Business Communication Is (Still) Broken

Business Communication Is (Still) Broken : Events in Paris and London, June/July 2015

For some 25 years, organisations have used email to communicate. Much communication is simple – let’s have a meeting, someone called you, etc. But much is more complex, involves more than a few people, requires dialogue, and requires sharing content such as a note, document, photo, etc. We usually refer to this as collaboration. As communications networks have extended and improved with wifi and broadband, business people have become more and more dependent on email for such collaborative communications.

With the increased use of mobile devices, the situation has developed even more. We collaborate “anytime, any place” now. Employees increasingly expect to be kept informed of, and respond to, the latest developments on their work activities. Equally customers expect companies to provide easy access to information, and answer questions in an engaging, timely and covenient manner.

Yet still people in business cling to email. We send a spreadsheet to 10 people, and suddenly we have 11 copies. Five update and re-distribute it, and immediately there is confusion. Which is the latest version? Why did the other five not respond? Should they have? Were there others who could have contributed but were not in the email to: list? Was the spreadsheet forward on to others without the knowledge of the author? And so on.

With mobile, people have become used to communicating and sharing information in a variety of consumer apps for chat, social networking and file sharing. But when those apps are used for business, collaboration problems get worse still. Now the communication may be fragmented across several places, and we lose any cohesion in the discussion on a given topic.

In our events in Paris (29th June) and London (1st July), we shall be looking at this issue, and addressing these questions :

  • Why is email such a problem for business collaboration?
  • Is it right to ban email in the workplace? Or do we try to improve it?
  • If Enterprise Social Networks should be the answer, why are there few examples of success?
  • How do mobile apps help and hinder?
  • What is the connection between good employee collaboration and customer engagement?
  • Broadband, Cloud and Mobile have encouraged more frequent and richer communication, yet added new challenges. What are the effects of those challenges?
  • What do we need to do to address all these issues, and in particular what can BroadVision offer to help?

Speakers in both Paris and London will include Dr Pehong Chen, Founder and CEO, and Richard Hughes, Director of Social Strategy. In London, the speakers will also include Alan Patrick of Agile Elephant, one of our consultant partners and specialist in the dig ital enterprise. As well as presenting, all of the speakers will join in a question and answer panel session.

We want to provide attendees at these events time to ask questions, and discuss these issues, so spaces are limited. If you are interested in attending, please contact us.

If you’re not able to join us in London or Paris, join us for a webinar on Wednesday 24th June where we’ll be presenting a shorter session on the same topic.