European users enthusiastic for Enterprise 2.0, converging IT and communications strategies, and green IT, says IDC.An IDC survey of 1,000 key ICT (1) (Information and Communications Technology) An umbrella term for the information technology field. See IT. (2) (International Computers and Tabulators) See ICL. 1. (testing) ICT - In Circuit Test. decision makers in Europe reveals that users are showing a growing interest in Enterprise 2.0 technologies, converging IT and communications strategies, and green IT. The survey looked at the following areas: * CIO CIO: see American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. (Chief Information Officer) The executive officer in charge of information processing in an organization. challenges. Although CIOs' biggest concern is "security/business continuity" (cited by 31% of respondents), they must also contend with three other major issues--"integrating IT and communications" (mentioned by 25% of respondents), "compliance with government legislation" (17%), and "delivering flexible IT solutions" (15%). The significance of combined IT and communications challenges was underlined by the fact that 52% of respondents claimed management responsibility for both areas in their organizations. * Enterprise 2.0 adoption. When asked to rate their company's adoption and use of Enterprise 2.0 technologies and tools on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 is no adoption and 10 is widespread adoption and extensive use), the sample recorded a score of 3.81, with stronger adoption in southern Europe Southern Europe or sometimes Mediterranean Europe is a region of the European continent. There is no clear definition of the term which can vary depending on whether geographic, cultural, linguistic or historical factors are taken into account. and Denmark and lower adoption in Western Europe Western Europe The countries of western Europe, especially those that are allied with the United States and Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (established 1949 and usually known as NATO). and emerging countries. The score jumped to 6.29 when the sample was asked to forecast the rate in six to 18 months. The survey suggests some very strong adoption over the coming months, especially in the U.K., Poland, and Russia. When asked to identify which Enterprise 2.0 tools they were adopting, "Web-based voice/data" was the most popular (mentioned by 29% of the sample), followed by "unified messaging Having access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes via a common computer application or by telephone. For example, unified messaging may send faxes and digitized voice mail to a mail server that turns them into e-mail attachments. " (27%) and "social networking See social networking site. social networking - social network tools" (21%). IDC even found small but significant adoption of more esoteric tools such as wikis See wiki. , blogs, and virtual worlds. * Web 2.0 ROI (Return On Investment) The monetary benefits derived from having spent money on developing or revising a system. In the IT world, there are more ways to compute ROI than Carter has liver pills (and for those of you who never heard of that expression, it means a lot). . "Improving internal collaboration" was mentioned by 50% of respondents as the main driver for deploying Web 2.0 solutions. "Improving customer service" (31%), "improving external collaboration" (26%), "compliance" (20%), and "product development/innovation" (20%) also scored strongly. 37% of the sample claimed to have already achieved most or all of the ROI or goals of their Web 2.0 strategy, while 9% claimed they had not yet achieved these aims at all. Most organizations thought it was currently too early to assess (24%) or had only achieved some of their aims. "Lack of user demand" (40%) and "not getting budget priority" (16%) are the two most important barriers to deploying Web 2.0 solutions. Making the most of Web 2.0 solutions to revolutionize rev·o·lu·tion·ize tr.v. rev·o·lu·tion·ized, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·ing, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·es 1. To bring about a radical change in: Television has revolutionized news coverage. 2. the way organizations collaborate and do business is also a major theme of the forum. * IT budgets in context. The sample companies--from Germany, the U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Poland, and Russia--were selected to represent a good cross-section of organizations in Europe. The median average turnover was around [euro]28 million and on average they claimed to be spending around 8% of this on ICT annually. 42% of the sample claimed to have spent 5% or less of the ICT budget on the deployment of Web 2.0 solutions. * Green IT. IDC also unearthed Unearthed is the name of a Triple J project to find and "dig up" (hence the name) hidden talent in regional Australia. Unearthed has had three incarnations - they first visited each region of Australia where Triple J had a transmitter - 41 regions in all. some interesting opinions on the growing issue of green IT. While 30% claimed it was "the responsibility of IT suppliers," a high percentage (24%) saw it as their own "moral obligation." 20% claimed to be "indifferent," while 13% saw it as a "commercial advantage." 68% of respondents claimed to have little or no knowledge of their suppliers' green credentials. About half of these CIOs said they wanted to gain a better understanding of the issue--something IDC hopes to provide during the forum. For full details of the European ICT Forum 2007, contact http://www.idc.com |
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