A Conceptual Model to Implement an Interactive and Collaborative Enterprise 2 . 0

To implement an interactive and collaborative Enterprise 2.0 it is important to have, inside the company, organizational and technological preconditions. In this model of advanced enterprise, internal workers must collaborate among themselves to communicate with all external subjects of the supply chain for achieving business goals. The implementation process is a critical and complex procedure that requires a strategic plan in the introduction and adoption of the innovation. In this paper the single actions to follow, for the implementation of the new model of business, with all determinant factors and variables, are described.


Introduction
An Enterprise 2.0 is a new advanced company that interacts with all stakeholders of the supply chain and in particular with customers using web 2.0 tools (blog, forum, chat, wiki) and social networks.Implementing a model of an Enterprise 2.0 means to realize an innovative and dynamic process inside the company.It is therefore useful to design a general conceptual framework to describe, in detail, the implementation plan and individual actions (guidelines) to execute.The design of the conceptual framework is supported from scientific contributions [11] [12] [13] [14] [22] [27].The first important step of the model requires the involvement of top management (owner/manager) and, subsequently, the active participation of internal human resources.Our framework is able to evaluate the current position and the predisposition of the enterprise ("readiness") to adopt new interactive and collaborative technologies and the degree of "openness" of the company with the external environment.The paper presents the following structure: in the next section the new model of Enterprise 2.0 and relative literature are shown.In the third section we describe, in detail, the conceptual framework to implement the new business model considering all determinant factors, variables and guidelines to follow.Finally some conclusions are drawn.

Enterprise 2.0 Model And Literature
The first author who studied the new business model was McAfee [17] who affirmed that "Enterprise 2.0 is the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers".An Enterprise 2.0 (Figure 1) is an organizational and technological model based on active participation of all stakeholders (customers, suppliers, sponsors, business partners) in the sharing of internal and external knowledge.This new model of enterprise uses intensely web 2.0 tools [20] that before were generally used only in a private manner and not for business goals.By web 2.0 tools customers can express opinions/suggestions on products/services to improve them.In this way, a bi-directional DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17. 3.2013.04channel between enterprises and customers is established and the customer can actively participate in the exchange of useful information.Customer opinions constitute a gold mine for generating high value added and for making strategic decisions.In the Enterprise 2.0, the customer is a central figure and he/she is involved in all processes: conception, design, development, test, marketing, buying and so on.A customer more involved in the production process helps the company to find and eliminate errors/defects for improving the final product/service.The Enterprise 2.0 model can be interpreted as a new way of doing business, a participative business where the company and customers work together (co-operate, cocreate, co-produce...) [25] to improve the final product/service.Collaboration between companies and customers, in a context of co-creation and coproduction, encourages the realization of the figure of the prosumer (producer and consumer at the same time) [26].The consumer is becoming a co-creator of value [29] while in the past he/she was a passive responder to the supply chain.Nowadays, the customer, really, has an active role as prosumer.In IKEA, the customer participates in logistical and productive processes by transporting and mounting, individually, the furniture at home.The Mulino Bianco is available to listen any proposal of new biscuits.Ideas can be proposed and voted; the best one will be realized.In the website "Fiat 500" (500 Wants You -www.fiat500.com)any consumer contributed creatively to the design of the new car.In the case of the Canadian manufacturer John Fluevog, customers participate actively and creatively designing new models of shoes.In the web, the contents' production is no longer the prerogative of media centers, press and traditional producers but everyone, by web 2.0 tools, can participate in the discussion and produce contents by interactive and collaborative platforms like Flickr, YouTube, Second Life, Facebook, Wikipedia.In the era of Web 2.0 there are not boundaries between producers and consumers of contents; everything is indefinite, "everything is miscellaneous" [28].The Web 2.0 also leads to a revolution in the content generation.The user can generate contents, movies, opinions and advices.He/she becomes User-Generated Content [23] or Consumer Generated Content [24].The key features of this new model of business are: sharing, collaboration, interactivity and agility.If we compare Enterprise 2.0 with a traditional enterprise, there are the following differences (Table 1): As we can see in Table 1, an Enterprise 2.0 presents an architecture bottom-up, agile, collaborative and flexible and uses a peer-topeer communication while in a traditional enterprise (Enterprise 1.0) the architecture is top-down and the communication are hierarchical [9].The knowledge sharing, the collaboration and the development of social networks, inside and outside the Enterprise 2.0, are very important factors.
The culture of the Enterprise 2.0 must be understood from the owner/management and board committees and then spread inside the organization motivating and involving internal workers.Interactive and collaborative companies will lead their customers, employees and suppliers to participate actively in the business and to create a strategic advantage that cannot be easily replicated by competitors.

