Much has been said about the emergence and adoption of web 2.0 technologies and tools in Business, however as anyone who has tried to promote their use in business knows, it has been very hard to overcome the skeptics and the naysayers. Now you can tell them:

“ Companies using the Web intensively gain greater market share and higher margins.”

“Users of Web 2.0 applications are also enjoying benefits such as increased knowledge sharing and more effective marketing.”

For the past four years, thousands of executives from around the world—across a range of industries and functional areas—have responded to a McKinsey survey on how organizations are using Web 2.0 technologies, such blogs, mash-ups (a Web application that combines multiple sources of data into a single tool), microblogging (twitter), peer to peer, podcasts, prediction markets, rating, RSS (Really Simple Syndication), social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn), tagging, video sharing (YouTube), and wikis. 

In their latest report McKinsey have identified that companies who have adopted Web 2.0 technologies and tools, both large and small, have a competitive advantage over their rivals. You only have to look at companies involved in the Travel industry over the 2010 Christmas period to see their effect.

Rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday

Every new technology has its skeptics. In the 1980s, many observers doubted that the broad use of information technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) to remake processes would pay off in productivity improvements—indeed, the economist Robert Solow famously remarked, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”Today, that sentiment has gravitated to Web 2.0 technologies. Management is trying to understand if they are a passing fad or an enduring trend that will underwrite a new era of better corporate performance.

New McKinsey research shows that a payday could be arriving faster than expected. A new class of company is emerging—one that uses collaborative Web 2.0 technologies intensively to connect the internal efforts of employees and to extend the organization’s reach to customers, partners, and suppliers. We call this new kind of company the networked enterprise. Results from our analysis of proprietary survey data show that the Web 2.0 use of these companies is significantly improving their reported performance. In fact, our data show that fully networked enterprises are not only more likely to be market leaders or to be gaining market share but also use management practices that lead to margins higher than those of companies using the Web in more limited ways.

To read the full article please visit: Rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday – McKinsey Quarterly – Organization – Strategic Organization 

Conclusion

The imperative for business leaders is clear: falling behind in creating internal and external networks could be a critical mistake. Executives need to push their organizations toward becoming fully networked enterprises.

If you are interested in finding out more contact Calm Response, a North West UK consultancy providing IT, Cloud, SaaS, IT Managed Services, Storage and Business Continuity Solutions for Business.

Calm Response is first and foremost a Consultancy driven from a business perspective.

If you would like to have a confidential discussion where we can identify how we can help your business, please do not hesitate to contact our CEO, Andrew Wright, directly at andrew [at] calmresponse [.] com or contact Calm Response to help you