N.C.I.S. Indianapolis – Episode 2: Communication and Collaboration

Third in a series of post on Corporate Connectivity: the Confluence of Networks, Communication (and Collaboration), Information, and Systems. N.C.I.S Indianapolis – Pilot and N.C.I.S Indianapolis – Episode 1. 

“A true revolution in corporate communications is unfolding with regard to how corporate relationships are affected in all areas: press and public relations, investors, partners and clients, employees, etc. Understanding and using this change presents one of the great challenges of our time,” states Paul A. Argenti in his book, “Digital Strategies for Powerful Corporate Communications.”

The catalyst for this revolution is the dramatic decline in the cost of communication brought about by the Internet and the ease of collaboration enabled by social media. The impact of this revolution has lead the authors of “Wikinomics,” Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, to believe that companies that do not change their structures will become irrelevant, while those that leverage the lowering cost of communication and social media to create mass collaboration will survive and dominate.

This revolution means that more and more of a company’s communications are through digital media of all kinds: web (Internet), social media and mobile. This leads to the marriage of marketing and technology. Many industry pundits predict that Marketing’s slice of the technology budget will exceed that of traditional IT’s in the next three to five years.

Goodwill Indy is no exception. Rarely am I involved in discussions with our mission partners that do not involve some sort of marketing and communication. Likewise, many meetings and projects spearheaded by Marketing involve some sort of technology. Ensuring each is involved is a monumental task of teamwork and collaboration.

In IT circles, we used to have (and in some cases still have) tension between infrastructure (hardware) and applications (software) as to which technology was more important: “Hey, your hardware is just a paperweight without my software” or “Hey, your software is just a bunch of 1’s and 0’s without my hardware.” It always reminded me of the Reese’s commercial: “You got peanut butter in my chocolate. You got chocolate in my peanut butter.” Now it’s “technology” and “content.” IT can deliver a portal, digital sign or even a new website, but without content, they are pretty much expensive doorstops.

Our Corporate Connectivity Committee has wrestled with the question of internal communication for months. We are trying to answer four very important questions:

“What do you want to say?”

“How do you want to say it?”

“What do you want to hear?” and

“How do you want to hear it?”

The answers are as many as our employees.

When it comes to communicating with our customers, other external stakeholders and partners, and the community, the answers grow exponentially. But more and more, they involve web, social media and mobile technologies.

Next Up: Information

If anything you read here or in other posts strikes a chord, I would love to hear from you. Leave a comment, hit me up on Twitter (@jtongici), find me on LinkedIn, or Google +.