As you are all well aware this is the time for yearly wrap-ups and future predictions. Recently, I came across a post from Leigh Jasper of ComputerWorld, where he talks about the future trends of collaboration. So, just what will 2012 mean for collaboration?
Below I’ve pulled out some top collaboration trends for 2012
Collaborating with large amounts of Data
The amount of information we now can access and use in decision making continues to grow rapidly. As more and more individuals access this data, we will have to be able to share it among dispersed team members. Future collaboration platforms will have to be able to accommodate larger, more complex files to compete with these growing demands. According to a McKinsey report, “Big data: The next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity,” big data [large, complex files] “will become a key basis of competition, underpinning new waves of productivity growth, innovation, and consumer surplus.” In 2012, companies will realize that in order to be successful they’ll need a collaboration platform that can support the sharing and analysis of all this complex data.
I believe the ability to share large, complex data files will be increasingly important in 2012. We all know that telecommuting is not going away. As teams only become more and more dispersed, having the ability to share complex information, quickly and accurately with team members will be the difference between project success and failure.
The Arrival of Social and Mobile into the Enterprise
The combination of Social networking and personal mobile devices has already increased the speed and amount of information sharing, but most of the discussion around this trend has been focused on the ability to search and analyze all this data. In 2012, those looking at how to optimize collaboration will go beyond email and file sharing. Companies will begin to want collaboration solutions that incorporate the many-to-many flow of socialized content while supplying new ways to capture, analyze and search all this information as it moves across multiple enterprises.
I believe that we’ve already seen the birth of software firms attempting to incorporate what Jasper calls the many-to-many feature. Project management tools like Asana, Cohuman, Salesforce’s Do.com have begun to incorporate this many-to-many feature. These tools allow users to set up project teams and groups, instantly alerting everyone involved with the project, keeping everyone on the same page at all times. I think that this will only become more important moving forward into 2012.
Your Turn
What do you think 2012 holds for Collaboration?
Do you see any emerging trends that will take hold this year?
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