How CIOs Can Introduce Web 2.0 Technologies into the Enterprise
Opening up corporate systems to new user-driven tools like blogs, message boards, and wikis requires both technology and culture changes, a leading proponent argues.
5. Find (or be) an Enterprise 2.0 champion. Hinchcliffe relayed the story of investment bank Dresder Kleinwort (formerly Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein), which found great success with wikis. The corporate wiki was rolled out in the latter part of 2005, and by October 2006 it had 100,000 hits and 6,000 individual pages created by the company’s 5,000 employees, says Hinchcliffe. With its vague mission statement, fell flat. It wasn’t until one proponent spelled it out—Don’t send e-mails on this particular information, use the wiki—that the wiki caught on with users. Another key was that the executive did more than mandate for others to use the technology; he himself posted wiki content that required responses on the wiki itself. With clarity and modeling behavior, the wiki caught on.
The result? A new kind of collaboration that fostered new ideas across the company.
6. Keep tools simple, and allow openness. Enterprise 2.0, like Web 2.0, is a two-way conversation at heart, based on freedom of expression. While an organization adopting such applications needs to address security, privacy and governance issues, it is crucial to foster a sense of openness when using them. Many users may be uncomfortable expressing themselves openly; if they feel that openness carries negative consequences, they will be reluctant to use Enterprise 2.0 tools. On top of that, tools must be simple to use. If they are not, employees will stick with their own.
7. Realize the world of Enterprise 2.0 is the world of perpetual beta. To work, Enterprise 2.0 applications must be highly iterative, with users driving most of the change and innovation. What is working? What isn’t working? What features would you like to see? These are questions executives should ask; in many cases, users will make or suggest changes based on features that would make tools more useful to them. In the perpetual beta world, says Hinchcliffe, products are never finished. But since that has the potential to lead to growth, Enterprise 2.0 proponents think “never finished” is a good thing.
