Enterprise 2.0

10. February 2009 | From Tino Kressner | Category: Book Review

The term Enterprise 2.0 is used for the use of social software for project coordination, knowledge management, and internal and external communication of companies. He also points to a change in corporate culture that - away from hierarchical, rigid structures to horizontal, autonomous project teams.

In the book "Enterprise 2.0" from the editors and Willms Buhse Sören Stamer is the shift in business philosophy, which the Taylorism through the use of Web 2.0 technologies and approaches to replace. The system of Frederick Winslow Taylor is the end of the 19th Century were created and used to optimize assembly line work. In a strict hierarchical system has been working in small work groups and the money as a motivation of chord work. With the transition of industrial society to information society in the book is the question whether the present company for a different work culture is needed. Using a wide range of authors and experiences from the work practice is a new culture, which especially for communications-oriented companies, companies whose business the production and processing of information which is suitable.

Known Web 2.0-sizes, such as Don Tapscott (Wikinomics) and David Weinberger (The Cluetrain Manifesto), provide in the book articles are enriched with interesting case studies of companies SAP, Nokia, Vodafone, and not least, CoreMedia, the name of the two editors.

Sören Stamer sees it "the art of letting go" as a guiding principle for change of a company to Enterprise 2.0. "The successful development of a self-igniting a long-term dynamics of innovation and creativity with which the performance instead of a few percentage points equal to a multiple increase it." (P. 61)

For whom interesting

This book is for managers, consultants as well as employees of businesses, their sales to the collection, storage and processing of information. It is worthwhile for anyone to read, which means an argument against rigid structures in their businesses need. The book is set up with scientific approaches and practical experiences and case studies.

Content and structure

A definition of Enterprise 2.0

The author of this section shall inform Andrew McAfee at Harvard Business School "Managing in the Information Age". At the beginning of the book is a definition of Enterprise 2.0 and are offered on the important core elements of the networked world, received, as the Memen and Weak ties. "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of social software platforms within or between companies and their partners or customers. Platforms are digital businesses in which contributions and interactions globally and permanently visible. [...] Social Software enables is that people meet, make contacts or collaborate through computer-aided communication and build online communities. [...] The software is at the beginning of unstructured, free of pre-work procedures and follows the principle of self-organization. [...] Enterprise 2.0 is a medium with which the company held knowledge or knowledge of reference. "(P. 18)

Lessons from the Past - Computer Supported Collaborative Work & Co

Michael Koch is in the chapter "Lessons from the past," a history of the emergence of collaborative software. It is clear that today's social software no invention of web 2.0, but the principles and approaches have been the last few decades to be developed.

Sören Stamer - Learning by Doing

Sören Stamer describes hand to his own company CoreMedia, how the change from Enterprise 1.0 to Enterprise 2.0 within three years has completed. "The biggest obstacle on the path to better and more viable companies is our widespread and deep-seated belief in hierarchical structures, processes and sophisticated farsighted decision as well as our lack of imagination that a success also with alternative, not held for possible organizational models is possible." (p. 62) He sees this lack of dealing with the skills of employees as one of the biggest weaknesses of hierarchical organizations. To the strengths of individual employees and the self emerge to promote were fundamentally five new instruments in the company installed:

All employees can spend a day a month in so-called peer groups in a topic of their choice to invest.
In the monthly one-day Open Space Workshops (CCC), all employees along with customers, partners, shareholders and friends invited. You can be self-topics in self-work.
Waterhole is a fortnightly meeting, in which employees have the opportunity to contribute their ideas publicly present and discuss. The best ideas will be pursued.
All employees receive supportive conversations with staff development experts.
The CCC will be on the system of Weak-Ties (Mark Granovetter) targeted marketing staff for new employees in the required competencies operated.

