Web 2.0 Networked Enterprises – Indian IT Services Providers

Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites etc that allows users to interact and collaborate with each other.  These collaborative technologies are widely being used in the organizations to connect the internal employees of the organizations to share knowledge and expertise that ultimately benefit the clients and customers. These platforms engage employees and encourage them in providing the innovative ideas and discuss and collaborate on the ideas and control attrition. Management also used such platforms as a two way communication channel with employees and invite ideas form employees to tide over the recession and Indian IT service vendors used these well in recent recession. McKinsey has studied the enterprise use for the past four years and found that the adoption has increased tremendously in organizations, saw significant rise in their margins and market share gains and improvement in customer/client relationships.

Tata Consultancy services (TCS) developed a platform called Ultimatix which helps to consolidate internal systems and take advantage of group knowledge. TCS invested in this platform of wikis, personalized sites, blogs that not only bring employees together but also help employees to collaborate for organizational benefits. Justask is similar to that of a Q&A forum that enable employees to ask questions openly, Ideamax encourages employees to share their ideas about a particular technology or a process. Ultimatix integrated 50 core applications to streamline operations and internal collaboration for more than 700 business processes. It integrated all internal processes, including HR, finance, and project management, to support over 100,000 staff.

Infosys intranet Sparsh, the information intranet of Infosys, allows every single member of Infosys to be connected at all times was rated among the world’s top 10.  It serves as an internal social network, and members can exchange ideas by email, bulletin boards and can also hold discussions. Sparsh has helped Infosys in reducing operating costs and meeting clients’ needs even more efficiently, and increase in operating margins. Sparsh is coupled with KShop; a knowledge database where Infosys has book reviews, case studies, even materials, FAQs, tutorials, downloadable software etc for every employee.

Wipro intranet is called as ‘Channel W’, which was launched in 2000 is a communication channel. Employees can discuss what is happening inside the company, share ideas/thoughts and post advertisements (such as, looking for an apartment or selling old furniture) in their discussion boards. The intranet provides a platform to share knowledge among Wipro employees and collaborate with one another across various locations. Wipro launched ‘My Wipro World’ in 2009 on the Web 2.0 platform which is an evolution of ‘Channel W’.

Cognizant spent nearly $10 million on its C2 platform according to IDC. Cognizant 2.0 maps the entire workflow, across varied skills, geographies and business units and it reduces time to identify the best team for the project. The network connects associates, clients, and stakeholders and also helps to share knowledge using blogs and wikis, and manage projects using consistent tools and process. The C2 has around 60,000 active users and the site records over six million page views every month.

HCL Technologies has many initiatives such as social network called U&I that employees can use to interact with CEO, Communities called Employee First Councils around health and hygiene, art, music, corporate social responsibility and business related passions such as a particular technology or a vertical domain area, My Blueprint, another social networking system allowing managers to share plans for their specific business areas and get feedback from another 8000 HCLT managers. The company Employee First and Customer Second policy itself highlights the importance for a strong intranet within the organization to engage in open dialogue with his employees.

Adoption of Web 2.0 technologies into the organizations and use of these technologies by employees on a day to day basis have lead to good operating margins and increase in market share for the organizations. Employees actively participate in such initiatives which will lead to reduced attrition and increased productivity. The organizations can take a step further and use these technologies in managing their relationships with customers which will be a win – win situation for both the parties.

Discussion Points:

1.      How to adopt and invest in Web 2.0 Technologies and how to integrate into Organization?

2.      How to encourage the employees and other stakeholders to actively participate and derive the benefits?

3.      How can organizations profit from Web 2.0 Technologies?