The study is the latest in the TechRadar series, Forrester’s research methodology used to predict the success of a set of related technologies over the next decade. The enterprise Web 2.0 analysis provides insight for two roles: Information & Knowledge Management professionals and Vendor Strategy professionals.
"Web 2.0 collaboration technologies solve problems that enterprises have today, but most companies have not used these tools anywhere near their potential" said Gil Yehuda, senior analyst, Forrester Research. "This new research illustrates to enterprise users where the smart money is invested and where to place their strategic bets. In the current economic climate, Forrester believes collaboration tools can save enterprises operation costs by getting people and processes together quickly and efficiently"
"While so much of the buzz around Web 2.0 has focused on the business-to-consumer market, the greatest opportunity today for vendors is in the business-to-business collaboration space" said Oliver Young, analyst, Forrester Research. "Some Web 2.0 collaboration technologies have shown a faster-than-normal life cycle, so it is critical for vendors to take stock of the enterprise tools that have the greatest long-term potential and invest wisely in those technologies"
Forrester previously estimated the enterprise Web 2.0 collaboration market will hit $1.8 billion by 2013. The enterprise Web 2.0 TechRadar study is based upon an analysis of previous research and interviews with industry experts, vendors responsible for building or implementing these technologies, and enterprise customers and users.
Forrester predicts the following Web 2.0 collaboration technologies will continue to experience growth:
o Social networks (cultural resistance exists, but Forrester believes this will eventually break)
o Wikis (users report success with Wiki endeavors, particularly when sponsored by business leaders)
o Blogging (social networks will breathe new life into internal blogs by providing more context to blogged content, but Forrester found that blogging alone does not capture the audience’s attention)
o RSS (underappreciated in the enterprise)
The following Web 2.0 technologies have large and resilient ecosystems, according to Forrester, and can last for several years or even decades, but over time, the markets will become highly consolidated, customer numbers will flatten, and revenues will level off or decline:
o Podcasting is on the decline. Users tell Forrester that podcasts in the context of enterprise productivity and collaboration are neither very engaging nor immersive, and the vendor landscape is shrinking.
o Forums are underused. While forums will continue on as a fundamental enabling technology for collaboration, the marketplace is flat, and forums will become part of larger community-focused packages.
View the full report Enterprise Web 2.0" and "Forrester TechRadar™ For Vendor Strategists: Enterprise Web 2.0" are currently available to Forrester RoleView™ clients and can be purchased directly at forrester.com.
Bill Ives agrees with most of the reports findings, but believes mashups should be listed with the social networking and wikis as “significant” successful technologies:
“In my discussions with vendors, mashups are being increasingly used as the application development platform underlying many tools,” says Ives in his post More from Forrester on the Future of Enterprise 2.0 Technologies. “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, Bill cautions organizations who look at all or any of these tools as a stand-alone technology working 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(ed) 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.”
My 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. If you want a full copy of the findings, you must complete the survey– even if you don’t have Web 2.0 / Intranet 2.0 tools your feedback is invaluable. To that end, make sure you please take 10 minutes to take the Intranet 2.0 Global Survey and you’ll get a copy of the full results including the good, bad and learned lessons.
Once a
necessary evil, or completely ignored all together, employee communications is
becoming a vital discipline and corporate function at leading organizations.
“10 years
ago in employee communications I found that we were moving away from the
classic, traditional forms of employee communications… and to this new age that
we’re in: moving away from regional and cultural change into an age of new
commitment,” adds Keith. “And that new age of commitment means we have to use
listening tools better, we have to use the technology we have today better than
we have ever in the past. And that includes intranet technologies, as well as
other forms of digital and social media.”
The need
for better “listening” and communications could not be more starkly highlighted
in the Watson
Wyatt Communication ROI Study™.Among the findings, those companies that invest in employee
communications realize greater profits:
Companies that communicate
effectively have a 19.4 percent higher market premium than companies that
do not.
Shareholder returns for
organizations with the most effective communication were over 57 percent
higher over the last five years (2000-2004) than were returns for firms
with less effective communication.
Communication effectiveness
is a leading indicator of financial performance.
In
becoming effective employee communications cultures, technology including the
intranet and social media are becoming critical delivery and participation
channels.
“I
believe today that with the focus on authenticity, with the focus on new ways
of delivering communications… and social media… our world is dramatically
changing,” says Burton. “We have employees today, as an
example, who are receiving information both in the media as well as inside the
organization that influences their working different parts of the world.”
