Enterprise 2.0: Study Shows Adoption is Real
When you look at Enterprise 2.0, you can see the hype pretty clearly but what is not so evident is how social computing efforts are faring within corporations and large organizations.
That's what's striking about the report from the 2.0 Adoption Council. The group did a web survey of its 100 members with 77 responding. That may seem like a small number to use for any quantifiable conclusion about the state of Enterprise 2.0. But the people who responded lead or help lead Enterprise 2.0 efforts at some of the largest organizations in the world. Thirty-four percent of the respondents work for companies with more than 10,000 employees. Twenty-five percent work for organizations that have more than 100,000 employees.
These people have solid footing into how social enterprise technologies are being adopted.
Let's get to to the results:
Manufacturing Has Surprising High Adoption
It's not surprising to see high tech companies as leading the way in uses of Enterprise 2.0 technologies. But it's interesting that manufacturing businesses are proving to be adopters. These are companies with roots deep in the industrial age that are showing that they see it as important to bring social computing into the work of its employees.
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No Surprise About Early Adoption
It should be no surprise that Enterprise 2.0 is still in the early adopter phase.
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Budgets Are Healthy
Budgets are less than $500,000 in most organizations but 52 percent of the respondents have budgets between $500,000 and $5 milliion.
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Projects Are Well Under Way
Enterprise 2.0 is not just a concept any more but a reality in the enterprise with 34 percent saying they have multiple projects underway. We are curious about five percent having Enterprise 2.0 technologies fully ingrained into their work places. These must be more service oriented companies that do not rely on deeply entrenched technologies like ERP software.
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Who's Driving The Efforts
We often use terms like "groundswell," to describe the phenomena around social applications in the consumer world. In the enterprise, it's a different story. Adoption is often user driven but management is dictating a lot of the efforts.
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ROI is Hard To Define
The one weakness that Enterprise 2.0 faces is the abstractness of its return on investment. It's important to note, though, that 55 percent of the respondents are very satisfied with their Enterprise 2.0 efforts. Another 26 percent of respondents are somewhat satisfied.
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Conclusion
The 2.0 Adoption Council survey results unquestionably show that Enterprise 2.0 is well becoming a core part of organizations. The challenges will come as more scrutiny is placed on how the organization benefits from Enterprise 2.0. What really is the ROI? We expect this question will answer itself as more advanced analytics provide more detailed views about how the efforts are faring.
A Final Note
In addition to its survey research, The Council has also released its first "how-to" report, "A Framework for 2.0 Adoption in the Enterprise," which gives additional insight into how to successfully implement Enterprise 2.0 technologies within organizations.
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Comments
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what is the main character of enterprise 2.0 , social networking feature?
Can't say if it means something at all. Firstly there are only 77 samples and every 1% point doesn't mean much? But more importantly the samples are members of the 2.0 Adoption Council and you can expect much higher adoption which sadly is rather not impressive.
It’s great to see this coming together! Internal people responsible for leading adoption and usage need a place to share ideas, ask questions, and vet ideas. Bravo!
We have come a long way since the early days of TWiki 11 years ago when enterprise wikis were deployed in grassroots without support from management. Nowadays 50% deployed in top down and bottom up combined sounds about right.
E2.0 vendors currently focus on well polished collaboration suites (wiki, blogging, tagging, ESN, etc). We see a shift to enterprise agility where business units create their own applications, e.g. the wiki becomes a platform where employees roll their own apps. This is a way for IT to get the shadow IT under control.
-- Peter Thoeny, CTO Twiki Inc, http://www.twiki.net
It isn't that suprising that there is adoption in this selected group, since these enterprises are part of the 2.0 Adoption Council. And why would enterprise become a member of the 2.0 Adoption council if they aren't interesting (or working on an implementation of) enterprise2.0.
