For The Defense, February 2012 - DRI Today
For The Defense, February 2012 - DRI Today
For The Defense, February 2012 - DRI Today
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Electronic Discovery<br />
Blackberry. <strong>The</strong>y run complete operating<br />
system software, and most of them have<br />
the ability to capture images and video.<br />
According to a 2010 study by ComScore,<br />
out of 234 million total subscribers, over<br />
45.5 million people in the United States<br />
owned smart phones. Press Release, Michigan<br />
Educations Savings Program Launches<br />
New Mobile Phone Application, Pace &<br />
<strong>The</strong> most popular<br />
content rises to the<br />
top, instantly plugging<br />
management into the<br />
virtual water cooler.<br />
Partners (Jan. 6, 2011), http://www.misaves.<br />
com/documents/pr_011111.pdf.<br />
Tablet computers are also becoming<br />
increasingly popular tools in workplaces,<br />
the most popular of which is the iPad,<br />
which is light and portable with an attractive<br />
interface. iPads, which employees often<br />
use for a wide variety of business and personal<br />
uses, are able to wirelessly connect to<br />
networks, and many will run on networks<br />
provided and maintained by an employee’s<br />
company.<br />
Benefiting from New Technology<br />
in the Workplace<br />
Technologies benefit companies in many<br />
ways: they increase collaboration, efficiency<br />
and productivity; they play to the<br />
strengths that first-time entrants bring to<br />
the workplace; and they expand business<br />
promotion.<br />
26 ■ <strong>For</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Defense</strong> ■ <strong>February</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Collaboration, Efficiency, and Productivity<br />
<strong>The</strong> corporate environment of the twentieth<br />
century was characterized by a vertical,<br />
top-down approach to communication and<br />
interaction. <strong>The</strong> twenty-first century corporate<br />
environment flattens this structure and<br />
has allowed coordination across geographically<br />
dispersed entities connected through<br />
electronic networks: “Work product, data,<br />
and information can now be transmitted<br />
rapidly and inexpensively, eliminating<br />
the need for hierarchical coordination<br />
structures. Individuals who work for interconnected<br />
and technologically advanced<br />
organizations are adapting and constantly<br />
learning.” Paul Asunda, Productivity, Social<br />
Networks and Net Communities in the<br />
Workplace, Techniques, May 1, 2010. Allowing<br />
and even training employees to interact<br />
in this relatively new world, microblogging,<br />
social networking, and cloud computing<br />
offer a number of advantages such as improved<br />
efficiency. Jive Software recently<br />
conducted a survey of 500 people in more<br />
than 300 of its customers that use internal<br />
social networks. Those businesses spanned<br />
high-tech, financial services, communications,<br />
health care, and other industries. According<br />
to the study, social networking tools<br />
increased the number of ideas generated<br />
and captured, raised employee satisfaction<br />
levels, and maximized project collaboration<br />
and productivity. Correspondingly,<br />
the amount of e-mail and time that employees<br />
expended finding answers significantly<br />
diminished. Clint Boulton, Social<br />
Software Boosts Employee, Customer Engagement:<br />
Jive, eWeek.com (Feb. 3, 2011),<br />
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging- and-<br />
Collaboration/Social- Software- Boosts- Employee-<br />
Customer- Enagement- Jive- 178705/.<br />
Skill Enhancement<br />
With Web 2.0 technologies present in<br />
virtually every industry and the digital<br />
age in full swing, the disparities between<br />
employees who are digital immigrants and<br />
those who are digital natives have become<br />
apparent. Digital immigrants learned their<br />
trades before computers took hold in the<br />
modern workplace, and they have had to<br />
adapt to remain current and effective on<br />
the job. Generally these employees typically<br />
are less inclined to embrace the latest<br />
technology fad until it had become a<br />
well- established tool. Digital natives, on the<br />
other hand, have made technology a way<br />
of life, and they are far more likely to stay<br />
abreast of emerging technological trends<br />
geared toward speed and efficiency than<br />
digital immigrants.<br />
Virtually anyone entering the workforce<br />
today for the first time is a digital<br />
native, and digital natives will soon outnumber<br />
the rest. In many industries, they<br />
already do. If companies hope to maximize<br />
employee satisfaction and harness productivity<br />
and efficiencies, it makes sense to<br />
incorporate the tools with which the majority<br />
of their employees are most comfortable<br />
into their business practices.<br />
Business Promotion<br />
New and emerging technologies can boost<br />
marketing efforts, increasing customer<br />
retention, brand awareness, customer feedback,<br />
and new customer sales, and they can<br />
decrease support call volume. Allowing<br />
employees to use public social networking<br />
tools, web-based technologies, and microblogging<br />
in the normal course of business<br />
offers tremendous marketing opportunities.<br />
Blogs, for example, can increase online<br />
visibility, enhance professional credibility,<br />
provide useful information to potential clients<br />
and attract new visitors to a company’s<br />
website; Twitter provides a personal,<br />
one-to-one connection through tweets<br />
from a “live” person; Facebook promotes a<br />
casual forum for interaction; and LinkedIn<br />
encourages exchanging credentials and<br />
nurturing professional relationships in a<br />
formal setting.<br />
Risks of Emerging Technology<br />
in the Workplace<br />
Although incorporating emerging technologies<br />
into a company’s business model<br />
arguably has enormous benefits, doing so<br />
also poses significant risks.<br />
Impact on and Security of<br />
Company Resources<br />
On the management front, emerging technology<br />
can affect resources, and ultimately<br />
revenue. While the number of applications<br />
found on corporate networks has remained<br />
relatively stable over the past year, the<br />
bandwidth that new applications consume<br />
has more than doubled and is expected to<br />
grow even more in the very near future.<br />
Additionally, because of the trust-based<br />
nature of public social networks, employees<br />
can unintentionally and unknowingly<br />
introduce malware and viruses into computer<br />
systems.<br />
As Enterprise 2.0 information sources<br />
proliferate, the need for a single search interface<br />
will become increasingly more important.<br />
As Martin Butler pointed out in<br />
<strong>The</strong> Business Value of Enterprise Search:<br />
A Review of Cost Effective Solutions for<br />
Managers, while search functions have