Enterprises “discovered” the Internet’s benefits in the late 90s. Then, in the so called Web 1.0 era, the Internet was perceived as a means for providing potential or existing customers with relatively static marketing oriented information and product support.

Technology oriented organizations leveraged the Internet to implement e-Commerce and e-Support applications. Organizations implemented intranets, (ie - Internal Internets) that allowed the surfacing of information to employees, and to a certain extent provided basic collaboration capabilities (such as forums, discussion rooms etc’).

Fortunately enough, those days are over and we now live in the Web 2.0 era. Although the level of competition has increased due to globalization and the proliferation of new technologies, the fundamental problem enterprises face remained unchanged: Increase sales, while reducing operational costs. The good news is that the Internet has dramatically evolved. Due to the fact that Web 2.0 is collaborative and socially oriented by nature , it potentially brings substantial value for enterprises. Web 2.0 applications can be used not only to boost productivity and thus reduce operational costs, but interestingly enough, to increase the enterprise products footprint in the market, build customer loyalty and ultimately increase sales.
In this article I would like to outline five possible applications of Web 2.0 technologies that can be leveraged in order to create value for the enterprise.

1. Wikis: Wiki tools allows for leveraging the collective knowledge of the enterprise’s employees as well as its customers and partners in order to create dynamic and rich content areas focused in general product information, FAQs and usability tips. This has two main positive effects: (a) it potentially accelerates the dissemination and adoption of new technologies and (b) it allows for increased employee productivity by streamlining product information search into a single source.
2. Blogs: In an Enterprise context, blogs can be leveraged as both an internal and external communication channel. Giants like Microsoft and SAP implemented blogging platforms that allow their employees, partners and customers to review new product features, disseminate know-how and lessons learned from implementation projects.
3. Social Networking: I believe that most of Connected Internet readers are members of one or more social networks(MySpace.com, Facebook, Orkut to name a few), and if you are a blogger you might have already realized the significant exposure your blog can get there. Although a bit late, Enterprises understood the huge marketing potential of Social networks as well. Social networking spaces allows enterprises for low cost and effective communication with customers, as well as a playground for innovative marketing strategies. Among the prominent enterprises that operate in social networks are Honda and Nike.
4. Software as a Service (SAAS):One of the main characteristics of the Web 2.0 paradigm is the emergence of Software as a Service (SAAS) applications. SAAS is a new delivery model where companies pay not for owning the software itself but for using it. Normally, SAAS applications are hosted by the vendor itself. This allows for significant operational savings as no IT (Information Technology) infrastructure (data centers, servers, backup and database software etc’) is required to run the application (except the end users desktop PCs). SAAS is prevalent in the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software space, with Salesforce.com being its pioneer and main player.
5. Virtual Reality: Lately, enterprises started to leverage virtual reality applications such as SecondLife.com not only as a location for meetings, conferences, training and recruitment, but also as a playground for new technologies and a potential marketplace for their products. IBM, who runs the official Wimbledon tennis tournament website even launched a parallel Wimbledon tournament in Second Life!

Hope you enjoyed this post, stay tuned for more on Web 2.0 at Connected Internet.

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