I truly believe that there is a real adoption of enterprise2.0, however this research is not the best research to prove this. It is like a candy store who did a survey that eating a lot of candy isn't that bad for you (or the other way around, some health institute that is doing a survey regarding obese kids showing that candy is bad for you since it makes you obese). Some research from a more neutral point of view (both from researches as the selected group) would be more valuable.
It seems that all get it but not the large enterprise vendor.
While ex-Facebookers work on Asana, Salesforce on Chatter, enterprise vendors like SAP works on PowerPoint Twitter tool. Is this what Enterprise 2.0 means to SAP?
http://tinyurl.com/yav4xmo
Possibly skewed by the company types of those of us who are members (and no transportation people?), but a really valuable survey nonetheless.
Point taken. This research does not speak to the universe for all enterprises... it is the Council's snapshot on 2.0 adoption for our member companies. As Alex stated, our members are some of the largest companies in the world. The research, if nothing else, proves Enterprise 2.0 is a growing sector in the tech economy.
The research will be available for free download at our site on Monday.
am I the only one that finds it amusing that Telecommunication companies were only 4th on the list at 8% adoption rates? :)
It’s very interesting to know that the adoption rate of enterprise 2.0 has been increasing considerably among the companies, particularly with manufacturing companies, and it is a very positive shift for the companies to realize the advantage of social computing at their workforce. Hopefully in assurance with its boom, enterprise 2.0 applications will extend its hype to other sectors even better in coming future. While the concrete ground plan and well designed framework aimed at clear targets can resolve the ROI issues and compel large number of companies to induce enterprise 2.0 in to their workforce.http://www.collabor.com
Funny to see how so many readers seem to be nay sayers. Of course the numbers are higher for this group but does it really need to be said? I wonder what the real numbers are and what people see as the real value opportunities? Is there a value in reducing email chatter? Is there a value in context (messages are connected to specific work and therefore are filtered based on what you are working on, Vuuch) and I wonder if a profile has any real value at the enterprise? One take away I see that is very interesting in this data is the fact that complex products are at the top of the list. This tells me that teams working on complex products must intereact and are looking for ways to improve this interaction where things that fit well in a workflow are not looking for new ways to communicate.
The results of the report are very positive, and the nature of adoption is largely in line with predictions. It would be nice to see a study on web 2.0 adoption by SMBs.
There is another way to turn the variables for ROI on their head. Making the initial outlay so very no brainer that the gains can only be on the upside.
I know of social media consulting firms who are tying up with enterprise collaboration platform vendors who use open source to drive down the costs on Proof of concepts to the sub $ 20K level. Yes, Sub $ 20K.
Here's a quick way to enterprise 2.0 nirvana.
1) Identify a proof of concept roll out that costs less than $20K
2) Open the POC for a small group of people and allow brainstorming that could return specific ideas for cost savings and variables on which to measure ROI during a full roll out.
3) This is when you touch ROI, choice of platform, etc.,
You can dumb down adopting enterprise 2.0. Keep looking..
ROI is often a challenge for technologies offering better communication and collaboration. Consider trying to establish an ROI for an enterprise's phone or email services: intuitively we know it aids the business but hard to qualify. With that said, customer facing initiatives such as sales enablement (increased sales) or customer service (less email, fewer phone calls, less issue escalation) have perhaps a more tangible ROI case.
I see high adoption in industries where margins are high and product cycles are expensive. As a result, these organizations have a high value for information. So it is not surprising to see high adoption in Manufacturing. But what is surprising is that Pharma is not more prominent - this may simply be a result of whether Pharma employees find themselves in a position to fill out the survey, or get involved in the E2.0 discussion in a public way.
The research definitely makes a strong recommendation for combining top-down and bottom-up approaches when possible!
Just finished a report on cost/benefit of Enterprise 2.0 for a 1000 knowledge workers. Even with the cost of E2.0 totaling 200K per year, the savings generated are enormous and over a 3 year time span amount to roughly 10 mln (euros or dollars, doesn't matter). Want to find out more? Just read http://bit.ly/58G8qJ as an appetizer