In which a consultant's faith is reinvigorated

There are times, when one is forced to sit down and reflect on the direction taken. On a personal level that happened at the annual Lotusphere conference. I was delighted to see that certain conceptions built over time, were pretty much on track.

Over the last couple of months I've been involved in creating concepts and seeking fresh solutions to matters of communication, knowledge management and collaboration. Together with my esteemed colleagues we've pondered many times which are the elements that help our customers the most. On occasion these musings touch not only tomorrow, but the day after as well. And when the level of ambition is set high enough it's quite healthy to question oneself and feel a bit uncertain about future envisioned.

From that perspective, it was gratifying to see that the direction we've presented to our customers is exactly the same where IBM's R&D efforts have been set. The ideas behind the term Social Business begin to manifest themselves in the technology platforms released later this year, Connections Next being the most salient example.

I willingly confess that I'm a humanist, with an academic background on communications. I've been working my whole professional career in the ICT sector. During all those years, there has been a lot of noise about digital convergence, merging of different communication channels and media together. And I'm convinced that the talk  will go on for another twenty years. Nevertheless, now we are on the threshold of  taking one step into that direction by harmonizing intra-enterprise communication channels. Doesn't sound like much, but come on, wouldn't it be nice to get all the info from one channel instead of half a dozen? ERP? Check. CRM? Check? Email? Check. Certainly Notes but how about Exchange email? Check. Personal communities? Check. Calendar? Check. Et cetera. Ad infinitum. A humanist is also pleased to see that human is brought into the center stage from the outer rim.

And that, boys and girls, is what I'm talking about.

Being a semi-new descomian, it was also nice to see that the direction is on course on the company level as well. IBM acknowledged Descom by presenting us the Distinguished Business Achievement Award for the North-Eastern Region. (It is also worthwhile to notice that the geographical region in question included finalists from Germany and UK, and not just us, the dwellers of the arctic evergreen forests.) I have to say that when a major actor in the global scene comes and tells that you guys are doing world-class stuff, it is surely boosts one's faith in how we run.

And that's how it went down. Bearing is now checked and calibrated and onwards we go into the mists of tomorrow. And the day after.