The Business Communication Revolution

iStock_000020108495XSmallAt BroadVision, we have always aimed to help companies improve communication between their employees and with their partners and customers. Indeed, one could say that this is the primary purpose of our Clearvale enterprise social network product. But we also recognise that simply throwing software at the problem of inefficient communication is unlikely to improve the situation. The “human factor” is a major consideration, as any significant improvement to communication efficiency requires people to acknowledge and address their own bad habits that have become engrained in the way they work.

Over the last 8 weeks, I’ve have been been writing about this subject in a 15-part series entitled The Business Communication Revolution. I’m up to part 9 now, and the series will continue until late October.

Here’s a quick summary of the story so far:

  1. The Business Communication Revolution – an introduction to the series
  2. Overload! – describing how an overflowing email inbox is not the only information overload problem
  3. Push and Pull – explaining the concept of push- and pull-based information flows and how to get the right balance between the two
  4. What’s So Bad About Email Anyway? – email is often depicted as The Great Evil That Must Be Destroyed, but the truth is a little more complicated
  5. Mobile Manners – the growth of mobile communication technology is a fantastic business asset, but we must learn how to use it properly.
  6. The Failure of the Corporate Intranet – 10 years ago the intranet was seen as the solution to our knowledge management problems. So what went wrong?
  7. The Rise of Social Networking – social media has changed the way business communicate with their customers, but consumer-oriented services like Facebook and Twitter have done little to change the way employees communicate.
  8. The Promise of Enterprise Social Networking – enterprise social network has the promise to revolutionize business communication, but that promise is, as yet, largely unfulfilled.
  9. The Enterprise Social Backbone – many people argue that all enterprise apps will become social, making a dedicated enterprise social network unnecessary. Maybe… but that’s missing the point.

New articles are published every Tuesday, and there’s also an audio edition. You can follow the series on Twitter at @BizCommRev.

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