Travelling at the speed of light

As you read the latest IT supplements or visit a computer store, you cannot help but be impressed by the number of new applications and how fast things are changing. What was state of the art only three months ago has now been superseded. We are living in a digital marketplace that is travelling at the speed of light.

It is natural to feel somewhat intimidated or nervous by such huge change, particularly when you feel that you may be falling behind or losing your competitive advantage. This unease is often fed by the unsettling dilemma of deciding whether you should invest in new technology or stay as you are with your current platform, infrastructure or system.

To use a golf analogy, see digital technology as supplying a few additional clubs in your knowledge, learning and business golf bag. Just because your number of clubs continues to grow does not necessarily mean that your game will improve. We must perfect the art of using the clubs we acquired before our game can progress.

If your business wishes to grow competitive advantage it will need to use technology smartly as a means to improving connection and the quality of interaction between the right people at the right time. We need to accept that nothing will ever replace the intimacy and chemistry of face-to-face communication, but what the latest digital technology can provide is the opportunity to connect with new people and thinking twenty-four hours seven days a week. So go out, enjoy the technology, but realize that we are by our very nature social animals and need stimulation, interaction and teamwork for true learning to occur.

In deciding which technological path is best, a business needs to get past the hype and pressure of acquiring the latest killer application and learn to ask the right questions. It is very easy to be hooked on the latest features but miss the central point, which is, how can technology help you improve your business performance? Without this focus you can easily become sidetracked and not reap the benefits you are seeking.

Not surprisingly, when it comes to trying to understand the trends in digital technology many people bury their head in the sand. They prefer to hide rather than have a discussion with a person who may embarrass them for not knowing the latest buzzword , brand name or feature. This, of course, is exactly what we should not be doing! We should put any personal insecurity or feeling of inferiority aside and go about creating knowledge-friendly systems that really work. In some cases we may take on this challenge ourselves but most likely it will be with a team of skilled helpers.

A few years ago I attended the American Society for Training and Development conference in Dallas, Texas. A panel discussion on e-learning was held with some of the heavyweights of the field, including a key industry researcher. After about twenty minutes of discussion on future trends, one of the panelists read the mood of the room and said: ˜You may not believe this but we are confused too . This created tremendous laughter on the panel and a collective sigh of relief from the audience. We all recognized that we were trying to make sense of something that is very difficult to scale, box and package. The fact is that even the experts are confused, so be kind to yourself and explore the business boundaries and trends but do not become paralysed by them. Take a more relaxed approach and open your mind to new avenues and possibilities without the self-imposed pressure of having to find the perfect answer.

To help you begin or continue your own exploration of the digital technology here are five trends that many people and experts believe will most impact on knowledge, learning and innovation in the years ahead.

1 Smarter knowledge platforms

By 2010 the majority of world businesses with over 500 employees will use IT platforms to collaborate, share and innovate with employees , customers and business partners . These digital platforms will cast their web much further than their existing boundaries of digital support to include people from diverse industries, languages and countries . For example the International Data Corporation predicts that by 2004 most businesses will include suppliers, customers and business partners in these systems. By 2008 advanced searching capacities and access to remote and wireless devices such as palmtops and mobile phones will massively expand the coverage and range of access of people to business learning, knowledge and performance systems.

These observations are backed by the current growth rates of mobile and hand-held devices of 12 per cent per annum. This far exceeds growth in traditional personal or desktop computers and land-line devices such as normal telephones. Wireless and mobile access to knowledge by capabilities such as Blue Tooth Technology (www.bluetooth.com) is creating profound changes in how future businesses are behaving, connecting and co-operating. This is now evidenced by a rapid increase in businesses and educational institutions using wireless video-conferencing, e-learning and short-message systems in their day-to-day operations. Heineken, Haagan-Dazs, Costa Coffee and Coca-Cola, for example, are conducting trials on how instant and short-messaging systems can support management, customer loyalty and overall productivity initiatives.

The result is that you no longer need to connect to a telephone line or to a PC to talk, see and interact with someone. You could be sitting in a park and undertake an e-learning course, be part of a web conference or do a search on the Internet or company database. All you need is the right input device and back-up technological support, and off you go. Already the total number of wireless devices in the world, such as palm-held devices, wireless connections and mobile phones, outnumber wired units like PCs and land-connected telephones. So the trend is set to continue.

During the next few years digital platforms will continue to be more flexible, responsive and intelligent . Internal web sites (that is, intranets ) will no longer be an archive of data but will increasingly become a resource full of instant mobile learning, shared productivity tools, performance help and human connection. Digital capabilities such as customer relationship management, intelligence gathering, data mining, web conferencing, sophisticated searching and e-learning will be part of standard web-enhanced packages. For example, call centre staff are now able to action enquiries with the help of instant expert assistance and customer details when they interact with their customer.

Gone will be the days of struggling through countless web pages or files to solve your problem. Future knowledge systems will be unified and consolidated to ensure better stand-alone solutions and delivery to all parts of the business. Depending on your business model, this will mean improved business to employee (B2E), B2C and B2B learning, service delivery and performance.

2 Digital e-learning blasting off

In the past few years there has been much talk in business about the benefits and growth of e-learning. Depending on the survey consulted, the world market is expected to reach up to US$23 billion by the end of 2004. According to the International Data Corporation the fastest growing e-learning market is Western Europe, with North America still holding market dominance of two- thirds .

There are several recent developments that are fuelling these trends. First, the design which is at the backbone of much of the e-learning (that is, learning objects) is now more widely used in a large number of applications, platforms and collaborative technologies. Second, advances in authoring languages, natural speech recognition and wireless mobile access has meant many more people are able to participate in this revolution. Finally, the look and feel of e-learning is fast becoming more flexible, engaging and memorable, while from a learning perspective there has been a much higher standard in how the needs of learners are understood , matched and met.

