In a new series of articles, E20portal.com will be assessing recent Enterprise 2.0 reports from leading industry analysts and research organisations. In our first article we explore the awareness and perception of Enterprise 2.0 and Web 2.0.

Our recent featured blog post from Bill Ives and Andrew McAfee’s 'Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration' both point out that Web 2.0 for consumers is not the same as Web 2.0 in the enterprise.  KPMG's 2007 report - 'Enterprise 2.0: Future or Fad?' - defines key Enterprise 2.0 terms from a business perspective and describes how Enterprise 2.0 can bring real business value.

Forrester Research however regularly uses the term ‘Enterprise Web 2.0’. The lack of a single reference term among analysts continues to create confusion.  This confusion may inhibit the uptake of new business oriented tools because many businesses are wary of giving users access to consumer Web 2.0 products.

The line between consumer technology and business technology is blurring. This is becoming a significant challenge for businesses to manage. The results of a Sophos survey suggest that 50% of workers are blocked from using Facebook at work due of concerns over productivity and security.

In Forrester’s survey of 265 IT decision makers - 'IT Departments Play Key Role In The Acquisition And Deployment Of Web 2.0 Technologies' - 48% remain concerned about the risks of unsanctioned tools and technology. 

The report also claims that 63% are expecting social technologies to have an impact in the business world. This impact will be a positive according to most respondents, with only 3% of viewing Web 2.0 negatively.

As Enterprise 2.0 gains validly through mass adoption the differences between Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and the business value they can bring, should become clear.  However we still have a long way to go. AIIM recently surveyed 441 individuals in a major Enterprise 2.0 study - 'Enterprise 2.0: Agile, Emergent & Integrated'. AIIM found that 74% of respondents have only a vague familiarity, or no clear understanding, of what Enterprise 2.0 is.  Although despite this lack of understanding 44% of respondents indicated that Enterprise 2.0 is “imperative” or “significant” to corporate goals and objectives. Oliver Marks of Zdnet and the blogger Niall Cook add further comment to AIIM’s findings. CMSWire also provide a useful summary in ‘Organizations still don’t get Enterprise2.0’. 

Is the value of Enterprise 2.0 clear for your business? Have your say in our comments.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed