Pulling a Double-edged Sword Out of Enterprise 2.0

Next Monday, 3/24/08, we release the AIIM Market IQ on Enterprise 2.0. The analysis and content development is complete, awaiting the final proofing and layout.  The report is full of unprecedented insights and market statistics regarding Enterprise 2.0, with over 70 charts and 60 pages of commentary. 

There are a handful of findings in the report that I found especially insightful.  Many of these come in the form of conflicting perspectives.  I want to share a just a few of them here, as a preview to the report.

Blind Criticality?

Conflict 1

Most of the organizations we surveyed strongly position Enterprise 2.0 as a technology and practice that is critical to their business goals and objectives.  Yet although Enterprise 2.0 is generally considered strategically important, most organizations (74%) claim to have, at best, only a vague familiarity with it. (41% stated there was no clear understanding.)

Conflict 2

Most survey respondents claimed to have high awareness concerning individual Enterprise 2.0 technologies.   Yet, as I mentioned in an earlier post, there was no clear definition of Enterprise 2.0 among survey respondents. 

Therein may lie the answer to the puzzle posed in conflict 1.
 
Perhaps knowledge of and experience with Enterprise 2.0 technologies (i.e. via simple, ad hoc usage due to their low barrier and transparent nature), is enough to give insight into how fundamental this level of integration and collaboration is to business challenges. Few companies, however, have taken the time or effort to rationalize Enterprise 2.0 holistically and strategically. Thus, there is an appreciation for how it will (tactically) be critical to success, but little understanding of how it fits (strategically) across an organization.

The ease with which Enterprise 2.0 technologies can be deployed is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is a major strength, a component of its value proposition. While collaboration in and of itself is not new, the ability to create online collaborative platforms with little to no effort or technical know-how is driving adoption and familiarity with the technology. On the other hand, this agility and speed of deployment allows many to embark on implementations without fully understanding the more strategic nature of these technologies.  Indeed, most organizations that attempted to justify an investment in Enterprise 2.0 could not do so.

This issue and many others are discussed in greater detail in the upcoming report,  available for download off of the Market Intelligence home page on Monday, 3/24/08, and we will be holding a webinar on the findings on 3/27/08 (register now).

To that end I must thank organizations such as CoreMedia, Day Software, EMC, Open Text, Socialtext,and SpringCM, who have underwritten this market research on Enterprise 2.0.  They too share our excitement and vision for Enterprise 2.0.  Because of their generosity and support we can make this research available to the market at no cost, to help educate and grow that market.

Comments

[Matt Moore]

I read the report. I am writing about it. Now howsabout you make version available on a wiki or that can be tagged or annotated in some way?

Shouldn't form reflect content?

Cheers, Matt

[Carl Frappaolo]

Matt:
First and foremost, thanks for noticing. Yes, a forum to allow open commentary on the Market IQ would be great. I believe we are doing a bit of that right here. You, and all others are invited to post comments to this blog entry, or others that focus on the Market IQ. Aside from that, not sure of a more effective means.

You suggested a wiki. Yeah, no. As we pointed out in the IQ, too many people are misusing these Enterprise 2.0 tools. A wiki is the wrong tool here I believe.

If you have a better idea - beyond using this blog site, please share it.

In the interim I should point out that Matt also blogged far more extensively on his opinion of the report, on his blog. I have chosen to address his commentary there.
http://engineerswithoutfears.blogspot.com/2008/03/ready-fire-aiim-enterprise-20-report.html

[Andreas Rindler]

Solid evidence of the current state of Enterprise 2.0 in organisations. As consultants to these organsations we need to be aware of the struggles, issues and expectations of Enterprise 2.0 solutions we are offering (http://mike2.openmethodology.org/blogs/information-development/2008/03/20/an-enterprise-20-industry-capability-model/). And many of the answers can be found in this report.
Well done,
Andreas

[Andreas Rindler]

Solid evidence of the current state of Enterprise 2.0 in organisations. As consultants to these organsations we need to be aware of the struggles, issues and expectations of Enterprise 2.0 solutions we are offering (http://mike2.openmethodology.org/blogs/information-development/2008/03/20/an-enterprise-20-industry-capability-model/). And many of the answers can be found in this report.
Well done,
Andreas