Communications Trends — Education  
School Advisor, 2008 Issue No. 1

More than ever before, new technology is gaining acceptance first in consumer markets and then is gradually being accepted and adopted in the business world. Examples of this would include voice mail, caller ID, internet access, e-mail, instant messaging, mobile phones—all of these technologies were widely adopted by consumers well before they found widespread acceptance in the business world. Because of this trend, technology companies are closely monitoring consumer adoption of technology and especially how young people use and relate to technology, as this often is a strong predictor of what technologies will be desired and expected to be used within future business environments.

The process of releasing new technologies into the consumer market and letting demand for these technologies push into the business markets is known as “consumerization”; it is considered by some to be one of the major trends we will see affecting the way information technology will impact our lives over the next decade. School systems will be affected by this trend in multiple ways: as users of technology, as instructors to students in the use of technology, and in using technology to enhance the learning experience. Here are a few trends affecting the communications technology industry that you’ll be seeing more and more in the months and years to come.

Unified Communications

In a nutshell, Unified Communications manages the myriad of ways someone can contact or message you. The goal is to allow you to receive your calls and messages from one device (or location) and set up rules for how you want (or do not want) to be contacted. The goal is to streamline today’s multiple points of contact, which include office phone, cellular phone, e-mail, instant messaging, PDAs, fax, and multiple voice mailboxes. These systems also use presence indicators to convey a person’s availability to respond at that moment. All of the major communication vendors (including Cisco, Microsoft, Nortel, Avaya, Siemens, and others) are focusing on developing their Unified Communications products.

Green Initiatives

Green initiatives are governmental incentives to use technology as a means to reduce the use of resources that pollute and exacerbate the Greenhouse Effect. Communication tools that enhance ability to work remotely or to effectively share skill sets and services without having to drive or fly somewhere to accomplish the task align with these initiatives. Trends will include remote access capability plus PCs and laptops equipped with video cameras and at the high end, sophisticated video conferencing systems that will be simple to operate while presenting a life-size image with audio and visual resolution that will seem as if the conference party is right in the room.

Video

Increased use of video content is seen by the manufacturers of processors, network, and storage equipment to be one of the next applications that will drive the need for higher performance equipment and network bandwidth. Therefore, these manufacturers are very interested to see more video content used by businesses. The popularity of video content sites (e.g., “youtube”) with the consumer market will drive the expectation that businesses, too, will deliver more and more content in a rich video format.

Market Consolidation

Due to acquisitions, mergers, or business failures, we continue to see fewer major players in the telecommunications industry. Recently, we’ve seen the merger of Bell South by AT&T (SBC), MCI and Verizon, and Alcatel and Lucent. In other areas, markets are dominated by one or two vendors (Cisco, Microsoft, AT&T, Dell and Hewlett Packard). Companies are benefiting by consistent service offerings and better integration as market leaders essentially set de facto standards. Conversely, as choices diminish competitive pricing could be affected.

Product Sophistication/Maximizing Benefits

As telephone and data network systems continue to converge to evolve into complex and comprehensive software-based communications systems, the level of expertise that it will take
to sell, buy, and deploy these systems will increase. Maximizing benefits will certainly require an understanding of the technology—but it will also require a solid understanding of business processes. Understanding how and where this technology fits in and how it can best be deployed to improve school system efficiency will be especially critical with this next generation of communications technology.

Today’s Trends Are Tomorrow’s Tools

These are just a few of the emerging trends in the communications industry. Considering these trends may prove helpful as you plan your future telecommunications strategy.