Results from the McKinsey Global Survey on Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise
We may dabble with Facebook in our free time but how are Web 2.0 tools like social networking, blogs and wikis embedding themselves into business? The latest McKinsey survey says that some 21 percent of the respondents are very satisfied with the way their companies use Web 2.0 tools, which are changing management practices and even organisational structures.
Some are even taking steps to open their corporate ‘ecosystems' by encouraging customers to join them in developing products and by using new tools to tap distributed knowledge. While 73% are using Web 2.0 to improve customer service, 53% are getting customers to participate in product development. Nearly 40% say Web 2.0 has changed the way they communicate with customers and suppliers.
Respondents also described how web 2.0 tools were changing their organisation internally. 74% say it's enhancing company culture, 57% say it's tapping the network of experts and 83% say it's helping them to manage their knowledge.
Blogs, RSS (really simple syndication), wikis and podcasts are the most common Web 2.0 tools among business. 34% use blogs, 33% use RSS, 32% use Wikis, 29% use podcasts, 28% use social networking and 18% use peer-to-peer technologies.
There is a variation among respondents from different markets. A larger share of US businesses (35%) rate social networking as important compared to 22% respondents in India, 285 in Europe, 31% in China and 29% in Asia Pacific.
So where do the barriers lie? Those listed by respondents included the inability of management to grasp potential financial returns (28%), unresponsive corporate cultures (22%) and unenthusiastic leaders (15%).
The more companies use these technologies, the more satisfied they seem to be with them. Of the quarter of companies that are mostly satisfied, more than half of all employees use them. Similarly, 60% of those respondents who said they were satisfied with Web 2.0 initiatives (just 42% of all respondents) saw them as a driver of competitive advantage.
This article is an edited extract from the McKinsey Global Survey Building the Web 2.0 Enterprise.