Restructuring To Stay Competitive And Relevant

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

Strauss & Frost (2011) have argued that internet and information technology have brought integral changes in the life of the customers and business enterprises of the modern era. With the advancement that has taken place in the field of the information technology world has taken the form of global village. World has advanced to such an extent that it has become possible to communicate individuals belonging to any corner of the world. However, apart from the advancement and the benefits that the technology has brought with it there are also various issues which are brought at front because of the technology.

According to Barnes et al., (2012) Web 2.0 is a wide use of different internet-based information and communication technology applications including wikis, instant messaging, social network sites, blogs, podcasts, discussion forums, virtual offices, audio and video conferencing, collaborative whiteboards and presentation systems. The power of Web 2.0 is vital for the customers and the employees of a particular company, firm or organization belonging to any industry. For example, the customers can now easily interact with the service providers online and the employees can also provide an online feedback. Everything has been made simplified with the help of this integral tool. McKinsey consulting firm highlighted that businesses around the world are extensively using Web 2.0 to attract customers, to build close relationship with suppliers and to engage employees more successfully (Bughin et al, 2008).

Chaffey (2007) is of the view that the United States of America has progressed as compared to the other states of the world mainly because of the advancement in the field of information technology but there are also issues which are faced by the USA. One of the most beneficial tools which have developed in this modern era is Web 2.0. Solomon & Schrum (2007) have argued that Web 2.0 is widely used by the customers of the modern age. They frequently blog and share their videos online and they are able to communicate and know each other well because of the Web 2.0. Thus there are various challenges which are faced by the customers and the modern enterprises.

Web2.0

Definition

Currently there is no scientific definition of Web 2.0. Tim O'Reilly, who has popularized Web 2.0, explained the term in the year 2005 as a platform, which is far more than a collection of web site. Web 2.0 is the new network that is like a platform which it can coverage all the connected devices, Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most of the intrinsic advantages of that platform:

providing software as a service continually updates that improve the more people use it, using and combining data from multiple sources, including individual users, while providing their own data and services in a form that allows remixing by others, creating network effects through an "architecture of participation," and going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to deliver rich user experience (O'Reilly, 2005).

What is web2.0

Web 2.0 has taken the world-wide web (WWW) to a full new level. It offered a replacement exciting interface to users that looks lots more spirited than quaint websites (referred to as web 1.0), available on more devices (laptops, computers, tablets, mobile phones), and permits them to act, blog, and even contribute with their own user-generated content.

A noticeable remark of "web 2.0" is that it affected a large percentage of the internet. Most of the sites we have a tendency to use these days emerged when web 2.0 started or are previous web technologies that have evolved to the new modern web 2.0 standards to stay their services alive.

Web 2.0 covers a large vary of technologies and services. The foremost wide used are blogs, wikis, podcasts, tagging, interactive media, and social networks. New technologies perpetually seem because the internet continues to evolve (Chui, et al., 2009).

The most obvious example of a web 2.0 company is Google. Web 2.0 means using the web as it was meant to be used, and Google does. They're sailing with the wind, instead of sitting becalmed praying for a business model, like the print media, or trying to tack upwind by suing their customers, like Microsoft and the record labels (Graham, 2005).

The basic reason of that internet be a base for social aspect was web 2.0 and also turning the flow of information from retrieving only to retrieving and generating.

To conclude, web 2.0 lets more users to evince themselves, their opinions, actions, reactions, and creativeness to the world in a moment faster than before.

The Fundament of Web 2.0

The base of Web 2.0, which is shown in the definition of Web 2.0 services, is meaning of maximizing the collective intelligence. The interactive exchange of information and the continuous development and maintenance of a group opinion is described as the process of collective intelligence. The result of collective intelligence can be a commonly accepted opinion or commonly accepted content (that is not modified or criticized) but it can also occur indirectly as a presented selection of information.

Maximizing the collective intelligence needs an automatic community. Since there are currently specific rules relating to the choice of contributions, Web 2.0 services have embedded quality assurance mechanisms or instead a formalized reviewing method. the value of a web 2.0 application is the supply of significant value, for example eBay`s user recommendation system is a crucial success issue - similar to Amazon`s reviewing system (Bunz, 2006).

