Web 2.0 comes to enterprise

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On the ScobleShow today is Puneet Gupta, CEO of ConnectBeam, which has built an interesting knowledge management system for big-company employees. It’ll be interesting to see if he, and other “Office 2.0” vendors will be successful in getting enterprises to adopt Web 2.0-style services.  Here’s the two videos:

Demo of ConnectBeam, Web 2.0 meets enterprise knowledge management. 7:29. Quicktime video.
Interview with Puneet Gupta, CEO of ConnectBeam. 16:26. Quicktime video.

I’d love to know what you think? Does any of the Office 2.0 vendors have a chance to edge in on Microsoft’s market?

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34 thoughts on “Web 2.0 comes to enterprise”

  1. I think there is a difference between Office 2.0 (Zoho, Google Docs, Smartsheet, etc) which change productivity to a new level, and apps like ConnectBeam, which I think are distinctly Enterprise 2.0 in that they bring us closer to the idea of tacit work, which is totally different than finding a better way to make a word document.

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  2. I think there is a difference between Office 2.0 (Zoho, Google Docs, Smartsheet, etc) which change productivity to a new level, and apps like ConnectBeam, which I think are distinctly Enterprise 2.0 in that they bring us closer to the idea of tacit work, which is totally different than finding a better way to make a word document.

    Like

  3. Have you checked out Neighborhood America’s “enterprise social network” capabilities? They are making interesting in-roads with the media industry.

    Web 2.0 brought into the enterprise, manageing user generated content, etc.

    Not a competition with public social networks, but using the technology within the enterprise.

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  4. Have you checked out Neighborhood America’s “enterprise social network” capabilities? They are making interesting in-roads with the media industry.

    Web 2.0 brought into the enterprise, manageing user generated content, etc.

    Not a competition with public social networks, but using the technology within the enterprise.

    Like

  5. There are two kinds of people on this planet: those who think MS Office is the best thing since sliced bread and those who are compelled or lulled into using it because everyone else is.

    If you think that people are using Office because they just love it, then you’re deluding yourself.

    Compatibility is, at the end of the day, the *only* driving factor under the Office engine. Others will eat into the Office market only to the extent that they can offer degrees of compatibility. Everything else is gravy.

    There’s, however, a sizeable chunk of the market where compatibility is not a (determining) issue. We’ll see the action there first, obviously.

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  6. There are two kinds of people on this planet: those who think MS Office is the best thing since sliced bread and those who are compelled or lulled into using it because everyone else is.

    If you think that people are using Office because they just love it, then you’re deluding yourself.

    Compatibility is, at the end of the day, the *only* driving factor under the Office engine. Others will eat into the Office market only to the extent that they can offer degrees of compatibility. Everything else is gravy.

    There’s, however, a sizeable chunk of the market where compatibility is not a (determining) issue. We’ll see the action there first, obviously.

    Like

  7. Absolutely! I out Web 2.0 up there with other techtonic shifts in software that have opened new opportunities for new vendors that take advantage of the new paradigm:

    – mainframe ==> client/server
    – client/server ==> internet
    – dos apps ==> windows apps
    – HTML sites ==> rich internet applications
    – website as one-to-many content provider ==> website as many-to-many content platform

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  8. Absolutely! I out Web 2.0 up there with other techtonic shifts in software that have opened new opportunities for new vendors that take advantage of the new paradigm:

    – mainframe ==> client/server
    – client/server ==> internet
    – dos apps ==> windows apps
    – HTML sites ==> rich internet applications
    – website as one-to-many content provider ==> website as many-to-many content platform

    Like

  9. Agree with Jevon MacDonald.

    And i do think they will take a significant marketshare of microsoft away. (for the moment) an online web2.0 solution is by far a better option for many small companies.
    * No install and maintenance hassle
    * No worries having expensive server software
    * No worries doining backups
    * cheaper !!! (mostly anyway)
    * …

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  10. Agree with Jevon MacDonald.

    And i do think they will take a significant marketshare of microsoft away. (for the moment) an online web2.0 solution is by far a better option for many small companies.
    * No install and maintenance hassle
    * No worries having expensive server software
    * No worries doining backups
    * cheaper !!! (mostly anyway)
    * …

    Like

  11. Speaking as an enterprise IT support person, no self-respecting enterprise is going to touch any of this 2.0 stuff until the companies themselves are well-established and not in any danger of disappearing next week. So far, most 2.0 companies fail this item.

    Maybe small companies, but not the mega enterprises; and this is where old MS is raking in the big bucks.

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  12. Speaking as an enterprise IT support person, no self-respecting enterprise is going to touch any of this 2.0 stuff until the companies themselves are well-established and not in any danger of disappearing next week. So far, most 2.0 companies fail this item.

    Maybe small companies, but not the mega enterprises; and this is where old MS is raking in the big bucks.

    Like

  13. I disagree with Michiel – we have plenty of larger companies wanting to touch “this 2.0 stuff”. The difference is that they are not going through their IT departments. When you can sign up online and expense the cost, why bother?

