[CAnet - news] Web 2.0 allows user to bypass IT department

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[Excerpts from Information Week article -- BSA]


http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202601956&pg
no=4&queryText=

By Andy Dornan
InformationWeek
Forget outsourcing. the real threat to IT pros could be Web 2.0. While
there's a lot of hype and hubris surrounding wikis, mashups, and social
networking, there's also a lot of real innovation--much of it coming from
increasingly tech-savvy business users, not the IT department.

"We've cut IT staff by 20%, and we're providing a whole lot more in terms of
IT services," says Ken Harris, CIO at nutritional products manufacturer
Shaklee. Harris started with a mashup platform from StrikeIron; he found
mashups such an effective way to integrate multiple Web services that he
turned to Web-based service providers to replace in-house functions. Now,
Shaklee gets its ERP from Workday and search from Visual Sciences, and it's
looking at other IT functions that software as a service can replace.

Instead of passive consumers, Web surfers can become active creators.

All that interactivity ought to make Web 2.0 ideally suited for business
use. 
Of all Web 2.0 technologies, social networking is the one that gets vendors
and venture capitalists most excited. At least 17 startups are pitching
social networking technology to business customers (see table, Social
Networking Technology Startups), while countless social networking Web sites
are chasing individual users. 


IT'S LOOSENING GRIP
Loss of IT control is a consistent theme as Web 2.0 penetrates business. The
greatest upheaval is likely to come from enterprise mashups, which combine
the social and technical aspects of Web 2.0 by letting users develop their
own applications. Though very few businesses use mashups at present, those
that are see great benefits, and larger players such as BEA, IBM, and Oracle
are entering the game. Cutting out the middleman--that's the IT
department--can be a great way of aligning business and technology.

"Mashups have let end users do more of what used to be done by IT," says
Warren Breakstone, executive VP in charge of client services at investment
tools provider Thomson Financial. Although not in the IT department,
Breakstone started using a hosted mashup service from Serena Software and
now runs a team of business analysts who develop Web-based applications for
sales, marketing, and other personnel. "Now we're moving into traditional IT
services: The IT department is using apps that we built."

Breakstone says this doesn't bring his team into conflict with the IT
department. "It frees IT up to do those mission-critical tasks behind the
scenes," he says.


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