Overly cautious professional services firms risk losing out in Web 2.0 revolution, warns Spada


Spada has launched a new research-based White Paper examining the impact of Web 2.0 technology on UK professional services firm development.

Entitled “The laity bytes back?”  the Spada paper explores the opportunities and threats presented by Web 2.0, with explanations of key terminology and practical examples of how the technologies have been used as business and knowledge development tools.

Gavin Ingham Brooke, Spada’s managing director, explains: “We believe Web 2.0 could significantly change the ways in which professionals interact with clients, collaborators and colleagues.  Externally, it presents the opportunity to create communities where, for instance, ideas and information can be shared to generate dialogue around client needs and build working relationships. Internally, Web 2.0 technologies have signalled potential efficiency gains, such as slashing e-mail traffic by allowing users to edit common documents collaboratively.”

Spada notes considerable caution among professions in embracing the new technologies and identifies management issues as the key worries, including perceived security threats and potential diversion of fee-earner time and attention.

Drawing inspiration from George Bernard Shaw’s famous dictum , Spada’s paper also looks at the impact of Web 2.0 on the “information asymmetry” that has been a stark feature of the professional/client relationship.  The new technologies mean that consumers now enjoy access to information previously only available to those in the professional realm.  While much of this ‘new’ information may be unauthenticated, contends Spada, the sense of empowerment that direct access provides throws down a gauntlet to the traditional unequal balance of power between the consumer and the professional, who has acquired knowledge by virtue of precedent, training and qualification.

Ingham Brooke explains: “Rather than dismissing all Web 2.0 content as illicit, irrelevant or subversive, professionals must find ways to exploit the technologies in such a way that they add value to client relationships rather than undermining them, and in ways that re-inspire public trust in the professions as efficient, learning cultures.  It is now quite possible for a firm to set up authenticated communities of professional collaborators who amass reliable knowledge in a particular area, with clients invited to participate in the build up of know-how.”

Ingham Brooke concludes: “The knowledge-based professions have much to offer Web 2.0, as they can transform the level and quality of information available. Hazards certainly exist, but the rapid rise of the participatory web means that Web 2.0 is both too big and too important for firms to ignore. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution for professional firms, but by thinking creatively, the technology can be harnessed to encourage innovation, attract talent and build new revenue streams.”

The white paper can be downloaded free from www.spada.co.uk/swordplay