Another characteristic of collective intelligence is the transparency of the data creation and sharing method. Users can observe the historical development of the data (e.g. Web-Blogs) and may conjointly see how the data is distributed (e.g. via bit torrents). Based on linking of content, the initial content is enriched and the transparency of the method is supported.

All the above described fundamentals are extremely depending on the dimensions of the supporting community. Web 2.0 services are in several cases a classic example for network effects. The intrinsic value of web 2.0 communities itself is extremely restricted. The advantages for the users are evolving over time and the variety of interactions. Content or in different words value generated through the supporting community may be internalized and represents the value of the community itself.

Figure Information transformation process

Positive Feedback

Transformation from extrinsic value to intrinsic value

Intrinsic Value

Benefit

Extrinsic Value

Usage and Creation

User

Positive Feedback

The more users participate, the more users are attracted. Therefore the quality of the content improves and the service gains more relevance.

A remarkable fact is that the above described mechanisms are not initially formulated, but they do emerge over time. All the provider of a Web 2.0 can do is to facilitate the development process.

Social CRM

In the world of web 2.0, organizations discovered that ancient ways of client relationship management aren’t strong enough to keep up high demand and sales for his or her product, they conjointly noticed that users are defrayal longer of day and overwhelming more media through social networks.

In order to keep up and up-to-date and trendy imagine, organizations noticed ways that to adapt their traditional CRM ways into what’s these days referred to as "Social CRM".

Social CRM is the business strategy of participating customers through Social Media with goal of building trust and complete loyalty (Harish Kotadia, 2010).

In alternative words, Social CRM is an extension of CRM, an evolution created necessary by the communications revolution that has rocked the 21st century and reworked however we interact forever (Greenberg, 2011).

The main purpose of Social CRM in any given organization was to add a social aspect to its promoting strategy aboard its main –yet traditional- promoting strategy that is based on promotions and advertising. Firms these days attempt to integrate with current and potential customers via pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Google plus.

A few firms dedicate a bunch of workers to handle their social presence, these employees post photos of product, reply to user comments and feedback, and handle user complaints. Alternative firms take a step further by conjointly heavily advertising on social networks, adding web-only promotions, and posting polls relating to certain product or services.

Businesses Meet "Web 2.0"

Businesses and corporations of all sizes have noticed the emerge of web 2.0 and realized that in order to keep up with the current trends , modernize their business practices, and update their customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. As the popularity and widespread of Web 2.0 has grown, companies have noticed the intense consumer engagement and creativity surrounding these new technologies (Chui, et al., 2009).

Acceptance of Web 2.0 technologies in business is growing. Businesses and corporations of various sizes are warming up to web 2.0 noticed that its social aspect is a new medium of marketing.

Spreading the word on a good product or service among social networks (from a user’s personal experience) would ensure more and more sales of that product or service due to the good review or recommendation. And vise-versa; negative reviews spread rapidly through social networks; one angry customer unsatisfied with a certain product or service could affect the opinion of his social followers online, which means damaging the reputation of the company trying to market its products.

In lights of web changes and the rise of a user-driven web 2.0, businesses have started to grasp of the social aspect in web 2.0 and integrating it into their customer relationship management strategies by using social networks (rather than regular banner advertising online) such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, and Yelp due to their high popularity and daily traffic through computers or mobile.

But not all companies adopted web 2.0 tools immediately. While web 2.0 techniques are inherently disruptive and often challenge an organization and its culture, they are not technically complex to implement. In fact, they are a relatively lightweight overlay to the existing infrastructure and do not necessarily require complex technology integration (Chui, et al., 2009).

Restructuring to stay competitive and relevant

Nowadays, a lot of organizations or businesses realized that in order to have the competitive advantage in the world of web 2.0 and rapidly-evolving technologies, a major cultural change was needed from within these organizations which would reflect their relationship with their customers also.

In a research conducted by Jacques Bughin and Michael Chui for "McKinsey Quarterly" publication in 2010, the share of companies where respondents report using Web 2.0 technologies is continuing to grow. The research also indicates significant increases of organizations using social networking and blogs, these organizations also plan to increase investments in web 2.0 technologies.

Among respondents to the Bughin research in 2010, from them companies using Web 2.0, a large majority continue to report that they are receiving significant business benefits—with nearly nine out of ten reporting at least one. These benefits ranged from more effective marketing to faster access to knowledge.

