Enterprise 2.0 Adoption
If you are a business who has been ignoring the fast growing Web 2.0 trend and the spread of different social media platforms, then look out! The rise of social media has not happened overnight as the power of the internet to unite people, the rise of Gen Y and the development of new technologies for socialising on the web – all of these things and more have led to the rise of social media. This new force is affecting the way that companies do business in order to survive in this new age.
Transactional system benchmarks just don’t work in a Enterprise 2.0 environment, but we keep applying them to collaborative situations anyway. Scott Ryser, CEO of Yakabod outlines 4 counterintuitive principles that work better in such a different environment to traditional business methods:
1. Launch Before You Are Comfortable: This is most probably the toughest method of them all to ignore any instinct and training and go live before you’re ready. Don’t wait until business analysts have addressed all the technical issues and fine-tuned every workflow. Naturally, the business will communicate this strategy to users anyway and if they think you think they’re using the final iteration, you’ll have a credibility problem. Release early and often!
2. Training Discourages Adoption: Whenever training is mentioned people say “Training is important!” Yes it is, but Day One is more crucial! If users can’t do anything with the system the first time they see it — log on, post a blog entry, check a calendar or find a resource — that perceived difficulty is tough to overcome.
3. Impossible Deadlines Work Best: This goes hand in hand with the “launch before you’re ready” principle. Pick a realistic launch date and compress it by half. You’ll get more done than you believed possible and less than you think is enough, which is exactly the way it should be.
4. Past Successes Don’t Count: Surprisingly, a winning track record with transactional enterprise systems doesn’t help Enterprise 2.0 success. Decision-making and control are shared sooner and more broadly. The project’s never finished. Appointed leaders aren’t always the de facto leaders. And first-hand collaboration experience carries more weight than titles.
The number of companies who are already integrating Web 2.0 technologies into their businesses processes and IT infrastructure is on the rise. A study by Forrester on the adoption rate of Web 2.0 technologies by IT is actually stronger in enterprises than it is in small-medium sized businesses (SMBs), with 42% of enterprise businesses now utilizing Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX, Flash, Flex, etc. to 32% of SMBs. Additionally, there is growth in the areas of Web 2.0 app investing, with a number of companies investing, piloting, or considering investment in Web 2.0 technologies like RSS, podcasting, wikis, and blogs.
Ultimately, companies ignoring this shift will only do so their own peril. The numbers don’t lie: your customers have adapted and your competition has adapted – turn a blind eye and prepare to lose marketshare. You may even just lose altogether.
Anthony
Great post, thoroughly enjoyed your perspective on launching before your ready! At first it was hard to understand why, but it is a very logical approach after spending some tme thinking about it.
I also agree that if businesses do not start to latch onto Web 2.0 they better watch out, they’ll most likely see a decrease in profit and therefore a reduction in their customer base.
Nicholas Burge
Thanks Anthony! I really tried thinking of out of the box solutions as social media is strongly about standing out from the rest if you are wanting to leave a lasting impression on viewers.
Sadly I believe many older/established companies may be left behind and their sales will drop do to their lack of adoption rather than their lack of product quality or effort
we’ll just have to wait and see.
Anthony
Thanks for the reply Nick! So true, but hopefully they will have young consultants on their team to advise them about important adoption strategies.
Nicholas Burge
Hopefully they are not too stubborn to hire consultants in the first place. They may not like people from outside the company coming in and telling them how to run their business.
Daniel Keirnan
“Pick a realistic launch date and compress it by half”, that would put so much pressure on the company to complete it. Many late nights I assume.
Could you please elaborate a bit on #4 as I don;t quite understand why past successes don’t count?
Nicholas Burge
Hi Dan,
I was also shocked it read that they should cut the time by half! But due dates are a great motivation to get something done
When I talk about past success, I referring to transactional enterprise systems that do not include any form of interacting with the public. As the power of information is shifted from the company to the users in a social environment, traditional methods do not apply and new methods need to be determined and implemented for a successful adoption.
Hope that answers your question?
Josh Whysall
Great Post Nick! Being a web designer yourself, have you personally implemented any of these methods?
Nicholas Burge
When I was first designing my portfolio website, I went through many designs and could not decide which one would best represent the skills and experience I had. So in the end, I launched a design that was quite simple where is gradually become more involved as the months went by and I found new things I could add. So I implemented the “launch before you are comfortable” strategy which from experience is a huge motivation to keep working on it as it has already been released the the public.
Bluewire Media
Very informative post Nicholas. The rise of Gen Y is definitely shaping the way we use tools. Much like the popular case of Flickr being used as a photo sharing website way before the company reinvented themselves as that, there have been many more examples. We design and develop a system, then most often that not, the users find other purposes that we never thought of during the design process which is sometimes frustrating but also a sign that the system is being used.
It look like you could benefit from a few of our posts: http://www.bluewiremedia.com.au/blog/
Nicholas Burge
Thank you Bluewire Media for your comment!
I completely agree with you, many web services are being used in different ways to first planned.
p.s. I am interested in your company and what if offers. I also see that you have other dealings with QUT.