Enterprise 2.0 in Boston – My initial thoughts

Enterprise 2.0 is here again, this time in Boston, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how ‘Social Business’ has moved on since Santa Clara in 2010.

Not many people know that, as a company, Interact is approaching 10 years of developing intranet’s with hundreds of thousands of users around the world. The intranet’s we supply combine traditional tools like e-forms and content & document management, with powerful social business technologies like the recently launched Interact Answers.

Last year’s event was great and there was a real feeling that companies are starting to ‘get’ Enterprise 2.0. The key thing we took away was not to get carried away with the hype.

Hype doesn’t sell – Solving real business problems does.

We know that collaboration is here to stay and has a massive impact on how companies innovate, communicate, and process knowledge. However the fact is that Marketing Managers, HR Managers, and IT managers in organisations throughout the world are still apprehensive.

Ask them if they want e-forms, document management or a people directory and it is a 100% positive response. Forums – probably 90%. Ask them if they want a social intranet and the response can often be 50/50 or statements like “yes – later in the year.” So how does it become a ‘must have’ for all organisations?

When will collaboration move from a phase 2 might do to a phase 1 must have for the majority?

I will be having, and listening to, many discussions (I expect some more heated than others) over the next few days. What I would like to come away with is:

A clearer definition of social business that makes sense to those who don’t live and breathe it. After speaking to intranet managers, find out what collaborative tools have had success from the start in small and large organisations

I will report back over the next couple of days with my thoughts.