Alignment, staffing and culture are often more critical than software and apps
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Topic: Productivity
Productivity is a key metric for most projects, whether in-house or outsourced
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Hmmmm. Few of us
even the most diligent, even inthe old days before computershave ever streamed work for 8-10 hours uninterrupted during office hours. Colleagues poked in with a quick question...and a joke. Teams waited on laggards to arrive. And one stood patiently outside the boss' office until completion of that important phone call. The array of tools available to us today allows us to work more hours, capture data and information with ease (ok, relative ease), and share the good stuff with more people, more often--and get vital feedback instantly (ok, sooner). But there have been trade-offs. It used to be easy to see who was doing what -- not so easy now. The hours extend beyond the office (mobile and remote connections). The data is so deep, so accessible, so rich that searches can be slogs. The two-way sharing experience is more covert, as we type in isolation.All of this said, many senior execs are not convinced that the new "socialized communications" have worth for business. I have at two clients who barr YouTube access. Until we identify the specific utility and value of these apps for business process automation, the barriers and firewalls will stand. Ten years ago our research found many manufacturing businesses (some of them divisions of large companies) prohibited email access, even for customer service functions; it was viewed as non-necessity, a luxury, a costly diversion. And it wasn't so long ago that dumb-terminal computers and even phone sets were shared by two or more employees.
I can hear the chant now: "Just give me the business case and we'll consider it."