Web Design and SEO

Its widely acknowledged that most Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 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 ERP 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. 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.The value of Web 2.0 technologies is that they bring capabilities to business users that were not possible previously. These include:

• enabling users to securely access structured and unstructured information across the enterprise in a single search;
• enhancing collaboration both internally and with partners, suppliers and customers;
• boosting the usability of business applications;
• improving the ability to customize and integrate applications;

The strategic value of these capabilities depends on the organization’s business strategy. For example, some organization will want to enhance customer service by empowering employees with the information they need to better address customer questions. Others will wish to bring new products to market faster by improving collaboration between the enterprise and its suppliers, customers and partners. And others will have different objectives.

Enterprise Search Makes Information Easier to Find

Information is of no use if it can’t be found. Yet today, it is difficult for business users to find the information they need. One reason is that different types of information—structured and unstructured text information—are stored in numerous siloed systems, including databases, content management systems, email archives and so on. Users need to know in advance where this information is located.In contrast, consumer users have become adept at instantly retrieving highly relevant content on the Web using Google™-type search capabilities.

Web 2.0 makes enterprise information more easily discoverable in a number of ways. It enables users to search for all types of data in a single search; it improves the relevance of results through a Google-inspired link structure and allows content categorization to arise organically through tag clouds; it augments returned search results with additional data, as well as updates users about new content automatically through real-simple syndication (RSS). At the same time, role-based security limits data access to authorized users.

Enhancing Collaboration

Organizations are increasingly looking to improve collaboration both internally and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. Many organizations are adopting virtual workforces to address younger workers’ demands to work from home to improve flexibility and work/life balance. Other organizations are establishing virtual collaborative teams across the globe at the intra-corporate level to take advantage of extended enterprise models and outsourcing/offshoring.

However, today’s communication channels impede collaboration by making it difficult to locate colleagues in real time. In addition, users are unable to find knowledge generated during this collaboration for later reuse. While email makes it easier to get in touch with people, exchanging emails with co-workers can be inefficient. Emails also create multiple copies of messages or different versions of documents. And email systems provide no centralized place to search for a message or attachment. Instant Messaging (IM)/Chat makes it easy to discover who is available for collaboration at any given time and provides the technology to do so in real time, but it does not save the results of interactions. As a result, others in the organization do not benefit from the knowledge transferred.

Presence technology breaks down barriers to global collaboration. Presence allows users to see who else is available for collaboration right from their business applications. It includes technologies such as Instant Messaging for carrying out the collaboration. And it can keep records of the interaction, either by saving the contents of an IM conversation or a recording of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) conversation. As a result, interactions become highly leverageable since day-to-day interaction by users leaves behind discoverable information that reflect the ideas and work conducted within business processes.

For example, a user can see that an engineer is online and IM them to ask a question about a technical issue a customer is having with the company’s product. When the engineer replies, the response is recorded and becomes searchable using enterprise search tools so other employees with the same question can instantly find the answer.

The following are just a few examples of how companies can benefit from
improved collaboration:

• One major packaged goods vendor uses collaborative tools to connect employees to each other and to outsiders to bring smart new products to market faster.
• Software users can share tips and tricks.
• Developers can brainstorm ideas for the next release and ask customers to rate the priority or contribute enhancement suggestions
• In a large global organization, project team members around the world can share information, files and ideas without meeting face-to-face in a
  conference room.
• Companies can support ad hoc processes and problem solving. While prescribed policies and procedures will always have a place, workers on the ground often need to make on-the-spot decisions and develop their own solutions as problems occur. Collaborative environments can give workers access to the right information and talent to solve their problems.

Ease of Use Extends the Reach of Enterprise Applications

Business applications are typically much more difficult to use then their consumer Web 2.0 counterparts. That difficulty comes at a price. In addition, many enterprises wish to open their business applications to partners, suppliers, and customers to enable the extended enterprise. However, organizations are unable to benefit from doing so if applications are too difficult to use without training.

As technologists build Web 2.0 capabilities, they’re making sure their offerings are easy to use. With Web 2.0 tools, users can author, link, tag and so on with a Web browser, a few clicks and some typing without the need for HTML skills. Because these tools are so easy to use, people inside and outside the organization can use them without special training. As a result, people inside the organization become more efficient and productive while businesses can better open up their organizations’ business systems via the extended enterprise to partners, suppliers, and customers to streamline supply and demand chain operations.

Benefits of Incorporating Web 2.0 into Enterprise Applications

By bringing Web 2.0 capabilities to enterprise applications, companies can improve productivity and collaboration while lowering IT costs.

• Improved efficiency and productivity – Using Web 2.0 technologies in business gives the enterprise the best of both worlds. Business users accustomed to traditional business applications can continue to use their existing applications. Those who grew up with the consumer web and social computing can use their accustomed interfaces. As a result, users gain the flexibility to work with business systems and information in the manner that makes them most productive. Better search capabilities enable users to find information they are authorized to access far more quickly and intuitively. Mashups improve both IT and end user productivity by allowing business users to build just the right applications to address business requirements faster and more easily.
• Harness knowledge through collaboration – Better collaboration empowers the business and extended enterprise to better harness information to more effectively solve business problems and improve productivity.
• Reduce costs – Organizations lower costs through the ability to maintain and administer applications on Web and Application servers, which end users access via the Web, rather than having to maintain and administer large numbers of individual desktop systems.