Social Networks

The European Commission has opened a tender on Enterprise 2.0. It wants a consultancy to study which are the actual and potential for the information society in promoting the development and usage of enterprise 2.0. The winner of the tender will have an approximate budget of 250,000 euros.

The study must show some evidence of the present and the potential future economic impact of enterprise 2.0 and whould provide best practices on how to implement and use enterprise 2.0, with special focus on how enterprise 2.0 can foster innovation and disruptive changes. Furthermore, challenges for a wider deployment of enterprise 2.0, such as limited access to high speed broadband, should be described and followed up by relevant policy recommendations.

The tender defines it as enterprise software for content, collaboration and communication based on the internet. It sees an annual growth rate of 13.9% for this market until 2011. As of the advantages of these tools, it mentions cost savings and more productivity through rapid and agile collaboration and better decision making by sharing intelligence and knowledge in companies.

Besides, it also considers the possibility that new and disruptive business models and process are created as a consequence of so-called open innovation. In the negative side, the European Commission seems to be worried by the fact that most companies in this field are not based in the EU.