The Telephone in 2015

It really is a wonderful life

I spent my holiday season surrounded by loved ones. We laughed, ate, and drank our share of Christmas cheer and holiday bubbly. Presents were given and gratefully received, babies were born, birthdays were celebrated, people got married.

Love of family and friends has always been the central theme of the holidays. Technology has also played a big role in our family’s holiday season. We had Google Hangouts, Apple iChats and Microsoft Skypes. What we didn’t have were phone calls.

Hello, who is this?

While the enterprise software community talks about the future of unified communications, everyone else enjoys that future now. Consumerization changes everything. The most widely understood example of consumerization, the iPhone, is not an anomaly. It is simply the beginning.

“Hello, who is this?”, I said to my 2 year old niece as she handed me her toy phone. “No, no, no,” she said. “Hello, who is this?”, I said again assuming she was confused. She wasn’t. I was. “It’s Angry Birds Star Wars”, she said. For a few moments I literally couldn’t understand what she was saying. Context is critical in all communications and doubly helpful when conversing with a 2 year old. I thought to myself … we’re playing with a phone, what does she want it to do? She patiently repeated herself a few more times and I finally caught up.

Today, even a toy phone has apps.

Millennials Rule

This year Millennials will become the majority of the U.S. workforce. This holiday season our family had an iChat via two iPhones; a Hangout from a Toshiba Chromebook 2 and Sony TV to an iMac; and a Skype conversation via an Android device and Samsung smart TV. Nearly half a dozen operating systems, multiple networks, and multiple apps. No IT team. Effectively accomplished at zero cost to the participants. Consumerization changes everything, especially expectations. Today’s enterprise is wasting its time trying to build apps it has no business, literally, building.

“I put it in Dropbox” … because Dropbox is Dropbox for the enterprise. “I didn’t get it, send it to my Gmail” … because that works better. “Just call my cell” … because I don’t really have a desk. “Let’s use Google Calendar” … because it’s easier to include everyone. More apps, more devices, more locations and more flexibility.

Millennials don't go around formal IT because they're lazy. They do it because it works better. They do it because it’s more efficient. They do it because they understand the benefits of modern technology better than we do. In a large enterprise, it’s safe to assume a large majority of employees leverage Shadow IT regularly. One of the last things millennials do with a “phone” is make phone calls. Tech savvy employees will use what works. Understanding an iPhone is exponentially better than a Blackberry does not require permission or approval.

The PC

An iPhone isn’t a phone, it’s a personal computer. If you have the right apps, you can make and take all your calls from any computer. It’s difficult to appreciate the importance of this distinction. Too many people sacrifice efficiency, productivity, and freedom because they believe it’s “just a phone” and do not appreciate that their “enterprise” apps were designed in the 1980s.

When the telephone first began making its way into businesses, most managers fought the technology. A huge distraction they thought. The telephone would interfere with “real” work. Email received the same reception. Today it’s still common for an organization to block instant messaging.

It wasn’t upper management that introduced computers into businesses. It was mavericks, hackers, and free thinkers. It wasn’t IT who brought in iPhones. Shadow IT is not new, it’s how it all started. The telephone of 2015 is the most important personal computer in history. Millennials know this instinctively. The rest of us need to catch up. New Year’s Resolution?