Instant Comm goes to Oxford -- picture future Trends

You must have read my earlier post death of email. In that post, I mentioned how instant communication is slowly making emails obsolete. Now, here’s an even bigger change. Instant communication language is making inroads to Oxford English Dictionary!! Words like OMG, LOL, FYI and others find its place in the most prestigious English language dictionary. Could you have imagined that a couple of years back? 

I see this developments ushering in trends which will likely change our personal as well as professional life. The trends that I see for the future are: 

• Instant Communication is fast gaining prominence and will soon become the most important means of communication.
• Instant Communication will quickly move from personal domain to professional domain, and will impact our work culture.
• Organizations will soon provide their employees with instant communication tools to communicate as well as do business.
• Organizations will no longer look at instant communication words/language with disdain, and will likely encourage as it will be the language of the new generation of workers. 

• Organizations will look for employees who are adept with the ways and means of instant communication and social media.

• Employees will prefer organizations that allow them to access social media and hence enable instant communication (gone are the days of preventing access to internet in general, and social media sites in particular).

Here’s a word of advice for all.

Employees

Better brush up your social media skills to be in sync with the instant communication culture or you will become obsolete in the fast changing workplace.

Organizations

You should imbibe the social media culture and enable instant communication at workplace if you want to retain your employees.

Post Recession need for efficiency led to PC, Internet & now Cloud Computing

The whole world is talking about Cloud Computing, and how it will be the next big thing. But KPMG’s report The Cloud - Changing the Business Ecosystem gave an interesting twist to the reason why the organization expect Cloud Computing to be big, and it makes complete sense.

We have to agree with the fact that recessions force organizations to improve their business efficiency and increase profitability. And if you really look closely, you will notice that organizations as well as individual users have adopted IT in its various forms to tide through the recessionary phase as well as ‘improve their business efficiency and increase profitability’. 

The 1980s recession was instrumental for the rapid growth of Personal Computers as organizations started looking for ways to cut cost and increase profits. As per KPMG, ‘the number of PCs installed grew from less than 1 million in 1980 to 1 over 100 million by the end of the decade’.

The destabilizing recession in the first half of the 1990s closed down many businesses. As organizations searched for avenues to survive and grow, they ended up adopting Client Server Architecture and the internet in a large way. In fact, at the decade start there were only a few thousand users of the internet; but by the decade end, the users were more than 300 million.

Can we forget the recent economic downturn that crippled so many organizations? It was so bad that a large majority of the population was without a job for a long period of time. Things have improved to a large extent but the businesses are still trying to make money and sustain themselves. Hence, they are looking for ways to improve efficiencies by using collaborative solutions and real time information exchange. And that’s basically the reason for the Cloud to gain prominence. Just as KPMG pointed out, ‘The promise of the Cloud possibly lies in the flexibility, scalability and cost benefits made available through the ‘as-a-service’ paradigm’.

I fully agree with KMPG’s viewpoint and also believe that Cloud Computing is definitely the next big thing. But I would like to know your thoughts on the following:

• Do you believe that the after recession necessity for improving business efficiency and increasing profitability was instrumental for the success of the PC and Internet?

• Do you think that Cloud Computing can become as popular as Internet and PC?

Internet Kill Switch – To be or To Be Not

Senator Joseph Lieberman introduced “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010″, which proposed to give the President of USA the power to “authorize emergency measures to protect the nation’s most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited”. And it was then that the term Internet Kill Switch was coined by the protesters.

Though controversial but a section of people did support it. But things turned when Egypt used it to prevent the protesters from using the Internet to initiate more protests and demonstrators.  Even some of the ardent supporters of the Internet Kill Switch became a protester.

Do We Need It?

The Internet Switch was always there. But its perception and usage definition have changed mainly due to the recent events. But then do we really need an Internet Switch or rather an Internet Kill Switch?

•  If you are in country ruled by a despot and fear that the person might use it to put a blanket on information and online access, then yes — it’s not for you and you will say ‘NO’ to Internet Kill Switch.
• If you are against government interfering in your business or have any kind of control over the infrastructure, you will say ‘NO’ to Internet Switch.
• If you fear that the Government might misuse it to have a control over its citizens, then definitely you will say ‘NO’ to Internet Switch.

But what if you are in a free country and have the freedom to make your own decisions and choices?

Yes, We Need It!

In spite of the entire backlash against Internet Kill Switch and protesters painting it as an affront to democratic values, in my opinion if used judiciously Internet Kill Switch is a good tool to have.

Please note having an Internet Kill Switch does not mean that anytime a problem occurs the government will shut down the entire Internet. But it will definitely be in a position to shut down access to critical infrastructure. 

Imagine a cyberwarfare or terrorism scenario where the attackers are:

• Holding the whole city or country to hostage
• Trying to destroy your power stations/nuclear facilities etc
• Stealing from your banks
• Stopping your transportation systems
• Disrupting your flight or railway systems with the intention to create accidents

Won’t you then want to have an Internet Kill Switch type of option to paralyze the bad guys’ operations?

In addition, every organization has security measures and controls to keep them safe from online attacks. Is it too much for a country to have a measure like Internet Kill Switch to protect their people, business and critical infrastructure from online attacks?

As I mentioned earlier, if used judiciously, Internet Kill Switch can be a great tool.

Do feel free to share your thoughts.

Food Security & IT

Earlier, I did hear and read about Food Security but did not dig much to get a better view of the picture. So basically, I got introduced to Food Security when pitching for a client. As our team starting doing research on it, we realized that one of the most important topics doing the rounds today is Food Security. United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization(FAO) describes ‘Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’.

Food Security is not only matter of concern for the developing nation but also for the developed nations. Food wastages, poor storage and distribution facilities, drop in agricultural production and various such issues are threatening the quality and quantity of food. So the question is what can we do to help keep our food secure?

