IBM, Microsoft and SAP are taking a charge at the business Web 2.0 market, <A HREF="http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139451-pg,1/article.html">but the big vendors still lag behind smaller rivals</A> who have developed far more innovative technology with quicker release cycles, according to a Forrester analyst.

Rob Koplowitz, an analyst at Forrester who is performing a comprehensive analysis of the market for blog, wiki, and content collaboration tools, issued research last month examining IBM, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and BEA Systems. His next Enterprise 2.0 report will tackle the smaller players such as Socialtext, Jive, Awareness, Six Apart and Near-Time.

Small vendors have established themselves in the blog and wiki market with more robust technology, and can offer simpler, low-cost deployments, often through software-as-a-service, Koplowitz says.