While the pace of change may seem faster today, it is always constant; however, the large scale complex systems (ERP, BoB and Homegrown) running businesses today were all built for a different purpose; operational stability, being able to control a wide array of processes.

These business systems are really good at what they were built to do; centralize information, especially in financial, hr, procurement and sales. They were also built without any effective ability to change and manage all of the transactions that have to actually occur to meet those obligations. For any business to succeed, they require continuous delivery of improved accuracy, productivity and quality while improving their scalability to create growth.  This means their process, technology and data needs will always outpace the centralized data towers of ERP/Best of Breed/Homegrown systems driving their business today.

The solution to this constant disconnect is resolved by true Enterprise 2.0 Apps. E2.0 Apps are easily recognizable because they adhere to two basic rules:

1) Do No Harm – requiring no change to the existing business systems or disruption of the ongoing business
2) Increase revenue and/or profit in measurable terms before roll out investment is required.

These Apps operate in three distinct categories of Enterprise need: Communication – Operation – Customer.

• Communication will be amongst vendors, employees, customers, regulators, etc. This communication will be seamless to the business and will contribute to the transparency that many markets are demanding. Long standing initiatives such as EDI, ECR, VMI, JIT, etc. will finally be able to be achieved as the barriers of E1.0 that impeded their deployment will no longer constrain the business.
• Operation will be coordinated amongst vendors, employees, customers, regulators, etc. With the ability to enhance existing operations without disrupting existing systems new technology, data and processes can be implemented to improve the process of business: manufacturing, distribution, delivery, field, service, sales, etc. Protecting the command and control of the E1.0 systems, E2.0 Apps are able to meet the need for constant improvements in productivity, accuracy and quality that is the keystone of any successful company.
• Customer improvements will begin to leverage the Communication and Operation elements to better utilize the full value available for sale – product, operation/process and accompanying data. Better data and process alignment will evolve as need and technology allow. E2.0 Apps are built to operate in this environment, in the network, and can serve as a constant innovation platform for realizing the opportunities

E2.0 isn’t about SaaS or consumer applications (Twitter/Facebook/et al) bridging into Enterprise operations.  The former is simply a new way to pay for an old problem.  The latter cannot establish sufficient value and includes the words social which sound like a waste of time and money in business and directly violates the second rule.

Hopefully this sparks an industry wide discussion about the nature of E2.0 Apps… what are your thoughts?