Are we facing the imminent death of email?
In February 2011 management consultancy firm ATOS, first announced that it would end all internal email use by 2014. Sceptics at the time may have imagined this story being long-forgotten before the target date came to pass, but as the Independent revisited the case recently, are we facing the imminent death of email? Bob Pike, COO of social business specialist SITEFORUM, believes that, dying or not, email should be consigned to the great big Recycle Bin in the sky.
In the corporate world, business is still addicted to email culture - even though encapsulating knowledge in a (usually Microsoft) file and sending multiple copies to selected colleagues on a need-to-know basis is hopelessly inefficient. However working practices are beginning to change as the benefits of adopting a more social approach to communication become too apparent to ignore.
Social networking is prolific in everyday life and the new generation of the world's workforce has grown up expecting constant, direct and real-time communication with whomever they wish. By tapping into this culture, businesses can organically adopt social networks for internal communications and as a result become more social organisations overall; in all senses of the word.
The recent upsurge in enterprise interest in social tools for use internally and externally, was inevitable. And with many companies thinking about more effective collaboration, and unlocking the huge potential of internal knowledge in more social ways, the shift to more inclusive collaboration on open platforms has begun.
The current pre-work generation rarely uses email and relies almost exclusively on social messaging when interacting online. There are many advantages to this for them – the convenience of access from their most valued information source for sure but also the sender authentication which almost entirely eliminates unwanted messages.
The business world has been incredibly slow in catching up with the consumer world in this area. Perhaps it has been too focussed on figuring out how to use social media platforms to engage with consumers that it hasn’t put any energy into how the social networking model, unarguably the most significant step forwards in communication since email took off, can be replicated within their own organisations.
True, the corporate environment is changing significantly, as new unified communication and collaboration solutions including VoiP and desktop videoconferencing are adopted. Whilst these will deliver benefits they are mostly more efficient versions of current working practices. Truly collaborative solutions based on social computing however are likely to drive more notable changes in organisational behaviour.
The most important transformation – with numerous benefits – will be the shift to more inclusive collaboration on open platforms where sharing is the default, not just an after-thought. This will unleash huge organisational potential for knowledge discovery with benefits including faster onboarding, greater innovation, reduced time spent searching for information and elimination of duplicated effort.
Employees in most organisations today are instinctively aware that better solutions exist and many are waiting for their companies to deploy tools that mirror those they use for leisure social networking. Younger, new employees, for example graduate talent, will continue to assert pressure for better working solutions and will increasingly contribute to the bottom-up influence in organisations. But whether that influence will filter through to the boardroom in the very near future is open to debate.
The fact is we need to move on from this hugely inefficient legacy system, which Millenials already regard as antiquated. The world now accepts web2.0 as the norm and businesses need to follow-suit or risk demonstrating to their employees and customers that they are wedded to the past. Companies should be implementing open-collaboration platforms for discussion and innovation. These remove the need for long and laborious replies and can be shared by many rather than a few. An inclusive approach encourages respect, community and participation and unleashes huge organisational potential.
*Case study*
Odgers Berndtson relies on SITEFORUM’s platform for its Management Information System (MIS) which provides real-time business information in the UK, China, Hong Kong and the Middle East. The software automatically delivers bespoke internal reports from every sector of the company providing timely executive information and eliminating previous manual processes.
The MIS also includes a Crisis Management communications solution, which enables consultants and support staff to continue vital business activities and minimise client impact during disruptive events. Integration with the SITEFORUM community platform and SMS gateway enables all employees to be contacted in the event of an emergency providing updates and advice.
The social intranet, which is hosted by SITEFORUM, provides a single point of reference for employees across the company. Adam Gibson, Odgers Berndtson CIO, comments, “The social intranet humanises the company’s internal interface and allows our employees to share information, knowledge and industry expertise.”
