Building Web 2.0 Enterprise: McKinsey Global Survey Results

This wednesday I got interviewed by a master student who’s writing a thesis on the cultural implications of Enterprise 2.0 (he promised to share his findings with me, so stay tuned …). Whatever, during our talk I argued with this late McKinsey survey (“Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise“) about reasons and traits that make Enterprise 2.0 projects and corporate implementations successful. Reason enough to examine it again, even when the survey doesn’t tell us much about methodology, nor about who got selected into the round of participants. But hey, actual numbers are always interesting, and the underlying models and assumptions are even more so. And as McKinsey is known for being heard in corporate boardrooms, it’s relevant (and you notice the pattern …)

One interesting point is the prevalence of knowledge management as area for enterprise 2.0 usage. I said this before, Enterprise 2.0 can breathe new life into a field that once seemed so out of date.

Another thing that I noticed is that organizations that are satisfied with their Enterprise 2.0 efforts are overall effecting more changes to organizational structures and processes than those that aren’t satisfied. This is something that Bertrand Duperrin notes too:

This is what to conclude from this McKinsey Survey (by the way, it confirms what I’ve been thinking for years) that tries to bring us a view of the state of the art in enterprise 2.0 adoption. At first sight I really didn’t like the title “building the web 2.0″ enterprise because it would suggest tools are central in organization. Fortunately, their survey shows it’s really the opposite.

First conclusion : bringing web 2.0 within the enteprise is not a fad but a heavy wide-range trend : internal, external, various tools, wide perimeters of experiment. Second conclusion : promises are not as easy to be delivered than many thought.

It’s not a suprise for me and it matches what I observed. Two kind of companies are emerging : those who had a tool-centric view and thought the rest will follow, and those who used tools as pieces of an organization change process.

[…]

Well, you need to change, and please don’t just see it as an add-on. The willingness to change the organisation, mind-set, processes and culture is the key factor. Scary, soft, social stuff that needs to be understood when trying to improve collaboration. And companies should learn a lot from their own “Intranet 1.0″ (and knowledge management) failures (and successes) before setting out for an Enterprise 2.0 journey …

OSMB: Trendstudie Open Source im Unternehmen

Oliver Diederich von Heise open stellt die Ergebnisse der Trendstudie vor, die Heise open  im Herbst 2008 in Kooperation mit der Ulmer Wilken GmbH durchgeführt hat (zum Fragebogen). Ab nächster Woche soll die Studie verfügbar sein, dann werde ich sie hier verlinken. Grundsätzlich bleiben ein paar offene Fragen, insbesondere zur Methodik der Studie, Aufklärung hoffentlich in der Vollversion der Studie.

[…] was aktuell im Einsatz und was geplant ist, wo Vorbehalte und Hemmschuhe liegen, welche Hoffnungen man mit dem Open Source Einsatz verbindet, welche Erfahrungen man gemacht hat und welche Geschäftsmodelle den Unternehmen und Verwaltungen sinnvoll erscheinen.

Ein paar interessante Beobachtungen:

– die Zufriedenheit mit OpenSource ist tendenziell höher als mit vergleichbarer proprietärer Software, eine Rolle spielen hier sicher auch die oftmals wenig flexiblen Lizenzbedingungen die es schwer machen die Entscheidung für eine dann doch ungeeignete Software zu revidieren
– im CRM ist SugarCRM der “Platzhirsch”, andere – auch bekannte Projekte – wie Compiere landen weit abgeschlagen auf den Plätzen
– die Enterprise Server Varianten werden häufiger eingesetzt als Alternativprojekte wie bspw. CentOS
– im Groupwarebereich ist OpenXChange eine Marke, ebenso eGroupware

Ein interessantes Problem ist der in der Studie festgestellte Mangel an qualifiziertem Personal im OS-Umfeld, wobei der externe Support zeitgleich als gut bis sehr gut empfunden wird. Sprich – es gibt wenige Berater, aber die vorhandenen wissen wovon sie reden?

