The Enterprise 2.0 User: Harbinger Of The Future Of Workplace Collaboration

Business leaders' increased interest in enterprise 2.0 technology has spurred collaboration software vendors of all stripes to roll out social applications in their suite of tools. Despite this effort, only a small portion of information workers — 24% — uses these tools. This group, however, is where technology product management and marketing professionals should be focusing their efforts. Why? These users are the actual drivers of workplace collaboration. They are mobile workers who need these tools to stay connected, and their numbers are rapidly growing: We expect 43% of US workers to telecommute in five years. Enterprise 2.0 product managers and marketers can capitalize on this by focusing their marketing on helping IT and information workers solve problems associated with remote working, developing mobile applications, renewing their pitch for mashups for the enterprise, and creating new collaborative experiences with social tools.