Damon Martin, takes a primary role in the development of technical and sales direction for SKT, a national Unified Communications consulting firm based in the central US. Damon executes consulting practices and sales methodologies developed to ensure organizations realize the promise of Unified Communications.
Here, Damon discusses what's changed in the workplace - and what's becoming more relevant.
For many of us that have been consulting on Unified Communications for years it is hard to see the transformations when they are happening. I remember talking to organizations about CTI when the idea that your computer could talk to your PBX was bleeding edge. There has been an enormous amount of discussion in the past year about Unified Communications and its business impact. An interesting transition for me has been that I don't find myself answering the question "What is Unified Communications?" anymore. Instead, I find myself talking to organizations about what Web 2.0 and social networking mean to their business. The reality is that those questions are a natural progression of the dialog. There is an inherent link between Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking tools and Unified Communications.
What is changing in the workplace?
There is
awareness within today's workplaces that we have to find ways to become
more productive. The effects of today's economic environment and
acceptance of the "new normal" have allowed us to see the workforce
output that is expected for information workers at our companies. That
productivity is fueled by an increasing demand for a collaborative
working culture. There are several trends that are emerging in the new
workplace:
- Unwillingness to return to previous employment levels
- Demands for higher productivity from information workers
- Elimination of organizational layers
- Increasing expectations for staff to take on a variety of roles and responsibilities
There is an interesting phenomenon of the new workforce; workers are finding an environment where they are being forced to collaborate with others at a much higher degree than was required previously. This pressure has a logical conclusion that we are seeing play out in many organizations:
- Workers need to collaborate quickly and effectively and today's phones and email are not fast enough with most communications resulting in a voicemail or replies hours later.
- Workers have become accustomed to instant access to friends and family with text messages, Facebook, Twitter and instant messaging.
The result is that workers have a desire and need to use collaboration tools. If we look at Unified Communications as a tool and explore its ability to add business value by driving collaboration, we can start to understand how social networking is an indication of the willingness of our teams to embrace Unified Communications and Collaboration.
Why is Web 2.0 relevant?
The key to the adoption
of Unified Communications in the workplace is embracing it as a
collaboration tool. The question about whether people can use social
networking tools to collaborate has been answered by the prolific
growth of tools and social network sites. The burden now is on
solutions providers and vendors to help executives at companies
understand how to leverage a Unified Communications platform to provide
a tool-set. Businesses need to continue growing productivity without
returning to the staffing levels they that drove up costs. We hear the
question "how can we get our staff to embrace Unified Communications".
The key is to understand that they already have by tweeting feedback at
a trade show or posting pictures of grandchildren on Facebook. The
vendors are doing a good job of showing demos of how Unified
Communications works to IT departments. In the interim, workers are
finding ways to collaborate because they have to stay competitive and
provide the output that is expected in today's workplace.
Conclusion
It is time for the technology
departments to accept that Unified Communications is not something that
can be migrated to over time or tested for small user groups.
Businesses are not going to back away from demands for increasing
productivity. Workers have realized that collaborative communication
is the way to make productivity sustainable. We have to work to help
organizations understand that Unified Communications and Collaboration
(UCC) is where the consumer acceptance of social networking and the
business software for Unified Communications come together.
Damon originally posted this blog entry at the SKT Blog earlier in November 09. You can follow Damon on Twitter.
