Questions addressed in this chapter

The scenario

The fictitious organization described in this chapter is intended as a prediction of how the trends and technologies driving the Web 2.0 movement might change the way in which our workplaces function. So far as it is possible to put a date on when this scenario is set, it could be somewhere within the next five to ten years. However, it should also be remembered that from the technical perspective all that is being described is already available and could be put in place now.

Our organization is a medium-sized, private-sector management and business services consultancy company, with around 800 staff. As well as its main central office, it has staff based in various host organizations around the country, and a small team of client managers who spend the vast majority of their time travelling the length and breadth of the country, establishing new contracts and maintaining existing ones.

Outsourcing e-mail

In line with many other companies, our organization chose a few years ago to outsource their e-mail service to Google Mail. It seemed a sensible decision at the time and has proved a very successful and popular one since. Management like it because it has significantly reduced the overheads involved in storing and maintaining an in house, mission-critical business service. The IT team like it because they had been finding it more and more difficult to provide the 24/7 zero-downtime level of service users were demanding, and now freed from the yoke of maintaining such a service have been able to be much more creatively and usefully employed. And, most importantly of all, the users like it. Of course they now take its reliability for granted (though do still offer up a silent prayer of thanks at 10.30 p.m. on a Sunday evening when, desperate to confirm some information before a meeting the following morning, they find the service is up and running).