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Social networks to trump email as biz communication medium
By siliconindia
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Friday, 12 November 2010, 21:45 IST
New Delhi: The growing popularity of social networking services (SNS) has changed the way we live and work. Profound alterations have been witnessed in the way day-to-day business is carried out, courtesy the SNS. Gartner predicts that by 2014, 20 percent of employees will use social networks as their business communications' hub.
Analysts opine that the social networking services have emerged as one of the widely available communication platforms today that enable greater interactions among people. Monica Basso, Research Vice President, Gartner said, "In the past, organizations supported collaboration through e-mail and highly structured applications only. Today, social paradigms are converging with e-mail, instant messaging (IM) and presence, creating new collaboration styles."
With the entry of new employees in the enterprises, who have a predisposition to communicate via social networks, the communication modality will undergo a few changes. Although e-mail will not lose out on its presence, it will be used in parallel with the other forms of communication. To this Basso added, "The rigid distinction between e-mail and social networks will erode. E-mail will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering, while social networks will develop richer e-mail capabilities."
Vendors such as Microsoft and IBM will add links to internal and external social networks from within e-mail clients and servers, making services such as contacts, calendars and tasks shareable across e-mail and social networks. By 2012, Gartner said contact lists, calendars and messaging clients in any smartphones will be social-enabled applications.
With the area of cloud buzzing with activity in the present day, Gartner further predicts about 10 percent of e-mail accounts will be based on the cloud by year-end 2012, up seven percent from 2009.
From a vendor's perspective, the market is consolidating around Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM), the two market leaders. Gartner forecasts that by 2012, RIM and Microsoft will own 80 percent of the enterprise wireless e-mail software market.
For any business to be successful, communication is a critical factor. The organizations should realize this and invest in this area. "Even in an economic downturn, innovation is a must for any organization to prepare for recovery and further change," said Basso.