Next up on the prediction recap list: IT departments will take their heads out of the sand and embrace Web 2.0 technologies

Last year I wrote: “To date, most IT departments have resisted Web 2.0 tools, often viewing them as consumer grade — of secondary concern to other major IT investments — or simply frivolous. But in 2008, Forrester expects at least half of the 42% of enterprises that say Web 2.0 is not on their priority list to add it by year’s end. Why? First, the IT shops that began experimenting with enterprise Web 2.0 tools for their own use in 2007 — for tasks like help desk ticket resolution, standards and documentation tracking, and IT project management — will begin rolling out these tools more broadly to lines of business as they pass IT muster. Second, CIOs will concede that they cannot quell passionate employees’ use of consumer-oriented or SaaS Web 2.0 tools and will mitigate risk by deploying enterprise-class tools in their stead. Finally, for IT departments aspiring to be more relevant to the business, enterprise Web 2.0 tools will be a high-impact, low-cost method to show leadership and innovation. Tech strategists should focus feature development on IT in 2008 and keep a sharp eye on integration and deployment. For many vendors, this means offering the previously unthinkable: on-premise software.”

The result? Again, so far so good. When I looked back at this prediction in July I concluded that if anything I was too timid. We saw a LOT of inquiries and other activity from IT departments that were trying to take an active role in Web 2.0. Granted, some were more reactive than proactive, but on balance the interest was strong and genuine.

In addition to looking in general at the activity of IT departments I conducted a small survey of 262 IT professionals to get more detail. In that survey we found that IT staffers are very knowledgeable about Web 2.0, though there are still major gaps in knowledge, most notably with regards to mashups and prediction markets.

Other notable findings: IT departments strongly believe that Web 2.0 will have a major impact on their businesses; the availability of IT resources for deployment and customization is a major factor determining if Web 2.0 tools get off the ground; in one of three businesses IT developers have an active role in technology selection; and in many cases IT departments are still hoarding Web 2.0 technology, serving their own needs ahead of the rest of the business.

For 2009 I would expect this trend to continue, though not as quickly as it would have if we had not hit an economic downturn. Many of the projects IT departments would have spearheaded are in the realm of collaboration and productivity, and my belief is that those projects will be hard hit in 2009.

Score: Oliver -2, Market – 0

Up next: RSS demand will grow substantially.

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