Is connectivity making us more productive?
It wasn’t that long ago that the world I lived in had no smart phones, tablets or widespread broadband connectivity. In fact, looking back twenty years, I can clearly remember that the pace of life was much less hectic without the electronic devices that I cherish today. Or was it?
When I started my career in advertising, I was staring at a screen with monotone text and graphics from an overhead projector with plastic transparent slides. My days were filled with exciting meetings and discussions with clients, followed by intense work with the creative and production teams to develop collateral, newsprint ads or even radio and television commercials. These were interesting times and things seemed simpler.
Then again, I also remember that the minutes of meetings had to be typed by hand into a shared computer with word processing software, printed on a dot-matrix printer, signed off before being faxed to the clients. And scheduling appointments or even talking on the telephone with clients was a challenge before the ubiquity of mobile phones or productivity software. Getting in touch with someone could even take days if your messages was not passed on efficiently.
Back then, producing ads was a tedious task. Transmitting images relied on facsimile, and not even the full-color versions we have today. Clients had to sign off on poorly transmitted images, and for the final product, proofs had to be printed and physically delivered. Radio and television commercials were stored on tape and delivered back and forth before the final cut could be approved. This took weeks to complete, and a whole lot of commuting back and forth.
Today, minutes are taken on the spot via smartphones, tablets or laptops, and shared immediately via email or collaborative applications. Appointments are scheduled using productivity tools and if you really need to contact or coordinate with a client, you can set up a group text or chat. Designs are shared via email, uploaded and downloaded through corporate portals. Coordination, discussions and presentations via audio or video conferencing are now commonplace and various free services, such as Skype or Google+, are widely available. Decisions are made faster, and jobs are completed in a fraction of the time previously required with shared inspiration from the internet.
Commuting is even more efficient these days thanks to crowd-sourced traffic and navigation assistance from cloud applications like Waze. Paying bills and shopping can be done securely online and groceries are delivered to your doorstep. Watching TV or catching up with the news is even more efficient with IP-based time-shifted TV, recording or even watching it on the go. Our ConsumerLab’s recent TV & Media Report revealed that 75% of those interviewed multi-task while watching TV with either their smartphone or tablet. I am definitely guilty-as-charged keeping in touch with friends and the news via social media.
Mobility, broadband and the cloud are driving the Networked Society and making us so much more efficient than ever before. It empowers us and if used positively, can enrich our lives by freeing up time. It may seem more hectic, but I definitely feel that I am achieving more with less. I couldn’t imagine working without it. Can you?
Written by Steven Tai
Vice President, Strategy and Marketing at Ericsson Malaysia and Networked Society Evangelist. Steven is interested in a clean, peaceful and prosperous world and is confident that the Networked Society will be the main enabler for this.