As for
the future, story-telling models and social media (Web 2.0 / Intranet 2.0)
might provide a sneak preview to the changes aheadin an increasingly important field.
“I think
the next 10-years will be dramatically different,” says Burton, who leads arguably the world’s
top agency dedicated to employee communications in Chicago-based Insidedge. “I think we’ll see more focus
around a grass-roots, bottom-up form of employee communications… rather than
the hierarchal communication. I think it will be populated more by the
story-telling model models that we seen in companies like Dow Chemical. We’ll
see organizations that have to bridge cultures better… in creating a
singularity in culture where employee communications is a very, very vital part
of that world.”
U.S.
President-elect Barack Obama’s to-do
list (from Gerry Flahive, The Globe and Mail (Canada):
1.Buy puppy.
2.Return You Don't Mess with the Zohan DVD to video store; ask for refund as
it kept skipping on special features.
3.Fix global economy.
4.Win war in Afghanistan.
5.Choose puppy name from short list: Carbon
Neutral, Alexis de Tocqueville or Mr. Giggles?
6Buy chew toy for puppy (or several?How fast do they go through these
things?)
7.Renew our historically strong ties with the
Dominion of Canada, asserting America's respect for its cultural and
political independence, and ever-so-delicately renegotiating only several small
clauses in the North American free-trade agreement, all the while assuring the
Canadians of our sincere goal of improving trade without harming that nation's
vital potash industry. (Canadians will laugh hysterically to this… the others
will scratch their heads. It’s a cultural thing).
8.Train puppy.
9.Find out if suede is considered
"presidential."
10.Send change-of-address form to post office.
11.Return the $150,000 worth of Nike basketball
shoes to the Democratic National Committee.
12.Change status on Face-book to "is now
president-elect."
13.Wean self slowly off Grecian Formula.
14.Buy more Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer.
15.Start work on
inaugural address; appropriate to mention puppy?
It goes
down the list to 44 items but rapidly becomes less amusing...
Here’s my (Toby Ward's) “Web to-do list” for President-elect Obama:
1-Facebook friend
invite Dick Cheney
2-Horrified by his
friends list, “remove” Dick Cheney from friends
3-Redesign the
country-western motif of the White House Intranet
4-Mapquest “Taco Bell”
with directions from 1600 Pennsylvania
Seriously,
intranets are boring. The Internet, is mildly more interesting There really is
a lot more to life…
It
occurred to me that while this blog / site is dedicated to business technology,
I’ve noticed interest in non-business related blogs (from time-to-time). So,
once in a blue moon I’m going to give you a little more insight into me and
“what makes me tick” so that you might be able to place a personality to the
individual that all-too-often is droning on about “2.0”, employee productivity,
engagement… blah, blah, blah.
So I’m
going to offer up a multi-part series on “What makes me tick” beginning with my
favorite songs. For my birthday this year, even though we’ve separated now, my
wife and daughters bought me an iPod. It was a fantastic gift, really, because
I’d forgotten how important music is in my life, in people’s lives in general,
and what an up-lifting and influential affect they can have on mood, attitude,
energy level, etc. So while it was difficult to narrow this list down to
something more manageable, and in no particular order, here are my all time
favorite songs:
Welcome to the Jungle - Guns
N’ Roses
ParadiseCity - Guns N’ Roses
Always on the Run – Lenny
Kravitz
Learning to Fly – Pink Floyd
Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
So Lonely – Police
Message in a Bottle – Police
It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet – Blue
Rodeo
Little Bones – Tragically Hip
Bolero – Ravel
Blue Danube – Strauss
Alive – Pearl Jam
Red Mosquito – Pearl Jam
Evenflow – Pearl Jam
It’s the End of the World –
REM
Only the Good Die Young –
Billy Joel
Chan Chan – Buena Vista Social Club
Definition – Kruder &
Dorfmeiseter
Walk on the Ocean – Toad the
Wet Sprocket
Little Heaven – Toad the Wet
Sprocket
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Pride – U2
Mass Romantic – New Pornographers
When I Come Around – Green
Day
As Baile – Enya
LA Woman – The Doors
Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith
All Along the Watchtower –
Jimi Hendrix
Bad Moon Rising – CCR
Back Door – CCR
You’re Nobody Till Somebody
Loves You – Dean Martin
Bring the Noise – Public
Enemy
Can I Kick It – Tribe Called
Quest
Enjoy the Silence – Depeche
Mode
Blind Faith – New Order
Honorable
mentions (just missed out, but I couldn’t pick just one song):
Collective Soul (too many to
list)
Gin Blossoms (anything off
the 1st album)
Public Enemy (most anything
from first 4 albums)
Sarah McLachlan (my
neighbour)
Odds (played my high school)
54-40 (went to my high
school)
Stone Roses
Oasis
Velvet Revolver
Beatles
Mark Isham
Celine Dion (ha ha, just
kidding )
Feel free
to post your own favorites below… or to disagree with me by posting below. Part II next week on my favorite books.
