Web 2.0 In The Corporate World

Web 2.0 has spread widely among the internet community over the past five years and the social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace boast about more than 100 million users per month. Imagine how easy it is to have a mere 1% of that traffic referred to your site and the sales reaching the peak. These networking tools are more for consumer engagements and interactions. These should not be perceived as sales tools. Corporate companies have already noted the intense strength of these technologies that they are now becoming keen to adopt.

Why corporate are not ready to adopt this latest technology as they have adopted ERP and CRM?

• Corporate companies are too conservative and the fear of transparency which Web 2.0 offers makes them take the back seat
• Organizational structure and the lack of knowledge of managers to understand the new trend. Executives feel suspicious and uncomfortable and perceive such changes as taking unwanted risk
• Unless a quantitative measure is shown these corporate companies will not like to deploy
• They will not like to discuss about their clients or vice-versa openly and honestly as they feel they have bad competitors
• Implementation of Web 2.0 does not require much time, but to implement it and to participate in it requires the interaction of the larger workforce

These Web 2.0 tools are easy to implement but inherently disruptive and can challenge an organization and its culture. These interactive tools can be used strategically across the organization internally or externally to tap the unused potential. Corporate leaders should understand that this technology helps their business, employees and of course their customers as this provides a channel for broader collaboration, broader communication, instant and fair solutions to their problems and issues, to get feedback and opinions and helps community building. This in turn will help corporate leaders in generating new ideas and strategies and to take important decisions quickly and wisely.