The company I work for is small, in the 1-25 employee category. We hardly qualify as an "Enterprise" but that hasn't meant that we haven't marched forward with our Enterprise 2.0 implementation and already realized benefits from it.
We first set forward some realistic goals:
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Replace our Information Siloes (which were generally our individual knowledges, no repository)
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Share Company Direction More Easily
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Integrate Email (so that we could retreive more easily on the road, no, not exactly E2.0, but still integral for our company)
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Simplify and Make Uniform Customer Support (Phone, Email, Ticketing, etc.)
Here's what we've developed:
We started with an open source web content management system: Joomla. We set up within Joomla a simple one-to-many blog. We added community functionality by utilizing JomSocial, a social networking component for Joomla that retails for less than $200. We installed JFusion on the Joomla site as a bridge program that helps integrate login with several systems into Joomla. We integrated DokuWiki, a wiki engine, into our Joomla site utilizing JFusion. We also used a full page shadowbox to incorporate our CRM system, document management system, project management system and a web based email system into our system.
Is all of this perfect? No, of course not, but it was extremely inexpensive to launch and easy to use. Single login doesn't work on all systems yet, but it really doesn't need to at this point and I won't be losing any sleep over it.
We're using the wiki to share knowledge and add information about how to provide support, questions to ask and even some canned responses. It also has been an easy way for us to collaborate and for all employees to know how to easily access any information they need to perform better at their jobs. Our E2.0 system launch has increased our productivity and integrating all of our tools into a single interface has made access to systems much simpler.
Is it possible to have an Enterprise 2.0 deployment in a small company? Absolutely. Is it worth all of the effort? With proper planning and some crafty use of open source technology... absolutely.
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