Adding Web 2.0 tools to a Collaboration Suite
As reported by News.com, IBM is adding social networking features to its collaboration suite, in the hope of bringing consumer oriented ideas of Web 2.0 sites to corporate software. It’s nice to see that even IBM recognizes the power of web 2.0 and what it can do for organizations. They are planning to incorporate social bookmarking, group discussions that are less structured and a bookmarking tool.
But it is important to remember that just adding these tools to pieces of enterprise software doesn’t necessarily mean that they will be adopted. These web 2.0 tools work in the context of other business processes, other tools, user motivations and broader cultural factors. By incorporating these tools, IBM is playing catch up more than anything else just BEA Systems and Microsoft have recently done.
If they really want to help organizations collaborate more, these companies should first spend more time studying the drivers that affect collaboration. Depending upon those drivers, specific tools should be targeted towards different industries, company types and employee teams.
Business customers who ask for these tools must also ask for qualified research into how the tools are adopted and used. The last thing employees want is more empty software to deal with. So employers be careful - don’t get caught up in the hype. Understand your business needs and then ask your vendors to explain in business terms (with data points) how those web 2.0 technologies can actually help before you go and buy them.
