synopsis

Online communities have become an increasingly popular way to support collaboration and communication across many areas of business, from internal knowledge sharing to improving relationships with customers and partners. As we start to move beyond the early adopter phase of this market towards a more mainstream consideration of this approach by organisations, we are starting to see trends and best practices emerging, combined with a maturing vendor marketplace which is beginning to recognise the bigger picture and the potential of online communities within a broader enterprise collaboration strategy. This report, the first of a series of MWD reports analysing this topic, examines what we mean by online communities in a business context, and outlines the different business scenarios available to organisations, as well as providing an overview of the vendor landscape for this area.