IT Vendors Are Cautious On Web 2.0, Embrace SaaS

IT companies love software as a service. The sector is one of the most enthusiastic users of Web-only applications such as Salesforce.com, according to the 2008 InformationWeek 500 survey. Seventy-one percent of IT vendors use online business apps, making IT one of the top three out of 21 industries in that category.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, as IT companies tend to be out front when it comes to new technologies. Software as a service has a lot to offer, including low deployment and maintenance costs. And because the applications are online, they're readily accessible to a distributed workforce and available any hour of the day.

At the same time, IT vendors are less enthusiastic about Web-based collaboration tools. Only 52% use hosted collaboration apps. They also aren't that gung ho about Web 2.0--only 33% say encouraging employee use of these technologies is effective in raising productivity. Some companies are still figuring out which ones actually provide value.

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"Facebook and other toolsets can draw in a far-flung team and make them feel less far flung," says John Matthews, VP of IT at F5 Networks, a provider of application delivery networking. "That's valuable, but it's hard to delineate how valuable it is." F5 has had varying degrees of success with Web 2.0 tools, Matthews says, adding, "We don't know which ones will turn out to be the most useful."