A new report from Forrester Research, a company that has been closely following the adoption of web 2.0 and social technologies by businesses, now says that their earlier predications about Web 2.0 in the enterprise may have been too timid. Last year, they said that in 2008 I.T. shops would start to take a leadership role in Web 2.0 adoption by business, but this latest report is now debunking the conventional wisdom that I.T. is as skeptical as once thought.
Web 2.0 At Work: Acceptence and Concerns
The most startling number to come out of this recent study – a survey of 260+ I.T. professionals – is that 63% are now expecting social technologies to impact the business world. Even more interesting is that they feel that the impact will be a positive one – only 3% of respondents viewed Web 2.0 negatively.
However, that’s not to say they don’t have their concerns. They are wary of one thing in particular: 79% are concerned about the risks of unsanctioned use of these tools by employees. Like we mentioned before, “tech populism” occurs when employees go behind I.T.’s back to provision their own tools from the ones freely available on the web. This opens up a whole new way to jeopardize sensitive company data.
I.T. To Lead The Way
To fight this trend, I.T. departments realize that must lead the way for Web 2.0 adoption and act as an enabler and facilitator of Web 2.0 tools. And this is where I.T. still holds the power – 80% of enterprises reported that funding the Web 2.0 deployments remained within the hands of I.T. This is most likely due to the fact that I.T. is still the major source for technological expertise within a company.
This news means that Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 technologies looking to gain a foothold in business, simply appealing to the CIO or one particular department (like Marketing or HR) won’t be enough. Tech marketers looking for insights into how to embrace I.T. in order to gain acceptance should check out the Forrester report for more details and suggestions.
