networking for businesses. They have the competitive edge in captivating the business audience, but I have a feeling that Facebook knows that they have an untapped market and will aim to capture this audience.

So who will be around in ten years? I believe it will be the site that truly captures the interest of the generation who is entering the workforce now. Today’s entry level college graduates are already comfortable with Facebook; will this give Facebook the edge. Will this prove to be the edge? LinkedIn is built to support business networking, will this foster their edge? What system do you prefer? Whose future do you think is leading the networking into the future?

Part One: Facebook vs. LinkedIn…..What does the future have in store for the success of the sites?

The value of Facebook is increasing by the moment. Microsoft believes it, they now own a part of it. As the business world adapts to Facebook, Facebook will make the necessary changes to adapt to it. In Matt Asay’s latest blog, he discusses the impact Facebook has recently had in the workings of his business life. From fixing problems to learning more about the personality of your customers, Facebook can provide vast amount of business information that has been previously unavailable. A lot of employees are already communicating via Facebook, companies should find a way to incorporate this platform into their business systems.

However, Facebook is facing a major competitor in the business world, LinkedIn. In Bernand Lund’s latest post, he wrote about how he has found that LinkedIn can provide him connections that would otherwise never be found. He can specifically contact mass amounts of people, all interested in the same topic, as opposed to Facebook, where mass messages are sent to your entire contact list. Also, more of his business contacts have a profile on linked in.

Among the major problems with LinkedIn, there may be an alterior motive by the sales force that has joined LinkedIn to sell. If LinkedIn becomes a new way of selling, many will turn away and focus on another site where they can network with out receiving tons of sales pitches. However, this can come with benefits. If you business is out there, someone will find you and your business will be the perfect fit. You will make money and potentially find a loyal customer that you would have never otherwise found.

RSS and Your Enterprise

Today, we live in a market where knowledge, content, and information are key driving factors in a cut-throat business world. When RSS was first introduced by Netscape in 1999, we all doubted whether it had any real business value. Now RSS has clearly become an enterprise necessity enabling people to easily share ideas, improve different work processes, and solve problems that were previously unattainable without this form of collaboration. Even with all these benefits, can someone please explain to me why organizations are still doubtful in creating a managed RSS ecosystem?

Scott Niesen from Attensa attempts to project the real “business value” of RSS in his latest blog. It’s an easy to understand explanation of the benefits RSS systems can bring to your enterprise; sometimes you just have to put it in layman’s terms in order for colleagues to accept these changes.

Inbox 2.0: Available at Xobni

Earlier in the week, I posted about current discussions for many of the popular email providers and their push to get into the next era of Enterprise 2.0. The team at Xobni noticed that Inbox 2.0 was the next big Enterprise 2.0 topic, as well. They responded with a blog post. Xobni’s inbox is already at Inbox 2.0. Their goal was to be able make email more efficient.

They put special importance on identifying significant data according to the history of your inbox. Then they take it one step farther and collect information from the web to complete your contacts profiles. Unlike in Google’s contact list, you don’t have to individually type everyone’s email address, mailing address, phone numbers or add their picture. Instead, Xobni saves this information from their email, and if it’s not there they turn to the web and find it so that you can have complete profiles.

This is the product they have now. They’re still innovating and working to make their inbox more effective. Have they pulled ahead of the pack?

Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0…….Inbox 2.0?

In the New York Times, Saul Hansell’s latest blog gave insight as to where Google and Yahoo are trying to improve their email systems. It is quite the hot topic, because TechCruch is discussing the topic as well. The goal of the two companies is to turn your inbox into your main dashboard for the internet. As with all the other rising trends, the goal of every company is to develop the next new thing in social networking software.

The main question that pops into my head after reading this article is why is Microsoft not jumping at the chance to improve Outlook? There’s no denying how pervasive it is in the workplace. There are so many critical business tools already encompassed within it, rather than focus on a separate Enterprise 2.0 platform, why not update the key elements that are becoming so important in the business world and expand further with Web 2.0 technologies? The program currently hosts email, schedules, tasks, notes, etc. It pushes communications and instantly connects a message you send to a topic and recipient (s). And all of this can happen in thirty seconds whether the recipient is in London or in the next cubicle.

Email today is one of the main backbones of business, perhaps supplanting of faxes and phone calls as they dwindle. Email has been critical to the growth of connectivity from the earliest days of the Internet. It’s remarkable that it’s not a cornerstone at the beginning of the Enterprise 2.0 revolution. Even with the rise of Instant Messaging within the workface, many companies still do not take advantage of this tool.