The Framework to Implement an Advanced Enterprise 2.0
The different phases of the conceptual framework [6], that we have developed, are listed in Figure 2. As we can see in Figure 2, the conceptual framework consists in the implementation of different steps.The first steps are a strategic design of implementation and the analysis of the enterprise to monitor the readiness to collaborate and use web 2.0 tools.Other steps are the implementation plan with a technological platform, the monitoring and the final measure of performances.

Strategic Design
For a good probability of the success of the implementation process an incentive, from top management to internal human resources (direction top-down), is needed.Gradually the company should receive a boost from the bottom (direction bottom-up) to feed and reinforce the project and its continuity [8].The involvement of top management [21] is important for an active participation and to ensure visibility and financial resources.Many managers today are unable to perceive, in its complexity, the goal of the Enterprise 2.0 and in most technology-oriented companies; it is very hard to totally involve people.With the boost from the bottom, employees must be involved, in the same emerging modality, in the implementation of the model.In the strategic design of implementation it is important to stimulate internal employees to share and exchange information by web 2.0 tools.This process can be supported from internal facilitators ("pivots") that stimulate the realization of the new work context.All this requires a good governance of the project and mainly that owners/managers are involved in this change and are convinced of the benefits of the new business model also in terms of visibility and online reputation.

Analysis of the Corporate Readiness
The initial analysis of the enterprise is useful to discover strengths and weaknesses.In this step the enterprise must listening employees and understands their needs to satisfy.To understand if the company is ready to use the new model it is important to analyze some features of owner/manager, human resources, enterprise culture and technologies (Figure 3).Often in companies there are not right conditions for the implementation of the new model and there are some wordless DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17.3.2013.04potentialities; sometime a significant enthusiasm is not accompanied by an adequate vision.To implement the new business model 2.0 inside the company there must be specific organizational and technological preconditions.
Regarding the organizational aspect we considered the model of Bock et al. [4], which takes into account the factors that stimulate enterprise employees to share knowledge: individual attitudes (personal traits) and the internal climate of the organization.It is also important the innovation readiness of owners/managers and partners involved in the supply chain.For the technological aspect it is important the predisposition of the company to use interactive and collaborative technologies 2.0.We must start from a limited area (application place) and then expand to other business areas until the entire organization.Regarding the factors which stimulate the adoption and use of web 2.0 technologies, we focused on the tested Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [10] and on models of the successful adoption of Information Systems [13] [14] [22] which are based on the quality of information, user satisfaction and simple use of new technologies.

Fig. 3. Features to monitor the corporate readiness
In order to evaluate the determinant features of the readiness it is important to split them, in detail, in single components (independent variables), which must be controlled/monitored to measure the predisposition and the readiness of the company to implement the new model 2.0 (Table 2).Each component represents the variable to check in a detailed questionnaire and this variable can be relative to the technological or collaborative aspect.For example to evaluate the degree of the feature Availability to the innovation of the company, it is important to consider the components (variables) such as Openness to the collaboration with the external environment, which indicates if the company is more or less open to share information with external subjects, the Available to the crowdsourcing to assess if the company is open to accept solutions and ideas from the external environment, the Development of new products by external ideas which expresses the willingness of the company to cooperate with others in the development of new and shared projects/products.If all these variables have a positive sign it means that the enterprise is willing to innovate and therefore it is prepared to implement the new model of Enterprise 2.0.For a full and complete predisposition it is important that the company satisfies all characteristics of the Tab.2.Therefore, we will consider other features such as the Personality of the entrepreneurs/managers and observe all individual components enclosed in this feature.Does the entrepreneur has a strategic vision?, an open mind?and so on.In the analysis of readiness it is important the level of commitment of owners and managers, their sensitivity and their involvement in technological innovations and in the development of a spirit of collaboration inside and outside the company [10].DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17.3.2013.04

Implementation Plan
The phase of the Implementation plan is represented in Figure 4.

Fig. 4. The planning for implementing an
Enterprise 2.0 model The implementation plan focuses on the process of the change management and governance with the assignment of tasks and responsibilities.In this phase it is necessary to move from the strategy to the planning.A detailed plan with guidelines, to carefully follow, for the implementation of the Enterprise 2.0 model, must be described.In this step we must distinguish two aspects: organizational and technological.
In the organizational context the focus is on collaborative activities that are present inside the company and which stimulate the staff to work together having a long-term vision of the change.It is a good idea to start, by a soft approach, with groups motivated to experiment the new interactive and collaborative model.Initially, the company must keep out people not interested to the launch of the project.Employees/managers/owners must understand benefits of the Enterprise 2.0 with a co-creation and co-design vision and the difference from the old way of working.The change of the new way of working should be encouraged and supported.Bottom-up initiatives can be improved and strengthened and some isolated activities must be converted in a cooperative and collaborative context.Regarding the technological side, a figure of a "pivot", active facilitator, is very useful as supporter in the use of the collaborative and interactive digital platform.The platform includes web 2.0 tools (wiki, chat, blog, forum) and social networks.All employees must create an individual and professional profile and must participate in the information exchange among all internal and external subjects of the supply chain.