Control as a risk

David Weinberger is one of the book "Cluetrain Manifesto" as the pioneers of the Internet. In the chapter "Control as a risk", he writes about how much control for a company is healthy and where you should submit the control. "[...] The web [itself] was so successful because of the control structures Webarchitektur systematically excluded. [...] The Web was growing, because nothing had to be approved. "(P. 91) Many developments in the Internet based on open source solutions. This allows developers to create new programs based on other developments, without having to ask for permission. Weinberger defines familiar disciplines in an entirely new way: "Traditional companies have assumed that they can control their customers by providing information selectively publish. [...] Hoping that these companies, the behavior of their customers to be able to control, and called it, marketing. "(P. 92) The one-sided information from producer to consumer Weinberger is no longer possible. The Web offered from the outset the possibility of contacts between the customer connection. For him, networked markets "[...] more knowledgeable than the company, they talk about, because they are not in their discussions of self-interests are." (P. 93) Also, the customer opinions, according to Weinberger, better than any laboratory experiment, because that not every possible scenario can be foreseen. The paradigm shift from the brand-centric to user-centric communication describes in the form of a rule that any company which is established in the Web 2.0 wants to hang on the door frame could be: "The first rule for an enterprise that tries to be 2.0 , is: Respect the dialogue. He does not belong to you, but your customers. Your customers would prefer to entertain each other than with you. You are no longer the center of the universe, not even when it comes to your own products. "(P. 94)

Interactive value - A challenge for leadership

In the section on Interactive Value report, the authors Ralf Reichwald, Kathrin Möslein M. and Frank T. Piller, what options are there on the client side, new ideas and desires into the product and to help shape it. At the example of the T-shirt company Threadless describes how entire design departments can outsource. If these tasks to another company where it is called outsourcing. If these tasks to an indeterminate number of people via the Internet is to be awarded here on Crowd Sourcing spoken. With only Threadless T-shirts produced in the previous polls have shown good results. Even before the production of shirts is the company's popularity and the possible sales known. Threadless has become so by a textile company to an interactive platform on which the customers the products themselves.

With Enterprise 2.0 win

The author of the book Wikinomics by Don Tapscott in this chapter shows the benefits of collaboration. He goes to the cooperation between things, employees, customers and employees with all the companies under each other. "Collaboration is the new basis of competitiveness." (P. 125) Tapscott goes on to detail the opening of the company and stressed the importance of transparency for business success: "For throngs of lawyers undertaking the fight against openness is part of a good working . [...] Transparency is a new form of power that pays off when they are for themselves in their work. Instead to be feared, transparency is essential for business success. Rather than be involuntarily exposed to, pull it clever companies, from search to be open. Over time, open businesses, with honesty, integrity and commitment to act, most likely to survive and thrive. "(P. 143)

Beauty comes from within - the culture of a new Communications Enterprise 2.0

Markets, we will be discussion and dialogue from the local market returns. New high-potential employees are digital natives and with the open and networked communications obvious bypass, but "in the company [now] take on jobs involving the procurement of days a password, e-mail accounts is limited to 5 MB and to employers, they do not let the Internet. "(S.157) After Buhse does Enterprise 2.0 internally and promotes the desire of employees by relevance. It promotes the ability of the informal network between employees, partners and customers in enterprises. Buhse It provides a transformation of the company to communities: "For companies and brands that are as anonymous, abstract institutions speak with the customer, are communities of employees, partners and customers in which the role of marketing the match maker between employees and external world that . '(p. 156) Through communities tools within companies to greater innovation, faster implementation of knowledge and new information more easily distributed. To achieve this, companies need to Buhse manager let go and trust their employees more. The marketing has to work inside, so the staff better and openly communicate to the outside. Because "an authentic contribution to your blog can be so much more effective than a press release or a classic advertising campaign." (P. 169)

Enterprise 2.0 Reality Check: How far are German companies?

