Effective Enterpise Communication Tools

I recently came across this presentation from Oscar Berg on The Content Economy in which he gives us a positioning model for different communication tools used in the enterprise like forums, blogs, and email. Each communication tool in the presentation is positioned differently, so which is the most ideal for use in your enterprise?

Positioning Model for Communication Tools

View more presentations from Oscar Berg. (tags: im blog)

Enterprise Email is Interesting Again

Early this morning I came across this post from the Collaboration and Content Strategies Blog in which Bill Pray lists 5 reasons why the email market and enterprise messaging is getting interesting again. Here’s a summary of the reasons:

1. Choice – Microsoft and IBM had long dominated this market, but Google, Zimbra, Yahoo!, Cisco, Oracle, and Novell are all playing catch-up to these industry giants. Greater choice will foster more innovation and lower prices.
2. SaaS – Google, Yahoo!, and Cisco are all software as a service offerings for email, and that keeps them interesting. Microsoft and IBM should soon be unveiling something similar to compete with these three companies.
3. Social Software – Social media and software is making email more interesting by providing new ways to collaborate within bigger platforms and networks.
4. Mashups – There are several solutions out there that serves as email aggregators: Zenbe, Orgoo, and Fuser are just a small list of solutions that offer this feature.
5. Legal Decisions – Courts are still deciding and defining the legal status of email used within the enterprise between users. Courts will continue to add complexity to email usage.

Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop Could be Google’s Top Competitor

I came across this post earlier today on TriAdeptDotCom which pointed out a couple of highlights from Zimbra’s new Collaboration Suite. Zimbra Desktop now offers a way to manage and search through email, even when offline and it also expands on services and mashups which it previously did not offer. It has the capability of showing one’s schedule when hovering over a date, and it even shows flight statuses when hovering over flight numbers. The Zimbra Desktop is downloadable and is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users with access to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

Yahoo is seriously looking to take some of the spotlight away from Mircosoft and Google as it enters this space. Will the Yahoo Zimbra Collaboration Suite overtake these two giants?

Gmail versus Outlook

In a recent article at Read Write Web, Bernard Lunn recently made the change from using Microsoft Exchange as an email service provider to Gmail. He noticed two main perks to using this system for business after it took him ten minutes to set it up. Virtually all spam was eliminated from his inbox and the search function proved to be easier. Gmail is also more portable than Microsoft Exchange, as it can be accessed from anywhere at any time. Lunn has decided to make the switch. One thing Lunn did not mention was the chat function in Gmail. Once you’ve emailed someone who has Google, they appear in your contacts list, which shows when they are online. If a group uses Gmail, could it possibly be easier to communicate this way rather than email? If it’s a quick question, it may be easier to G Chat instead of send another email to someone’s inbox.

Have you used Gmail to conduct your business? What are your thoughts?

Get Rid of Email

This latest post on The Workstreamer Blog argues whether Twitter and Basecamp rely have any business value. It is true, email is going out of fashion, and it is being replaced by social media.

The post mentions that the real value of Twitter comes when you follow over 200 people and have just about the same number of people following you. Although I agree that following people on Twitter means you are genuinely interested and trying to learn more, being followed on Twitter does not bring much value to the Enterprise, it just means that you are popular. Nevertheless, the combination of tweets mixed in with work provides effective communication within the work environment, thus eliminating much need for email on a daily basis.

Basecamp is workplace oriented since it eliminates the social components Twitter has, and it allows employees to concentrate on work solely. But should social apps in the Enterprise be solely used for work purposes? Or should there be some leeway in allowing employees to have some fun and “poke” their employees?

Giving Up Email

Over at The Knowledge Management Blog, Louis Saurez has given up work email completely. He’s giving weekly updates on how many emails he’s receiving. Instead of email, he is directing his emailers to use social media tools. Here is the first post detailing what his plans are for this project. He has also been updating weekly: First three weeks, Week Four, and Week Five. What do you think about this?

The Fear of the Unknown

At The Content Economy, they recently posted about the fear that accompanied emails when they first came into existence in enterprises. Back then, bosses feared that productivity would be lost when employees spent all day emailing their family and friends. But, now, we see a common oversaturation of emails. And we have to ask ourselves if that is the best way to communicate through out the enterprise.

So much of what we focus on in this blog could be a great alternative, such as: blogs, wikis, instant messaging, web conferencing and social software. These also bring up worries and concerns about improper use of these technologies. We ignore what these tools could be used for. As the Content Economy points out, what would have happened if bosses feared employees writing poems when the word processor first came out?