Collaboration of Communication and Data Storage in Business

The romantic concept of corporations and cubicle-esque work space has come and gone since the days of the internet boom that defined the 1990’s. Many firms now rely on the internet as their main source of business, with tangible offices for the majority of the data storage and busy work. This has introduced many firms with a dilemma: How to combine communication with employees and customers while still maintaining an effective work environment.

Of course, the answer lies in the internet. The social networking world has overpowered the Web. Firms, whom have realized this pattern, naturally have turned to the “dot com” business tactic to encourage communication. For example, Facebook relays personal information from person to person at a rapid speed. If a company could grasp that concept and apply it to their customers and employees it could increase both efficiency and sales.

Facebook lacks data storage and long distance accessibility. Websites such as Box.net have what Facebook does not. Box.net allows users to store a significant amount of information and allow its users to access this data from thousands of miles away. Most importantly, it makes this process inexpensive and straightforward.

Companies such as Amazon.com, who rely on their virtual agility, have a great demand for a tool to collaborate their databases and customer/employee communication. To use separate tools to do such tasks can become not only complex, but extremely costly when applying the method to thousands of customers.

This is where venture capitalists begin to ruminate on possibilities. If a website were to combine the communication skills of Facebook and the storing and accessibility of a website like Box.net, perhaps a new era of “dot com” would form.

The closest candidate for this “best of both worlds” option is Yammer. Yammer, according to Matthew Lynley of VentureBeat.com, is a Twitter-like blogging tool that combines the ideas of Facebook and LinkedIn to allow its users (for $3/user/month) to communicate business matters.

In my opinion the strides Yammer has made to incorporate communication between employees in a corporation have increased productivity and efficiency intra-firm; however, the problem of data space and accessibility is still an issue. With the increasing responsibilities the internet has forged in the past twenty years for business, a website combining both forms of communication and data space/accessibility can be very lucrative.

http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/28/yammer-facebook-business-launch/

http://www.nytimes.com/external/venturebeat/2010/10/04/04venturebeat-as-business-goes-virtual-collaboration-and-c-90947.html?ref=companies

Here Yammer CEO David Sacks describes the effictiveness of a Twitter-like application in the business world: