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Email  has  been  the  default  enterprise  standard  for  communication  over  the  past  20  years,  but  have  more  modern  social  media  methods  finally  broken  this  normalcy?  

This  is  an  interesting  notion,  and  I  am  sure  one  that  would  be  welcomed  by  those  who  struggle  through  days  drowning  in  the  volume  of  email  received.  Business  has  become  too  dependent  on  email,  to  the  detriment  of  human  interaction  whether  by  phone  or  face-­‐to-­‐face.  It  is  now  proving  too  easy  to  avoid  the  difficult  decisions  or  conversations  by  hiding  behind  a  non-­‐personal  communication  method.    

For  years  now  we  have  been  operating  within  a  culture  of  “I  have  sent  an  email  therefore  it  is  no  longer  my  problem”.  This  is  not  a  healthy  way  to  operate  a  company,  and  in  fact  often  you  hear  of  offices  operating  a  ‘no  team  email  on  Friday’  approach  to  encourage  teammates  to  step  away  from  the  screen  and  talk  to  their  colleagues.  It  does  however  seem  paradoxical  that  we  are  emailed  to  be  told  not  use  email  on  a  particular  day.  

Has  the  time  arrived  to  break  free  of  email  and  embrace  other  forms  of  communication?  Perhaps  so,  and  possibly  this  change  is  long  overdue,  but  as  with  anything  in  the  IT  world,  some  pragmatism  is  needed  in  ensuring  the  correct  communication  method  is  applied  to  the  relevant  situation  presented.  

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ENTERPRISE Can  the  enterprise  really  stop  using  email  as  their  primary  method  of  communication  and  use  social  networks  such  as  Yammer  to  replace  email?  

Within  a  typical  enterprise  environment  it  is  certainly  possible  to  embrace  other  methods  of  communication,  and  over  the  last  few  years  most  organisations  have  done  so.  However,  if  the  question  is  about  stopping  the  use  of  email  altogether  in  a  typical  enterprise,  we  are  not  quite  ready  for  this  yet.  

There  are  many  use  cases  for  alternate  tools  that  help  to  reduce  our  reliance  on  the  email  platform.  

Corporate  adaption  of  social  networks  is  always  a  sensitive  subject,  often  born  out  of  a  misunderstanding  or  misinterpretation  of  what  is  meant  in  the  context  of  a  company.  We  do  not  mean  employees  updating  status  on  Facebook  or  Google+  about  what  they  are  doing  with  their  working  day.  We  are  of  course  speaking  of  tools  that  allow  a  closer  interaction,  or  more  personal  interaction  between  colleagues  all  working  within  the  same  organisation.    

The  method  for  having  dialogue  with  individuals  that  perhaps  you  would  not  normally  interact  with  on  subjects  and  topics  related  to  the  working  environment.  If  implemented  carefully  into  an  organisation,  these  networks  can  become  embedded  into  the  DNA  of  the  company,  and  can  help  the  flow  of  information,  or  draw  out  concepts  and  innovation  from  corners  of  the  organisation  which  have  historically  been  untapped.  

This  sort  of  interaction  would  never  have  been  possible  or  practical  using  an  email  based  platform.  Here  we  have  a  new  technology,  which  nearly  all  employees  can  use  due  to  experience  in  their  personal  life,  being  harnessed  to  advance  the  interaction  and  knowledge  share  within  a  work  environment.  

Can  this  type  of  tool  replace  email?  Within  the  boundaries  of  an  organisation,  and  dependent  on  the  capabilities  of  the  tool  in  question,  this  is  probably  one  of  the  tools  that  come  closest  as  a  replacement  to  

Social Media The Slayer of Email?

 

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email.  Usually  these  tools  provide  methods  for  public  discussion,  private  discussion,  project  topics  with  restricted  access,  and  document  management.  

