Enterprise 2.0 Driving Next-Gen CIOs

Web 2.0 is at the centre of excitement with enterprises trying to utilise the current generation of internet technologies to the fullest.

Web 2.0 – The Evolving Internet

Since the dot-com bust around 2001, the use of Internet technology has matured, resulting in the evolution of a new communication medium. Personal profiles, blogs, and wikis provide simple tools that allow people to communicate without needing the understanding of complex web technologies. People can share their interests and expertise and create a continuous string of collaborative content.

According to Kishore Swaminathan, Chief scientist at Accenture, “Web 2.0 is a marketing term and fundamentally represents a shift of power from technology to people.” The current interest in Web 2.0 has developed because of a culmination of economic and technology trends. These trends make the social and technical characteristics of the current generation of internet technologies a fertile source for business innovation. David Mitchell, SVP, IT Research at OVUM states that Web 2.0 is an evolution of the internet. It’s all about technology, interactivity and collaboration.

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The Emergence of Enterprise 2.0

While more and more enterprises are trying to take advantage of Web 2.0, the emergence of Enterprise 2.0 seems inevitable. The two main drivers as pointed out by David are customer interaction and the quest to can manage business more efficiently. Thus, Enterprise 2.0 can help businesses get more out of the interaction by getting more information about what the customer really wants. Nalin Singhal, MD, IRCTC, points out the same and states that Web 2.0 helps in collecting critical information about what a customer, the services he has been offered and whether he/she is satisfied or not.

So the next generation customer services set up will be a community that will be created around the company’s products and services leading to self-service for customers. This is the vision of Enterprise 2.0, according to Swaminathan. The widespread adoption of social media and participative technologies needed to transform culture and decision-making in large organisations will create chaos. Due to the tremendous transparency, the hierarchy of the enterprise will no longer be a block. But it’s easier said than done.

David Mitchell quotes, “With Enterprise 2.0 comes a host of technical challenges, and firstly, it’s the management of data. With so much data being accessed and aggregated there is bound to be a data management challenge. Secondly, there is a security challenge, as there will open access to everyone.” Thus, the road to Enterprise 2.0 is not easy. As a CIO there might be loads of challenges in terms of technology and regulation, but Enterprise 2.0 might bring a revolution in the working of the enterprise.

Conclusion

“In an Enterprise 2.0 scenario, the hardware and the software will be in the sphere of cloud computing.” says Swaminathan, who also feels the role of a CIO will also change substantially in an enterprise 2.0 scenario, from a Chief Information Officer to a Chief Intelligence Officer. Web 2.0 is the latest initiative and is now transforming into Enterprise 2.0. Enterprise 2.0 offers new business opportunities, but also brings challenges in how enterprises embrace challenges with reference to the community and protection of proprietary information. However, the success of Enterprise 2.0 depends chiefly upon the way the evolution takes, and hopefully it will not just be another burst of a bubble.