Enterprise 2.0 will bring radical change in organisations

A very good article in Voice and Data magazine titled Enterprise 2.0 will bring radical change in organisations covers some of the truly important issues on the topic, going beyond narrow views of the technologies to how these new approaches will change organisations. It quotes Steve Hodgkinson of Ovum extensively, including some of these nuggets:

Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum research director, sees Enterprise 2.0 as a genuine opportunity for technology to act as a catalyst for changes in organisational culture.

"Enterprise 2.0 is emerging as the most practical way of sharing and managing knowledge in a range of contexts, from team collaboration to customer self-service forums. This leads to the ability to bring about cultural change with the personal power of informal networks such as wikis, blogs, profiles and forums."

"The root of its culture change power, however, is its ability to unleash the personal power of informal networks," said Hodgkinson.

...

Key ideas within this new system include:

* The need for a flat organisation, rather than an organisational hierarchy
* Folksonomy rather than taxonomy
* User-driven technology rather than IT department control
* Short time-to-market cycles; to continue and increase flow
* Global teams of people, rather than locating the whole organisation in one building
* Emergent information systems, rather than dictated and structured information systems
* The opening of propriety standards

Hodgkinson said: "These informal networks provide organisational peripheral vision and cut through the day-to-day nonsense, enabling more sensitive situational awareness, breakthrough thinking and access to the subtle levers of organisational change."

"The changes are designed to increase ability, flexibility, distribution, openness and simplicity within the organisation."

I strongly agree that these are the key issues at stake. There are lots of other great ideas to uncover in the article.

Steve spoke immediately after my keynote at the IIR Enterprise 2.0 conference last December - I wrote about some of his ideas in a summary of the event. Steve will be attending the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum this week.