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In an exclusive interview, NewsGator Technologies’ Andre Bonvanie chats about the benefits and pitfalls associated with Enterprise 2.0.

CXO. How can Enterprise 2.0 tools help organisations get their hands on the right information when they need it and improve internal and external communications?
Andre Bonvanie. Enterprise 2.0 tools help organisations with much more than improving communications. At some banks, cashiers are alerted on potentially fraudulent customers by RSS (Really Simply Syndication) feeds. Other companies that are using our NewsGator Social Sites product let geographically distributed teams collaborate on projects. They’re using social bookmarking to share information without having to clog up the email server and using micro-blogging for inside-the-firewall discussions. And there are companies that want to make sure that the right information is delivered to the right people within a secure environment. All of these scenarios rely on Enterprise 2.0 because it enables people to create, share and tag information and feeds, so that other people can find it easily and collaborate with the right people to get results; inside and outside the organisation if the corporate infrastructure permits.

CXO. How can it deliver a competitive advantage and drive innovation, especially in these tough economic conditions?
AB. Social software is a new way to do old things, such as discussion of ideas for improvement and knowledge management. The current economic climate forces organisations to ‘think’ differently. First and foremost, it needs to invite everyone in the organisation to share ideas and information to create new initiatives; whether it is about cost reductions, new products, or about creating a better work place. Those organisations that turn out to be the most nimble will be able to recover quickest and take a leading role in their market.

CXO. What are the common mistakes that companies make when it comes to this area?
AB. Although you might think that Enterprise 2.0 solutions are founded upon bottom-up involvement from frontline staffers, successful participation needs grassroots activity and a different leadership approach: senior executives often become role models and lead through informal channels. It is also important to see these tools as part of the mainstream work of an employee, not as ‘another thing to do’ on their already long list.

Most companies also have difficulty finding the right balance between freedom and control. Common reasons for not starting Enterprise 2.0 initiatives is discomfort with it, or even fear, and stalling by legal, IT and HR concerns. You should work with these groups to set standards on appropriate use. But in the end you will find that social norms enforced by users in the participating communities can be very effective at policing user exchanges and thus mitigating risks.

CXO. How are your products and services making a difference for organisations today?
AB. Our products help organisations to do different things. We help ‘globalise’ companies by enabling them to share ideas, documents and conversations via communities that are not hierarchically or geographically restricted. These companies can offer more creativity and service to their customers. Another customer tell us that their employees spend less time – up to 30 minutes per day – to find the appropriate information to do their job better and therefore they can be more responsive to their clients. This is achieved by making sure that each employee receives their daily portion of personalized information using our product and avoids the need for people to search for relevant information.

One company reported to us that they see their aging workers retiring in greater numbers and need to find a way to attract new talent. They started going to universities and tried traditional recruitment, but this company didn’t appeal to students at all because of the traditional work environment they offered. After they embraced an Enterprise 2.0 strategy they immediately got the attention from some students. Now their Enterprise 2.0 strategy has become a successful HR strategy as well. In simpler terms of savings, we have customers that tell us they save hundreds of pounds in IT costs because people use less email, or save a bundle because they don’t have their employees travel as much to get things done.

Andre Bonvanie leads NewsGator Technologies’ European office. NewsGator provides Social Computing solutions including NewsGator Enterprise Server and Social Sites. For more information, contact him at andreb@newsgator.com or +31 (20) 561-7038.