The CIO's view on Web 2.0

Alex Robinson is CIO with Aviva Europe, part of the world’s fifth largest insurance group, and is a keen advocate of Web 2.0 technologies. He’s written his own blog since 2005, and is thinking of translating it into multiple languages.

“It’s a way for me to communicate information to staff,” he says. “And I’m aware that there are a lot of people that read it who probably wouldn’t pay much attention to more traditional forms of communication.

“It’s a useful way for me to get information from staff. If I want to know what people think about a particular topic, or if there’s a need for a particular skill set in the organisation, I can put out a request for it on the blog. I get feedback daily from the things I post. I’ve also used it at difficult times to communicate with the mass of the workforce; for instance, when we’ve gone through cost-cutting and job losses, I’ve used my blog to explain what and why it’s happening.”

For Robinson, his role is to lead by example. “It’s not necessarily setting the pace or defining the boundaries, but it’s showing that it’s OK to use this technology,” he says. “It’s OK to open up the communication channels. I realised that in a big organisation with thousands of people, managers can become very remote and out of touch with people in the frontline of the business. But now I get daily emails from members of staff who five years ago would not have thought of emailing a senior manager directly.”

Robinson concludes that Web 2.0 collaborative applications are going to become the standard way for interacting with each other and customers. “There’ll be a measured but consistent growth in the use of these technologies,” he says. “And with new recruits coming through that are using it all the time, it isn’t going to go away.”