Use enterprise 2.0 to save money

December is just around the corner and many organisations have already depleted their 2008 intranet budgets many months ago. On the wish lists for 2009 are many interesting projects, including Enterprise 2.0 initiatives. However, as I’ve said previously, you may need to cut your intranet budget.

Before you even begin to make the case for additional funding, I would strongly suggest that you start by getting an overview of what the money is currently being spent on - or has been spent on thus far. If you have not done this exercise recently (many haven’t), then you might be in for a surprise.

As a next step, I would recommend that tried-and-tested advice of starting small. You can actually get a few things done in the enterprise 2.0 sphere without spending any money. You can get a free wiki or a free blog and start experimenting. You know you have a success on your hands, when you start getting unsolicited praise from colleagues!

Finally, remember that enterprise 2.0 is not about technology. Technology is not where you’ll spend most of your money; nor is it with technology that you will run into most problems. The cultural barriers that enterprise 2.0 projects tend to face: lack of openness and transparency, might be a much more cumbersome task to work through,, than actually implementing some exciting new technology.

Have you actually managed to save some money with an enterprise 2.0 project? How did you overcome the cultural barriers? Drop a comment and help me learn.

by Janus Boye