Tag: Collaboration

Hello Microsoft Office for iPad, Bye Bye Desktop?

by , posted in Mobilize
B. Shimmin
B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • Corporate e-mail, calendaring, social media and Web-based solutions, all work on mobile devices just as they do on the desktop. But mobile document editing is just beginning to show its true value on the road.
  • Regardless of how vendors like Microsoft decide to mobilize corporate documents, all enterprise IT managers will need to realign current mobile device management efforts with an emphasis on document access control, offline availability, synchronization and version control.

For quite a while now, documents have been the single biggest bugaboo in my quest to use my Apple iPad as a desktop replacement while on the road. Corporate e-mail, calendaring, social media, and any Web-based solution such as Salesforce.com, all work the way they do on the desktop. Actually, in many ways, they’re better – where usability and simplicity are concerned, the iPad simply offers a user experience that is far superior to the desktop. Sadly, however, when it comes to writing and editing, especially jointly editing corporate documents, those merits just don’t apply. The best word to describe it in the overall experience is unusable. There are workarounds and third-party editing and synchronization solutions available to ease the pain, but even those fail to offer anything approaching the same level of functionality available with full-fledged desktop productivity suites like Microsoft Office. Continue reading “Hello Microsoft Office for iPad, Bye Bye Desktop?” →

Socializing Data, Not Just People

by , posted in Communicate
B. Shimmin
B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • Collaboration players accustomed to putting people above data can learn a thing or two from infrastructure vendors steeped in the rigors of data integration, event processing, and systems automation.
  • TIBCO’s new geolocation service, tibbr GEO, successfully turns a physical location into a contextual data hub where information is socialized alongside people.

I spent most of my early years skiing in the Rocky Mountains, a fact which has apparently skewed the way I perceive the world.  This worldview, as my wife has pointed out many times, makes me drive too fast and complain about a distinct shortage of mountains in the Northeast.  It is the same for technology companies.  Early experiences inform future actions.  A vendor steeped in messaging, for example, views the collaboration business as a people-driven equation.  So, what happens when a vendor accustomed to viewing all business problems as being data-driven approaches collaboration? Continue reading “Socializing Data, Not Just People” →

Moving Beyond UC Features to Business Integration

by , posted in Communicate
C. Whelan
C. Whelan

Summary Bullets:

  • Although vendors are ramping up messaging around unified communications/collaboration, some enterprises are not seeing the business case that justifies the investment.
  • Business process enablement is a key area where enterprises can leverage vendor expertise to gain more from their UC investment.

In media articles and discussions with vendors, the message is clear that enterprise uptake of unified communications features is increasing; Web/desktop video conferencing, instant messaging, and unified messaging are leading features being considered to join voice services for initial deployment.  However, a recent survey sponsored by InformationWeek revealed that while most respondents were deploying or planned to deploy a UC solution within the next 24 months, 33% had no plans to deploy UC.  Of those not deploying UC, 32% indicated that they saw no definitive business value, with most of the remaining respondents simply putting UC at a lower priority behind other projects.  Despite being inundated with messages of increased employee productivity and efficiency and reduced operating expenses, some executives and IT managers may not see the business case to justify the investment and transition to a more cohesive collaboration environment.  Vendors have the pieces in place to support a more compelling business case, but could strengthen this case through some changes in messaging around UC benefits. Continue reading “Moving Beyond UC Features to Business Integration” →

The Long, Drawn-Out End of E-Mail as We Know It

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
J. Caron
J. Caron

Summary Bullets:

  • E-mail has never been popular in business environments, so reports of its death are celebrated
  • If e-mail is going to die, however, it will be long and slow, with new approaches requiring e-mail integration at the very least

Not long after e-mail went mainstream in late 1980s people started to complain about it. In fact, it was nearly instantaneous. At first there was a hint of pride embedded in complaints about the number of e-mails received – the eye-rolling moan about the “hundreds of e-mails each day” that really served to illustrate the complaining party’s indispensable magnificence.

Continue reading “The Long, Drawn-Out End of E-Mail as We Know It” →

The Workday Will Be Televised

by , posted in Mobilize
B. Shimmin
B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • The fast-approaching conjunction of social analytics, the YouTube generation, and pervasive mobility will radically alter the workplace as employees begin broadcasting the telemetry of the workday.
  • Companies that head down this road must prepare now for the inevitable ethical, legal, and even technical conundrums that will follow such ubiquitous and pervasive exposure.

