Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Truth About Enterprise 2.0

Enterprise 2.0 is all about helping employees, customers and suppliers collaborate, share, and organize information with the use of Web 2.0 technologies. This new shift in paradigm works by using more flexible and collaborative tools to extend knowledge to a certain crowd on the Internet.

If you are still wondering why an organization would implement Enterprise 2.0, the simplest answer would be because up till today, most organizations has reaped many benefits from this. A few of the benefits of implementing Enterprise 2.0 are:
  • Improved company reputation
  • Increased productivity
  • More effective learning and development
  • Easier access to expertise and organisational capabilities

On the other hand, the use of Enterprise 2.0 by organizations has its risks too. Though the risks are minimal and has a low chance of actually happening, this still may turn organizations away from the idea of implementing Enterprise 2.0. Some of these risks are:
  • Information loss
  • Negative external comments
  • Information unreliable or incorrectly used
  • Reduced staff productivity

From the feedback I've received so far, many of you like it when I include examples that we all can relate to. So to better illustrate the benefits and risks, I'll be showing you how two companies which both uses Facebook as their Enterprise 2.0 tool can experience very different outcomes.


To improve their company's reputation and sales ClearlyContacts, an Australian optical retailer, came up with a promotion giving out a free pair of glasses. By using Facebook as their Enterprise 2.0 advertiser, those who wish to claim the offer would have to "share" the post. Their friends would then be able to see on their newsfeed that they have redeemed the offer. With everyone on Facebook having at least 100 friends, this form of advertisement definitely helps build an organization's reputation.

Upon accepting the offer, one is asked to post the offer to their timeline

The offer appears for all to see from their Newsfeed

Now we all know that almost all airlines already has their Facebook page set up. Apart from the other benefits mentioned, I believe their main goal is to build an online presence and maintain a good reputation. Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword and when you allow people to say sweet words about your organization, you should very well be prepared to be publicly critized or defamed too.

During the winter holidays, a friend of mine had a bad experience travelling with a particular budget airline. Even after lodging an official complaint, my friend did not hear from them for almost a month. Just so they do not bring me to court for defamation, I've decided to leave their name out of this post.

Left with no choice, this friend then went to their Facebook page and wrote a super long post on their Timeline. And on that same day, someone from the airline actually attended to the issue. With their company's reputation at stake, I suppose they had no choice to rectify the problem.

My friend's post. The full post contains a staggering 987 words!

I'm pretty sure this organization along with all others that has implements Enterprise 2.0 knew that there was a possibility of this happening. But what made them still go ahead with Enterprise 2.0? Well the answer is obvious, though there are certain risks invovled, the benefits of implementing Enterprise 2.0 far outweighs the risks.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Ben,

    This post was a good read with the bonus of an interesting live example to supplement. I am one of those who have found Enterprise 2.0 quite useful in speeding up the process of getting a response to an enquiry or a complain.

    As this post appears to be an elaboration of your previous post,perhaps you can end some of your posts with an indication of what your next post topic would be.It would be a good way to entice us to keep coming back here to read. Just an idea. ;)

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    Replies
    1. Hey Joyce, thanks for reading. Glad you liked it. Thanks for your suggestion and I'll definitely look into it in the near future. Stay tuned for the next post :)

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