Open Source Meets Business (OSMB) – Tag 1

Heute bin ich auf Einladung von Heise Events auf dem Open Source Meets Business Kongress (OSMB) in Nürnberg (Disclaimer!). Wie im letzten Jahr werde ich Beobachtungen und Notizen hier (oder in meinem Business Model Innovation and Design Blog) veröffentlichen. Daneben wird getwittert, vorrangig aber auf dem Konferenz-Account.

OK, um was geht es heute? Open Source meets (means) Business, durchgehendes Thema der Investment Keynotes am Vormittag:

Eröffnung, Empfang und Begrüßung durch Richard Seibt, Chairman der Open Source Business Foundation

09:15 – 10:00 Uhr – Investment Keynotes I, The Future of Software – Why Open Source is the Safe Bet, Larry Augustin, Diverse, Angel Investor

10:00 – 10:30 Uhr – Investment Keynotes I – Ergebnis der Trendstudie Open Source in Unternehmen, Oliver Diedrich, heise open, Chefredakteur

10:30 – 11:00 Uhr – Investment Keynotes I – Increasing Communication Drives Cloud Computing – Open Source Makes it Work, Rafael Laguna de la Vera, Open-Xchange AG, CEO

11:30 – 12:15 Uhr – Investment Keynotes II – Collaboration Contagion – How Collaboration is Changing the Economics of Software Development, Stuart Cohen, Collaborative Software Initiative, CEO

12:15 – 13:00 Uhr – Investment Keynotes II – Open Source Stack – a Prudent Choice – Not Only – when the Economy Gets Tough, Tom Berquist, Ingres Corp., CFO

Nachmittags dann zwei Technology Keynotes, gefolgt von Workshops.

14:00 – 14:45 Uhr – Technology Keynotes I – Mozilla – How to Bring an Open Source Application into the Mainstream, John Lilly, Mozilla Corp., CEO

14:45 – 15:30 Uhr – Technology Keynotes I – Participation in a World of Choice – Open Source and Microsoft, Bryan Kirschner, Microsoft, Director Open Source Strategy

Bei den Workshops werde ich voraussichtlich zwischen den Tracks 1 und 2 hin- und herwechseln, je nach Relevanz für mein Kernarbeitsgebiet Enterprise Collaboration und Enterprise 2.0:

T01 Business Intelligence, Content Management
T02 ERP, CRM
T03 Frameworks, Tools
T04 Infrastruktur, Security
T05 Integration, Systems Management
T06 SW-Entwicklung

Flexible Architektur, Usability und Wikis …

… war der Titel meiner Session am DesignCamp Cologne. Hier im Player ein Mitschnitt von Make.tv – als ein Teil der Live-Streaming Dokumentation. Und ja, wenn ich gewusst hätte dass ich ins Fernsehen komme hätte ich mir (Barcamp-untypisch) einen Anzug angezogen …

Folien zur Session folgen in kürze via Slideshare.

Update: though it seems that I linked the wrong video, it isn’t so. The make.tv player is your way into all the sessions they streamed at the #dcc09. So, hit Menu and use the fancy navigational buttons on the left and right to scroll through all the videos they are offering, you may start with my session anyway.

The digital company – freedom to collaborate

I am closing down some of the open tabs, cleaning up draft versions and stuff I always wanted to blog about. Not all drafts stand the test of time, but some do. On the topic of good organization the report Digital company 2013: Freedom to collaborate written by Kim Thomas for the Economist Intelligence Unit stays interesting. Some of the key themes explored by the report are

  • Technology knowledge will permeate the enterprise.
  • Social networks will be common in the workplace, like it or not.
  • Beware information paralysis.
  • Digital tools will democratise access to information.
  • Digital tools provide employees with greater control over the information they can access.
  • IT will also need to loosen the reins.
  • Ceding technology control will be good medicine.

And they note that in order to realise the benefits of improved collaboration business leaders must come to terms with autonomy: “for employees, in how they access information and spend their work time; and for business units, in what technologies they purchase and how they use them. Above all, it will require from executives a great deal of courage—to allow technology to bring customers and other third parties into the company’s operations—and trust in their employees to access and use information freely.”

