Enterprise 2.0 : An interview With MindTouch's Mark Fidelman - Part I
Recently I’ve been
hearing a lot about this term ‘Enterprise 2.0’. Not knowing exactly what it is
or why there’s a buzz around it I reached out and caught up with Mark Fidelman of
MindTouch which is an Enterprise 2.0 company.
Read Part 1 of this very informative interview. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it!
Q.)Let me start by
asking you, what exactly is Enterprise 2.0?
A.] Simply,
Enterprise 2.0 is the bringing of Web 2.0 tools and business practices into corporations.
Think of it as moving from a command and control situation to a wisdom of the
crowds model where all employees are participating on Intranets, extranets,
knowledge bases, and innovation portals. Enterprise 2.0 technologies support
agile collaboration, information sharing, data integration , and expert search.A better explanation from the term’s
inventor Andrew McAfee can be found in this video interview.
Q.] If we’re in the
age of Enterprise 2.0 then what was Enterprise 1.0!?
A.] Well,
good question. E1.0 is where most corporations are today. It’s about structure, data silos, email, and
company knowledge trapped in employee laptops.
Q.)Can you tell us
how exactly Enterprise 2.0 can change the way companies around the world are
doing and will do business in future?
A.] Since
Enterprise 2.0 is about empowering the employee, one of the primary benefits is
about making the company more innovative.
If employees are able to suggest ideas and share them with the company
in an easy and transparent way, the company is more likely to take advantage of
the idea. Moreover, if your employee
peers can vote on all of the ideas, then the top ideas rise to the top and by
nature of the voting process are worth examining.
The
other primary benefit of Enterprise 2.0 is better work management and
transparency. E2.0 solutions like those
from MindTouch allow everyone
to quickly get on the same page and execute on a work related project. The solutions are easily extendable and
programmable so that your technical employees can quickly create a new form or
module to solve a business issue. With
today’s current E1.0 tools like SharePoint, that's a very expensive proposition.
I can point to many examples of how Enterprise 2.0 solutions are being used by corporations today. A good place to start is on SeekOmega.com
Q.) I find that a
lot of talk regarding the Enterprise 2.0 movement right now is centered on
whether Enterprise 2.0 itself is for ‘real’. There’s a lot of skepticism
floating around questioning whether E 2.0 is a fad, a trend or simply yet
another marketing ‘gimmick’.
You too have spoken
about the authenticity of E 2.0; I remember reading a recent post on your blog
where you asked people to “debunk the non
debate”
In my experience,
whenever something new such as this starts there is a lot of initial skepticism.
We’ve seen that when the whole Web2.0 + social media explosion happened .But
once it’s become this enormous success we see today, people have started to
accept it.
A.] I
could not have said it better myself.
There are skeptics like Dennis Howlett who believe the space is either
marketing hype or needs to better define itself. If you really want to understand the debate,
I suggest you read Howlett’s
post and my response.
Do you think
that’s the case with E 2.0 also?
A.] As
you’ll read in the links above, the E2.0 space has a lot more to do to cross
Geoffrey Moore’s chasm, but the Return on Investment (ROI) is real and being
reported by some of the most respected companies in the World.
Q.) Would you say
that something like a linkedin.com is among the first products of E2.0, maybe
not exactly but a loose prototype?
A.] In
some respects yes, but they still represent a Web 2.0 experience. LinkedIn has really slipped recently in my opinion and are not taking advantage of the opportunity.
They can easily move into the space and leverage their extensive business data
to make the E2.0 value proposition more valuable.
Q.)Google has been
gung-ho about Google Wave. They’ve been saying that Google Wave is going to
change the way people do business. Is Google Wave also an E2.0 product and I
want a specific answer from you! We know it can be used as an E2.0 tool. In
terms of its real impact, will Google Wave be a game changer?
A.] If you listen to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, he believes Wave will be a large part of their Enterprise strategy for 2010. I do consider Wave an E2.0 product because it incorporates Web 2.0 tools, extensions and robots. Wave is a platform that can be extended in numerous directions to solve business issues.
Part II of this interview
will be posted on Wednesday, December 9th.
About Mark :Mark
is the Executive Vice President Of Sales at MindTouch. He is a distinguished
professional in the field with an international presence. He’s also worked in India.
Read more about him on his Linkedin
profile and his company bio.Mark blogs at www.seekomega.com and can be reached via
twitter at http://twitter.com/markfidelman