HISTORY sometimes repeat itself - and that's okay.

Several years ago, corporations frowned on instant messaging (IM) with scepticism. Look at where IM is today - embedded in all desktop and workflow productivity tools that are being used by companies.

Today, networks, blogs and wikis are consumer tools that are a nightmare for IT managers with the potential of security breaches and employee productivity dip.

But trailblazers have offered a glimpse of how a company can benefit from the consumer-driven social and technology trend.

Everything from gathering feedback to sharing expertise, which lead - ultimately - to happier customers and a better bottom line.

Take Dell: It refreshed an otherwise dreary way of collecting customer feedback.

Its Dell IdeaStorm, launched in February last year, is a cool social networking site complete with Digg-style voting and post-a-comment functions.

In fact, the site is also a designated place where new product ideas are spawned - by the customer for the customer.

Preloading the Linux operating system on Dell notebooks, for instance, was an idea submitted online by a customer. In just two days, more than 25,000 votes were collected from IdeaStorm visitors for pre-installing Linux on Dell computers.

One week from the launch of IdeaStorm, the customer suggestion took flight with the PC maker announcing plans to preload the open-source operating system on its computers.

'Readiness for an open dialogue is key if businesses want to take advantage of social networking,' said Steve Hodgkinson, research director at Britain-based analyst firm Ovum.

'But the dialogue you are seeking to create has to have a clear purpose, be it for customer feedback or business collaboration. You may learn unexpected, perhaps uncomfortable things, but it may be where the real value lies.'

In Singapore, businesses use Web 2.0-style tools mostly for marketing.

Singapore-based integrated marketing firm The Pacific West Communications is running China's AsiaPharm blog and wiki to market a cholesterol-lowering product, Hypocol, in Singapore and the region.

Unlike traditional websites, interactivity and openness are key features of Web 2.0 platforms like blogs and wikis. Users can add comments to an existing thread or post new topics for all to see, generating discussions on a peer-to-peer level.

For AsiaPharm, also listed in Singapore, wikis and blogs supplement traditional marketing channels like direct mail in Singapore. But for overseas markets, wikis and blogs are the primary tools.

A series of fitness videos will also be uploaded on YouTube and Google video in February as part of an ongoing marketing drive for Hypocol.

'Web 2.0 platforms are predominantly open source. It's ideal for companies that have limited budgets,' said Andrew Peters, regional director of The Pacific West Communications.

Even costs incurred in content development can be subsidised by having a wiki, whose content is created by users, Andrew said.

Motorola is another early business adopter.

In December last year, it employed advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather to promote its Motorola Q mobile phone on Facebook, creating Motorola's first two Facebook applications.

The Q Memory Challenge is an online card game, and Q Greetings lets users send animated electronic greeting cards to their peers.

In addition, Motorola is using wikis and blogs to get staff - especially those in research and development - to share knowledge. It houses more than 5,400 weblogs and 4,500 wikis.

Like Motorola, IBM uses social networking tools for internal communication.

Each of its 300,000 employees worldwide has an online profile to allow colleagues to easily search and locate experts by subject matter. Over 10,000 employees have blogs, which can be searched by topic and bookmarked for future reference.

'Whereas Web 1.0 was about connecting people with information, Web 2.0 is about connecting people with people and with information,' said Gary Dolsen, worldwide director of collaboration technologies at IBM.

'These technologies are ushering in a new age of collective intelligence.'

This article was first published in Digital Life, The Straits Times, on Jan 22, 2008.

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