When I go out for a bike ride, I never go alone.  That is, anyone who has befriended me on MapMyRIDE can follow my progress in real-time, noting some very specific telemetry data generated by my iPhone and the MapMyRIDE app, including my altitude, speed, direction, and exact location.  Later, my friends and I can review a given ride, analyzing my performance (like average speed over distance) or just going along for a virtual fly-along ride.  With bespoke devices, the gobandit GPS-HD, for instance, I could take this to an entirely new level, recording and later broadcasting my daily sojourns using the same telemetry data tied to a high-definition video feed.  Soon, corporate employees will begin broadcasting their daily work routines in much the same way. Continue reading “The Workday Will Be Televised” →

Time to Take Experience to Another Level

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
J. Caron
J. Caron

Summary Bullets:  

  • Experience-level agreements offering guarantees beyond connectivity are an aspirational concept.
  • But competitive market drivers are pushing service providers in this direction, which is encouraging.

One of the 2012 IT market predictions I discussed during the Current Analysis webinar in December related to so-called experience-level agreements. As I noted during the session, predictions sometimes are not really predictions at all, rather, they are expectations or hopes. The development of experience-level agreements certainly falls in the latter category, for the desire of service providers to gain differentiation by changing the game in relation to their commitment to customers is truly aspirational at this point. Continue reading “Time to Take Experience to Another Level” →

Desktop Video is Beginning to See the Light

by Jeremiah Caron, posted in IT Leader
J. Caron
J. Caron

Summary Bullets:

  • Desktop video has always been a tough sell, but now the value is easier to prove because the cost is lowering.
  • Skype proved the people do like to use personal video—if it’s free (or relatively “free”) and easy. The same will apply in the enterprise.

The time is fast approaching for IT managers to begin taking desktop video seriously. This isn’t due to the dramatic improvements in the types of devices and services that support personal video, nor does it have much to do with the incessant marketing initiatives driven by certain suppliers that seem convinced customers are wandering in darkness and just don’t know what they are missing. Continue reading “Desktop Video is Beginning to See the Light” →

Defining Buzzwords: An Exercise in Futility

by , posted in Communicate
Brian Riggs
B. Riggs

Summary Bullets:

  • Don’t worry about how UC or collaboration is defined
  • Focus on what problems communications solutions can solve at your company

UC, collaboration, telepresence: Those are three of the big buzzwords in the markets I track as an analyst looking at business communications solutions. People – analysts in particular, but also executives and marketing managers – love to discuss endlessly exactly what they mean, precisely how they’re defined. But here is a secret: It doesn’t matter. Continue reading “Defining Buzzwords: An Exercise in Futility” →

OpenSocial: The Little Standard That Could Just Reshape the Enterprise

by , posted in Communicate
B. Shimmin
B. Shimmin

Summary Bullets:

  • The OpenSocial standard is being woven into enterprise collaboration applications, promoting both interoperability and extensibility.
  • OpenSocial is not yet complete or reliably employed, requiring careful screening by would-be consumers.

For decades, enterprise IT departments have sought out and experimented with component development models that would both allow for application interoperability and speed development.  Throughout that time, ORBs, Beans, and portlets have all had their turn and played influential roles in shaping how applications are built and interoperate.  However, a small standard created by Google in 2007 may put all of those efforts in its rear view mirror, at least within the collaboration platform marketplace.

Continue reading “OpenSocial: The Little Standard That Could Just Reshape the Enterprise” →

SMEs and the Public Sector Point the Way to Selling UC, as Vodafone UK Demonstrates

by Gary Barton, posted in Communicate
G. Barton
G. Barton

Summary Bullets:

  • Large providers should think small and think hosted
  • The public sector is a prime market for UC

The market for unified communications (UC) is an uncertain field. There are advanced solutions out there from multiple vendors, but developing a business proposition to win over customers remains an arcane art. This should hardly be surprising; even fundamental services such as IP telephony are still far from being universally adopted, although take-up is now fairly high. Part of the problem comes from convincing a CFO that the OpEx outlay on a UC solution (and often a small CapEx spend at the beginning) will deliver savings to more than cover its cost. Services such as collaboration tools and presence can seem like ‘gimmicks.’ It is up to the provider to educate decision-makers on the cost-saving benefits of features such as click-to-call IPT on an IM-style contact list window, or on how adding shared document collaborative tools into the mix can increase productivity and reduce the need for further calls and possibly travel.
Continue reading “SMEs and the Public Sector Point the Way to Selling UC, as Vodafone UK Demonstrates” →