Companies want Web 2.0 tech from bigger vendors

Forrester Research published a report this week with a classic good news-bad news conclusion for Web 2.0 start-ups: corporate buyers want Web 2.0 technologies, but they'd rather buy from bigger vendors.

The IT research company surveyed 119 chief information officers at companies with more than 500 employees and found a strong appetite for Web 2.0 technologies, including software for blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, social networking and content tagging.

The preferred delivery for these Web 2.0 technologies, however, is through integrated product suites, the chief information officers said. That's because these corporations are concerned with integrating new tools with the software from their existing suppliers.

"When asked if they would prefer offerings from major incumbent vendors like Microsoft, IBM, or Oracle rather than from smaller pure-play firms like Socialtext, NewsGator, or MindTouch, the vast majority of chief information officers indicated a preference for large vendors," according to the study, which was written by G Oliver Young.

IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, BEA Systems and other incumbent software vendors have each sought to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies into their applications. Nearly all the respondents in the survey said they were using at least one kind of Web 2.0 technology, largely because it makes their businesses more efficient.

"Chief information officers were most likely to view social networking and blogs as unnecessary, with a little more than half of respondents reporting as such," according to Forrester. "The Web 2.0 technologies that had relatively clear user benefits, RSS, wikis and tagging, were less likely to be viewed as unnecessary."

Forrester recommended that smaller Web 2.0 companies partner with established firms. It also predicted that consolidation in the Web 2.0 market will continue.

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