It's ironic that in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-Elect Obama to think that the word "change" would connote anything but a positive message. However, as Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Products group President Tom Burns writes in the introduction to the most recent edition of Enriching Communications magazine:
As creatures of habit, both individuals and organizations have historically been resistant to change. This is primarily because of the discomfort and uncertainty that it invariably introduces.
And yet, as Burns notes, in today's rapidly changing business environment individuals and businesses ignore change at their own risk. In fact, a plethora of ever-changing conditions are constantly contributing to what is being referred to as a transformative imperative.
Today's emerging communications tools, encompassing end-to-end IP infrastructure, and dynamic applications that fall under the category of 'Web 2.0' are forcing enterprises to rethink the way they communicate internally as well as with their customers.
Burns believes that at the center of this evolving communications landscape is the realization that knowledge -- both tacit and explicit -- must be transformed into actionable intelligence, "enriched by contributions, comments from virtual teams and ultimately strengthened by the "wisdom of crowds," yielding what he refers to as connected knowledge."
He explains his vision of the concept of connected knowledge as the "ability to get the right information from the right person, on the right device, at the right time, whether at the office or in a mobile environment - to make a difference in a business situation."
The enterprise of today is a vastly different environment than the workplace of even a decade ago. The speed with which information travels, gets consumed, reshaped, and redistributed is mind-boggling.
Alcatel-Lucent views these changes as contributing to what they call the Dynamic Enterprise.
Many of the articles that appear in the current issue of Enriching Communications explore the boundaries of the dynamic enterprise, and illuminate a world where network, people, processes and knowledge all interconnect to benefit all who come in contact with this flow of information.
Check back often to the Next-Generation Communications community often to stay up to date with the latest articles designed to give you a glimpse into the dynamic enterprise.
