Web 2.0 tools proving beneficial for government, industry

There has been all sorts of buzz around Web 2.0 in recent years -- including in government, but are the benefits living up to all that hype?

Management consulting company McKinsey & Co. conducted a survey of 1,700 executives around the world across a range of industries, including government, asking them about the value from their Web 2.0 deployments.

Michael Chui is with McKinsey & Co. and explained that they most recently discovered that over two-thirds of those surveyed have derrived measurable business benefits from using Web 2.0.

"We're certainly seeing a continuing wave of adoption of these technologies, both in the private sector, as well as in the public sector. . . . We do see public sector organizations beginning to understand the ability in these technologies to improve collaboration within their organization. There's also the ability to help them better connect with constituencies outside the organization, whether it be business partners or suppliers or citizens."

Chui said the adoption rates and patterns vary depending on the organization. What is clear, however, is that a demographic shift is occuring as younger workers are hired.

"[They are] starting to use these technologies and expecting to be able to use these sorts of productivity-enhancing and collaboration-enhancing technologies when they join the workforce. But, increasingly, we're seeing even the senior levels of management recognize the power of some of these technologies to improve collaboration, reduce cost, etcetera."

He added that, according to the survey results, it seems as though middle management is currently having the most difficult time adopting new tools, though he stressed that this is not as serious of a problem as it sounds.

"I don't want to over-emphasize the resistance to change. There are certainly people who don't quite understand it; on the other hand, I think, to a certain extent, the more you use it, the more you realize the potential benefits."

Since the survey showed that two-thirds of most businesses are getting results, that does mean that one-third is still lacking, though Chui concedes that this might be due to the newness of the tools, rather than resistance per se.

"We're in the early stages in learning how to really use these tools effectively. As we learn, there will be stumbles along the way, for sure."

As far as who benefits, Chui explained that the survey showed that, while people might not be experts with Web 2.0 tools yet, they do want to continue using them for the most part.

"Even in these difficult economic times, a majority of organizations thought that it made sense to continue to invest. Now, it does help that these technologies tend to be a lower capital investment than some of the enterprise-wide applications that people have had to invest in previously, and so that does help the ROI case."

Web 2.0 tools should not be adopted simply for adoption's sake, however. Chui said the survey showed that it was clear that companies got positive ROI only when they made the tools part of the workflow.

"If it's just another add-on to somebody's long to-do list, it will eventually get dropped. Either you have to change the way people work, or change the tools to suit the way they work, or change both; but, again, the only way you achieve a critical mass is by making sure that people use these as part of their day-to-day work."