“A new BI solution that offers a RIA and SaaS using Curl, Flex, or Silverlight; maybe some SOAP or REST is exactly what your company needs.” Ten years ago, a statement like that would have made no sense. Today, however, is a different story.

The acronyms all apply to Web 2.0 technologies, directly or indirectly, and these technologies are becoming the core for user-friendly, collaborative tools and work processes that well-educated, technology-enabled, and highly motivated customers are using to connect with each other and collaborate spontaneously. An example would be customers exchanging information about products they just bought from Wal-Mart, advising each other about its shortcomings, its eco-friendly attributes, or a superior option to purchase instead.

Within a few years, converging social, technological and political changes will command powerful changes in how organizations relate to their customers. These changes will question many assumptions about 20th century business models. “Executives need to rethink their approach in creating value for their customers, quickly and proactively.”¹ They must build collaborative networks of partners to discover, design and deliver differentiated experiences consumers are going to expect.

High school and university students are already utilizing these technologies every day, and as their buying power grows they will recommend an ever-increasing array of products to each other. Once employed they will also bring a set of expectations on their interactions with company tools and will be tremendously disappointed when organizations don’t have Web 2.0 tools they are accustomed to for accomplishing tasks and building relationships.

Web 2.0, simply put, is a set of tools that unify communications and offer collaboration solutions. Collaboration tools such as wikis, blogs, RSS, mash-ups, podcasts and social networking can help customers & employees share ideas more quickly, both internally and externally.

These tools are not just for purchasing products or to reconnect with old friends but they are also being used by organizations in energy efficiency & emissions abatement.

For instance, TerraPass is a carbon offsetting website used by persons and organizations to offset travel emissions. TerraPass is using a GoogleMaps mash-up, as seen below, to improve their tool:

Not to be overtly promotional but Energy Advantage’s Total Energy & Environmental Management Portal is an example of a web 2.0 platform that helps organizations resolve energy & emissions related issues. By mashing together four typically disparate areas of energy & emissions – energy usage, commodity procurement, energy efficiency & emissions – organizations get transparency to their actual data, are informed and can collaborate with experts to make strategic energy & environmental decisions.

Not only are clean technology providers embracing web 2.0, but many companies are re-thinking how Web 2.0 can be used to make more traditional tasks the company itself more efficient. For instance, virtual environments can be a useful way to host internal meetings, allowing more interaction than voice alone and at a lower cost than videoconferencing. Trade shows are another huge expense: “mid-size to large companies allocate $550,000 every year”² yet for the price of a new DVD release, companies can set up virtual tradeshows and increase attendance dramatically. AMD, the chip manufacturer, usually gets exposed to about 10,000 attendants in the real-life trade show it participates in, brought over a million unique visitors to its virtual show it hosted. Another benefit is the metrics measured by the site. These are more useful than any survey used in real-life, as it shows elements that offered the most interest to its visitors. The environmental benefit is measured in CO₂ equivalent emissions, since no one had to drive or fly.

With the proliferation of these Web 2.0 technologies coming in waves, companies cannot afford to ignore them. It is no longer which wave to catch, as they don’t wait to come one after another, but arrive simultaneously or in aggregation, it is how soon can you latch on. Web 3.0, offering universal data access, artificial intelligence, virtual reality etc., is already in its initial stages and it won`t be long before customers begin adopting these new technologies and Web 2.0 becomes as archaic as static web pages are today.

With virtualization and consolidation becoming more prominent in the server market, these technologies are easier to reach, and easier to manage. Standardization and efficient utilization of existing resources should yield steady savings to start. However, be careful not to blindly adopt every single Web 2.0 technology out there, as many will expose weaknesses and inefficiencies in internal processes outside the company boundaries. Choose software based on the ability to boost employee effectiveness in processes that cannot be automated including innovating, learning, relationship building, finding opportunities and threats, and managing. Better yet, partner with other organizations that bolster profitability and growth.

¹Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How Market Leaders Capitalize on Information Technology. 1998, P Weill, M Broadbent - Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Massachusetts
²Entrepreneurs, Trade Shows, Web 2.0 Style by Lisa LaMotta