Organizational aspect
Employees, in executing the various tasks, have to work together in an atmosphere of trust and the management must support and encourage these mutual interactions.

Strengthening of internal collaborative activities.
It is important to listen employees, and understand their needs.Gathering collaborative aspects inside the organization.Seeing if there are some bottom-up initiatives that can be developed and strengthened.Converting to the collaboration and sharing the isolated activities.Adapting internal and external processes.Creating an action plan with guidelines to carefully follow.Newman and Tomas [19]  People must be supported in using, efficiently and effectively, collaborative software tools and they must understand the functionality and the importance of web 2.0 tools, business communities and the role of the community manager in virtual channels.Managers and employees need to be convinced of the importance and usefulness of the collaboration tools of a project 2.0.McAfee [18] recommends training in several steps: explain to employees the goal of the effort in learning the use of interactive tools and encourage them to use the digital platform.At the beginning it is important to identify the office where implement, training employees, the model 2.0 and then expand it in other business areas and departments.Implementation of the change.Implementing the change, starting in a business area, with motivated groups, and experimenting, with a soft interactive and collaborative approach, individual corporate activities.Leaving out of the project people who are not motivated.The change should be encouraged with a leadership that transmits motivation, sense of direction and widespread involvement that generates social dynamics and mutual encouragement.In this phase it is important to follow these principles:  transparency and accessibility of information: people must have access to relevant information and the communication must flow openly without restriction (where there are not objective requirements of confidentiality);  mutual influence and social control: individual initiatives and innovative practices inside and outside of the company should be made visible in order to trigger positive processes of reuse;  rewarding people who implement this process of change [19].At this stage it is important the role of the pivot who must support actions of the change and disseminate the sense of belonging to a collaborative and dynamic company.Every single activity executed in an office, business area, department or in the entire organization correspond to a service provided to other colleagues and together contribute to reach the business goal.It is important to work in harmony for creating value and satisfaction for the customer.In the organizational change, beginning from the customer, it is important to re-design and refresh all internal organizational processes customizing and personalizing interfaces between different business areas.Modeling the data flow coming from the customer and mapping skills and processes.

Technological aspect 3.3.2.1. Technological pivot
Concerning the technological aspect, before to implement the interactive and collaborative platform, it is important that inside the company there is a technological pivot [15], with adequate capacity to concretely implement the ICT strategy in operational actions, who accompanies employees on the use of interactive tools 2.0 like a trainer.It is important that the innovative driver that comes from the top management is properly managed by this figure with ICT skills [16].Newman and Thomas [19] affirm that Enterprise 2.0 cannot be implemented without the presence of people who believe in the project, the so-called "believer."It is important to give strength to the "believer" to create experiments in social software and transform them in champions and evangelists.
The pivot [2], to involve the management in technological innovations, must have the following capabilities:  systems skills in the daily support to users, installation and management of DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17.3.2013.04complex systems.ICT development skills, both related to the design of applications and the configuration and customization of software packages;  acquisition skills, related to the selection and evaluation of suppliers, contracts, monitoring of supplier performances;  project management skills, related to the planning, management control and evaluation of ICT projects [1].The role of the pivot can be covered by entrepreneurs, managers, employees who execute other tasks.In other cases, however, an external subject, typically a supplier or consultant, can compensate the lack of an internal figure.It is clear that, in these cases, the degree of decision-making autonomy and the awareness of the company are reduced.

Digital training
For the success of the implementation plan of the model it is important to start eliminating physical meetings between entrepreneurs and managers and replace them using skype, chat and other tools 2.0.Then do "digital gym" by an internal social intranet (case Lago SpA), in a small office until an extended business area.Various employees/managers in the "gym", need to improve their communication and collaborative skills.These skills can be developed using appropriate interactive digital tools which are described in the 4C model [8].In this model Cook proposes a cartesian space composed of four subspaces (communication, cooperation, collaboration and connection)  Communication (informal process, less interactive): platform that enables a realtime conversation via text (Twitter), voice, or video;  Cooperation (informal process, more interactive): software used to share multimedia contents (YouTube);  Connection (formal process, less interactive) platform that extends and implements social networks (Facebook);  Collaboration (formal process, more interactive): wiki platform for the coproduction of documents (Wikipedia).

Interactive and collaborative platform of the Enterprise 2.0
A model of an interactive, collaborative platform [7] is represented in Fig. 5.In the platform we can see no.

