WEB 2.0: Extracting Value..

Web 2.0 has been tagged variously from being just a marketing terminology to a set of enablers for achieving specific functionalities in web applications. Most commonly cited instances of Web 2.0 in action are social networking or e-commerce sites. So how can companies derive dollar benefits from Web 2.0 technologies?

Web 2.0 suggests some good practices, and following these principles will be definitely beneficial. It will certainly impact the bottom-line. However, one will have to understand and appreciate the following:

1. Is your business about setting up a community like facebook?
Majority of businesses will not be

2. Is your business about creating a web platform like eBay or Amazon?
Majority of businesses will not be

3. How much of your business is in the form of e-commerce?
If the business is not consumer-facing on the web, computing concrete $ value advantages will be difficult

4. Knowledge sharing can work wonders, especially since promoting Innovation within organizations is the “mantra” that is catching on in most large corporations. However, the actual reality, which could prove quite different is, ‘people will not share 'all' their knowledge especially where it is associated with $ value. People would keep some competitive advantage with themselves.’ Further, it may just not be possible to share all knowledge in certain cases – e.g. it is impossible to learn cycling by reading a manual, one needs to actually try it out and fall a couple of times to learn it.

You can provide the entire collaboration infrastructure like social software, IM, etc. However, can you guarantee collaboration? It’s a very soft issue and needs prolonged time to be proven. Even if time is given, one cannot be sure if things will fall in place.

Does this mean, Web 2.0 is all hype and doesn’t deliver any real business value?

Certainly not!

Web 2.0 is of great value to traditional brick-and-mortar companies and service-oriented businesses, provided one takes the correct approach and sets the right expectations.

The following points should be borne in mind while opting for a Web 2.0 solution:
1. Provide great user experience; provide a UI which is simple and attractive. If things are made unnecessarily flashy or complex, users will go away.

2. Make your applications consumable taking user preferences into consideration. Users might use your application from your website or they might want to use it in another application like iGoogle or facebook. Hence, do provide APIs that open up your application for integration in user’s context. This will work towards expanding the reach.

3. Look for collaboration opportunities. See if community effects can be brought in. Introduce collaboration platforms appropriate to your context like wikis, forums, social networking such as facebook or LinkedIn, messaging/twittering, …

4. Look for intelligence. See if usage patterns add value. Understand what the user needs. Look for how you can make things simpler for the user? Can you send updates / alerts? Can the users contribute in making the service better (something that Amazon demonstrated)? Consciously work towards making use of the intelligence buried in your application

Doing the above would certainly help businesses. A little reflection will suggest that the points noted above are very fundamental. These should be adopted irrespective of the Web 2.0 focus. We should avoid getting mesmerized by the hype that surrounds Web 2.0. Instead, we should take things with a pinch of salt and set realistic expectations.

The technological advancements in Information Technology and Communications have taken businesses to whole new heights. However, technology has only facilitated. The core business is still producing and selling products or services. Web 2.0 is there to benefit business. It is a matter of separating the hype and applying the key principles in business.