The Communication Revolution - "Deep Impact" About To Strike
There's no doubt we're in a communications revolution. It's like a "deep impact" asteroid ready to strike unless we take steps to divert it!
Social networking, real time news and blog feeds, and the continued advances and adoption of mobile smart phones have been some of the major drivers of this change over the last 5 years. These advances have given us communication & information access anywhere, all the time, and in real time. A good thing, right? Yes, mostly.
This revolution has also created new challenges and behavior changes for individuals and enterprises. More than ever we wrestle with how to efficiently access, utilize and control all of this new communication & information without potentially stressful and negative side-effects.
What are some of these impacts?
1) Information Overload. Individuals are overwhelmed with the amount of information and communication modes available to them and coming at them 24/7 if you let it. From a business perspective, employee productivity, information security, and legal liability concerns arise.
2) Businesses need to address the fact that employees and customers are "talking" in many new ways. Changes need to be made in how they "listen" and reach the customer base. Changes need to be made in how all forms of communication are presented to and managed for employee productivity and collaboration. Customer service & contact centers need to deal with social network communication in an integrated way, not as a parallel separate process.
3) Social changes: We are choosing different communication modes and preferences. 24/7 real-time availability of information is altering social communication behavior. The boundary between "personal" and professional identity and time is blurring.
Unified Communications applications and communication devices need to evolve and help us address the challenges put forth by today's communication & information technology. We need advances to help us divert the "deep impact" as enterprises and as individuals.
There are a few key aspects of this communication revolution that I'll discuss over my next few posts. In the end I'll get into user scenario examples of how advances being made can help.
1) Information overload and management - personal and business impacts on our productivy abd psyche
2) Social behavior changes regarding communication style and choices and the blur between personal and professional needs
3) Examples of Enterprise benefits to finding ways to embrace new communication modes and behaviors into your Unified Communications solution
4) Finally, the types of changes in Unified Communications and devices that can help divert the communication revolution asteroid.
I'll add the links into this post as I create the follow-on posts. Looking forward to an ongoing dialog about diverting the asteroid!
Posted 4 Dec 2009 at 11:52 AM