Social Business: What We Can Learn From the Y2K Hysteria

The last comprehensive system evaluation and overhaul we underwent was spurred by the “Y2K bug.” As we incorporate social business into our platform strategies, we can learn from that history.

It seems like ancient history, but 13 years ago the IT industry was galvanized, or paralyzed, by the challenge of remediating the “Y2K bug.” Back then, to address fears of widespread system failures, IT departments had to review virtually their entire portfolio of technology assets to ensure that system failure would not occur. Savvy organizations used this opportunity to completely refresh their technology, leveraging expenditures into an unprecedented system modernization. Many organizations, however, focused merely on short-term remediation and, in so doing, they slowed down their deployment of progressive information systems and lost a competitive opportunity. As we move towards a new vision for social business (reference companion “Social business: So much more than ‘Facebook for the Enterprise’”), smart organizations can realize cost savings and competitive advantage by taking the long view, while most organizations will take a more short-term approach that will increase costs and time and delay realization of benefits.