Web 2.0 strategies for the midmarket

Sure, Wikis, blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts can help open the lines of communication with your end users -- but what's the best way to integrate these tools into your organization? And are they worth the trouble? Find out the answers to these and other Web 2.0-related questions with this IT Management Guide.

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Web 2.0 integration challenging, rewarding

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[James M. Connolly, Contributor]

Incorporating Web 2.0 into your IT infrastructure isn't that different from incorporating other user-generated initiatives: Accept it as a fact of life, embrace it as an opportunity, keep a good IT foundation in place, test everything, and listen to user feedback. But whatever you do, don't drop a Web 2.0 application to the bottom of the development queue. If you do, your users and competitors will leave you in the dust.

At small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), embracing Web 2.0 applications can be a matter of corporate survival. "Web 2.0 is being employed much more on customer-facing Web sites than for in-house applications," said Julie Craig, senior analyst at Enterprise Management Associates in Boulder, Colo. "If you're going up against a Progressive Insurance or Countrywide Mortgage, regardless of your size, you're going to move to Web 2.0. Your competitors have flashy Web sites, and you have to compete with them."

Not only are customers demanding Web 2.0 features on company sites, but they're also expecting these sometimes complicated applications to serve them as quickly as any other Web feature. This provides an added challenge, Craig said, thanks to the resource demands of XML and fat graphics files that Web 2.0 applications often use.

   Learn more in "Web 2.0 integration poses challenges and rewards." Also:

• Sold on Web 2.0 (CIO Decisions)
  Midmarket CIOs are finding that Web 2.0 offers a host of e-commerce tools to engage customers, improve product lines and bring greater alignment between IT and the business. Four CIOs tell us how.
• IT executives eager to exploit Web 2.0 wave (SearchSMB.com)
  What good is a blog if no one reads it? IT managers find out and begin to make blogging and other Web 2.0 tools a more strategic part of their business.

Web 2.0: CIOs want it their way

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[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]

CIOs are on board with Web 2.0 technology, but they don't want to deal with emerging vendors in the market. They want to get the technology from major software vendors.

CIOs also want Web 2.0 suites of technology. They don't want to buy separate wiki, blog and RSS platforms. They want one integrated suite that they can buy from one vendor, according to a new report from Forrester Research Inc.

"It's all about integration and security," said Oliver Young, an analyst at the Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm. "They trust Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP. They're running half of their enterprise applications already. It's so much easier and so much more reliable to get it from those guys who are already in their shops."

   Learn more in "Web 2.0: CIOs want it their way." Also:

• Firms mull over blogs, but doubt business value (SearchCIO.com)
  New research shows a majority of companies are considering deploying corporate blogs, but they see limited business value in the technology.
• Web 2.0 lacks the business impact of SOA, Burton warns (SearchWebServices.com)
  The hype around Web 2.0 is justified for devotees of MySpace and fans of Wikipedia, but there is no good business model for its adoption by corporations, say analysts at the Burton Group.

Web 2.0 tools of the trade

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[Paul Gillin, Author]

"We need to be using Web 2.0. I'm not sure how, but we should." Sound familiar? As Web 2.0 technologies become more widely used and marketed, more business people are turning to IT professionals to come up with ways to implement them.

In his recent book, The New Influencers, Paul Gillin describes how ordinary people are using Web 2.0 technologies to shape market perceptions and how business marketers can work productively with these new opinion makers. Here is a chapter excerpt of his book, which defines Web 2.0 tools -- a worthwhile resource to pass on to your business colleagues so they can better understand what Web 2.0 is all about.

   Check out the chapter excerpt at "Web 2.0 tools of the trade." Also:

• Google targets MS Office users with PowerPoint-like app (SearchSMB.com)
  Google Inc. has added a PowerPoint alternative to its suite of Web-based office productivity tools. Will SMBs toss out Microsoft Office?
• Wikis in the enterprise face security, compliance challenges (SearchCIO.com)
  As more CIOs consider enterprise adoption of wikis, security, management control and compliance remain their top concerns.

Web 2.0: A threat to traditional IT?

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[Jeff Kelly, Associate Editor]

Speaking at the Enterprise 2.0 conference, Harvard Business School professor Andrew McAfee hit upon an important point that I think partly explains why IT departments have yet to adopt Web 2.0 technologies on a wide scale: people power.

   Find out what else McAfee had to say in "Web 2.0: An existential threat to traditional IT?." Also:

• I draw the line at Candy Making 2.0 (SMB Connection)
  Blogger Jeff Kelly is fed up with attempts by marketing machines to ride the Web 2.0 wagon. Will IT types really flock to your conference if you brand it with a 2.0 crown?
• Time to wake up to Web 2.0 (SMB Connection)
  A room full of IT managers, and not one of them is using Web 2.0. Moreover, half of them don't know what Web 2.0 is. What's going on?

Server-based RSS worth the money

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[Shamus McGillicuddy, News Writer]

Server-based RSS aggregators offer businesses better control and more security than the more common consumer RSS feeds. You have to dish out the money for it, but experts say for small to midsized businesses, the investment is worth it.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML-based technology that allows Web sites to send news and other content via feeds to users who subscribe to the content. Users typically use consumer Web-based aggregators from companies such as Yahoo, Google Inc. and NewsGator Technologies Inc. to collect and review these RSS feeds.

"Overall this technology is still somewhat at the emerging stage within enterprises," said Mike Gotta, principal analyst at Midvale, Utah-based Burton Group Inc. "2007 should see continued incremental growth, but the huge surge in XML syndication will be in the latter part of 2007 into 2008 as companies roll out infrastructure that have greater support for RSS and Atom." Like RSS, Atom is a form of XML-based syndication technology.

   Learn more in "Server-based RSS technology worth the money for SMBs." Also:

• How can attackers exploit RSS software flaws? (SearchSecurity.com)
  RSS syndication feeds are a convenient way to get your news, blogs or other favorite content, but these popular tools are often left exposed. In this SearchSecurity.com Q&A, Ed Skoudis explains how malicious hackers can attack RSS software and distribute malicious code.
• Syndicated content: RSS aggregators and more (SearchWebServices.com)
  Ed Tittel discusses the client side of RSS feeds and how one goes about grabbing or searching syndicated Web content, and then trying to make sense of its contents.

More resources

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• Resource center: Web 2.0 technology for the midmarket (SearchCIO-Midmarket.com)
• Article: What is Web 2.0 (O'Reilly Media Inc.)
• Conference: Web 2.0 Summit
• Executive Guide: Web 2.0 technologies for CIOs (SearchCIO.com)