A press release/article from Inter-Tel today is titled "Inter-Tel Reveals Formula For Perfect Business Communication." It proudly states that Inter-Tel "has discovered a formula to help employers establish the most productive levels of business communication in the workplace."
I'm not sure where they "discovered" this formula, but the only variables they include are:
- Phone calls made by the business
- Calls Received
- Missed Calls
- Email Traffic
- Hours Worked
Apparently the following channels have no effect on productive business communication:
- Instant messaging
- Text messaging
- Web meetings
- In-person meetings
- Written communications
Okay, this is all obvious nonsense and is meant to be taken as tongue-in-cheek to gain some publicity and awareness. The formula divides numbers of phone calls by "email traffic" (whatever units that number is in) and multiplies by hours worked to come up with a number that Inter-Tel says should ideally be a "perfect ten" - anything less is unproductive; anything more indicates email overkill.
Providers of telephone services are facing tougher and tougher business markets. But it does no good to hide your head in the sand and pretend that people aren't communicating via a dizzying array of technical and social options.
If your company is reviewing the productivity of its business communications, make sure you consider the impact of web conferencing and webinars (as well as good old fashioned hallway chats and auditorium gatherings). And then make sure to divide by the reciprocal of average worker enthusiasm. You can work out the units conversion yourself.
It should come out to 10.
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Technorati Tags: business meetings, collaboration, Inter-Tel, communication, web collaboration, web conferencing, web meeting, webcasting, webinar
