Don't fear the Twitter man

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Clearswift spoke to businesses in the UK, Germany, the US and Australia, and found that just over half thought that "web collaboration tools" – which include Facebook but also web-based applications such as Salesforce.com – were crucial to their business.

The respondents also said that such tools made staff more productive, and also helped with recruitment.

Drilling down into the data reveals some other interesting findings. As many as 89 per cent of those surveyed, for example, found that using social networking sites drove new business leads. A full 91 per cent said that the technology was useful, in improving brand awareness and 89 per cent said it improved their customer service.

Against this, 61 per cent of companies were worried about security, and 64 per cent believed that security policies needed to be updated, in light of Web 2.0 and social media technologies. As many as a third said they had turned down new business, through security worries.

That is a missed opportunity that few, if any, companies can afford right now. But it illustrates the gulf that sometimes exists between employees, who are often quick to embrace new technologies, and IT departments that want to take a more centralised approach to security.

The problem is that a security policy that can't distinguish between the genuinely useful, and the plain risky, risks blocking the good and the bad. Innovative companies, Turner says, tend to start with the premise that new technology should be allowed, rather than blocked or shut down.

"There is a risk, but there is a risk in walking out of the front door every morning," says Turner. "But most people still do it."

Locking the doors, drawing the curtains, and hiding under the dining table is no way to restore a company's financial prospects. And neither, in all likelihood, will it be a fun place to work.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT PRO.

Comments? Questions? You can email him here.

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