At the Enterprise 2.0 conference Andrew McAfee made a few points about the approach to enterprise technology and how it might be changed a bit.
McAffee, of the Center for Digital Business, MIT Sloan School of Management, is considered the father of Enterprise 2.0. His views reflect how Enterprise 2.0 is evolving but still with a fair degree of resistance for its adoption.
Here they are…
Declaring War On The Enterprise
This definitely does not work. Do you think that you will get a project with such an approach?
Allow Walled Gardens to Flourish
Data silos prevent the ability to find and share information. You need to look across the organization. It’s a reason why enterprise search and collaborative search will continue to grow in demand.
Accentuate the Negative
We tend to talk too much about the challenges with Enterprise 2.0. This causes some issues with company execs who are a bit wary in the first place. It’s time for more customer stories to show the business benefits of this new breed of enterprise technology.
Try to Replace Email
Too often we try to replace email in the enterprise. But people do use it. It’s time to accept that email is part of a work style familiar to most users.
Fall in Love With Features
We get too feature crazy. It’s like that remote for your TV. How do you use this thing? With too many features, the user can get confused, turning them off to the technology.
Executives get nervous when they hear this too often. They are not in the business of running a social club.
The data silos issue hits home the hardest for us. The corporate world is document-centric. How can data silos be fragmented into bits that people can easily consume and use? That’s a major challenge facing Enterprise 2.0.