The company CoreMedia has a survey request, where, when of the 156 senior executives with more than 100 employees from knowledge-intensive industries to make use of Web 2.0 in the company were asked. About 52% see it as one of the biggest problems to overloaded with unnecessary information and the need for external knowledge into the everyday process vonn is the least seen as a challenge. Almost a quarter of respondents knew the term Web 2.0 is not even. On the other hand, expects half of the respondents that the future for Web 2.0 companies will include everyday. One-third believe with Web 2.0 processes and cooperation in the future to be more efficient. The actual usage is still far behind those expectations. Social tools are only 2-5% of businesses across the company used. The development begins with individual employees, for example, where already 21% to an RSS reader, and 20% in social communities reside. The benefits of Web 2.0 is for respondents to 58% is the right experts and contacts to find and 51% for information exchange to operate. Only 27% find it for cooperation with partners and customers. The ambiguity will also benefit from 62% of respondents indicated as the biggest obstacle, Web 2.0 technology companies. From the side of the CEO is 48% indicated that the lack of openness of the employees and only 30% with the lack of openness of the management are crucial to Web 2.0 companies still in them. Without a clear understanding of benefits, it will still take a long long way to the broad transition to the Enterprise 2.0.

SAP: The structure of communities in the company

The Community Evangelist Craig Cmehil SAP writes about the development of communities in business and how these tools can be useful. With the online community of SAP SDN he shows how these within four years to nearly one million registered users has grown and the cooperation of SAP developers improved. In the section "A practical guide for a community evangelist" he counts, step by step on what to do if you want to create a community to successfully manage.

Enterprise 2.0 at VODAFONE

As Head of Web Services in the Vodafone Group Stefan Böcking deals with the Web infrastructure for Vodafone 66,000 employees worldwide. He sees Enterprise 2.0 as a tool for knowledge management, unused to productivity and innovation potential in businesses to activate, so that tacit knowledge (tacit knowledge) into the information a company, are also included. Social software provides a tool for ensuring that tacit knowledge should be codified, and so for other employees to find and to use. Böcking reported primarily on the basis of the case study by Vodafone, which within three years, over 7,000 rooms for collaborative project management set up, with more than 4 terabytes of data. This leads to "[...] cross-organizational joint production and iterative improvement of information [...] to high-quality contributions, such as examining the example of Wikipedia show." (P. 198) elements of Enterprise 2.0 are for him: Employee Participation (Participation), joint shed words (folksonomy), shared bookmarks (Collaborative Bookmarking), shared editing, and publishing (collaborative authoring), maintenance and exchange of contacts and networks (social networking), multiple use of content (content syndication), collaborative filtering (collaborative filtering) and social search (Social Search).

Nokia: Enterprise 2.0 and Mobility

Stephen Johnston, Senior Manager for Corporate Strategy from Nokia talks about the problems that the mobile world is still for the use of social tools brings with it. At the same time know it but pointed out that the mobile access to social tools is an essential piece for the Enterprise 2.0 will be. Johnston complains to his own industry, that experiments such as WAP and MMS is not a beta version but as innovations marketed to customers before the high costs to justify. Presents some innovative ideas, such as Zyb, Soonr and Shozu, which is in the future become the standard for mobile phone owners to develop. As a philosophy it takes Johnston Del.ico.us: "[...] almost everything on the page is a specific reason given. A mouse click, the data in an intuitive way to filter and split. Effective functions, no wasted space, no blinking distraction - perhaps these characteristics are a suitable starting point for the design of mobile services. "(P. 227)

Conclusions and critique

As in many books with various authors, some overlap content. But these issues from different perspectives to be considered, the quality does not detract from the book. The various authors bring a variety of writing styles, sometimes materially, scientifically and partly emotional and practical. The individual contributions of authors can be read in any order and do not direct link. They consider the topic of Enterprise 2.0, with different approaches, but nevertheless together a picture of the type, which is reflected in the corporate cultures of the 21 Century change.

The book presents a unique blend of scientific approaches, historical derivations and practical experience reports dar. It makes you want in your own daily work, the prevailing structures to ask and collaborative mechanisms to self-complementary. It's courage "just let go."

Personally, I am pleased that in the section entitled "Beauty comes from within" a few points from my dissertation "Marketing 2.0" were raised with.

At the end of the book would be its staff or project partners to pass by reference only to the last chapter of "Secret Diary of Molly's" to start. So light and humorous, the use of wikis and blogs will be argued.

Enterprise 2.0 - The art of letting go (Willms Buhse, Sören Stamer - HG.)