While most of us are probably too young to recognize the former work environment (present company excepted ;)), I’m certain you’re pretty familiar with what we see here.Not so long ago, our workspace was defined by these characteristics: Text and document centric Largely asynchronous, with the exception of voice calls Tethered to the desktopAnd this was all prescribed and managed by IT.Clearing: But what we are witnessing now is one of the most profound transitions seen in the history of IT that is literally redefining the concept of the workspace right in front of us.
And the primary collaborative tools in this same era have been primarily text or document-centric, with tools like email, IM and portals or workspaces as the primary tools. And these tools are best suited for 1 to 1 or 1 to few interactions.Transition: But increasingly, we see businesses adopting a much broader tool set – one that encompasses many people in the collaborative process, and incorporates video and voice capabilities.And these tools are changing the way we work within and between companies, partners, suppliers – even customers. Blogs, wikis and forums to allow for large numbers of people to submit and gain expertise in a text or document centric wayAnd increasingly, especially as budgets for travel are reduced, a new focus on video and voice as part of the collaborative solution.Solutions such as telepresence which enable that lifelike video experience for one to few or few-to-few interactions. A better experience, in fact, if the meeting would not have happened at all due to travel constraints.And broad-based video experiences through solutions such as video on demand or webinars. Increasingly used by business leaders and executives to help align their organizations and teams around strategic initiatives or key business objectives. Because video conveys the emphasis, and emotion, that documents and text just can’t.Transition: So what can collaboration do to improve the bottom line? Let’s look at some key business processes and see how collaboration is making an impact today.
This period of change is being driven by a series of trends such as the explosive growth of powerful smart phones, the consumerization of technology purchasing and the move toward cloud-based software application delivery. It is quite literally ending the dominance of the PC and ushering in a new era of work – one which we call the New collaborative workspace. We believe the Workspace of the Future will be defined by four characteristics:Mobile – look around you. Smart phones, tablets are exploding in usage. In fact, Gartner predicts that in just 2 short years, in 2013, mobile devices will become the most popular web access device. Social – it’s another area that’s on everyone’s radar – especially the CIO and his desktop staff. 3.5 BILLION content links shared on Facebook weekly, with over 500 billion minutes spent on Facebook each month. 1.3 million Tweets per HOUR. These are astounding numbers that are having a huge influence on business. Look at the major corporations – Dell, Yum! Brands – the largest restaurant company in the world, Starbucks – who have all set up social command centers in their businesses. Whether customers and partners, investors, press or employees, business is using social. Visual – Cisco has certainly led the charge here, and the statistics back us up. Today, video traffic represents 50% of all global IP traffic and the trend line shows it will reach over 90% in just 2 years. and last, Virtual – There is an astonishing shift in the way software is delivered with the rise of clouds allowing rapid, more economical deployment of software on a large scale. The economies of scale have not been lost on IT, with Gartner predicting that nearly a third of the Collaboration market will be hosted by 2013.Clearing: IT and business need a roadmap and multiple onramps to fulfill this opportunity. Unifying communications – text, voice and video – is one of those onramps and the focus of our Win the Workspace play.