The world is halfway to a new digital age that will see the way information is accessed and dealt with changing dramatically, which will become the “new normal”.
Technology is no longer the preserve of nerds, says Peter Hinssen, author of “The New Normal” and co-founder of Across Group and CEO of Across Technology. Speaking at last week's EMC Momentum Conference, in Berlin, he said the world is halfway to a “digital society”.
Digital is now a reality, said Hinssen. The globe is about to enter an era in which information is fluid and people will interact with data as naturally as anything they would do on a daily basis.
The post-1984 generation - generation Y - has a different sense of technology than has been traditionally the case, noted Hinssen. The new normal is a shift that sees the customer at the heart of the experience.
Content is not king anymore; contact is, as the user is in control, said Hinssen.
New thinking
Generation Y, which is accustomed to using Twitter and Facebook, goes into the workplace and finds a company that has closed off access to such social media sites, and thinks, “I've joined a Romanian orphanage,” said Hinssen.
Work has become the brief period during the day when people are forced to use old technology, he quipped. The new normal is like a swimming pool. While companies have been paddling in the shallows, they now have to jump into the deep end, and the question is whether they will survive, he explained.
The use of e-mail as a communication tool by teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 dropped 59% last year, said Hinssen. The new e-mail is Facebook, which people check every two to three minutes.
“Digital natives” believe in a bottom-up way of sharing information, and not in the controlled top-down paradigm that has been the norm in the corporate society, said Hinssen. Companies may have to abandon the notion of control.
Information disaster
The root of IT is information, but people are overloaded, Hinssen commented. “Information organisation in many ways is a disaster.”
Hinssen pointed to document folders he has come across at various companies as examples. One was named “PleaseDontDeletePlsPls”, while another was “CrapFromHeadquartersThatWeHaveToKeep”. His personal favourite, however, was: “DeleteThisFolderWhenTheAuditorsComeIn”.
In the new normal, information will be fluid and people will no longer abide by the “don't lose anything” rule; that era is closing, said Hinssen.
Because people are overloaded with information, they increasingly consume smaller amounts. People are obsessed with multitasking and continuously pay attention only partially, he noted.
Now people do not read books, they do not even read the summary, but read the tweet about the summary of the book. Eventually, people's attention span will be zero, he added.
However, the depth of information is unlimited. If people want to know something, they will drill down to a granular level, said Hinssen. “It's not an information overload, but a filter failure.”
How people use information is changing faster than systems can cope: “Information has become the new oil that is fuelling our companies.”
Hinssen cited the example of Nike+, which allows users to upload the routes they have jogged along to a community through Apple devices. The information can be sold by Apple to companies like Starbucks, which will be keen to know where runners pause, he added.
The use of intelligence such as this must be used in real-time, said Hinssen. There is no point in knowing what a customer wants after they have logged out of a Web site.
There are two rules to servicing the new generation: zero downtime and “good enough” is enough. Speed is more important than ultimate perfection, said Hinssen.
Companies will have to think about “organic” ways of working and networking in which firms become like social networks. Information will have to flow like a network, he concluded.
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