Consumers will be the tech king in future

In the coming years, majority of new technologies cos adopt for their information systems will have roots in consumer applications. Managing a global workforce

By Shivani Mody, TNN | Jul 04, 2008, 02.30 PM IST

Second Life, the 3-D virtual world, started as a phenomenon where users could get a new avatar and live a life that they always wanted in the real world. A news agency��s employee, for instance, bought land in Second Life and created an office of the agency within it. The employee made himself the editor-in-chief and disseminated news from there to users of the portal . When the news agency got to know of it, they bought the building and made their own news agency in the virtual world.

This phenomenon has caught on among companies and today organizations such as IBM, Wipro, Cisco, Toyota, Sun Microsystems , Sony, Reuters, PR agencies, fashion and retail majors all have a presence on Second Life. IBM even celebrated New Year��s Day on their island along with its employees in the virtual world. Reuters collects and disseminates news in Second Life. Some companies carry out recruitment in this virtual world.

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Taking interviews virtually helps the management gauge the candidate and talk to later through video conferencing. If technology trends previously began in enterprises and the defence sector and would then spread out to the consumer market, increasingly now the move is in the opposite direction: people adopting technologies and applications which enterprises are then compelled to adopt. These consumers, who are also employees, are getting used to comforts, easy access and a certain way of living in their homes. And they expect the same environment when they are in their workplace.

Creating critical mass

Email began as a means for internal communication in organizations and then found its way into people��s daily lives. But today, newer technologies and solutions are being introduced among consumers to generate a critical mass and usage. Adoption by consumers then makes enterprises to recognize the need for those technologies and implement them into their operations. Analysts point out that attempts by enterprises to avoid such technologies are doomed to fail.

��Initially companies did not consider using the BlackBerry which has now become a common mobile device among organizations ,�� says Jayakrishnan S, VP, ebusiness service, Wipro Technologies.

Google has become the one and only search tool for a majority of internet users. But a lot of the search results are redundant. This provides opportunities for IT companies to devise customized search options.
��IT companies can leverage on the huge customer base that uses search.

They can build on the search by Google to give the user exact results that he/she asked for and reduce redundancy,�� Jayakrishnan say. Enterprises can also customize Google search for themselves to obtain search results, he adds.
According to research firm Gartner, going forward, enterprises will have to identify a consumer trend and see how they can package their solutions as a business proposition to their potential clients. More and more innovation in the IT sector will be driven by the consumer market and not by enterprise customers alone, says Gartner.

��The concept of web 3.0 is fast kicking in with consumers, driving a change that enterprises need to consider. Nowadays it is becoming common for companies to have their own video blogs, wikis, podcasts and even have webinars which are used by many employees ,�� says Ajay Goel, senior VP, industry business strategy in Cisco Systems India.

Towards openness

Enterprises had their own solutions for employee to virtually share ideas such as the knowledge management portals. But these did not get employee acceptance as they had their own preferred modes of communication for bonding with friends and family. Organizations thus started modifying the available technologies and implemented them with proper security policies to ensure overall protection for data and information.

��A new species of workers are entering the workplace that makes use of platforms like Second Life for social interactions or just hanging out. The digital existence is on the rise with web 2.0 tools and high frequency of electronic communication .

Organizations will have to look at deploying communication applications and devices that help retain this new generation of workers,�� says Deepak Kumar, GM, communications research in analyst firm IDC India. But the acceptance of these new consumer-driven technologies will be slow among enterprises as they pose security challenges too, Kumar says.

A Microsoft official says enterprises are adopting the new technologies as they want to portray more openness. ��Instant messengers are now part of an organization��s way to communicate minimizing issues such as voice call costs and email delays . But they are modified and are behind a protected environment,�� he says.

Courtesy: timesofindia.com

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Consumers will be the tech king in future

In the coming years, majority of new technologies cos adopt for their information systems will have roots in consumer applications. Managing a global workforce

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