So now the ball is in Microsoft’s court. Outlook is in the perfect position to evolve into Inbox 2.0 at the forefront of Enterprise 2.0. The question is, will they choose to take Outlook to the next level? With Google clearly interested in the enterprise marketing could the day come that another platform could come to take Microsoft’s share of the business email world.

Oracle and Enterprise 2.0

An interesting article written by Renee Ferguson from eWeek came across my inbox this morning, it discussed Oracle’s plan to add Enterprise 2.0 features to its middleware platform Fusion. In the ever-going rivalry between giants like Microsoft, IBM, SAP, and BEA, there is a chance Oracle could be leading the race to enable Web 2.0 applications via their middleware platforms. This is what Thomas Kurian, Oracle senior vice president, had to say on Tuesday’s Oracle OpenWorld conference:

"Oracle's Enterprise 2.0 vision is to bring capabilities users are familiar with—wikis, blogs, RSS, discussion forums, social networks—to enterprise applications using a standards-based programming model that allows you to mix and match services with information systems."

The basis of this technology lies within the Oracle Universal Content Manager. Documents of different kinds can be stored, managed, and even filtered here. A new functionality which I found particularly interesting is the ability to build a full text search on documents so that search engines can search and find documents. Some might ask the question how is Oracle able to lead the way in enabling Enterprise 2.0 applications in their middleware platforms… Well, within the past 45 months Oracle has acquired 41 different companies, and so they have accumulated quite a number of innovative software technology and applications.

Even though we are still not there yet in terms of taking full advantage of Enterprise 2.0 applications, it seems as if Oracle is making some progress. As organizations realize the importance of collaboration through wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and other Web 2.0 technologies, the competition will only get more intense. Read the full article to get the full scoop. Who do you think will come out on top?

New Wiki Research

In Bill Ives’ latest blog, he comments on the new research he found on the implementation and use of Wikis in a business enviornmnet. He believes that wikis will be most useful when the management is monitoring them. He also wonders if wikis will go on to change organizational behavior of the employees. What do you think?

Beefing up Security

What happens when employees use company time to browse through personal profiles on Facebook or for the latest YouTube clips. This issue is a new dilemma IT managers are faced with on a daily basis since Web 2.0 applications are springing everywhere in the enterprise. There are however, steps IT facilitators can take to ensure the business use of Web 2.0 applications while ensuring security at the same time. Charles Ross’s new post on the Security Insights Blog breaks down a couple of these steps in layman’s terms:

1) Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, RSS feeds, and blogs can often be nightmares for IT managers. These applications are essential in driving efficiencies within organizations, and can it be protected by requiring data protection controls.

2) Every company generally has an “Internet Use Policy”. Update all policies to include acceptable business usage of social networking sites, and have employees provide a signature of acceptance.

3) Lastly, block all unapproved sites using Web content filters. Provide employees a mechanism to require access to sites they feel have a legitimate business purpose, since you will encounter some resistance.

IT managers will have to stay on top of security measures since Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0 applications are bringing real business value to corporations. It will be interesting to see how IT pros will adapt to fit these applications into their organizations, while blocking unwarranted applications at the same time.

The Importance of Data in Enterprise 2.0

The Industry Observer blog I just finished reading was really interesting. It pointed out that most companies are more worried about how to control the technologies on the web to fit the business purposes and alternately how we can adapt the tools we are using now, an example being Microsoft Office, to fit what we need to be identified as Enterprise 2.0.

This blog is insisting that it’s the data used that makes Enterprise 2.0 so valuable. What exact data is important? I think Enterprise 2.0 systems should be different according to the industry. Are airplane manufacturers going to need the same tools and data requirements as a major retail chain? Narij brings up an interesting point. Should the innovators of these tools be focusing on the data the different companies bring to the Enterprise 2.0 table or how we can transform our tools now to fit the needs of all industries?

The Work Place and Enterprise 2.0

In a few of the previous posts, the topic of businesses not adapting to Enterprise 2.0 has been a constant topic. It seems that businesses are more afraid of people using these tools wrong at work than seeing the benefits that these applications can bring. In Dion Henchcliffe’s blog, he discusses how some companies may start seeing the benefits. In an informal poll he has taken recently, employees now have differing access to these tools. As of late, employees have more access to blogs and wikis. Another trend he saw was that most young employees, probably because they are in college or at their first entry level job, have the least amount of access to these tools.

While blogs and wikis continue to show the potential to greatly improve collaboration, create higher levels of knowledge retention, and generate more reusable business information over time, it’s also probable that in attempts to access the benefits of Enterprise 2.0 platforms, these new platforms will incur some issues that IT departments and the business will have to deal with, particularly if these platforms are exposed outside the organization.

