Monday, May 5, 2008

What Is Enterprise Web 2.0 Software?

Interestingly someone asked this question on linkedin. This question has been asked to me by many people who have limited understanding of web 2.0 and trying to adopt web 2.0 in the enterprise environment. Some of them even ask how many softwares they need to buy or build to enable enterprise web 2.0. Then I have to explain them the basics of web 2.0 and what is required to adopt web 2.0 within the enterprise.

Before we get into enterprise web 2.0 software, we need to understand what is web 2.0. It is not just a technology, it's a trend. Web 2.0 is built on set of principles that differentiates it from legacy paradigms. The principles including using web as platform, using company data as business advantage, having apps which are device agnostic, apps with rich user experience, apps harnessing collective intelligence, and apps that are lightweight ever evolving enabling new business models. They must leverage network effect. Web 2.0 applications need to provide business value, either in additional revenue or reducing costs. If one looks at these principles, any application which is build on one of these can be classified as "Enterprise Web 2.0 Software".

For example, one of the principles is harnessing collective intelligence, it is basically team collaboration, knowledge sharing and team workspaces. Wikis are one of the most widely adopted web 2.0 collaboration technology. Its been used for knowledge sharing, project management, task management and online collaboration with team members. Wikis can be classified as "Enterprise Web 2.0 Software". Wikis such as eTouch SamePage, Confluence, MediaWiki, ClearSpace have got lot of traction from the enterprises. Another example, in search domain there are products like Baynote which enables relevance optimization on the legacy search engines. They leverage end users behavior and their clicks, to generate better relevance on search engine results. They are also classified as "Enterprise Web 2.0 Softwares".

There is no single product that claims to solve all business problems and at the same time enable web 2.0. It is how you implement and deploy these applications and bring value to your business. It all depends on your problem and the business.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm working on a project where the client wants E2.0 technology to drive business change. Their mantra is that it's about people not roles. But surely, people within an enterprise context perform a role, service, function, they wouldn't be there otherwise. So how to apply the 'user-centric' principle to a business domain with services that are, at their simplest, linear processes? We can implement E2.0 technology that enhances collaboration between actors in the process, re-design the process and technology to provide for a rich(er) user, so in terms of our (project) priority, the focus is still firstly) the process/service/function that adds business value, and secondly) how the user interacts with the technology to enable the process/service/function and achieve desired outcomes? Am I missing something???

Anonymous said...

I'm working on a project where the client wants E2.0 technology to drive business change. Their mantra is that it's about people not roles. But surely, people within an enterprise context perform a role, service, function, they wouldn't be there otherwise. So how to apply the 'user-centric' principle to a business domain with services that are, at their simplest, linear processes? We can implement E2.0 technology that enhances collaboration between actors in the process, re-design the process and technology to provide for a rich(er) user, so in terms of our (project) priority, the focus is still firstly) the process/service/function that adds business value, and secondly) how the user interacts with the technology to enable the process/service/function and achieve desired outcomes? Am I missing something???

Anonymous said...

I'm working on a project where the client wants E2.0 technology to drive business change. Their mantra is that it's about people not roles. But surely, people within an enterprise context perform a role, service, function, they wouldn't be there otherwise. So how to apply the 'user-centric' principle to a business domain with services that are, at their simplest, linear processes? We can implement E2.0 technology that enhances collaboration between actors in the process, re-design the process and technology to provide for a rich(er) user, so in terms of our (project) priority, the focus is still firstly) the process/service/function that adds business value, and secondly) how the user interacts with the technology to enable the process/service/function and achieve desired outcomes? Am I missing something???