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  14. I disagree with Michiel – we have plenty of larger companies wanting to touch “this 2.0 stuff”. The difference is that they are not going through their IT departments. When you can sign up online and expense the cost, why bother?

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  15. I think not

    Niall

    I can understand not wanting to go thought the IT departments. Pushy/Bullying sales types I bet? or some lower level PHB who thinks I can save x pounds on office licences when if you factor the total cost of employing someone the costper day of an ofice licence is pennies.

    Another major problem for the enterprise is security and reliability and trust.

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  16. I think not

    Niall

    I can understand not wanting to go thought the IT departments. Pushy/Bullying sales types I bet? or some lower level PHB who thinks I can save x pounds on office licences when if you factor the total cost of employing someone the costper day of an ofice licence is pennies.

    Another major problem for the enterprise is security and reliability and trust.

    Like

  19. Fascinating stuff. I asked Microsoft themselves if social bookmarking for the Enterprise was something they were looking into. ‘Maybe in Office 14’ was the response pretty much. This product looks very interesting. As long as it can integrate into existing corporate portals, SharePoint, SAP, etc. then it would be something that I’m sure would be of interest. Organisations I’ve worked with/for typically struggle with getting users to add metadata to documents, store then in the right place and plan to have the information categorised in taxonomy. Social bookmarking – providing it is unobtrusive and not much of a chore – for the average user who is not really versed with Flickr, del.icio.us etc, might still find this product a bit of a mystery. Anything that helps find relevant information is great, although in the past ‘clever’ solutions from companies like Autonomy and Lotus have been very expensive and still require a certain amount of user added meta-data. Increasingly what corporate employees do outside of work influences what they expect to do inside of work (and the blurring continues) but I wouldn’t expect this to be something that incumbent organisations take to very quickly. A good step in the right direction though.

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  20. Fascinating stuff. I asked Microsoft themselves if social bookmarking for the Enterprise was something they were looking into. ‘Maybe in Office 14’ was the response pretty much. This product looks very interesting. As long as it can integrate into existing corporate portals, SharePoint, SAP, etc. then it would be something that I’m sure would be of interest. Organisations I’ve worked with/for typically struggle with getting users to add metadata to documents, store then in the right place and plan to have the information categorised in taxonomy. Social bookmarking – providing it is unobtrusive and not much of a chore – for the average user who is not really versed with Flickr, del.icio.us etc, might still find this product a bit of a mystery. Anything that helps find relevant information is great, although in the past ‘clever’ solutions from companies like Autonomy and Lotus have been very expensive and still require a certain amount of user added meta-data. Increasingly what corporate employees do outside of work influences what they expect to do inside of work (and the blurring continues) but I wouldn’t expect this to be something that incumbent organisations take to very quickly. A good step in the right direction though.

    Like

  21. When penetrating the enterprise market, I think a lot of these Web 2.0 companies will make an entrance from the bottom up, where employees are empowered to make the purchasing choice. Once the seed has been planted and many employees are using the service, then it would behoove the Web 2.0 company to go to the enterprise biz and say, “hey, your people are using this. Why not buy it for everyone?” Right now there is just too much bureaucracy and too many security concerns for enterprise companies to readily adopt these platforms. On the other hand, Zimbra has made quite an entrance into this arena, so who knows?

    Like

  22. When penetrating the enterprise market, I think a lot of these Web 2.0 companies will make an entrance from the bottom up, where employees are empowered to make the purchasing choice. Once the seed has been planted and many employees are using the service, then it would behoove the Web 2.0 company to go to the enterprise biz and say, “hey, your people are using this. Why not buy it for everyone?” Right now there is just too much bureaucracy and too many security concerns for enterprise companies to readily adopt these platforms. On the other hand, Zimbra has made quite an entrance into this arena, so who knows?

    Like

  23. I agree with Gary’s comment “Anything that finds relevant information is great…”.

    For larger companies locked in with Microsoft on the enterprise application side, the challenge comes in when you wnat to see both the data from these external web-based applications with the enterprise data. This external data can be very relevant but having it in multiple places increases the likelyhood that it will be overlooked. It also lowers productivity if you have to check 3 different sources for relevant information.

    I am a fan of 1) leveraging the lower costs of web-based enterprise apps for the organizations that have a high need to keep active membership and information current and relevant.

    and 2) allowing the data to be exported in the future to make any transition to a more enterprise setup more feasible.

    Like

  24. I agree with Gary’s comment “Anything that finds relevant information is great…”.

    For larger companies locked in with Microsoft on the enterprise application side, the challenge comes in when you wnat to see both the data from these external web-based applications with the enterprise data. This external data can be very relevant but having it in multiple places increases the likelyhood that it will be overlooked. It also lowers productivity if you have to check 3 different sources for relevant information.

    I am a fan of 1) leveraging the lower costs of web-based enterprise apps for the organizations that have a high need to keep active membership and information current and relevant.

    and 2) allowing the data to be exported in the future to make any transition to a more enterprise setup more feasible.

    Like

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