Here is an interesting idea. Marc Andersen, my former Renaissance colleague, posted recently on his blog on applying “product service systems” to corporate environments. He was inspired by a Boston Globe article, The Leased Life, on how people should share products across their communities. Many people purchased tools and other things they rarely use, causing an unnecessary strain on their budgets and the environment. The globe reported that this has been recognized and Web sites have started to facilitate these transactions. This is another example of the potential of Web 2.0.
Marc wrote about how this practice makes sense for more efficient use of services inside the enterprise and I agree. He also noted that today’s collaborative tool sets can facilitate these internal marketplaces. Enterprises would have to modify their cost structure and accounting to facilitate these exchanges but that should not be too hard.
However, making people aware of the services and arranging for micro-efforts and the associated micro-accounting would have potentially difficult with older technologies. However, just as on the Web with Web 2.0 sites, the transparency within enterprise 2.0 platforms can also make these internal micro-markets for service exchange more accessible.
Now that the right tools are available the remaining factor to make this work is the ability to understand the value of these exchanges and the vision to implement them. In a market where employees are asked to continuously do more with less, an internal services market for under-utilized resources should appeal to most executives. Thanks to Marc for making the suggestion. You should check out his blog as there are a lot of other good ideas there.