Enterprise 2.0 Has Arrived

Great article by Dion Hinchcliffe - The State of Enterprise 2.0.

Increasing evidence abounds that Enterprise 2.0 adoption has begun in earnest with a typical example being Wells Fargo taking the plunge, having rolled out Enterprise 2.0 platforms to 160,000 workers. It has become clear that we’re moving out of the early pioneer phase to a broader acceptance phase. From the production side, a brand new analysis indicates that the business social software market will be nearly $1 billion strong this year and over $3.3 billion by 2011. In these and other ways, such as the growing collection of success stories, Enterprise 2.0 has arrived.

Adoption is still sporadic, but it is certainly happening. I would suggest that there's a big difference between tools being purchased and adoption happening in big, meaningful ways. Keep in mind Knowledge Management (KM).

Dion then talks about some Lessons Learned:

• Lesson #1: Enterprise 2.0 is going to happen in your organization with you or without you.
• Lesson #2: Effective Enterprise 2.0 seems to involve more than just blogs and wikis.
• Lesson #3: Enterprise 2.0 is more a state of mind than a product you can purchase.
  
  
• Lesson #4: Most businesses still need to educate their workers on the techniques and best practices of Enterprise 2.0 and social media.

• Lesson #5: The benefits of Enterprise 2.0 can be dramatic, but only builds steadily over time.
• Lesson #6: Enterprise 2.0 doesn’t seem to put older IT systems out of business.
• Lesson #7: Your organization will begin to change in new ways because of Enterprise 2.0. Be ready.

Great stuff. Lesson #4 is something that I've been wondering about for quite a while. And my firm conclusion is that there are many new methods, skills, tools, knowledge around how to accomplish our work and learning (see Needed Skills for New Media).

There's an important role for training organizations to help understand and develop these skills in the enterprise.