March 20 2008 / by memebox
Category: Metaverse Year: 2013 Rating: 6
Yesterday at the VoiceCon conference currently being
held in Orlando, IBM released
predictions for five future trends that will increase demand for
the fast-growing unified communications market and reshape the way
businesses and workers communicate and collaborate worldwide.
The predictions, made in a keynote address by Mike Rhodin,
General Manager of IBM Lotus software,
included:
1) The Virtual Workplace will become the rule. No need to leave
the office. Just bring it along. Desk phones and desktop computers
will gradually disappear, replaced by mobile devices, including
laptops, that take on traditional office capabilities. Social
networking tools and virtual world meeting experiences will
simulate the feeling on being there in-person. Work models will be
changed by expanded globalization and green business initiatives
that reduce travel and encourage work at home.
2) Instant Messaging and other real-time collaboration tools
will become the norm, bypassing e-mail. Just as e-mail became a
business necessity, a new generation of workers has a new
expectation for instant messaging (IM) as the preferred method of
business interaction. This will fuel more rapid adoption of unified
communications as traditional IM becomes the core extension point
for multi-modal communications.
3) Beyond Phone Calls to Collaborative Business Processes.
Companies will go beyond the initial capabilities of IM, like
click-to-call and online presence, to deep integration with
business processes and line-of-business applications, where they
can realize the greatest benefit.
4) Interoperability and Open Standards will tear down
proprietary walls across business and public domains. Corporate
demand for interoperability and maturing of industry standards will
force unified communications providers to embrace interoperability.
Converged, aggregated, and rich presence will allow businesses and
individuals to better find and reach the appropriate resources,
removing inefficiencies from business processes and daily
lives.
5) New meeting models will emerge. Hang up on routine,
calendared conference calls. The definition of “meetings” will
radically transform and become increasingly adhoc and instantaneous
based on context and need. 3-D virtual world and gaming
technologies will significantly influence online corporate meeting
experiences to deliver more life-like experiences demanded by the
next generation workers who will operate more efficiently in this
familiar environment.
IDC estimates the unified
communications market will reach $17 billion in worldwide revenue
in 2011, growing at 38 percent compounded annually from 2007. As
such, IBM sees unified communications as
the next significant frontier for technology growth. To meet these
demands, IBM is investing significantly
in a range of resources, including software, services and research.
IBM has a growing number of social and
collaborative software research projects with more than 70
researchers and more than 1,300 IBM
software developers and technical experts contributing to unified
communications. New technical skills programs for IBM developers are being used to help accelerate
software development, including the teaching of Eclipse-based
development. In addition, IBM’s Venture
Capital program is working to identify and fuel promising new
innovations in unified communications.
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