NASSCOM EMERGE Community An initiative to collaborate with members of NASSCOM

Ramya:

Web 2.0 is relatively new. It has delivered value in certain areas and it has not delivered 'expected' value in some areas. I have also noticed that people 'blindly' try to use web 2.0 kind of platform for their 'knowledge management' requirements and/or to solve all their collaboration related challenges.

In the last one or two years, Web 2.0 usage has increased. But almost every company's market share is dipping. Can we say that it is caused by Web 2.0? 

So it is better to list:

1. What is that you need?

2. What outcome do you expect?

Then, try to align this to what Web 2.0 can or cannot do.

Web 2.0 is at the early stage of the Hype-Cycle (Gartner Model). It is yet to become the main-stream platform in business enterprises or education institutions. So, if you can share more about what you or your company want to achieve out of this then we can provide more direct response.

Yes, Lakshman - it is true that it is pointless to jump into the Web2.0 bandwagon without doing a best-fit analysis first to see, if it makes business sense.

My company is a marketing consultancy & we are currently analysing the importance of having Web2.0 as part of our client offerings.

What I'm trying to research into is this - for all companies that decided to incorporate Web2.0 components as part of their marketing/business/collaboration strategy, what were the "tangible" benefits ? Are there any statistics which show that , for example, by starting a user community for their products, a company, had a X% increase in online sales ? After the CEO of a company started blogging, website viewership went up by Y%, and so on...

What I need are some pointers on where I can get such information/facts/data points, if they are available.

Ramya: Check out the following links:

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/How_businesses_are_using_Web_20_A_McKinsey_Global_Survey_1913

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Building_the_Web_20_Enterprise_McKinsey_Global_Survey_2174

Feel free to call me at (0)98848 19660 and let me know your purpose, pain and expectations. Smart Collaboration will transform the organization; web 2.0 is just a sub-set of collaboration. If you want to decide based on statistics (of benefits not usage), then you may want to wait for another 3 years or more.

Email was good but now it has become a pain. Web 2.0 is better but it can also become a major pain if we do not use it right.

Do not shrink you to fit into the tool. The question you should be asking now is:

1. Is collaboration and collective intelligence important to you?

2. Do you need to share knowledge (or lessons learned) across clients' experiences?

3. Is there a better platform available than email to connect with your clients?

4. How collaboration is connected to branding?

I, like a doctor, would like to hear the pain before discussing the 'use' of a medicine.

Ramya: Please cut down the commercials - focus on the essence of it - ttp://www.lpcube.com/ignite/index.html and ttp://www.lpcube.com/learningcommunity

Personally, I have seen & felt significant value in collaboration and effective expression. Otherwise, I would not be wasting time in this Web 2.0 based platform (NASSCOM Emerge).

Am sure you can feel the benefits (tangible & intangible) if you embrace Collaboration.

Lakshman - thanks for the pointers. I found the data from the McKinsey research reports - giving exactly what I wanted.

I personally loved the analogy of the "pain" & "medicine" - might use it in my interaction with clients ( with your permission, of course ! ) in the future :)

It is really difficult to "quantify" the benefits - one has to experience the benefits , especially when it comes to "social networking" using Web2.0 technology. I, too , have started using blogs, communities for collaboration & am promoting it internally in my company ( practising before preaching it to clients ).

A few more thoughts on the "statistics" & "measurable benefits" of using Web2.0 based collaboration solutions :-

When a company decides to adopt such solutions, they must do so with a measurement framework in mind, so that they can analyse if their long term investment of time & money was a good one. Some examples of such metrics could be:

Ramya:

Regarding the metrics (key-performance indicators):

>> Increase in website viewership, following setup of blogs

 - Too vague - these numbers need not translate into real business benefits

>> Increase in market share, following setup of an online customer community / forum

- Too big - need to connect your web 2.0 (or collaboration) project to this and have specific metrics

>> Increase in no of sales leads, following serious networking in facebook, linkedin, et al

- Good one - need to have few sub-metrics to bring more clarity

>> No of new product ideas/service innovations which came in through the

- Many a ideas that we need in a day-to-day business need not be as big as (product or service innovation)

Thanks for all your inputs & thoughts, Lakshman. This being one of my first interactions as a member of the Emerge community - it is very encouraging to get advice from those who know so much.

I , for one, am totally convinced about the benefits of having communities and forums such as these & am going to be more and more participative in the future.

Ramya:

Good to know that you got some meaning & value out of it. Whenever possible, I try to share what I learnt from others hoping that many more people will teach me what I don't know. I too have 'the selfish gene' inside me!

It is nice to hear that you will be very much participative as well. Let's bring more meaning to the existence of NASSCOM Emerge for our collective existence.

Avinash is doing a wonderful Job. He is a perfect knowledge community manager. As you might have noticed through many other responses, we have wonderful team of people with amazing energy and experience. IF OUR ATTITUDE IS GOOD, WE CAN LEARN!