There are many downfalls to allowing employees access to systems like this such as public access to company information, some of the tools are not enterprise ready and the use of the tools for non-business purposes creates inefficiencies. However, there are benefits which Henchcliffe points out:
o Social media tends to capture more institutional knowledge that’s reusable.
o Tagging and other emergent organization methods allow business information to be organized
and cross-referenced from every point of view.
o Increased efficiency in conversations: social media scales up to mostly resource and time
friendly conversations among thousands of asynchronous participants, yet excludes those
uninterested in them, unlike e-mail distribution lists and conference calls.

Is your company willing to work out the kinks of a new system to reap the benefits?

Breaking it Down: Enterprise 2.0

When thinking about wikis, social networking software, blogosphere, and prediction markets, it can be quite difficult to understand what Enterprise 2.0 technologies are best used for different ties within the organization. For example, which social software platform of Enterprise 2.0 would be most efficient to utilize for a group of close collaborators, or in order words, people whom you have a close professional tie to? Andrew McAfee, Associate Professor at Harvard Business School, wrote about the “Bulleyes” approach and how the closeness of ties can affect what social software platform is most applicable to use in his latest blog. Guys it doesn’t get much easier than this… Enjoy!

Watcha Gonna Do, Watcha Gonna Do When Google Comes For You?

First thing this morning, I received my daily update from eWeek, and it had a great interview with Matt Glotzbach, Product Management Director for Google’s Enterprise Division. The interview covers quite a bit, from Google’s recent IMAP for Gmail announcement, its perspective on application delivery (SaaS), its product development efforts separate from the consumer side, its foray in mobile applications, and interoperability. Yeah pretty much everything and the kitchen sink.

I want to focus on one question during the interview, at one point Matt is asked directly, there's some perception that the technologies you're using in Google Enterprise are hand-me-downs from the consumer side. So, there is innovation going on in Google's enterprise business? Matt proceeds to discuss their recent acquisition:

On the acquisition front, we recently acquired Postini, and that was purely an enterprise piece. Postini's security services are not necessarily that germane to the average consumer. What we quickly did was looked across the board and said, What are the really unique and interesting things that Postini has to offer [so] that, when we put the Google technology and the Postini technology together, you really get a one-plus-one equals three capability?
Postini's capabilities include legal compliance, archiving and data retention. The integration of the Postini capabilities on top of Gmail and Google Apps for businesses was one of the primary motivations of that acquisition. The idea was being able to provide all of those facilities to a customer still in a software-as-a-service model, where you didn't have to maintain your own servers for the purpose of legal discovery and backup. There are very real policy issues that we believe we have good answers to.

Clearly Google is serious about enterprise, though when it launched its Google Apps, this wasn’t a surprise. But what has always stuck out in my head is the development process for them. On the consumer side we’ve all read story after story about how they look internally for those new and unique apps that can be incorporated or spun-off as a new business line. They’re also acquisition hungry, eagerly seeking the next major innovation that they can bring into their enterprise. But while acquisitions can lead to great products for their enterprise business, what’s happening with natural development based on client feedback.

I’ve worked with some of the big vendors out there, SAP, IBM, and Microsoft and so forth and so on. All have built a strong consulting business that is focused on understanding the needs of their clients. In some instances this is backed by great internal development teams, and where they don’t have one, they find the right development partners. But their core strength has always been their ability to look under the hood of a business, study it from the inside out and help it to determine what applications it truly needs. Now that’s not to say this is always the fastest of processes, with lead times that can even stretch for years.

I can remember when Windows 2000 Server launched. Microsoft was everywhere, meetings upon meetings with IT teams across the country, helping them to understand how it worked, how to work with it, and its value to the organization. This was critical, this was absolutely necessary to help IT leaders to work with their business leaders and push to make the necessary infrastructure changes and incorporate Windows 2000.

But at the same time that’s almost where I would want to see a Google step in and change the game, bringing that amazing development talent to quickly turn around the apps that corporate clients are looking for, and create a simpler but secure deliver infrastructure that would lead to faster implementations. But they seem to be missing that external facing outreach to develop relationships directly with corporations
It’s my lowly opinion that while Google clearly has Microsoft in its target, it’s still a long way off from unseating it. Those strong relationships with enterprises are still a major advantage.

So the question becomes, can Google develop that expertise to work directly with enterprises in order to truly understand their needs, or will Microsoft begin to shift its development processes to more quickly respond the way Google does while utilizing its corporate relationships to shape the next generation of enterprise applications? Well, its easy to play pundit, but I certainly don't have the answer, but its a question I think will become more pronounced as Google takes bolder steps with enterprise applications, and everyone else responds accordingly.