Clearswift, the software security company, has unveiled new global research outlining the latest business adoption of Web 2.0 technologies in Australia, the US, UK and Germany. It has also launched an online benchmarking tool for companies to rank themselves against global or country-specific results.
Independent international research undertaken by Clearswift in 2007 found that just 11% of global businesses were making use of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Salesforce.com. Three years on, the latest figures show over two-thirds of companies are allowing and encouraging the use of web collaboration or social media tools in the workplace.
Australian business users enjoy high use of Web 2.0 technologies, such as collaborative meeting, intranet, financial, CRM and social networking applications. However, they appear the least concerned about the security implications (at 53%) despite ranking second highest of respondents who have sent content via email or online applications they later regretted (29%).
Peter Croft, Clearswift’s Managing Director, Asia Pacific, commented: “Web 2.0 in the workplace has previously been considered a productivity killer, however the research shows that half of managers believe that web collaboration technology is now ‘critical’ to the future success of their business.”
It’s good to see Australian companies have reversed the ‘stop and block’ collaboration strategy to a permissive one, which we wholeheartedly support. The research now shows a more pressing requirement for well-managed information security policies to ensure online collaboration translates into secure, tangible business advantages,” he added.
At 64 percent, Australian companies form their corporate security strategy primarily to address control and compliance requirements, instead of fear or threat.
- Employee experience: Almost a third (26 percent) of employees say there is an expectation to maintain a social media presence for work purposes.
- Productivity: Despite concerns regarding employees wasting time, the majority (52 percent) of managers trust employees to use these resources responsibly
- Barriers to adoption: Barriers to adoption of social media have shifted from productivity to focus on security, with 53 percent of companies concerned about security threats and 31 percent concerned about data breaches.
The research, conducted by Loudhouse Research, among 1600+ employees and managers in Australia, the US, UK and Germany, includes evidence of positive steps by businesses to adopt social media across the global workplace with US companies leading the way, followed by Germany, the UK and, in last place, Australia.
Clearswift Web 2.0 in the Workplace containing Australian statistics can be found online at www.clearswift.com , together with the benchmarking widget.
