Spending on Enterprise 2.0 messaging and collaboration technologies will take a hit, according to Forrester Research as cutthroat competition and oversaturation of blogs, wikis, mashups and RSS feeds will curb spending, but predicts growth for mashups. At what point will Forrester have to factor the dragging economy into the slowdown in spending on anything from Enterprise 2.0 to enterprise applications?

Just a few weeks ago, the Enterprise 2.0 world was humming along smoothly, to all outward appearances. Vendors and analysts alike were bullish on growth prospects for modern collaboration and productivity platforms.

The tide is turning, according to an analysis from Forrester Research analyst Oliver Young. He predicts that average deal sizes for most Web 2.0 tools will fall over the next five years, with some deal sizes dropping by more than half. Fine, but the lousy economy is currently pounding the technology industry, which will further reduce cash flow.

Young attributes the drop to "cutthroat competition":

With only a few exceptions, technology innovation in the enterprise Web 2.0 market has given way to a period of refinement and digestion. ... For the most part, a blog from one vendor is no better than a blog from another, eroding differentiation and price premiums.

From IBM, to Socialtext, Jive Software, Awareness, Near-Time—you pick the company—there are just too many vendors out there selling similar products to expect that they will all live long and prosper. 

Read the rest of this article on eWEEK.com.

 

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