Web 2.0 refers to the technologies that enable online communities and collaborative business processes between all business stakeholders - from management and staff to customers and suppliers. The benefits are available to all businesses, not just information-intensive industries such as media or IT.

Web 2.0 is not just relevant to consumer-facing scenarios as many believe, and with the right platform, Web 2.0 technologies meet the stability, reliability and security requirements of business IT.

The benefits of web 2.0 technologies

According to research by IT advisory company, Gartner, Web 2.0 tools offer easy-win business benefits once the necessary technologies are in place.

• Core enterprise applications become more effective when they incorporate Web 2.0 technologies.
• Web platforms can add efficiency and value to procurement and sales processes.
• Lessons from Web 2.0 community and social networking can be used within your business to improve collaboration and employee satisfaction.
• Information overload can be reduced and information accessed and used more effectively by employing techologies to tag and classify information within your business systems and search systems.
• Web 2.0 communities can be used for product feedback, shortening product development time and targeting marketing resources to exactly where they are needed and wanted.
• Making web-based marketing the norm rather than the exception helps optimise overall marketing spend.

Social networking, which with blogs, wikis, mashups and RSS are the key tools that define Web 2.0, can make such an impact, says Gartner, that, "the failure to consider the impact of social enhancement technology on the performance of the enterprise is a big mistake."

Web 2.0 modules

Elcom CommunityManager.NET is a platform for powering your business, and it includes Web 2.0 modules that can be implemented with any CommunityManager.NET site and used in every scenario such as intranets, extranets and internet portals.

	Blogs Corporate blogs are the new way to communicate with customers and potential customers. The Blogs module, enables you to create multiple blogs, each with their own user security privileges. You can also manage and moderate blogs and comments, optionally restrict access via user groups and control editing of posts. Blogs are a simple Web 2.0 tool to use that can be implemented with your website or intranet.
	Wikis The benefits of Corporate Wikis include increased collaboration and knowledge sharing. You can use wikis to encourage your team to work together and keep information in a central location that is easy to find and use. Create a wiki integrated with system security, using the same easy process as creating an article. Articles can be converted to Wiki folders to allow multiple user collaboration and posting of edits. Wikis make knowledge sharing and corporate collaboration simple and beneficial.
	Forums Create and maintain dialogue with customers, potential customers and stakeholders with the forums module. This is a complete forum module with full user administration integrated into the module. Users and roles, email notification, message administration, unlimited forums and posts, separate styling and top contributor rankings are all included. Forums will allow you to have conversations and gain a better understanding of your market.
	Project management The use of project management tools will help you deliver projects on time and on budget. The Project Management module provides you with online project and process management, with a template based system that divides projects into stages and activities. All with document management and version control. Project Management in the Web 2.0 world will help you monitor your projects in an easy intuitive way.
	RSS readers and publishers RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregates contents from websites, blogs, forums and other web entities. It can be seen as the glue of Web 2.0, pulling all the information into one location making the information easy to read and find. With Elcom's RSS Module, you can easily display external RSS feeds on your site. You also have the ability to publish fully configurable feeds of content to anyone with an RSS reader. The RSS Module allow users to subscribe via RSS to real time content updates. This will give you the ability to provide your content and information to your users in many ways.

Multibase and Web 2.0

Multibase has long experience developing web sites and business IT tools, and deep expertise in accessing remote data sources and presenting them to web users in new ways through business applications and web sites. It is therefore well placed to understand the possibilities for using Web 2.0 technologies within your business, and in ensuring that you realise the business benefits of the technological solutions implemented.

Having Multibase integrate Web 2.0 tools into your CommunityManager.NET web site, intranet or extranet is the first stage in reaping the rewards. Then once your organisation has achieved some entry-level successes, Multibase has the expertise to help you develop more sophisticated and potentially rewarding applications which can integrate your Web 2.0 tools into other parts of your overall business operations.