Web 2.0 is an extension of what email was to companies for conducting business. Companies need to embrace Web 2.0 technologies to remain competitive but also be aware of potential threats and compliance issues. This is the message of a report on the benefits and risks associated with Web 2.0 conducted by Alan Calder, CEO of IT Governance. The study also found that there are serious issues at the board level.  Most senior execs view Web 2.0 was a drain on bandwidth and storage, and do not get the issue of employees sharing their working life experiences within the company through Web 2.0 enabled technologies. “If you have senior people who struggle with email, you will not get them to understand Web 2.0. India and China do not have 50 years of resisting technology heritage,” according to Calder.

He noted that Web 2.0 is an opportunity to engage with customers and partners, and companies that fail to utilize this technology will miss out on relationships with their customers and suppliers. “There is a genuine need for CIOs to enable people to use this technology to benefit the firm.” He also cautioned CIOs against opening the floodgates and the company to threats such as litigation, and privacy and data protection issues. These are all reasons companies cut-off employee access to Web 2.0 sites from within company firewalls in addition to employee productivity and efficiency claims. Calder referred to the use of social networking services by the Barack Obama campaign as a good example of how a community can be engaged with and how an organization can monitor what is being said about it. Most companies are aware that there bad conversations happening on the web about them but either hope that by ignoring them, it won’t matter or just simply don’t know how to manage it. More at CIO.

(Image source: Rob Millard)