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Hyperconnectivity Study – Validating our Thinking
Location: Toronto
After a crazy few weeks of travel, including attending a trade conference in Northern Ireland, meeting UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley, and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness – and a host of other activities – I am finally back in Canada for a few days.
Today Nortel held a media event in Toronto to discuss a project we initiated a few months ago with industry analyst firm IDC. In essence, we asked IDC to validate our thinking around if and how the hyperconnected world is emerging. The key take-away is that we were in fact correct in asserting that not only are people becoming more connected, but that a new identity of information and communications user has emerged that far exceeds the usage level and complexity of prior generations. That new user is more connected than ever before, and expectations are clearly shifting from “anywhere, anytime” to “everywhere, all the time” communications. Some key conclusions from the study:
- 16 percent of business users are already hyperconnected: The hyperconnected have a much higher adoption of communication devices and applications than those in other clusters. They are reasonably happy with their work/life balance, even though they use almost all devices and applications for both, and they are willing to communicate with work on vacation, in restaurants, from bed, and even in their place of worship.
- Asia Pacific is leading the way in Hyperconnectivity: The largest percentage of “hyperconnected” are in Asia Pacific. And, while hyperconnected business users can be found in all countries, they are higher than average in the U.S. and China, and lowest in Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
- 40 percent of business users will be hyperconnected within a few years: With an aging workforce retiring, younger employees entering the workforce, and a current majority of increasingly connected users, 40 percent of business users may be hyperconnected within a few years.
- Enterprises will compete for talent: As baby boomers retire, corporations will find themselves increasingly competing for talent. Hyperconnected individuals expect to work in a rich communications environment and consider the newer communications solutions a condition of their employment. They don’t want just anywhere, anytime communications – they demand it “everywhere, all the time.”
- Latin America has largest percentage of hyperconnected/increasingly connected users: 64 percent of business users in Latin America rank as hyperconnected/increasingly connected, compared to 59 percent in Asia Pacific, 50 percent in Europe, and 44 percent in North America.
- Phones are more important than wallets and keys: When asked which item people would take if they had to leave the house for 24 hours – and if they could only take one thing with them – more than 38 percent of global respondents chose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop, and MP3 player. Less than 30 percent chose their wallet first. In Latin America, more than 50 percent chose their mobile phone over any other item. The hyperconnected preferred taking their laptops.
- Social network adoption is growing in the Enterprise: More than one in three business users use social networks and online communities such as blogs, wikis, and online forums for business communication – with workers in the Caribbean and Latin America leading the world. Personal postings to social networks and online communities are nearly three times as common as business postings.
- Enterprises are struggling with disparate communications: Nearly one in five respondents found it hard to manage multiple disparate sources of communication. Users in the finance and high-tech segments are the most dissatisfied with the way their companies manage multiple communications sources. More than 25 percent said their corporate communications systems are slow and unreliable.
- Different industries, different stories: Hyperconnectivity varies by industry, from 9 percent of respondents in health care ranking as hyperconnected compared to 25 percent in high tech and 21 percent in finance industries.
- Multiple devices are the global norm: 70 percent of respondents connect to the Internet at home with more than one device. In Asia Pacific, that number jumps to 80 percent. Nearly 80 percent of 18 to 34 year olds connect to the Internet at home using more than one device.
What all of this means for our customers and Nortel is that the importance of a Unified Communications strategy and technology will only increase. If the vanguard of users in the hyperconnected world represents 16% of the existing population (and a full 40% are not far behind) then it is critical that CIOs begin to develop core strategies to embrace this connectedness. The means and modes of communications will increase exponentially over the next decade, and that explosion will put huge stress on the networks in place. Inside the enterprise, the challenge will be less about capacity issues and more about a diverse set of communications interfaces and experiences – and the growing expectation of users that all will be coordinated. It will not be acceptable to have diverse address books, presence information, or even identity. It will also be critical that a wide range of collaboration experiences be available broadly, from video to voice to IM to immersive environments. Additionally, the CIO will be unable to tightly link these attributes to a set of well-defined applications but must think about embedding a set of communications functions into whatever application the business user or customer needs to use.
The strategy at Nortel has been to enable that communications integration in a way that the entire applications ecosystem can be empowered with embedded communications services. Imagine that any application that stores information or creates it can seamlessly interact with collaboration and communications tools and services and can do so in a unified way. While we have espoused this belief for some time, the just released study from IDC (http://www.nortel.com/idcstudy) – entitled “The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!” – has validated that a growing and significant portion of the end user base (on a global level) has exactly that same expectation.
It is good to see statistical data that shows we are heading toward the market demand we have anticipated and, as many of you know, the last year has seen double-digit gains of market share from Nortel in the Enterprise market primarily linked to our leadership in Unified Communications. Since the transformed enterprise is a key element of our company strategy, this study and the trends it captures are a good indication that we placed a wise bet on this evolution of the voice market and stand to have both access and opportunity in the market. Take a few minutes to review the study and ask yourself if you see the hyperconnected emerging around you (or even, if you are one of them) and more importantly ask yourself if the majority of the population becomes like those profiled, what will that do to our thinking on how people use communications and networking technology going forward?
I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say, both related to this blog entry and the study itself.
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