|
Late last month, McKinsey, the big daddy of research, did a study on web 2.0, an arena no-one can ignore nowadays, and correctly identified it as having the potential to have a more far reaching effect than the mega technologies (remember the tens of thousands of dollars implementations?) like ERP, CRM and supply chain management. (what have we been saying all this while eh?) The study, titled "Six Ways to Make Web 2.0 Work", identifies and wonderfully articulates the impact and potential of web 2.0. McKinsey identifies the democratic and participative nature of web 2.0 technologies, which according to them "have a strong bottom-up element and engage a broad base of workers." The reason for it is that they're just so simple to use, (HyperOffice a case in point) and the benefits they provide so obvious, that they're compelling for everyone to use. technology is suddenly taken out of the domain of IT experts talking forbidding jargon, and huge server rooms whose whir scares the hell out of you. These technologies are also light weight in every sense of the word as "earlier technologies often required expensive and lengthy technical implementations, as well as the realignment of formal business processes." but "the new tools are different. While they are inherently disruptive and often challenge an organization and its culture, they are not technically complex [and I might add, or expensive] to implement. Rather, they are a relatively lightweight overlay to the existing infrastructure" McKinsey also has great expectations of the growth of this industry which "is a relatively modest $1 billion," at this point, but expect that the level of investment, despite the recession, should grow by more than 15% annually over the coming 5 years. Companies who are well entrenched in this domain are certainly sitting on a gold mine. McKinsey also identifies six key factors that they believe are critical to the success of efforts to implement Web 2.0 tools in the enterprise. - The transformation to a bottom-up culture needs help from the top
- The best uses come from users, but they require help to scale
- What's in the work flow is what gets used.
- Appeal to the participants' egos and needs, not just their wallets.
- The right solution comes from the right participants.
- Balance the top-down and self-management of risk.
McKinsey closes by saying that the "acceptance of Web 2.0 technologies in business is growing. Encouraging participation calls for new approaches that break with the methods used to deploy IT in the past."
|