In Auto industry and Enterprise 2.0 Andrew McAfee speculated what he would do if appointed “Detroit CIO”. While the set of 10 principles he’s applying is good, I am not too convinced that technology, i.e. rolling out emergent social software platforms (ESSPs) to all employees of the company, starting internal CXO blogs etc. would do the trick. The car industry is a heavy user of IT already, adding to the pile of tools won’t help in overcoming resistance. And that’s where the rub is: implementing Enterprise 2.0 concepts must cope with the people, processes and the tools they employ in these processes (I specifically doubt that Six Sigma or Lean Production processes can benefit much from Enterprise 2.0 concepts, these are repeatbale and highly automated processes, i.e. they don’t need no flexibility, adaptivity or emergence). But some other advanced (knowledge work) processes might benefit a lot – hey, collaboration and social software might even help in turning around a basically flawed business model, so Andrew’s thought experiment is very welcome.

Then, IBM Research is looking at adoption, usage patterns, motivations, and overall impact of Social Software in the Workplace (pdf). The paper focuses on the internal usage of social networking (Beehive) and examines the individual goals people have when utilizing these platforms (like interacting with colleagues, career advancement, convincing and informing others about ideas and projects).

Via Stewart I found Gerard Tellis & Ashish Sood‘s article “How to Back the Right Technology” in the Wall Street Journals and MIT Sloan’s Business Insight – dealing with mistakes organizations often make when choosing which technologies to adopt:

  • They fail to distinguish among different levels of technology, with the result that they focus too much on one level and get tripped up by changes in another level.
  • They assume technological performance follows a standard path — from innovation to obsolescence. It often doesn’t.
  • They fail to recognize that technological innovations shape consumers’ tastes, not mere whims.

Good advice included, like e.g. try multiple things at once and don’t bet too heavily on one choice, on picking a winner:

  • […] Technologies, and the competition among them, evolve in more-complex ways than conventional wisdom suggests. To make the right choices, managers need to understand these patterns of evolution.
  • [so that] executives can avoid some common mistakes: missing a market-changing technological breakthrough, embracing a hot technology too eagerly or abandoning another one too quickly, and underestimating the effect of new technologies on consumers’ tastes.

And if you’re in doubt what technologies to evaluate for 2009 EDS’ Charlie Bess gives you something to think about, see his predictions for 2009 (granted, a mixed bag of IT technologies and/or approaches). To me, most important and most interesting is his starting point:

In this [financial et al. crisis] situation, the investments in technology can actually have more impact than at any other time, since your competitors may be in a purely cost cutting mode. In 2009 organizations must maintain a balance between the new/strategic and the immediate return, between operational cost-cutting and operational excellence. Anytime there is this level of conflict, the situation is ripe for innovation

Well, basically looks like a good situation for social software in the enterprise aka Enterprise 2.0 …

Outlook on collaboration in 2009

Besides playing experimenting with some new (sometimes cloudy) collaboration services and technologies (and I didn’t even make it halfway here), battling a nasty cold and family time I’ve been reading my share of Enterprise 2.0 outlooks for 2009 lately, starting off with Gil Yehuda of Forrester (“Predicting the battle over collaboration infrastructure in 2009“) who answers short questions with good long analysis.

Gil, do you think companies will cut back on Enterprise Web 2.0 in light of the economy?

First reaction – it depends. I’m an analyst, that’s always our first answer. […]

That’s not all for sure, he goes on to ponder what lies behind all this, i.e. he delves into the relation between IT department and business units, diagnoses an increased need for collaboration functionality as a result of “layoffs, mergers, and deepening external partnerships (requiring new infrastructure to collaborate outside the firewall with trusted, external partners)”, and sees a slowdown of IT-driven collaboration projects in 2009 compensated by more business-driven collaboration projects. A good read.

