IGLOO Software attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston this past June 2008. It was a very informative event, providing attendees with a snapshot of new emerging web 2.0 and social networking trends identified by thought leaders from around the world. Many companies stopping by our booth for a demo told us the biggest takeaway from the conference was a more informed knowledge of how these tools can create a more connected enterprise.

What do I mean by that?

Almost every executive I spoke with at the conference identified the need to better connect people, processes and information within their company, both inside and out. Faced with increasingly mobile workforces and the need to better retain talent and knowledge, they talked about the potential of an integrated platform offering Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, forums, along with content management, as a tangible way to equip employees with better ways to collaborate and share information.

Why is this so important to business?

The success of consumer social networking is already changing the face of the enterprise. Corporations are acknowledging the important role informal and social interactions play in supporting successful business transactions. Management is finally waking up to the fact that businesses don’t close deals, build relationships or support their customers – people do. The problem is that for the past decade, enterprise software solutions have been driven by management needs and not focused on helping employees be more productive and innovative.

At Enterprise 2.0 there were familiar old faces along with new entrants offering various flavours of corporate social networking solutions. It was clear this space is extremely crowded with a lot of players and pretenders. Out of a cast of many, I saw four major vendor categories emerging: point solutions, consumer social networking, platform vendors and Web 2.0 suites for corporate social networking.

• Point solutions provide specific single applications like wikis, blogs or real time conferencing. While these applications provide very specific functionality, they in no way deliver a comprehensive corporate social networking solution.
• Consumer social networking applications such as FaceBook evolved in the consumer space and were not built to address the needs of large business, such as security, governance, auditing and control. Many corporations I have talked to have actually blocked Facebook due to security concerns and applicability to corporate productivity.
• Platform vendors, major players like Microsoft, IBM and Oracle are continuing to promote existing platforms such as Lotus Connections and MS SharePoint as corporate social networking solutions. These are generally more mature, legacy technologies with roots in document management, collaboration and groupware and not built to easily support the Web 2.0 era. They still rely on heavy customization, integration and professional services to get up and running. And while they do present a legacy of experience and a host of offerings, in reality they’re playing catch-up, feverishly adding Web 2.0 software to their solution suites.
• The fourth category belongs to the emerging vendors— Web 2.0 solution suites for corporate social networking. Generally start ups with fully integrated application suites that have been built for business based on Web 2.0 functionality and philosophies, including:

-         Ease of use

-         Breadth of functionality (wikis, blogs, forums, collaboration, calendaring, content management—fully integrated)

-         Fast to set up/deploy

-         Cost effective

-         User centric

Most vendors in this category are pretenders – no product, just a cool concept, while a few vendors have complete solution offerings with powerful content management, collaboration and social networking in one integrated and secure offering.

Time will only tell how this market will play out, but one thing is clear – it is a hot space. I left the Enterprise 2.0 show gratified having been told by several companies that visited our booth that our integrated suite and our easy-to-use and deploy platform makes us a leading option for organizations searching for a better way to connect and share content with customers, employees and partners.