Three types of organizations-according to the same survey- seem to have learned how to realize a much higher level of business benefits from their use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies:

1. Internally networked organizations: using the tools and technologies of web 2.0 only inside the organization work environment.

2. Externally networked organizations: Mainly using web 2.0 tools to interact with customers and business partners, but still keeping the internal processes less fluid than the "internally networked ones".

3. Fully Networked Enterprises: a widespread use of web 2.0 among employees, customers, and business partners. The integration of web 2.0 technologies in day-to-day activities of employees is promoting higher levels of collaboration, according to executives.

Most of these organizations now focus on strengthening their online presence in order to be more integrated with users, giving the impression that they are reachable and "down to earth", and also building their credibility by directly replying to users’ remarks or comments on social networks.

Web 2.0 Implication in Kuwait

The first Arabic country that used the public internet was Kuwait in 1994, using of the internet is goes to using for educational institutions as well as businesses and other organizations. With the nation's effort to make a digital society in Kuwait, Web 2.0 applications will play important role in adding more sophisticated information and communication technologies with the properties of creating information on the one hand, and facilitate sharing, interaction, and collaboration on the other hand (Mohammad Alajmi, 2011).

From Web 2.0 applications, many ideas are developed like library 2.0 and learning 2.0. In Kuwait, though the web 2.0 applications have become more popular among the general public, the initiatives of adopting and using internet 2.0 applications are a number of in educational environments. In his study of web 2.0 adoption among academic librarians, finished that either academic librarians weren't inquisitive about web 2.0 applications, or they weren't attentive to them. Also, in his study of the information of web 2.0 among the library and knowledge science academics, Al-Daihani (2009b) found that they have a low level of awareness of web 2.0 applications. Xu, Ouyang and Chu (2009) found that the success of implementing and using web 2.0 applications depends on each librarians and users within the environment of library 2.0. Moreover, Burhanna, et al. (2009) found that each instructors and students play important role in adopting web 2.0 application in the environment of learning 2.0.

As mentioned in previously, use of the Internet is nearly ubiquitous among the educational institutions as well as business and other organizations in Kuwait since 1994. Certainly, the Internet is the big network by which the applications of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 are presented. Despite the widespread use of Web 1.0 applications in academic environments, the use of Web 2.0 applications are still restricted in this sector in Kuwait.

The first companies that they start to adopting to use web 2.0 application in the Kuwait was the newspapers that they used the web 2.0 application in their websites. For instance, the Webpage of Alwatan.com introduces many Web 2.0 applications and programs, specifically the social software applications such as Facebook, blogs, and RSS. Also, Aljarida presents some Web 2.0 applications on its Website. Figure 2 shows the newspaper’s Facebook page. Readers are able to read and share opinions on a massive number of topics not just with other readers but also with writers.

Figure Displaying the Facebook of a Kuwaiti newspaper

In academic environments, the initiatives of installing Web 2.0 applications are still weak, if not absent in some institutions, although they all have a good ICT technical support and Internet connections (Al-Daihani, 2009a). Undoubtedly, investing Web 2.0 applications provides the academic community with new communication and interaction methods for several different objectives (Al-Daihani, 2010). Some Web 2.0 applications, such as blogs, Wiki, and social networking have the potential to be educational applications (Huijser, 2008). They also have become important tools for equipping libraries to adapt to the dynamic and changing information market (Aharony, 2008). On the homepage of Kuwait University, the initiatives are still not enough to encourage using Web 2.0 applications. The official Website of the university shows a link to the application of Weblog for multiple fields and purposes. Figure 3 offers the Weblog of the university.

Figure Displaying the Weblog of Kuwait University

Another university, the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET), does not show any Web 2.0 implementations either on the official Website of the school or on Website of libraries of the school.

Conclusion

Web 2.0 is the real word and it is not any more than a temporary buzzword. Web 2.0 has to been seen as a new philosophy of information management. A group of people is collaborating to create and share information. The result of the cooperation is the creation of collective intelligence by a common self-regulation quality assurance process.

However, commercialization has not been reached in the majority of Web 2.0 services. It is even doubtable, if many Web 2.0 services will ever be transformed into commercial services. Further research will have to show, whether Web 2.0 is successful because it is free and not limited or because it addresses the hidden needs of the Internet users.