Social Glass

I’ve stated a few times that I work for a global consulting firm that generates most of its revenue from large, systems integration projects using Oracle or SAP technologies.  I’ve been on several projects like these over the years and I’m a bit tired of them.

To me the sexiest thing happening in the industry is Enterprise 2.0, hands down.  The problem is the revenue model is unproven.  There is a lot of risk for companies like mine in investing too much time in technologies that may not yield the profit margins that complex SI projects do.

There is a small and growing group of us that is determined to make Enterprise 2.0 work both internally and externally.  The challenge for us is prioritizing this with our “day jobs” - the complex projects that actually make us profitable.  This may be the reason why larger companies get on board with industry trends closer to the top of the bell curve.  I think there’s a great opportunity for smaller companies to establish themselves in the Enterprise 2.0 market, but I’ll also warn that time is running out for them as large players like Oracle, BEA, Microsoft and IBM get into the mix, and CIOs are used to doing business with these organizations.