There  will  still  be  the  requirement  for  external  mail  communication,  but  with  these  social  platforms  evolving  at  a  rapid  pace,  maybe  the  final  piece  of  the  puzzle  is  only  just  round  the  corner.  

INSTANT MESSAGING AND SOCIAL MEDIA Whilst  there  are  social  aspects  to  instant  messaging,  they  are  extensions  to  what  is  primarily  a  point-­‐to-­‐point  communication  method  that  removes  the  delays  of  classic  email.  This  is,  however,  a  powerful  communication  tool,  and  one  that  is  worth  discussing  in  the  context  of  an  email  replacement.  

With  the  advent  of  instant  messaging  from  providers  including  Yahoo,  Microsoft,  Google,  and  a  sea  of  replicates,  there  are  now  alternatives  to  writing  email.  

IM  and  presence  awareness  gives  you  visibility  of  your  colleague’s  availability.  It  is  the  digital  version  of  walking  down  the  corridor  to  check  your  intended  recipient  is  at  their  desk,  and  available  for  a  chat.    

Does  this  mean  that  IM  should  replace  human  interaction  face-­‐to-­‐face?  Certainly  not,  but  where  a  few  seconds  could  be  taken  to  ask  a  question  and  receive  an  answer,  without  having  to  break  from  the  task  at  hand  for  what  will  evolve  into  a  5  minute  or  more  conversation,  then  yes  this  is  a  good  use  of  this  technology  over  face-­‐to-­‐face  dialogue.  

To  take  the  principle  to  the  next  level,  if  you  are  in  a  different  physical  location  to  the  colleague,  this  is  a  very  good  method  to  allow  for  free-­‐flowing  uninterrupted  communication  in  real  time.  

The  evolution  of  IM,  presence  awareness,  and  internet  hosted  meetings,  lead  to  video  enabled  content  being  driven  forwards  by  innovative  carriers,  vendors  and  integrators.    

The  ability  to  have  a  weekly  national  or  international  meeting  with  peers  or  customers  across  an  internet  hosted  meeting,  whether  audio  or  audio  and  video,  is  a  reality  and  one  that  we  are  all  used  to  now.    

Of  course  there  are  floors  in  this  method  of  communication  if  not  carefully  controlled.  We  have  probably  all  been  guilty  at  some  point  of  being  on  an  audio  conference  and  doing  other  jobs  at  the  same  time,  hence  not  devoting  our  fullest  attention  to  the  dialogue  on  the  call.  Video  based  conferencing  can  help  here  as  they  focus  the  participants,  acting  as  a  deterrent  to  multi-­‐tasking,  and  allow  for  interaction  as  near  to  physical  presence  as  can  be  achieved  without  the  participants  all  being  in  the  same  physical  location.  

IM  could  indeed  replace  a  proportion  of  the  email  conversations  that  take  place  within  an  organisation,  and  in  some  cases  can  demonstrate  operational  cost  savings,  but  in  terms  of  being  a  true  replacement  for  email,  IM  is  not  a  medium  that  envelopes  all  requirements  we  place  on  a  communication  platform.  

It  is  instead,  a  piece  of  the  puzzle,  so  perhaps  we  should  look  for  some  sort  of  aggregator,  or  some  concept  that  draws  all  of  these  new  and  interesting  communication  methods  together.  

There  are  now  tools  that  draw  together  different  methods  of  communication  such  as  email  and  IM,  and  modern  IM  platforms  do  inherently  include  the  capability  to  send  emails  to  external  addresses.  These  tools  can  therefore  be  used  as  a  default  method  of  communication,  converting  to  standard  email  for  external  contact  automatically  as  needed  

CULTURAL CHANGE IN APPROACH Is  a  cultural  change  required,  and  an  adoption  of  new  communication  methods  a  way  to  continue  attracting  talent?  

Over  the  years  there  have  always  been  monikers  given  to  the  latest  generation  to  come  along.  Whether  it’s  the  ‘Nintendo  generation’  or  the  ‘iPhone  generation’,  society  will  always  come  up  with  a  name.  With  the  global  acceptance  of  mobility  so  deeply  embedded  into  our  personal  lives,  corporations  truly  do  have  to  stop  and  take  note.    

