Frank Childs

How long have computer networks and file servers been around? How long have communication and collaboration servers with email as their most basic and important function been around? These things have been around for a couple of decades now. A lot has changed but we still do most of our work using the basic functions of file servers and messaging servers. Are you starting to see my point now?

In my world where I work with many small and medium size businesses this is what I see. The only exception would be that there are many different applications on the market now that a lot of our customers use that help to lessen their reliance on traditional email and/or basic networking.

Perhaps, I see this mostly in my own work life. I have so many emails that I can keep up and I feel like my head is spinning. I worked with one individual who claimed that he had over 20,000 emails in his inbox alone. That is huge. Furthermore, I believe that many of us would agree that it can be very cumbersome and time consuming to organize all your emails that “can't” be deleted into different folders. It has become a very inefficient way to do things over the years.

There is a reason why many of us and all most everyone from the younger generations use web based programs like Facebook and Linked in and such instead of just email and texting by themselves. Did you know there are programs or server software on the market to setup similar types of platforms and applications for businesses and other professional organizations. Let me just give you two examples, perhaps you have heard of one or both of them: Microsoft Sharepoint and Novell Teaming server. There are others out there that perform very similar functions.

These solutions have been designed and customized to be used in businesses for business purposes. They are not designed primarily to encourage and enhance social interaction like Facebook or Myspace, but rather for much more effective communication and collaboration. The end result when we figure out how to correctly use it will be greater efficiency and productivity for all of us.

In my humble opinion, this is what we will be used much more in the future. I am not predicting that traditional email will go away, however, I do believe it will be used in conjucntion with these newer web based solutions with a very gradual shift away from email to these web based programs that are much more easily accessible wherever we may be.

In fact, I have read that we are starting to see this take place already. I have seen descriptions of these types of solutions being used now in large enterprises and larger business than what I normally deal with. I also believe that as the younger generations continue to move more and more into the work force, we will see this shift from traditional email and networking to these newer solutions happen more and more, because these younger people have grown up with Facebook and similar programs.

What do you think? Please let me know if I am out in left field.