Bringing Web 2.0 to the Enterprise: Leveraging Social Computing Technologies for ERP Applications

Bringing Web 2.0 to the Enterprise: Leveraging Social Computing Technologies for ERP Applications
An Epicor White PaperWHITE PAPER
Abstract
Today's business applications are not flexible enough to keep pace with the businesses they support. Users must figure out where to find information, located in isolated silos, that supports their tasks; the IT costs of keeping up with evolving business requirements remain high. Adding collaborative Web 2.0 technologies, such as enterprise search, presence, and mashups to business applications is increasingly seen as a way to address these challenges both for business users and IT alike. Yet while many business users are familiar with these technologies through personal use, they remain uncertain about how these new capabilities can support their business strategies. This white paper details how Web 2.0 technologies support business strategies by improving efficiency and productivity as well as harnessing knowledge through collaboration. They also reduce IT costs by simplifying integration and improving IT administration and maintenance. WHITE PAPER
Table of Contents
Today's Applications Are Too Inflexible to Keep Pace with Businesses 1 How Web 2.0 Technologies Improve Strategic Business Operations 2 Enhancing Collaboration 4 Ease of Use Extends the Reach of Enterprise Applications 5 Mashups Simplify Integration 6 Improved Administration 6 Benefits of Incorporating Web 2.0 into Enterprise Applications 7 Technology Requirements to Integrate Web 2.0 Technologies into Enterprise Applications 8 Improving Information Findability 9 SOA Simplifies Mashups 9 SOA-based Applications are Easy to Deploy, Manage, Upgrade, and Use 9 The Epicor 9 Solution 10 Conclusion 11 About Epicor 12
Bringing Web 2.0 to the Enterprise: Leveraging Social Computing Technologies for ERP Applications i WHITE PAPER
Today's Applications Are Too Inflexible
to Keep Pace with Businesses
According to the analyst firm Forrester, most business applications are not flexible enough to keep pace with the businesses they support. Today's applications force users to figure out how to map isolated pools of information and functions to their tasks and processes. And they force IT professionals to spend too much of their budget to keep up with evolving business models and requirements. Increasingly, software vendors and businesses are bringing Web 2.0 capabilities from the consumer realm to business applications to address these end user and IT challenges. The idea of bringing familiar Web 2.0 capabilities into the business world was first discussed in the spring of 2006 when Harvard Professor Andrew McAffee coined the term "Enterprise 2.0" to describe this phenomenon in an article that appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review entitled "Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent 1Collaboration." Since then, software vendors have been working to make this idea a reality by incorporating a range of Web 2.0 technologies such as enterprise search, Web-based collaboration, mashups and other concepts into business applications to improve efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Unlike the consumer realm, businesses must control who sees critical business information. Therefore software vendors have been infusing these technologies with the security and management features found in traditional software applications. While many business users are familiar with these technologies through personal use, they remain uncertain as to how these technologies can provide strategic benefits to their business. Indeed, according to the aiim 2Market IQ study, "Enterprise 2.0: Agile, Emergent, and Integrated," most organizations are not incorporating Web 2.0 technologies strategically. Forty-five percent of the surveyed organizations are predominantly deploying Web 2.0 technologies in an ad hoc manner. Only 26 percent of the organizations are taking a predominant and strategic approach to Web 2.0 technology deployment. The reason is that businesses are not entirely clear on how to incorporate these technologies into their strategic operations.

1 http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2006/spring/06/ 2 http://www.aiim.org/ResourceCenter/Research/marketiq.aspx
Title 1 WHITE PAPER
How Web 2.0 Technologies Improve Strategic Business Operations
The value of Web 2.0 t... [download for more]