The  next  few  waves  of  university  graduates  will  be  those  that  have  grown  up  through  their  latter  adolescent  years  with  smart  phones  and  tablets.  These  next  generation  employees  are  used  to  texting  

 

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and  posting  on  social  sites,  for  instant  response  and  immediate  feedback,  with  no  time  for  mail  relays  and  waiting  for  someone  to  sit  down  and  compose  an  email.  

We  discussed  earlier  the  merits  in  organisations  looking  to  a  social  collaborative  platform  for  their  internal  communications,  with  mail  gateways  handling  the  change  of  an  internal  communication  to  a  standard  external  email  for  transmission  to  other  companies.    

This  sort  of  model  would  bring  the  agility  of  an  instant  response  platform,  the  collaboration  capability  required  for  modern  business  with  a  more  social  and  interactive  environment,  but  connected  to  gateways  that  handle  conversion  of  content  into  globally  accepted  email  format  for  external  transmission.  

Email  has  already  changed  considerably  over  the  years.  Perhaps  we  will  see  an  Exchange  2017(?)  product  being  something  more  aligned  to  a  Facebook  architecture.    

We  have  already  seen  the  integration  of  IM  into  email  systems  with  Google,  Outlook  and  other  tools,  and  there  have  been  early  steps  to  aggregate  social  feed  content  into  the  same  email  tools.  

PUBLIC CLOUD OFFERINGS With  this  knowledge,  where  do  public  cloud  offerings  from  key  vendors  fit  into  the  new  world  order  of  corporate  communication?  

With  the  popularity  and  maturing  of  platforms  like  Office  365  and  Google  Docs,  we  are  seeing  real  viable  cloud  based  alternatives  to  corporate  legacy  email  systems.  These  solutions  have  grown  up  and  evolved  into  toolsets  that  can  power  modern  organisations.  

Several  companies  within  the  UK  have  already  moved  their  email  and  document  operations  into  the  Microsoft  and  Google  clouds,  and  more  will  follow  as  their  current  solution  life  cycles  near  conclusion,  provoking  a  real  study  of  alternatives  to  just  refreshing  the  hardware  and  continuing  the  same  old  same  old.  

If  you  have  never  looked  at  the  platforms  offered  by  the  likes  of  Google  you  should  really  take  a  look.  The  document  management  and  fluidity  of  collaborative  actions  is  impressive,  with  real  time  multi-­‐user  editing  of  documents  and  content.    

Couple  this  cloud  power  with  access  and  creation  capability  from  virtually  any  end  user  device  on  the  market  including  iOS,  Android,  Windows,  Mac  and  Linux,  and  you  have  a  very  compelling  argument  for  ditching  the  traditional  approach  to  email  and  collaboration  in  favour  of  a  cloud  provider’s  offering.  

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION How  will  the  communication  platform  of  tomorrow  be  shaped?  

The  best  communication  platform  for  an  organisation  is  the  one  that  can  cover  all  eventualities,  but  serve  the  optimal  method  or  mechanism  dependent  on  the  situation  or  pertinent  requirements  of  a  given  scenario.    

There  is  space  for  a  social  collaboration  toolset,  some  IM  capability,  presence  awareness,  video  conferencing,  and  external  email.  

We  are  already  seeing  this  evolution  in  the  social  space  today  with  Facebook  and  similar  tools.  Immediate  response,  quick  resolution  to  requests,  video  interaction  for  meetings,  and  presence  awareness  is  all  there  in  these  frameworks.  

Granted  today  you  would  not  host  your  corporation  on  the  public  Facebook  platform,  but  a  similar  platform  that  provided  the  capabilities  of  such  an  entity  could  in  the  future  power  the  communication  requirements  of  large  corporations.