Access and Security
This module contains applications that control the access to different services of the platform.The security policies protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.All applications must comply with common security requirements and service levels necessary for the appropriate operation of business processes.All users of the platform are structured as single or belonging to a group with specific privileges and hierarchical permissions.

Fig. 6. Monitoring and performances measures
During the start-up phase it is necessary a continuous monitoring and an execution of specific corrections to lead the enterprise in a full collaborative environment.After a period of time, since the launch of the project, a follow-up report is useful to mark all activities where it is necessary to intervene.It is also necessary to update the guidelines on results achieved to improve the executive plan of the strategic project 2.0.This step will be iterated for tuning corrections to the implementation of the Enterprise 2.0 model.Each factor has been declined, in detail, in individual components (independent variables) (Table 3) that must be monitored.If independent variables of each factor present a positive trends it means that there are improvements and therefore a partial success of the implementation.important to stimulate, inside the enterprise, collaborative initiatives.In introducing changes an internal pivot or facilitator has an important role mainly to stimulate internal workers in following specific guidelines.Employees and managers must believe in this new business model and with their efforts and their actions they must use a digital and collaborative platform to reach business goals.After the gradual implementation of the model it is important to monitor the executed actions and in particular the measure of performances.At present it is difficult to measure the Return of Investment (ROI) of a project 2.0 and instead it is easier to measure the online Return of Influence by appropriate tools that monitor the social presence and the visibility of the company in the web and in social networks.

Fig. 2 .
Fig. 2. The conceptual framework to implement an Enterprise 2.0 model discuss of the importance to establish clear rules, policies and communication guidelines for the internal staff.Vision of the change.Focusing on concepts of co-design and co-creation and on the new way of working.Showing best practices.It is important to have a long-term vision by small steps and gradually show tangible results.All the staff and the top management must be predisposed to the change.The owner/manager must spread this vision of the change to human resources and must govern it with the assignment of tasks and responsibility.Supporting the change with right people.This is the most delicate phase of the process.The technology is the trigger but people are the "engine" of the model.The management must identify right people (pivot and others) to assign tasks and responsibilities to stimulate people to work in a collaborative DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17.3.2013.04project 2.0 and draw guidelines to follow.Therefore it is necessary to identify different figures: a project leader (often, where existing, he/she comes from the communication or marketing area), the pivot or facilitator of the change and early adopters (those who have immediately adapted the change).

Feature 1 .
Policies and rules.Components Definition of policies and rules to follow in the implementation of the project 2.0, readiness to the change of managers and employees, inappropriate behavior (use of tools for personal reasons, modalities of pseudo collaboration, ...), fear of online reputation, writing of inaccurate information, release of confidential information, acceptance of criticism and consequent actions, fear of the internal security.Feature 2. Adoption of web 2.0 tools.Components Governance process, initial context and availability to the adoption, implementation costs, obstacles to the adoption, tools most used, utility in the exchange of information, change of other colleagues in the interface with these new technologies, increase of collaborative relationships, presence of pivot inside the company, presence of guidelines for the adoption.Feature 3. Reasons for the adoption.Components Needs for the internal/external communication, improvement of the operating efficiency, opportunities for business, spontaneous evolution of pre-existing technologies, imitative factors, differentiation from competitors, image enhancement, supply of innovative services.

Feature 4 .
Support to the initiative.Components Rewards and incentives for the adoption, stimuli by top management, clear and well expressed goals.Feature 5. Simplicity in the use.Technology easy to use, user-friendly systems, systems simple to learn and use.DOI: 10.12948/issn14531305/17.3.2013.04

Table 2 .
Variables to measure the predisposition/readiness of the enterprise Feature 1. Personality traits of owners/managers.Components Strategic vision, open-minded, fear of reputation (offline and online), predisposition to the interview, predisposition to the sharing, willingness to learn, willingness to change behavior, willingness to the information exchange with external environment, leadership on employees, capacity to understand people needs, predisposition to listen, capacity to control, willingness to implement policies, monitoring of the employees behavior.Long-term vision and prospects, corporate confidence, network culture, predisposition to the cooperation, predisposition to the knowledge exchange, adaptation and learning, drivers for organizational change, top-down/bottom-up flows.Availability to the innovation.Components Openness to the collaboration with the external environment, available to the crowdsourcing, development of new products with external ideas.Internet anywhere and anytime, access to digital devices, reception of right information in real time, simplicity in finding, sharing, cataloging information, monitoring of current assets, monitoring of business workflows.Feature 7. Readiness to web 2.0 technologies.Components Predisposition to the use of ICT, the presence of an internal ICT office, the presence of a Marketing/Communication office, provision of a good technological infrastructure, set of legacy IT applications, set of interactive and collaborative tools, use of social networks in private life, use of social networks at work.