As online social and Web 2.0 services become more prominent in users' private lives, they will start to have a larger impact on the enterprise.
According to Gartner research VP Jeffrey Mann, speaking at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2008, in Cape Town, this week, these technologies - similar to Facebook and Wikipedia - have the potential to change the way businesses collect, analyse and understand information about the organisation.
While he admitted that social software may seem far removed from the business case, he said there are strong reasons enterprises should be interested in the subject. "People in a business environment have the same kinds of interactions as they do socially, they just use different objects."
He added that simply judging by the impressive statistics and influence that these sites have on how a large part of the population lives their lives, Gartner can see that social software is destined to be an important societal and eventually enterprise influence.
Mann says several businesses have already started to develop "enterprise social software" that can be used to manage office communication and information; however, these are still in their infancy and often expensive.
Just doing it
UK-based telecommunications provider BT is developing its own platform, converging several variants of online social communication. The company has a long history of implementing bleeding-edge technologies into the business model.
Steve Masters, head of global convergence propositions at BT Global Services, demonstrated the beta version of its social network, MyBT, to ITWeb at the symposium.
"I will not pretend that the business case has been easy," said Masters, while explaining the company's decision to incorporate the tools. He added that most of the expected benefits will primarily be intangible, especially in the first phase of the roll-out.
Over the last 18 months, he noted, the company has been piloting several technologies, including wiki-style info stores and unified communications systems. "Our next step is to consolidate our Web 2.0 technologies into a single portal."
The company has many offices across the globe and a large number of employees working in different "silos" of the business. "What these technologies enable is more effective communication between our employees and more access points into the various silos."
The company is consolidating the Web technologies into an iGoogle-style user interface, which will allow employees to choose which aspects of the social network they would like to incorporate.
Masters said the company expects the benefits to become more real, once it gains employee buy-in. "If users are powered to provide their own information, and not be controlled by the HR department in that respect, you will find more information than would normally have been available."
He cited an example of a Web developer who had decided to change positions and work within the finance department. He would have listed in his profile that he had experience in development and could possibly be contracted to help on a project, or provide advice.
While the programme is still in its infancy, Masters is positive it will be a success.
Related stories:
Deloitte goes for Web 2.0
Vodacom goes Zoopy
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