“APQC set out to understand how leading organizations adapt Web 2.0 approaches to support the knowledge creation and capture needs of their workplace and employees. We were amazed to find just how many organizations have made the leap, how enthusiastic their IT groups were to experiment alongside KM practitioners, and the speed with which lessons were learned in terms of making these approaches productive and scalable.” - Carla O’Dell, president, APQC

With case examples from Accenture, Hewlett-Packard, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Siemens AG, and The U.S. Department of State, this report details many of these appealing new technologies and how these best-practice organizations are preparing for the future. Because this report is based on real data and experiences, it gives the reader an opportunity to go beyond the hype that often accompanies Web 2.0 and focus on why and how organizations use these technologies in pursuit of mission and business objectives.

Key Findings

• Wikis, blogs, and social networking generate the most excitement. There is a democratization of content between authoritative content and crowd intelligence.
• Collaboration is at the heart of knowledge management (KM); yet, as the digital capability to connect people to people expands, the definitions of collaboration and communities of practice are blurring.
• There is a growing focus on connecting people to people and a decreasing emphasis on collecting and managing content. The ability to connect users often complements the push to collect content.
• The best-practice organizations give users the freedom to use collaborative technology and experiment with a variety of tools and approaches. Tools are user-driven and largely dependent on local content.
• Using Enterprise 2.0 applications does not require policy changes or security updates. In addition, there is a willingness to allow less authoritative content to be published and made available across the organization. The best-practice organizations have not experienced significant problems with the abuse of tools or the sharing of inappropriate or proprietary information.
• The relationships between KM and IT functions are extremely close; these partnerships are driven by a shared desire to understand user and business needs and to supply tools that align with those needs.
• IT and Enterprise 2.0 applications are currently running in parallel. Integration will present challenges in terms of enterprise IT architecture, content management, search effectiveness, and the cost of running multiple non-standard applications.
• Change management and deployment are remarkably consistent across the best-practice organizations.
• Study partners generally recommend slow rollouts, experimental use of applications, grassroots evolution, and the targeting of early adopters as champions.
• To demonstrate the value of Enterprise 2.0 implementations, the best-practice organizations rely on activity measures, success stories, and lessons learned.