Technology can definitely help increase food production and decrease food wastage. But here I would like to focus on IT and how it can play a role in keeping food secured.

• IT can help the farmers keep track of the weather conditions, hence plan out their agricultural production. It would also give them an indication to sow the appropriate seeds to get a bumper crop.

• IT can help the farmers to connect with the agricultural experts to get tips to increase their agricultural produce.
• IT can also enable the farmers to connect with the various markets spread across the country. The farmers would then know to which market they should send their produce and which markets they should avoid.
• IT can also help out with the storage. If the details about the storage facilities are available online then people would know where the produce can be stored safely and which facilities are overflowing and hence should be avoided.
• IT can help in keeping track of the distribution systems. Easily available information like where the food grains are going or where they are stuck makes it easy to track as well as hold the concerned people accountable.
• IT can also empower consumers with the right information and help them decide from which markets to procure their food stuff. IT can also enable consumers to directly connect with farmers and buy produce straight from the farms.

There are numerous additional ways that IT can help with Food Security. What are your thoughts on this?

How to shape the Future Workplace?

You must have read my blog post Social Media & Mobile Trends to shape future Workplace where I talked about the five major social media and mobile trends which will shape the future of enterprise mobility and change the workplace scenario. Here I will provide the inputs that an organization can adopt to shape the future workplace and keep it engaging enough for the new generation workers.  

• Design a Technology Philosophy: Each organization should have their own and unique technology philosophy that can be used to shape their workplace. For that you should know your employees’ technological and working preferences, understand the impact of your organization’s security and regulations on technology usage, and whether Internet and social media plays a role in driving customer engagement.

• Develop a new age Security Policy:  Gone are the days when you can have a single and inflexible IT security policy to prevent security breaches and data loss. Many organizations try to enforce a ban on the usage of personal device as a policy. But restricting the usage of personal device and social media applications won’t provide you with a security cover; in fact it will endanger you as your employees will find ways to surpass those defunct rules and regulations. Hence develop a security policy that covers employee owned smartphones, tablets and PCs in addition to the organization owned devices. This will provide flexibility as well as prevent security breaches and data loss.

• Liberalize your rules & regulations: More rules and regulations leads to disgruntled and dissatisfied workers. Do away with rules like prohibiting the usage of employee owned personal devices and technology in the organizations’ network. In fact, encourage employees to use their own devices like smartphones for business usage. Today, more and more employees prefer to use their own smart phones for office usage; do not stop them from doing so, but do develop ways to keep them security enabled.

• Provide tech to enable employees’ integration & collaboration: Launch and provide your employees with enterprise applications that enable them to collaborate and work closely with each other. Provide your employees with social media tools and internet facilities that enable them to communicate the way they usually do. In nutshell, take advantage of the technical trends to increase employee engagement and productivity.

• Adopt Desktop Virtualization & other new tech:  Organization should be open to adopt desktop virtualization and other new technologies. It will not only enable employees to work on different devices, but will also allow employees to access organization data in a flexible and secured manner.  

Social Media & Mobile Trends to shape future Workplace

The workplace has undergone a paradigm shift — what you considered to be cool is seen as archaic and obsolete by the today’s generation. In fact, social media, mobile devices and application platforms are shaping the way employees work and communicate. All these are forcing CIOs to adapt and meet the expectations of the new generation workers. To remain relevant, you have to change your corporate policies on security, internet, and PC and application usage.

From what I see, the below mentioned trends will shape the future of enterprise mobility and change the workplace scenario. 

Trend #1: Social Media emerges as a Business tool

Social media has not only impacted our workplace but our society at large. According to Nielson, “the world now spends over 110 billion minutes on social networks and blog sites. For the first time ever, social network or blog sites are visited by three quarters of global consumers who go online.” 

Social media is instrumental for the changing technology as well as the people and society. The employees today expect instant communication and access to applications that enable them to be effective in their personal life; and personal devices and consumer social networks to build tools for building work relationships and conducting business.

Trend # 2: The line between work and home thins

Today, the employees have the option to work from home or any locations that they prefer. But the issue in this arrangement is that it becomes difficult for organizations to control employee technology usage. You cannot control your employees’ device and application usage, or monitor the flow of your corporate information and intellectual property. Hence it becomes imperative for the IT departments to develop policies to deliver and secure sensitive date on both IT-owned and employee-owned devices. The blurring of work and home environments makes it difficult to create an employee technology policy. 

Trend # 3: Employees coming to work with new and personal mobile devices

Currently, IT departments decide what devices and software to deploy as it simplifies support, image management, application deployment, as well as device maintenance, security, and management. This scenario is likely to change as employees are increasingly showing up at work with their personal devices (smart phones, media tablets, and internet-connected personal media players). And as mobile devices, applications, and operating systems proliferate, IT departments will face tremendous challenges to deliver end user service and support.

Trend # 4: Tech savvy employees will be sought by the organizations

The fast growth of social media and mobile devices is rapidly changing the technology relationship between employers and employees, and organizations and customers. It is becoming absolutely necessary for businesses to develop new mobile applications and Internet services to interact with their customers.

The positive impact social media is already having on many traditional industries is far greater than the impact of mobile commerce. The value of employees who are tech savvy and influencers in their social networks will increase as the control of corporate brands shifts to online conversations.

Trend # 5: New generation workers will have new corporate IT expectations

The new generation employees usually are shocked when their employers offer an entry-level PC to work; whereas they seem keen to innovate and eager to compete in this fast changing technology era. They get even more surprised to see that their official computers are running a locked down version of an operating system that was first released when they were kids. 

As an organization, you should invest in end user technology and implement innovative technology policy. You will see the benefits when you look to recruit the new generation of knowledge workers.