Gartner predicts rise in enterprise social software

Over a third of large enterprises will have deployed social software suites to all of their employees by 2012, according to new research from Gartner.

The analyst firm's 2009 predictions for social software and collaboration said that the market for social software will grow next year through departmental deployments, while the hosted email market will undergo rapid growth in the next five years.

However, Gartner warned that barriers still exist for full-scale adoption of social software technologies, because many firms are uncertain about the business benefits and fear losing control over people and content.

"While opportunities to extract value from social software as well as products to achieve this already exist, users should be aware of the vendor, product and business risks associated with large enterprise-wide deployments at least within a two- to three-year planning horizon," the report said.

Gartner also advised IT departments to work with end users to develop practical guidelines for the effective use of social software, and to create policies that "align with email, communications, collaboration and internet access policies".