Enterprise Web 2.0 Adoption Still Growing, McKinsey Report Says

The adoption of enterprise Web 2.0 technologies, often referred to as Enterprise 2.0, has grown since last year, an annual McKinsey report says. But barriers remain, including justifying a return on investment to executives who allocate the money for Web 2.0 tools.

CONNECTIONS
McKinsey & Company
Wachovia
Wed, July 30, 2008CIO A new McKinsey report found that many companies have adopted Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, social networks and mashups during the past year, with companies on average adding three Web 2.0 tools to their companies technology offerings.

But most companies remain on the fence about whether or not they're happy with the new tools pervading their technology diets. Only 21 percent voiced overall satisfaction, according to the report, and 22 percent cited clear dissatisfaction.

The poll was conducted with 1,988 executives in June 2008 at enterprises located all around the world. The adoption by those companies of most Web 2.0 technologies has risen since the poll was conducted for the first time last year, according to the report.

For instance, blogs are being adopted by 34 percent of companies, compared to 21 percent in the previous year. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) — a technology that allows users to subscribe to information that's relevant to them and have the data pushed to a RSS reader or their e-mail box — jumped from 24 percent to 33 percent. Wikis went from 24 to 32, while social networking held steady, only moving from 27 to 28 percent.

The statistics support analyst contentions that social networking adoption has been sluggish due to lagging interest from employees who fail to update their profiles with fresh information , making for a static and uninteresting user experience. Often, they prefer their consumer social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, which as a result have often been banned by many corporate IT departments.

But the outlook for increased Web 2.0 adoption has begun to hit some barriers, the report contended. As the highest ranked issue, 28 percent of respondents said, "My company doesn't understand the potential financial return from the use of Web 2.0 tools."

That's often because the return on investment can be difficult to show in hard numbers. ROI rests more in connecting people to collaborate on new ideas, a senior vice president at Wachovia told an audience at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in June. Among the reasons he cited were improving engagement with employees and attracting Gen Y workers to the workforce.

For 22 percent of executives, their corporate culture doesn't encourage Web 2.0 usage. In addition, 20 percent said, "My company doesn't provide sufficient incentives to adopt or experiment with Web 2.0 technologies."

Web 2.0 adoption in the enterprise — often referred to as enterprise 2.0 — has been difficult because many employees feel the need to remain tethered to more traditional tools such as e-mail.

But some companies have been successful by implementing wikis in small groups and having departmental leaders champion their use to direct reports. A marketing company that spoke with CIO in June about its wiki implementation said that team leaders at his company would respond to e-mail inquiries with a link to a wiki, asking employees to read or edit it.

On the whole, one thing the report made clear was that these tools have been primarily adopted to tackle the problem of knowledge management, the process of storing and sharing information within organizations. A staggering 83 percent of respondents who had added Web 2.0 technologies for internal use said that they did it to "manage knowledge." Close behind, 78 percent said they used Web 2.0 to "foster collaboration" and 74 percent to enhance company culture.


Loading...
Applications MarketSpace
Practical Approaches for Securing Web Applications
Enterprises understand the importance of securing web applications to protect critical corporate and customer data. What many don't understand, is how to implement a robust process for integrating security and risk management throughout the web application software development lifecycle. Learn more »
An Executive's Guide to Web Application Security
Since so many Web sites contain vulnerabilities, hackers can leverage a relatively simple exploit to gain access to a wealth of sensitive information, such as credit card data, social security numbers and health records. It's more important than ever to examine your Web application security, assess your vulnerability and take action to protect your business. Learn more »
Web Application Vulnerabilities
Security managers may work for midsize or large organizations; they may operate from anywhere on the globe. But inevitably, they share a common goal: to better manage the risks associated with their business infrastructure. Increasingly, Web application security plays a significant role in achieving that goal. Learn more »
Using ERP To Gain Competitive Advantage in a Tough Economy
For midsize enterprises, now is the perfect time to invest in a significant IT expansion - despite the economic climate. Learn more »
Why BI is Ripe For Businesses of Any Size
Oracle's range of offerings to mid-size and emerging companies reflects its vision that BI and EPM solutions can be embraced by companies of all sizes. Learn more »
Oracle Accelerate
Ovum has been following Oracle's Accelerate program over the last couple of years because they thought it is a smart strategy for penetrating the upper mid-market. Learn more »
The New Age of ERP
Not only can small and mid-sized companies reap the renowned ERP benefits of greater agility, increased business visibility and measurable ROI. Learn more »
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

CRM Built for IT: The Executive Guide to Selecting CRM that Meets IT Needs

ROI of Application Delivery Controllers

White Paper: 4 Customer Service Myths

White Paper: Improve Agility with Operational Responsiveness

Removing the Barriers to IT Governance: How On-Demand Software Changes the Game

Cloud Computing--Latest Buzzword or a Glimpse of the Future?

A Balanced Approach to an Application Development Platform

Adobe® LiveCycle®solutions for intuitive user experience

10 Ways Excel Drives More Value from Your SAP Investment

What's New in SOA Suite 11g?

Unleash the Power of Java with Oracle JRockit Real Time

SOA Best Practices and Design Patterns

Application Grid: Ideal Platform for IT Consolidation

Ready to virtualize tier one applications? Check your virtualization maturity.

Learn how to provide complete Business Service Management.

Increase ROI of Your Application Portfolio

Return on Information: Google Enterprise Search pays you back. Get the facts.

VMware. The source for Business Infrastructure Virtualization.

ShoreTel tells businesses to untangle from competitors' complexity and turn to its brilliantly simple UC solution

See how AT&T can help protect your network.

Streamline IT Costs. Boost Performance with WAN Optimization.

Build your 1st app FREE with Force.com

TDWI checklist helps define data readiness for analytics. Download report.

eZine: A Roadmap to Reducing IT Complexity

Reduce risk, gain agility. See how Progress can help your business.

What's Next for Enterprise Resource Planning?

Gartner Magic Quadrant, Application Delivery Controllers 2009

White Paper: Managed Security for a Not-So-Secure World

SharePoint - Unchecked growth of content is unsustainable.

Focus Under Pressure: Why IT Governance Becomes Mission-Critical in a Down Economy

Should Your Email Live In The Cloud? A Comparative Cost Analysis

Adobe® LiveCycle® solutions for business process automation

Architecting Business Intelligence Applications for Change: The Open Solution

Increase UPS efficiency without sacrificing protection.

Unlocking the Mainframe: Modernizing Legacy System to SOA

State of the Data Integration Market

Enhance Customer Loyalty through Higher Responsiveness

Achieving Business Agility with Application Grid

Seven Ways ITIL Can Help You in an Economic Downturn

Four steps to populate your CMDB.

"Enterprise-Proven" is the Prerequisite for Enterprise SaaS Portal Solutions

AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service. Expand on demand

Trend Micro ranked #1 against real-world malware. Read more.

Webinar: Jump-start your in-house e-discovery with Ringtail QuickCull from FTI Technology

Top Five CIO Challenges

Read the RSA report: Security for Business Innovation

64-page prescriptive guide to security, compliance, and IT operations.

A Clear View Toward Virtualization

Virtualization Technology as a Business Solution

The rules of infrastructure management just changed.

 
 
RESOURCE CENTER