More general are FastCompany’s predictions that 8 experts have for Web 2.0 in 2009, even with Charlene Li among them who holds

“[that] the biggest innovation will be the opening of social networks so that they can exchange profiles, social relationships, and applications. As such, companies need to think about how they will “open” up their businesses.”

Read-write web compiles a list of enterprise-focused web products that are already doing well and are poised success in 2009, nice that there’s a subcategory of Wiki++ (oh, this geeky humour):

We added “++” to “wiki” because the leading vendors are rapidly incorporating micro-blogging, social networking, forums, and other collaboration tools. Integration is key, so we see this market moving towards suites, but with wiki at the core.

Yes, said that before, think “middleware for humans” – one might even argue that wikis are archetypical infrastructure, and being flexible enough to cater for diverse and changing needs.

Then Craig Roth of the Burton Group presents their views of the 2009 landscape for communication, collaboration and content and warns

It’s also important to note the cyclical nature of organizational dynamics, which underlies everything we talk about related to communication, collaboration, and content.  Rather than just disappearing, terms like “knowledge management” fade from view only to be rediscovered when their time is right.  Governance has been on the tip of the tongue for at least five years now in our space, but it may fade only to be rediscovered under a new name ten years from now.

That is why it is so important to understand the basic concepts and dynamics behind communication, collaboration, and content before delving into the specifics of any specific technology.  If you don’t understand your history, for example, social networking can be felled by the same issues that caused collaborative workspaces to fail before them.

Craig also blogged about the implications of the tough economic conditions on the collaboration (and IT) market, something on which I will post a follow-up soon as well. Actually I think that the economic crisis might even turn out good for collaboration initiatives, open source and Enterprise 2.0 …:

Companies that come out of recessions in a stronger position than they went in are those that judiciously invest in technology and related processes that let more work get done with less resources as well as reducing costly delays and red herrings when making decisions. And when the market downturn ends – and it will – opportunistic organizations will be in a better position to succeed than those that had hunkered down during the recession.

Some more quotes and notables:

– Mike Gotta thinks about some acquisition possibilities (or dangers) in the Enterprise 2.0 market, triggered by an article in CIO magazine “Web 2.0, Social Networks in ’09: The Year of Consolidation, Not Innovation” that puts Lotus Connections and Sharepoint in perspective (btw, I don’t buy the article’s argument that consolidation in the enterprise Web 2.0 market could hamper innovation around those tools, I guess the innovators in this space have set high standards already, plus the real issues aren’t with nifty tools et al.). Yet, the triggered reasoning by Mike on “strategic fits” is good, and I can’t help wondering if some of these M&As might turn reality in 2009. Besides he’s done a great rundown of various Enterprise 2.0 issues too …

– Robert Scoble sees a fight coming between the collaborative web and Microsoft, besides being busy talking to Socialtext and Jive Software (during his Enterprise disruption week), while  David Coleman examines the underlying thinking (in “The Evolution of Collaboration Technologies“): “Most of these organizations are betwixt and between. It is safer to go with what you know (IBM or Microsoft) but also can be expensive in a recessionary period. Or phase out the aging collaborative infrastructure for something a bit more up to date, with more collaborative functionality. So far most of them seem to be playing it safe, a few are looking for new tools that will meet their collaborative needs both today (with the Millenials) and tomorrow.” and Kevin Mullins offers some Technology Predictions for 2009 (“I see Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 becoming feature sets in new products and services in the Enterprise, however they will not become feature sets in all Enterprise products”). Well, fair chance and clever arguing 😉

– At last, CBC had a feature interview with Clay Shirky on the pros and cons of social media, new online business models online, and how big change comes from human motivation, not shiny new technologies. Well, yes, don’t blame the web intranet when it’s filter failure, yes, the ability to pay attention in the Web 2.0 age is the “work smarter, not harder” version 2.0

    So now I wish all my readers, friends, colleagues, partners and clients a happy and successful 2009. I hope you all had time and rest to enjoy some quiet days with friends and family before the rat race starts again. Oh, again it’s making-fun-of-rats-time – I really must look out lest this turns out a standard operating procedure …?