In the years ahead the appeal of e-learning will broaden and expand to many new areas, away from the already popular business and IT skills to new fields such as self-management , financial budgeting, hobbies and career assistance. Again e-learning will not be just a vehicle for delivery of courses but will provide a wonderful opportunity to connect people and foster learning and innovation by a range of services such as web conferencing, discussion groups, chat, courses and telephone link-ups as part of a total business solution.

In the area of customer learning the growth figures are particularly exciting, as the benefits of customer education and assistance are now being realized. Benefits include maintaining customer loyalty with more educational and informative relationships, up-selling to new products and services and, finally, being able to reduce the costs in pre- and aftersales support.

As more people become comfortable with the technology, undertaking a two to five minute e-learning lesson will be a natural part of daily life, whether you are undertaking home renovations or you are trying to solve a complex problem while on the job. As will be discussed in Chapter 13, modern e-learning is more instant and user friendly.

3 Greater personal choice

The increased accessibility of the Internet means that knowledge and learning can be a twenty-four hours seven days a week opportunity, whether you are at home, on the road or in the office. With this comes an increased chance to personalize your digital experience. This can already be seen in the world of interactive digital television. Whether ordering groceries, playing games , receiving a music review, sending an e-mail or being part of a chat room, people s choices are highly individualized. It is estimated that by 2005, 65 per cent of UK television audiences will be using interactive digital television (idtv) in their homes .

For business, personal choice in the future will mean making sure people are serviced with interesting and useful knowledge. If you fail to do this, people will quickly look elsewhere. In most cases they will expect such services for free but will be prepared to pay if the value to them is there. So, whether you are reaching people by a home entertainment system, PC or instant message facility, great care must be taken to personalize the information people receive. The more intimate and useful the knowledge, the more likely you will grab people s attention. This, of course, applies to employees as well.

However, in saying this, access does not necessarily mean better learning or greater involvement. The better business solutions will be backed up with professional and personal support from a human being when and if it is required. This could be answering customer questions, providing e-learning or assisting collaboration on vital areas of mutual interest.

4 Variable bandwidths

High bandwidth cable access as well as satellite systems are now becoming an essential part of modern business practice. Without such capabilities many businesses are finding it is very hard to compete and keep up to date. For example, in South Korea it is estimated that 84 per cent of people will have broadband by 2004. Such growth rates are also being experienced in other developed nations. Of course, in developing countries or isolated locations the picture is starkly different, with the vast majority of people still having difficulty accessing a telephone. In the case of South Korea, a major driving force has been active government intervention to subsidize cable in its endeavour to push digital television. Also, being of a relatively small size geographically has significantly aided the high take-up in contrast to Australia where the growth has been hindered by vast distances.

However, in the short term when it comes to leveraging digital technology business we must anticipate that users could be using a range of bandwidth frequencies from 28K modems to higher levels. Given this reality, we need to position what we package in the right form and in the right media. In the longer term , as broadband and satellite access becomes commonplace, the choices and avenues for collaboration, education and connection will expand enormously. I am excited by the potential of using wireless access as a gateway to learning in the next decade , particularly as the cost of remote hand-held devices come down and access to instant knowledge and information becomes easier and more sophisticated.

As the coverage and uptake of bandwidth increases and the capacity of wireless and wired devices improves , so will the degree and sophistication in multimedia. In the mean time plenty of creativity and imagination is needed to maintain curiosity and interest in the narrow range as well as stimulating the senses at the higher ranges. Closely associated with the emergence of high bandwidth is the ongoing improvement of networks that govern how the Internet works and connects. The current research and development on creating the next generation Internet, Internet 2, is expected to operate at least 100 to 1000 times faster than the current Internet.

5 Common standards and protocols

One of the most frustrating elements of the digital age has been the diversity of applications, software and infrastructures , the result being a saturation of different products, services and labels that confuses business and inhibits the potential of digital technology.

The good news is that in future the choice will be somewhat easier. There has been increased vendor agreement in recent years to develop packages on common industry protocols and standards, thereby improving the capacity for different technologies and platforms to work together. Already providers such as Oracle, Peoplesoft, Microsoft and SAP have made moves in this direction, the result being a higher capacity to improve and expand the capabilities of the current system without throwing out the better features of the existing one.

An important reference point for protocols for integrating hardware and software is located at the World Web Consortium at www.w3.org. At this site a panel of experts constantly review and update accepted industry protocols. One recent tension point in the area of standards and protocols has been the difficulty of cross-platform capability for reading web pages. Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape, the two most widely used browsers, have their own proprietary features and thus there are still differences in the way that each browser behaves for the customer. This is particularly important given that there can be inconsistency in how the web is received depending on the software being deployed.

Another area of standards is in authoring language. In the future more advanced versions of the authoring language XML will make the role of searching and finding data and knowledge so much easier. Irrespective of the brand of technology that you are using in your business, you will be able easily to link knowledge and combine know-how. In the area of e-learning similar explorations of standards and protocols are also being explored. Again, in Chapter 13 the emerging standard for elearning called SCORM (shareable content objects reference model) will be discussed.

Finally, a conversation on common standards and protocols would be incomplete without raising the subject of ethics. Given the power and reach of global technology, consumers, lobby groups and governments are now raising enormous concerns about privacy and the rightful use of technology. Expect much tougher and wide- ranging international laws and treaties in the future. If you have not done so already, be ready for a much higher level of business governance in how you link in and use digital technology. This may mean taking a stand against spamming , avoiding unsolicited advertising or other unethical practices that may hurt your image, reputation or profitability.