Enterprise 2.0 A Game-Changer for Investment Banks [Market Advisory]

Just Released—CSRA Market Advisory Highlights How I-Banks are Using Web 2.0 to Drive Competitiveness

This summer, “Enterprise 2.0” began to get legs as the new moniker for applying Web 2.0 to the enterprise, reflecting that pragmatists are raising their eyes for an exploratory glance. The market advisory shares how global investment banks are using Enterprise 2.0, and it suggests action steps for executives to take this year and next. Here is the executive summary and a few choice concluding points:

Enterprise 2.0 Enables Executives to Digitize and Monetize Collaboration for the First Time

This is so simple that many will miss it and open themselves to disruptive competition…

• Banks increasingly use wikis, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools for mission-critical processes, as shown through the examples of Citi, DrKW, Morgan Stanley, ING and JP Morgan..
• Enterprise 2.0 is a new term that denotes corporate adoption of Web 2.0 and social software tools. It offers investment banks an unusual opportunity to reduce risk and improve their earnings and profits by increasing returns on process, human and knowledge capital.
• However, Enterprise 2.0 also confronts banks with changing some of their assumptions, approaches and sensibilities. It represents an emergent, self-organizing network of relationships, so the formalized, restrictive cultures of many banks will serve as a significant barrier to adoption.
• Enterprise 2.0 is not your father’s enterprise software. The tools are relatively open, inexpensive to deploy and manage, and an order of magnitude easier to use; however, they are also robust and secure. They enable unprecedented collaboration.
• Technology is giving collaboration new teeth. Everyone has always praised teamwork, but when communication and administrative processes were so inefficient, monetizing collaboration was excessively difficult. Enterprise 2.0 is a discontinuous change for the better.
• Jaded executives will muse that Enterprise 2.0 is another technology buzzword in search of a home. However, they should ask their CIOs about the transformation of enterprise software, and they will answer that technology is steadily emerging from its legacy cage. Service-oriented architecture and Web services are enabling more responsive IT, while virtualization offers a quantum leap in flexibility. Enterprise 2.0 technologies natively enable people and process to adjust to changing requirements. People who do not recognize this distinction will regret it later.
• The adoption of Enterprise 2.0 will unfold over the next four years, but may well be faster due to the technologies’ and processes’ relative ease of use, affordability and interoperability. The term began to get traction this summer, and more case studies are emerging every week.
• Enterprise 2.0 adoption will likely produce some disruption in the market. As a group, global enterprises tend to be fast followers. If one/more competitors adopt more quickly, it could have a disruptive impact on your business.
• Think about Cisco’s results with the WebEx acquisition. We can assume that investment banks would, at a minimum, achieve a fraction of Cisco’s results. Now multiply that by how many acquisitions the bank does. Obviously, results would be similar in many other bank transactions and services that require discussions among far-flung team members, extensive information exchange and negotiation with myriad parties.
• Read the pdf here.
• By the way, I’ll be speaking about this at Financial Markets World’s Web 2.0/Enterprise 2.0 in the Capital Markets Industry conference in New York on September 17. Hope to see you there!