“The Web
content management market is mature and expanding,” says Gartner’s latest
MarketScope for Web Content Management (MacComascaigh, Gilbert, Bell, Shegda, Andrews). “Vendor
consolidation has fallen (slowed)… functions such as workflow, ease of use and
multi-site management are no longer differentiating factors; they are the
norm.”
Findings:
Open source solutions (OSS, represents only 3% of the
total WCM market) are increasingly stable, robust and growing in market
share
Web 2.0 phenomenon is driving
WCM innovation
Change management and user
adoption will need to be applied to both internal and external users
The total WCM market, at $750
million per year, will grow at an annual rate of 15% through 2012
(representing 25% of the total ECM market)
Recommendations
for implementing a new WCM system (CMS):
Develop specific business
goals and link these to business objectives
Understand the cultural shift
represented by Web 2.0
Interoperability (multiple
systems working together or migrating from one to another) needs to be
considered, as does rationalization of multiple WCMs
Hosted SaaS solutions are not
growing as fast due to business and technical reasons
Total cost (TCO) of OSS solutions should take into
account initial price tag
Highest
rated vendors (strong positive):
Interwoven
Ektron
Lowest
rated vendors (caution advisories):
IBM (Lotus)
Mediasurface
Also of
note:
Vignette gets a positive
rating but with caution due their financial performance (also read Vignette
still in transition)
Microsoft SharePoint (MOSS)
is listed as a very average “promising” with lots of caveats and listed
weaknesses (see What the experts say about SharePoint (MOSS)
Gartner estimates a typical
replace of a WCM system to be around 5 years
My
analysis:
Gartner’s
MarketScope is somewhat different from the average Magic Quadrant in that the
qualifying vendors must have $10 million in licensing revenue to qualify, and
there is no magic quadrant but rather a 5-point rating scale:
Strong negative
Caution
Promising
Positive
Strong positive
While
there are hundreds of WCM solutions (thousands, really) only 17 qualify.
The
report is concise and solid intelligence for a representative snapshot look at
the current marketplace. This report is a good starting point to understanding
the market, but is not an adequate tool for helping an organization select a CMS. If you have significant
experience with WCM (CMS) and have very detailed and documented requirements and
plans for WCM, then a better report is the CMS Watch Web CMS Report 2009. If you
don’t have a solid understanding of the market and solutions, and what to watch
out for then you better consider Prescient’s CMS
Blueprint service.
Additional
notes on vendors:
Interwoven – Though due for a major tech upgrade, I
like how Interwoven has evolved in the past couple of years. The updated, AJAX-powered
U; the campaign management functions, etc. This is a
very powerful system, but overkill for an intranet… it’s sweet spot is the
external, product marketing website.
EPiServer – the Swedish-based
vendor is a real up-and-comer – and it’s average contract value is below
$10,000 which gives all the others a run for its money.
IBM (Lotus) – despite its
caution rating, this is still a reasonable solution… if you’re a Lotus
shop and/or use WebSphere. Outside that, there are far too many good-looking
alternatives.
Microsoft – I think it’s
generous to label SharePoint (MOSS) as WCM. It really is a portal /
development platform that is really quite weak bang-for-the-buck for WCM.
Garter cites its weaknesses particularly “ease of content reuse, multisite
management, workflow and enterprise-level federation capabilities such as
replication and multi-farm synchronization.” MOSS is a good enterprise
portal solution in a small to medium-size organization.
What is
absent:
The Content
Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) specification or standard was
ignored in this report.CMIS defines a
model or framework ensuring that content can be used by one or more Enterprise
Content Management repositories or systems. Frankly, I wouldn’t buy a WCM (CMS) if the selling vendor hasn’t
agreed to implement this standard.
(GENEVA, SWZ) I rarely share my
adventures with readers simply because… who cares what a Canadian does (beer…
blah, blah…. Hockey... blah, blah…. Doughnuts… its all been done before)?! However,
I’m going to make a special exception today because people need to be warned –
the world needs to be warned about Gare du Nord.
