According to United Planet (www.unitedplanet.com), one of the leading developers of enterprise portal software in Europe, the opportunities presented by social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook have paved the way for a new kind of teamwork for business. Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs and forums, have made it possible to support business-internal collaboration and knowledge management, transforming companies into an Enterprise 2.0 organisation.
Instead of ‘losing’ or ‘hiding’ company knowledge inside employees’ heads, Web 2.0 functionality in the form of wikis and blogs can provide an easy to use outlet for experience and expertise. This new way of working and sharing knowledge mirrors the Facebook approach to communicating. As this approach is very popular outside of work, employees are happy to engage with it, creating an invaluable tool for collecting, archiving and sharing knowledge with other employees in the future.
Employees can post past experiences or personal information in a company wiki, making this available to their colleagues on the portal. They can share information in forums or contact one another quickly when required which is particularly useful for project groups. The ability to exchange opinions on important topics of difficult issues informally in the run-up to a meeting means that the time needed to plan and conduct such meetings is significantly reduced.
Axel Wessendorf, managing director at United Planet, said: “Modern portal solutions such as Intrexx are equipped with templates for Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs and forums, as standard. As a new way of doing business, Enterprise 2.0 not only allows companies to pool distributed knowledge on the central data platform of the enterprise portal, enabling the company to profit directly from the knowledge and experience of its individual employees. It also ensures that knowledge is easily transferred across multiple locations.”
“Agility will be vital for all businesses going forward and Enterprise 2.0 will make it much easier to share and discuss new ideas, and develop innovative solutions in a collaborative manner without delay. Accelerated distribution of information throughout an organisation not only empowers employees to learn from the knowledge of others, it also makes a real difference to employee morale and encourages team spirit,” he added.
For further information about Intrexx, as well as free live demos of Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, blogs and forums, visit www.unitedplanet.com.
