Understanding Web 2.0
Continued
What can I do about it?
The first thing to do is to destroy the illusion that you are in control. It is simply not true, but more importantly, it never was. For years we talked about the pendulum of power moving back and forth between the lines of business and IT. The game of centralized vs. decentralized IT continues to be played in the halls of management, but ironically, the users of today joined the game but were never told the rules. They grew up on the web, so they are doing their own thing.
The harsh reality is that today's software buyers are users--not the departments they represent and certainly not the CIO. This shift was visible early in portal space. Many organizations made a strategic decision, and most departments ignored it to meet their business requirements (features, timelines, integration, etc). This is just the next evolution, and this understanding should lie at the core of how you relate to 2.0.
Once you embrace this view, your focus will shift to finding a way to support these decentralized decisions while protecting what matters to your company. There are real liabilities inherent in how organizations deal with information. They have obligations in reporting, compliance issues, global concerns, privacy issues, and the list goes on. The policies that govern these organizations cannot be ignored, but they need to mesh with the new world. We are in fresh soil here. No one has had to deal with these challenges yet, but the IT organizations will be the first, and it is their perspective more than anything that will determine the future.
Those that blend with the new realities will do well. Those that rally against change will be overwhelmed. Users are too numerous and decentralized. Destroy one bastion of non-compliance and another will rise. Don't get caught in the enterprise version of "whack-a-mole" – there is a better way.
After years of varied work in both business, product, and technology strategy teams,
Paul Pedrazzi now heads AppsLab, Oracle's thinktank designed to drive understanding and adoption of new technology and business patterns.
