Email is dead, long live collaboration!

2 Dec 2009

Email is losing effectiveness as a standalone communications medium, according to international expert Erik van Ommeren of Sogeti, who claims collaborative technology is the new paradigm.

Speaking at a SOCITM (Society of Information Technology Management) Northern Ireland event recently, Erik van Ommeren explained how collaboration and cloud computing are a natural fit for communications in the new global business environment.

Workforce changing

“The way public and private organisations work and are managed is changing in the new economic environment and in response to changes in broader society. To better interact with the public, clients and partners, practically everybody is looking at how we can better collaborate internally at all levels and with the external environment.

“Cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS), when deployed with the newer collaborative technologies, will increasingly be used as a more cost-effective and efficient approach to harnessing the power of IT.”

“The role of IT will change, it will be less IT-like and more business like. The IT department of the future will make a significant contribution to the organisation achieving its goals by facilitating, enabling and supporting the users. IT will broker services in a collaborative cloud-computing environment, build knowledge, provide guidelines and inspire the organisation to deploy technology in support of the organisation’s goals.”

Here’s TeamPark

Van Ommeren also cited the example of Sogeti’s newly released TeamPark global collaboration platform, which facilitates collaboration and social networking for its 20,000 globally distributed employees.

A copy of the presentation slides and a pdf copy of the book Collaboration in the Cloud by van Ommeren are both available on the Sogeti Ireland website.

By John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com