I recently read an article in Computing which reports the results of a survey undertaken by Orange into how communication technology is helping or hindering businesses.
The survey found that 45% of respondents (out of over 600 CIOs from multinational organisations) said that ‘multiple communication channels cause severe delays in the response time from colleagues which can negatively impact business processes and productivity.’
35% also stated that ‘uncoordinated or ineffective contact with colleagues’ hampers the ability to meet deadlines on time. Apparently this has led to lost sales, lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction.
The answer, many organisations are finding is to move towards unified communication strategies. My personal opinion is that this is indeed the right way to go, but that the emphasis should most definitely be on the person you are trying to get hold of rather than the communication method. For example, how many people know all the mobile phone numbers of their friends? I would suggest that very few do, the reason being that we store our friend’s and colleague’s numbers under their ‘name’ in a contact list. Surely when we click on that person’s name, it is irrelevant how contact with that person is made (pricing models dependent of course), it should be up to them how they want to be contacted - whether that call is received via landline, office phone, fax number, email or mobile number, we just need to know that we will be able to get through to them when we click on their name.
It all comes down to how people like to work at the end of the day, some like to be at their office desks, taking calls on their desk phones, others like to receive their calls on their mobile phones. I remember in one office I used to work in, a particular guy could think and talk better on his feet, tending to walk around the office with his mobile phone connected to an ear piece, so even though people called his desk phone as the number was published in the company directory, he was in a position to take the call in his own way.
Communication technology should be there to make life easier, but often coordination is so lacking that it soon becomes confusing and hindering. Making it easy to use and seamless for the person trying to contact you is the only way this strategy can work!
Of course, if people do not want to be contacted then there is very little anyone can do to get hold of them!
Author: Karen Jones
