Web 2.0: Does Your Company Have the Right Mindset?
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Businesses often rush into implementing Web 2.0 applications, and the results are poor. Do too many companies approach Web 2.0 the wrong way? |
"Dull" and "drab" are a few terms outsiders could use to describe IT. Those words probably cross the minds of business executives and non-IT workers from time to time.
But they're worse when they describe how businesses are using some of the flashiest technologies around. And that's just what Forrester Research did in characterizing many businesses' Web 2.0 efforts.
As Ed Cone points out, Web 2.0 applications are a new, exciting gateway to customers and for keeping the pulse of what they're thinking. The problem is, businesses just don't seem to be doing Web 2.0 right.
Craig Kensek responded to Ed's story, writing: "You can't just do the Web 2.0 talk ... Web 2.0 is a new set of tools, as well as a new mindset of dealing directly with the customer."
Too many companies rush into the Web 2.0 world, opting for buzzed-up tools instead of finding strategic uses and implementing them carefully. Businesses need to explore Web 2.0, but they need to pick tools that fit their business, and not be afraid to make a few mistakes along the way, Kensek adds.
Do you think your IT shop has the right mindset about Web 2.0? Or is it wasting time and money implementing applications that don't deliver any value?
Comments (1)
I do not think my parent company has the right Web 2.0 mindset. I hate using that term; I try to replace it with Web-based business applications. In any case, I have switched from a company that used Web technologies in a variety of different ways--nothing groundbreaking, but they realized that you could often cure the core of a business problem with a little well-placed code, applet or application, to my current company, whose answer to most everything includes something from Microsoft or SAP -- just pitch money at it.
My old CEO was a nice guy, but he also kept a very tight eye on costs. If we needed an intranet, our minds did not automatically go to Sharepoint server. What is the problem we're trying to solve and what are our options to solve it? I prided myself for being able to solve those problems with a little ingenuity and no or very little money. That is not the feeling I get from my current company.
You can do a lot with the newer Web technologies or creative uses of older technologies/languages. I'll miss those days.
Posted by Rick Schulze | September 4, 2008 3:00 PM