More from Forrester on the Future of Enterprise 2.0 Technologies

I recently received a review copy of Forrester TechRadar For Vendor Strategists: Enterprise Web 2.0 - How Product Strategists Should Approach A Maturing Web 2.0 Market, Q4 2008 by G. Oliver Young with Gil Yehuda, Kyle McNabb, Peter Burris, Sara Burnes, Zachary Reiss-Davis. This is a very comprehensive document that goes into great detail on the future of enterprise 2.0 technologies. They focused on technologies considered most appropriate for employee collaboration and included 11 technologies: blogs, forums, mashups, microblogs, podcasts, prediction markets, RSS, social bookmarks, social networks, widgets, and wikis. They begin the report with useful definitions of each tool that also include use cases, some vendors, and estimated costs to implement.

One of the most interesting parts was a chart that conveyed the current status and predicted success for the Forrester 11. Some were just starting on their journey (microblogs), others had reached their high point (podcasts and forums) but none were on their way down. Here is the breakdown but predicted success:

Significant success: social networks and wikis Moderate success: blogs, forums, mashups, prediction markets, RSS, widgets Minimal success: microblogs, podcasts, social bookmarks

I would generally agree with these predictions on the tools as isolated entities. I would move mashups to the top category and social bookmarks to the moderate category. In my discussions with vendors, mashups are being increasingly used as the application development platform underlying many tools. So it is both getting harder to separate them and they are becoming more pervasive. I think social bookmarks provide a useful utility that is getting integrated into other tools.

However, my major concern is looking at these tools in isolation. I see an increasing movement among vendors to provide integrated platforms that make use of a number of these tools. Even a very focus tool like Connectbeam combines social networking with social bookmarking and integrates it with search. Broader platforms like Traction make use of blogs, wikis, forums, and, most recently microblogging. Deki Wiki and Central Desktop combine many of these tools with a wiki platform under the covers. I could go on. In fairness to the Forrester group, they did say that some tools such as microblogging will make it as a feature rather than as a standalone tool. I just think the analysis should make more mention of integrated platforms.

Some of the other highlights include the finding that none of the enterprise 2.0 technologies are at risk of obsolescence as no replacements are on the horizon. They also said that the business value will accrue at a relatively slow pace. They argued that while consumers can dramatically alter their behavior in weeks and months, it’s much more difficult to move thousands of workers in an enterprise to go in one direction. This may likely be the case for enterprise wide adoption in large organizations. The successes that I have seen are more at the small to midsize business level or divisions of larger organizations.

The reports adds that RSS’s function for repurposing content is underappreciated in the enterprise which is an excellent point. People need to be more creative here. Another conclusion finds social networks becoming the focal point for enterprise 2.0 in organizations. They wrote, “Social networks provide context to content. Whereas information management traditionally focused on the information itself, employees will seek to connect with the people who created and care about the same information they care about.” I could not agree more.

The report finds that wikis show evidence of helping transform collaboration in the enterprise. A number of the vendors, such as Traction, Deki Wiki, and Central Desktop mentioned above, as well as many others, are using a wiki platform but adding a lot of functionality on top. I think this is where the future lies. The report goes into great detail and I have just covered a few highlights. It appears to be a useful state of the industry. I have taken a few minor exceptions, as noted above, but it largely rings true. I want to see a next report on the trend towards integration of functionality into broader platforms.

Post Script - See Toby Ward's extensive comments, Web 2.0 / Intranet 2.0 gaining traction, on the same Forrester report. His study on Intranet 2.0 reveals similar findings about the adoption rate and usefulness of these technologies – and why some companies aren’t bothering to adopt them. See his post on how to get a copy.

Comments

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[Hutch Carpenter]

Hey Bill -

Thanks for posting about the Forrester report. I'd heard about it, nice to get a sense for what it's about.

Your perspective on Connectbeam is spot on. Social bookmarking is valuable and getting good use with our customers. We are expanding Connectbeam's mission toward integrating the social software silos that are emerging inside companies. Do this right, and your create a whole new layer of value for Enterprise 2.0.

I'd like to point your readers to two write-ups that further explain how this helps:

1. Tangible ROI: How Connectbeam Saved $50,000 for a Company http://bit.ly/XvKv

2. Three Ways to Double the Value of Your Social Software http://bit.ly/Oh9h

Thanks,
Hutch

[Bill Ives]

Hutch

Thanks for the links. These are very useful posts. I will look to write about them. Bill

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[Toby Ward]

Hey Bill, nice post. I've written on this too and also blogged you at:
http://intranetblog.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2008/11/28/3999474.html

[Gil Yehuda]

Bill, thank you for the excellent write up on our report.

I wanted to share some context about our thinking to address your insightful comment:
"I would generally agree with these predictions on the tools as isolated entities. I would move mashups to the top category and social bookmarks to the moderate category. In my discussions with vendors, mashups are being increasingly used as the application development platform underlying many tools."

We debated this one when we put the report together. The vendors did provide compelling cases with new tools and valuable use cases. However we had to discount the placement of these technologies in our reports when we considered the data from the user community. Users across the board are lagging behind in their uptake, understanding, and use of these valuable technologies. We hope that Information and Knowledge Management professionals learn about the benefits of these technologies and overcome the current barriers to adoption.

So that's why we made the call the way we did.

[bill Ives]

Gil

Thanks for your comment and more from the user community's perspective. I admit that I have been talking more to vendors than users and thus am likely getting biased data. I say this not because the vendors are giving self-serving misinformation, but because they are more likely to talk with the early adopters who purchase their services. I also like your advocacy of E 2.0 to KM professionals as I see this as a real opportunity for them. Bill