Web 2.0 is a collection of technologies and tools that support connectedness and collaboration. These technologies include instant messaging, blogs, wikis, chat rooms, search engines and many others. They are available over the internet and have moved the style of enterprise working from a desktop application world to an internet, distributed model with many applications being located on the internet. They are moving from early adoption to mainstream but still meeting a great deal of resistance and I want to offer a few crumbs of comfort to people who have embraced these latest technological innovations and explain some of the resistance I have encountered in large organisations.

Demographics are changing

First of all, people who grew up using these interactive Internet tools are accelerating adoption of these technologies as they join the workforce and we can identify a a generation gap evolving between more experienced workers who regard the new technologies as gimmicky and unproven and new joiners to the organisation who regard these tools as essential for day to day interactions. These new joiners bring with them their experience of instant messaging, blogs, wikis, mashups, RSS feeds and other Web 2.0 social networking tools that will enable them to collaborate more freely in an enterprise environment. If these tools are not available then they will be surprised as they regard them as part of the basic facilities require for enterprise working and not a luxury option. Secondly, another interesting demographic is the increasing group of older, online collaborators who are new to the technologies but are embracing them wholeheartedly. These 'silver surfers' have got up to speed with texting, email and instant messaging and have more time to pursue their interests and use the internet as an organising tool. Easier access to broadband and the decreasing cost of desktops have meant there are many classes being run throughout the UK where these people are learning new skills in web design and graphics.

Resistance to Web 2.0 within Business

There is resistance from some organisations to formally adopt and support Web 2.0 tools and the media have provided many media stories about Facebook being banned from the workplace as it makes employees less efficient as they while away their hours talking with their friends. Many organisations have blocked their use or have introduced monitoring.

Even before Web 2.0 tools people have creatively idled through meetings, surfing the online travel sites, checking their portfolio of investments, reading the weekend football analyses etc etc as well as the non-technological time wasting activities such as coffee breaks, cigarette breaks and personal phone calls which cannot be controlled and monitored as easily as online collaboration. The issue is more about trust between managers and workers; a lack of direction in terms of overall objectives for the business or a sense of a common enterprise that encourages such behaviour.

The command and control attitude does not work well with Web 2.0. Web 2.0 tools are informal, messy and participatory. Google is a good example of a tool which uses links to tie things together and predicts what will be most valuable, therefore extracting value from complexity while making it easy for users to decide and explore. Inhabitants of this world must develop the ability to live with a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity and to change their mind frequently. Command and control management style would demand an outline project plan or essay plan before undertaking the work and drives the conclusion before the research has been started and discourages exploration. The inability to manage uncertainty is a constraining factor for adoption by many businesses as hard measures of efficiency and effectiveness need to be estimated and then sold to the executive board before any commitment is made.

Successful Adopters of Web 2.0

Some organisations (small and large) have already adopted such technologies in order to improve collaboration, capture information and improve the quality of available information to make decisions. Organisations collaborate with alliances, associates and alliances in order to grow their business quickly and respond to demand quickly. Technology is regarded as a way of creating a step-change in collaboration.

These organisations regard collaboration as a rolling programme of technology and cultural change adding to the programme whatever is needed that will allow them to collaborate across time and geography to tackle the large client issues; to mobilise ideas and assemble teams and capability quickly. It is the cost of doing business in the 21st century as a 21st century organisation. Furthermore they develop the balance between promoting company wide usage to support enterprise objectives and ensuring that there is an element of self-interest in any adoption initiative. This adoption moves the organisation away from an internal tribal mindset to a global mindset that can work across internal business silos, with alliance partners and customers in near time.

The outcome is that they have better relationships with their teams; their teams can be combined of employees, contractors, client resource, vendor resource and any other resource. Their connectedness reduces decision time and escalates issues quickly to be dealt with and they can develop a more intimate relationship with the client.

Re-Use of Existing Assets

Atos Consulting Financial Services team are investigating the use some of our existing knowledge bases to extract more value from that information that we already possess but need to share more effectively across businesses and geographies. We believe that social software can boost the effectiveness of all employees. For example, new technologies can be used for identifying required skills for projects, innovating new ideas and propositions, creating teams, developing thought leadership, and learning. We promote the use and growth of existing information (data and documents) that are not tied to the user but available to all. The goal is to move away from document and information sharing being done by email and PowerPoint and residing on local drives.

Another goal is to speed the processes of getting to know each other in a large organisation and establish points of common interest and engage in meaningful communication. People won't naturally share information, sometimes due to compliance and security restraints, time constraints, siloed think or simple self-interest ('what's in it for me') so businesses have to break down those barriers to sharing and develop positive reasons to contribute information.

External collaboration is important. Where we can we use technology to interact with customers, partners and suppliers and remain connected. This too is an ongoing process as we look to connect our processes with their processes. For example, instead of organising a form filling meeting with the customer to complete a satisfaction survey why can it not be sent as an online survey to the client. Less effort and we can collect more information from a broader number of people at lower cost.

Conclusion

The adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and collaboration culture has begun and cannot be turned back as it is giving a competitive advantage to the more nimble organisations. The technology is not expensive and be implemented using a viral marketing model to ensure that those who want it and need it will use it first. It will require a cultural change in management style away from command and control to a more collaborative, hand on style of management. It will also mean a flattening of organisation structures as people from the fringes are now in direct contact with their colleagues elsewhere and the organisational structure becomes more connected.

Speed of adoption and effective use of these technologies will provide a competitive edge to service and non-service based companies.