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CIOs that have pushed for the early and enthusiastic adoption of Web 2.0 technologies by their organizations, have been rewarded for their vision, a survey by McKinsey & Co. has concluded. According to the consulting firm, those companies that can be categorized as heavy users of Web 2.0 are deriving the greatest measurable business benefits.
McKinsey has been tracking the adoption of Web 2.0 by organizations over the last three years. This year the firm said it decided to find out whether companies are deriving measurable business benefits from those deployments. In a report published in the September edition of The McKinsey Quarterly, the firm says the answer is a definite yes.
“Regardless of industry, executives at companies that use more Web 2.0 technologies also report greater benefits,” McKinsey concludes.
While it found a wide range of technologies being used, it determined there was a correlation between business benefits and the most popular technologies being used by consumers. In other words, companies are finding they are having the best measureable benefits with blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other Web 2.0 technologies that are currently being heavily used by consumers.
When asked about the business benefits gained from using Web 2.0, most companies pointed to the greater ability to share ideas, improved access to knowledge experts and reduced costs of communications, travel and operations. A number of respondents also said the tools had decreased the amount of time required to bring a product to market and had a positive impact on employee satisfaction.
As part of its survey, McKinsey asked respondents to specify the percentage improvement they gained from their use of a Web 2.0 technology across three benefit classes: Internal, Customer-Related, and Supplier and Business Partner-Related. The greatest gains reported were a 30% increase in the speed of access to knowledge for Internal benefits and a 30% improvement in speed of access to external experts in the Supplier and Business Partner category.
I would have liked to have seen more real-world examples, along with dollar figures attached to the benefits achieved, but the McKinsey report does provide CIOs with a powerful tool to promote Web 2.0 strategies in their own organizations. It also offers this glimpse into the future:
“These survey results indicated that a different type of company may be emerging – one that makes intensive use of interactive technologies. This networked organization is characterized both by the internal integration of Web tools among employees, as well as use of the technologies to strengthen company ties with external stakeholders – customers and business partners.”
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