I’ve been
through Gare du Nord (GRD), the preeminent rail station in Paris, a half-dozen
times or so in the last couple of years. Traveling to and from GRD via Eurostar
is a breeze; other rail lines are a little more chaotic, but manageable if
you’re not in a rush; the RER is a f—king nightmare.
Yes, I
swore on this blog – for the first time in the nearly four years I’ve been
writing it. Let me repeat myself for the record – just in case you thought I
was drunk or just slipped on the keyboard –the Gare du Nord – RER combo is a
f—king nightmare. (Caveat: this Swiss beer I’m presently drinking – only my
first today so I’m quite lucent thank you – isn’t helping my mood, nor is the GenevaAirport, one of the most annoying in the
Western world… good thing I’m not in Tampa drinking Busch Light).
Where to
begin…
1-Behemoth - If you’ve never been through GRD then it’s
worth a look at some point. But if you’re traveling into Paris or traveling by rail, it’s very
difficult to avoid. As far as I know, it’s the biggest rail station in the
World (I’m not a rail roadie though so I’m only guessing… it dwarfs Waterloo in London. If there’s a bigger one then I’m
damned impressed.). GRD is a monstrous network and labyrinth of rail tracks,
caverns, cafes and tens-of-thousands of people (I swear there was 150,000
people there today at 2pm when I was passing through)
divided into multiple levels, untold sections, hundreds of platforms and spread
amongst hundreds of retail outlets and ancillary services. You’ve heard of the
10,000 pound gorilla? This is the million pound uncle – whacked-out on baguettes
and Merlot, and really friggin’ mean, smelly, and vengeful.
2-Signage – Hartsfield (Atlanta) and O’Hare (Chicago) International Airports are
behemoths. Last time I checked, they were #1 and #2 in the World in terms of
total passenger and cargo traffic; phenomenally complex cities that are
stunning in their magnitude. Despite their size and complexity, it’s easy to
get around these two giant airport cities because the signage and layout is so
well done, and the terminals are so well organized (yes, flight delays at
O’Hare are unrelated and an entirely different blog). Bear with me here… I’m
building up to a point before the Swiss beer buzz kicks-in. The layout and
signage at Gare du Nord... well it sucks – it sucks eggs (oeufs en francaise…
or ‘ass’ if you’re on the playground). There are signs on the floor, sandwich
type boards, signs on the walls, signs hanging from the ceiling, sign posts
mounted on the floor, television screens of all kinds and sizes everywhere, and
signs waved in your face by drivers and gypsies begging for money (or
out-in-out stealing it from your pockets… more on those urchins in a bit). But
these signs don’t help… they confuse, distract, and bewilder. Oh, they also
come in all shapes, sizes, colours and fonts too. The signage is so bad, and
the layout and organization of all the platforms, tracks, levels, and lines are
so garishly awful, that station employees and other Parisian’s are confounded.
I waited 30 minutes on one track after two different people, and one station
employee (security guard) had told me to do so… and they frequent the place…
only to find I was waiting on the wrong platform. The locals were confused; and
all I was trying to find was the line to one of the world’s biggest airports,
Charles de Gualle!!!!!
3-Pick-pockets – The pick-pockets are bad (though I’ve never
been burned as I’m too paranoid and hawkish)… but the wandering gang types are
truly wonderful: they make English football hooligans look downright seductive.
Aggressive street types openly wander the areas
waiting to make eye contact so that they can start up a conversation, usually
initiated with a “Can you spare a cigarette, buddy?” But there’s nothing
‘buddy’ about the approach or their tone… the question is not so much a query
as it is a statement: “Answer my question so I have an invitation to murder you
for what ever measly Euros are in your pocket because I need crystal meth
something bad.” One guy asked me for change and I just ignored him without
saying anything (really it’s the best policy as you most definitely want to
avoid physical contact, and absolutely don’t want to get into a conversation
that could distract you while his buddy robs and rapes you). This particular
Don Juan didn’t take kindly to the silent treatment and started yelling at me
while following me through the crowd. I’m pretty certain he had a ‘shiv’ and
was gonna shank me, but I wasn’t too worried as there’s always an elite
commando squadron close by. “Hah, ha Toby, very funny…” You’re thinking the
Swiss beer has finally kicked in and I’m exaggerating for affect, but no, I’ve
now switched to Carlsberg (god bless those Danes) and I’m quite sober thank
you. In all seriousness, there are combat squads patrolling the station…
multiple squads. Not single guys, or pairs, but they patrol in formations of
three – two in the front, and one in the back. And they have machine guns; not
on their shoulders, or over the back, or in a case, but guns-in-hand,
at-the-ready, with their fingers on the trigger guards. Full fatigues,
battle-ready, army personnel. You ever see Aliens (not the first, but the
sequel)? Those are the bad-asses prowling GRD, and they’re everywhere. Okay,
I’ve painted a bit of a canvass for you and I’ve barely scratched the surface…
4-Tickets – God this one is painful and maddening to write
about; the dentist or a Barry Manilow marathon are joyous holidays in
comparison. I don’t know who in the hell is in charge of ticket systems at GRD,
but they should be fired – instantly. Do they still have the guillotine hanging
around from that little revolution they had…?!?!? I’m going to spare you most
of the details here but I’ll summarize: their ticket machines don’t take credit
cards (most of the time; they work some of the time… but most of the time they
ask for your PIN or reject your card outright. PIN?!? For a credit card purchase?!?!
