Three recent trends in communications technologies – network convergence,
social media and consumerisation – have on the surface appeared to be about
simplification, but they have actually made life more complicated for some.

Convergence takes all of the silos of proprietary telecoms functions –
voice and data, fixed and mobile – and blends them together around a single
common set of universal open protocols borne out of the IT industry and the
internet. All services are becoming combined and unified.

It sounds simple in principle, but all these proprietary technologies
existed for a reason – commercial control – so the reality is that many
vested interests need to be dragged sometimes kicking and screaming into
line. The fallout has been the emergence of dominant vendors like Apple,
Google and Amazon from the IT world and some casualties in the telecoms
industry, perhaps most notably Nortel, but also the significant weakening
of giants like Motorola and Nokia.

While the economies of scale achieved through the unification and
convergence on common standards are evident in the massive boosts in
performance and reductions in the cost of sending data anywhere on the
planet, it is not without other challenges.

Converged networks can struggle to deliver differentiated and predictable
performance for services that need it. While common protocols mean that all
traffic looks the same, different needs mean it should not all be treated
the same. Network neutrality is a worthy aspiration for equality of access
to technology, but it is not adequate for the deterministic transport of
packets of data.

What of social media? It democratizes the provision and supply of content.
Anyone, anywhere can be a citizen journalist, organise an uprising or share
pictures of funny looking cats with an army of friends, followers or
like-minded ‘individuals’. The opinions and wisdom of the crowd has never
been more accessible, but the signal-to-noise ratio has dramatically
worsened. Finding relevant, accurate and accredited information is getting
harder even for those organizations with the power to search ‘big data’,
let alone for individuals.

As for consumerisation (in particular the use of mobile devices) this means
that the same tools are available and usable for business or personal
activities – the work/life division is completely blurred. Many individuals
find this liberating, but those tasked with managing services, costs and
security in organizations consider it a nightmare.

Many of the historical barriers – between work and home life, between
network services, between friends – might have seemed arbitrary and often
opaque, but they provided some control and resistance to anarchy. Without
some elements of structure and separation, systems become error prone,
difficult to test properly, impossible to identify root causes – in short,
unreliable and insecure.

Many will suggest this is not a problem; this ‘hyperconnectivity’ (a term
once promoted by the now absent Nortel) is the natural evolution of
technology and its total adoption is vital for employing the digital
generation. This smacks of an abdication of responsibility by those who
suggest a ‘do nothing’ approach.

There are others, who will argue, like King Canute, that these changes
should be stopped, the clock turned back, the genie squeezed back into the
bottle. They ban social media in the office, ignore the appearance of
tablets and impose departmental firewalls to keep telecoms, office
facilities and IT functions apart. This is not a realistic approach for
businesses either.

Effective solutions need to emerge not for imposing total control, but
applying coordination – herding cats – keeping data safe, not behind
firewalls, but in ‘bubbles’ and protecting business processes in virtual
pathways. This co-ordination has to be built not around the vested interests
of suppliers, but about the needs of end users – business, social and
personal processes.

The barriers of old have crumbled and been torn down, but without some
shape and definition the revolutions that led to their destruction will
lead only to inefficiency and insecurity. Business processes no longer need
top down re-engineering, they need to be rebuilt from the bottom up from
their constituent tasks, virtualized and properly co-ordinated. Otherwise
these communication trends may not have created democracy, but anarchy.

Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst, Communication, Collaboration and
Convergence, Quocirca

The global reach of the internet and access to billions of potential customers via their desks, laps and pockets through an abundance of communications methods from social media to email on a myriad of devices is a fine thing. The fundamental question remains, is the right person actually listening to the right message at the right time and in the right place to be able to make the right response?

The Martini-esque mantra coined by Sun Microsystems in the 1990s – anyone, anytime, anywhere on anything – was great for touting the need for a universal infrastructure. But that is just the open network plumbing that connects everything together and without some intelligence layered above it, all the universal network can do is raise the level of noise.

For first movers this is not necessarily a problem. Those quick-witted organizations who get in early to a new domain can often exploit it sufficiently before it gets too crowded and the dynamics change. Then when well-structured heavyweights get involved, consolidation kicks in, dominant players emerge making it harder and harder for new entrants to get a toehold. Witness the high street and Tesco, e-commerce and Amazon, social networking and Facebook, tablets and Apple.

Sometimes in the technology world it is slow-moving incumbents that take over, but often it is the fleet of foot, who were not necessarily first to market, but are first to volume. Market momentum, like Newtonian momentum, is about velocity – speed and direction – as well as size or mass.

So what about the majority of ‘wannabe’ suppliers who then become followers, can they ever hope to get their message out?

Sure any supplier can make a marketing push to set up Facebook pages, tweet on Twitter, have downloadable mobile apps and pay for search engine optimization on the web, but for all their digital SHOUTING, are they actually taking time to listen to their prospects and customers?

One way to get ahead in the game, even of those who currently dominate, is to use all the information available and listen carefully to user requirements, build relevant market intelligence and so outsmart the incumbents. Just as good salespeople pay more attention to listening and understanding rather than simply speaking, so good marketing, even in a highly connected digital age, depends on good listening. This is the key to businesses engaging in the current social networking boom – how much information can be collected, analysed and understood, rather than how much can be pumped out.

Unlike traditional channels that are more oriented to public one-way communications with perhaps only a ‘call to action’ response, today’s highest profile digital channels - social media, video, mobile - are personal and bi-directional or virally shared. They are also highly treasured and far more sensitive to abuse.

The negative reactions seen with the explosion of spam in email, pales in comparison to the feelings stoked up by misuse of these highly personal contact points. Even a service provider’s attempts at change can be viewed by the digital society as negative – e.g. Facebook’s continual tinkering with privacy settings – and so much so that they can cause significant and rapid uprising among highly connected and vocal users.

Businesses need to tread carefully and keep within the evolving online etiquette and mores as they develop their social media strategies. Most importantly they should remember the ‘two ears and one mouth’ sales mantra to listen carefully, build understanding and then reflect that back into the marketplace. Social networking brings many opportunities for businesses to build relationships with their customers and prospects, but these will need care and attention to avoid being seen as intrusive. For a more detailed exploration of the business use of social media, download Quocirca’s free report, “Community, Connection, Conversation or Channel”

Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst, Communication, Collaboration and Convergence, Quocirca