Earlier this week, G. Oliver Young and Sarah Perez covered a recent Forrester report predicting continued spend on social software through 2009 resulting in a global market of $4.6 billion by 2013. Much of the investment, surprisingly, will be driven by big business.
According to Sarah, "...firms with 1000 employees or more will spend $764 million on Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Over the next five years, that expenditure will grow at a compound annual rate of 43%. The top spending category will be social networking tools."
In "Enterprise Web 2.0 will see surging demand and excitement", G. Oliver Young notes that in 2008:
"IT departments...(will) take their heads out of the sand and embrace Web 2.0 technologies...(and we can expect to see) at least half of the 42% of enterprises that say Web 2.0 is not on their priority list...add it by year’s end."
Many firms began their experimentation with social software (i.e., blogs, wikis, RSS, mashups, etc.) last year as isolated departmental projects. And most of these organic projects, fueled by the growth of consumer social media (e.g., Facebook, Linked-In) within the office, have spread rapidly inside the office so much so that they can no longer be ignored within the enterprise landscape. As Oliver writes...
"CIOs...concede that they cannot quell passionate employees’ use of consumer-oriented or SaaS Web 2.0 tools and will (choose to) mitigate risk by deploying enterprise-class tools in their stead.
...nearly any vendor that uses the term “social networking” will get...some consideration...(while)...suite offerings...(from)...Awareness, Jive Software, and IBM’s Lotus Connections offering stand to benefit greatly from the attention."
Vendors who thrive will be those offering a complete package of tools (e.g., white-label firms such as HiveLive, SelectMinds and Jive Software) for the businesses they seek to serve. Among the larger enterprise players, Microsoft (SharePoint), IBM (Lotus Connections) and SAP (SAP Business Suite) will all likely position there offerings with Web 2.0/3.0 capabilities directly embedded around specific business problems. And, the market is already showing proof-points of adoption for the market spend Forrester forecasts.
According to Bob Picciano, IBM's Lotus GM, the Lotus Connections enterprise-class, social-networking suite is "...the fastest-growing new commercial software product in IBM history."
Sarah summarizes social software's future state in enterprise offerings:
"What this means is that much of the Web 2.0 tool kit will simply 'fade into the fabric of enterprise collaboration suite'...by 2013, few buyers will seek out and purchase Web 2.0 tools specifically. Web 2.0 will become a feature, not a product."
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