Are we ready for Enterprise 2.0? I’d say yes.

Dr. Todd Stephens, the author of the Collaborage blog, struck a chord with one with his message today.   Some quotes:

Will Enterprise 2.0 do more harm than good? The obvious answer is no but management has a way of screwing things up.

For most investors looking at the stock price is more of a conversation thing. We may look at the price on a daily basis but most of us won’t act. If we did, the transaction fees would kill any profit that we have in the portfolio. It’s the same thing in the business world. If we just used the dashboards as guides then we wouldn’t have so many problems with firefighting and over reacting.

The assumption is that if we apply Six Sigma methods to our technology community then we can have a predictable and stable environment. How many innovations are actually going to emerge from a predictable environment?

Woe to the project manager that lets the status turn to yellow or red. The amount of overreaction this causes is borderline hilarious.

His conclusion:

Now imagine an executive taking time to read several employee blogs. One weblog, by a respected technology professional, wails on the project. She describes the trouble brewing and the difficulty of making the deadlines based upon the untested technology. Maybe she discusses the lack of appropriate testing time allocated to the project or poor usability of the interface? Will managers use Web 2.0 technologies as guides or just another reason apply their influence on people and activities that don’t really need them? The key to Web 2.0 is to use the tools appropriately and not use them to over compensate.

One of the many reasons why we at BSG Alliance look to the Agile process in our projects is to make the delivery cycles short enough to allow for innovation along the way.  With the Agile methodology, space for innovation is added to the fabric of a project’s life cycle. 

I agree with Collaborage in that Enterprise 2.0 tools and Agile development methodology are just aids for helping technologists deliver innovative solutions with a manageable structure around them.  Bottom line, you need experienced technologists working in a collaborative manner in order to foster innovation.

BSG On-Demand Delivery

Here is a nice concise description of BSG’s model and how we differ from other consulting firms.

Is Twitter ready for the Financial Services Enterprise?

This week’s WSJ had an article about Twitter. For those who have not Twittered, this is a micro-blog service. The concept is simplicity in itself – in 140 characters of less, you answer one question, “What are you doing?” Twitter then sends your answer to your friends in one of several ways, but SMS to their cell phones is the most prevalent (the other ways are to your Twitter homepage, to your Facebook page, or to your IM service). You choose who to invite as your friends on Twitter, and they confirm they are your friends (this is common in LinkedIn, Facebook, etc…) for them to see your Twitters and for you to get theirs. Some recent Twits I’ve sent and received include:

Person T = Wondering how the webinar went!

Person S = on a webinar…. having fun

Person S = slogging through technorati stats

Person T = Delivering birthday party invitations

Person M = Considering WSJ article on Twitter

Person M = At office – finally. I was starting to like Austin Airport & circling JFK!

Person C = lost in wal-mart

I have only four friends on Twitter, and all are my co-workers. Now why should I care to know what my friends are doing in this level of detail, especially with my co-workers? Having used this rather addictive tool for a month, I wonder if we should continue Twittering each other? Further, will micro-blogging make any inroads at the major financial houses?

To answer my own questions… Of my four co-workers who are my friends on Twitter, I have never met two of them. We talk constantly, and Twitter even more so. I feel I know them better through this interaction, and I sincerely say our work together is more effective because we are friends. Is Twitter helping this friend grow? In small ways yes… I know when my co-worker in Minnesota is working on BSG Alliance stuff or is working her “side job” of being a mother of four. I see the kinds of things my co-worker in New Jersey is researching, and that stretches my thinking about Enterprise 2.0 and its application in Financial Services firms. I know where in the country my co-worker who nominally lives in Austin is…

I don’t see why we should stop Twittering. I do see some challenges. My NJ co-worker Twittered recently “Yikes! Too many company suits on Twitter!! Changes everything!” This was in response to me (a suit for the record) and my boss (a suit in role, but a “jeans” in practice”) joining her circle of Twitterers. I see Twitter as being useful for small teams of people, especially geographically challenged teams, to keep synchronized. It is painless to micro-blog (I simply IM twitter@twitter.com and poof I’ve Twitted). I wonder if Twittering would be too annoying for large teams or across teams. I wonder if you are working on two teams (or more) should you have multiple Twitter IDs or should your Twittergrams go to all the teams at once. The WSJ address this point and gives one of the benefits of Twitter as being your mother and family can keep up with what you do. I have not tried that one, but I know if I did, I’d create two Twitter accounts – work and home.

So should my friends at the Financial Houses Twitter? Why not? I can’t think of an organization who is not striving to improve communications among teams of people.

I just sent this to Twitter from my cell phone, “On train. Finished blog post on Twitter. Will post when home.”