Who in the hell remembers that?!?!). Your debit card won’t work either; the
machines don’t take cash; and unless you have 12 euros in coins tearing a seam
in your pocket, you’re S.O.L because there’s no change machines either!!!! The
only thing these idiot boxes take is change and there are no change machines!!!!
But they’re very pretty machines… wonderful colours. So they’re trying to sell
you tickets, but you cannot buy them. But you’ll discover this after you wait
in line at the machine for 15 minutes while all the other folks ahead of you
try and figure out how to pay for a ticket and storm-off fuming with the
frustration you’re about to wear like a Dick Cheney hangover from a hunting
party. There was a couple with a child that up-and-left and went to hire a
driver to take them to the airport… (the taxi line-up at GRD is another blog unto
itself). Sadly, I wasn’t as smart. So now what…? You have to go buy a ticket
from a human. Okay that’s reasonable, right? Get in line. The line is 30-people
deep and your flight leaves from Charles de Gualle in 60 minutes – and you’re
still in the purgatory otherwise known as Gare du Nord. Once you finally get
your ticket, avoid certain death from a street thug, and survive the maze that
could easily have doubled for the one that claimed Johnny in “The Shining”, now
you’re ready to find your train…. That’s the funnest (go back and read
paragraphs #1 and #2 again).
I could
go on but I think you get the point: the next time you’re in Paris, take a taxi to the airport.
PS – The
Danes make good beer, the Swiss don’t… but they’re all owned by the Belgians.
But now that I’ve got the aforementioned off my chest, I’m just a happy
Canadian on my way to Portugal. Cuidado!
PSS – I normally read history and business books, but my Kruschev
biography is too big and heavy for this trip… so I bought and am half-way through
the autobiography of Slash, lead guitarist for Guns ‘N Roses and Velvet
Revolver. In a word, it’s frigging awesome! What insanity and debauchery… it
doesn’t matter if you don’t like the music or disapprove of the scene or rock
n’ roll lifestyle, this is a must-read look into the music world without the
MTV filter, make-up, and half-rate PR shroud. Anyone read Nicky Sixx's book? Recommend?
One of
the biggest questions I’m confronted by attendees at the conferences I speak
at, as was the case at jboye08 in Denmark this week, is how do we blog? Or
rather, how do we get approval to blog? Okay, to be perfectly frank, the
question is more often a comment: “We have no idea how to begin a blog…”
Bill Ives is a blogging
expert, has been walking-the-walk for years, and is paid to
Phase One: Setting up the Blog and Getting it Ready for
Prime Time. Before you start to promote the blog you will want to get it in decent shape.
Here is what needs to be done.
Ensure the Blogging Strategy is Aligned with Business
Strategy. Review the business objectives of the blog and how they fit within
your firm’s overall marketing and business strategies.
1. Decide on a descriptive name for the blog and write a
two sentence description to go along with this name.
2. Pick the content coverage of the blog and consider the
types of posts you will write. This can be enhanced and modified as you
continue.
3. Write the “about this blog section” which covers your
objectives, content coverage and any relevant policy issues.
4. Decide and name the major categories of content, or
themes, that will be covered in the blog. Make sure they align with your key
words and all the significant key words are covered. You can add more later.
5. Pick the original bloggers. Match expertise with
selected themes. This group can be extended later.
For
engaging senior executives and management to play a role, I recommend a
business case that demonstrates the employees’ need for more direction
communications from the top, and highlights winning case study examples from
others…
