In recent McKinsey Quarterly’s“Global Survey” polled companies about the benefits gained from using various Web 2.0 tools, both internally and externally found that several technologies were a boon for relationships among employees, increased knowledge sharing, in their relations with customers; and in their dealings with suppliers, partners, and outside experts.
Nearly 1,700 executives from around the world, across a range of industries and functional areas, responded to this survey.
When it came to customer-related benefits, blogs were the most useful tool among other web technologies, bringing measurable benefits to 51% of responding companies worldwide, followed by video-sharing and social networking, at 48% each, and RSS feeds, at 45%.
Based on the responses, Web 2.0 remains of high interest – 69% of respondents report that their companies have gained measurable business benefits, including more innovative products and services, more effective marketing, better access to knowledge, lower cost of doing business, and higher revenues.
More than one-half of respondents (52%) said Web 2.0 tools increased marketing effectiveness, while 43% reported higher customer satisfaction and 38% reduced marketing costs.
Based on the industry sector, businesses in the high-tech/telecom industry were most likely to report customer-related benefits of Web 2.0, at 65%, followed by business/legal/professional services firms, at 60%.
Due to many other factors, companies cannot simply adopt those technologies into the practice, it is not easy to let their customers to use them at mass.
The study also looked closely at the factors that driving the improvements, such as the types of technologies companies are using, management practices that produce benefits, and any organizational and cultural characteristics that may contribute to the gains etc.
Well, among firms reporting measurable benefits from Web 2.0, 74% said it was important to integrate the tools with other forms of customer interaction, and 52% said marketing the Web 2.0 initiatives themselves was a best practice.
It said, the successful companies are not only tightly integrate Web 2.0 technologies with the work flows of their employees but also create a “networked company,”, which means they linking themselves with customers and suppliers through the use of Web 2.0 tools. Despite the current recession, respondents overwhelmingly say that they will continue to invest in Web 2.0.
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