It seems like we’ve been discussing the rise of the digital age for years now. Ever since the advent of the internet, we’ve been moving ever-faster into a more digitally focused environment. The arrival of the pandemic and the challenges it brought to businesses only accelerated this in 2020.
According to Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE), we’re now officially in the new digital age, and this means companies need to ensure they have the right foundations in place. ALE believes that the pillars of true digital transformation in communications are people, technology, and models.
I spoke with the VP of Market Development for ALE’s Communication Business, Xavier Martin, to discuss the concept of “Everything Digital” and the new age of communications.
The Pillars of Digital Age Communications
According to ALE, Digital Age Communications, or the future of transformed communications, involves a lot of different kinds of solutions working together, from AI to IoT. However, getting the three essential pillars of people, technology, and models right can enable any business in any industry to take advantage of new future of connectivity.
“The term ‘digital age communications’ refers to the solutions capable of successfully transforming the way people, things, and applications connect. Digital Age Communications are derived from the concept of the fourth industrial revolution, and the belief that digitization can enhance many of the things we do. Many people make the mistake of thinking this transformation is just about technology, but it’s also about the models we use to embrace communications, and the people involved.”
Xavier told me that the first pillar of digital age communications is “people”. In other words, organisations in this new age need to think carefully about the people interacting in any environment, this could include customers, suppliers, guests, patients, employees, and shareholders. People need to be enabled to communicate anywhere, at any time, through solutions that feel intuitive.
The second pillar is about connecting everything (business applications, processes, objects) with the technology people need to navigate these new communication environments. The underlying technology in digital age communications can cover everything from AI and bots, too the Internet of Things, the cloud, business process automation and more. “These are concepts that have existed for some time, but they’re growing increasingly more accessible and essential today.”
The third pillar of Digital Age Communications identified by ALE is “models”. Xavier told me that “models” refer to the strategies and structures companies use to connect people, technology, and applications in a cloud environment.
“Increasingly, for people to thrive in the new digital landscape, everything needs to be connected. The benefit of choosing the right connected model is that everything happens in context.”
“To enable truly meaningful communications, digital technology needs to provide information supportive of the business situation. This addition of intelligence can be offered by applications, peoples, objects, and any combination of the three, allowing for greater responsivity and flexibility for the business”
ALE is in a powerful position today to help companies connect “everything” for Digital Age Communications, in part because the company offers such flexible cloud environments. Companies can embrace everything from private cloud to hybrid cloud solutions and public solutions. Companies with specific industry requirements in terms of compliance and analytics can access private cloud with dedicated management and support. Companies keen to leverage existing communications investments and new cloud innovations can take a hybrid approach.
Agility is Now More Important than Ever
The discussion of Digital Age Communications comes hand-in-hand with conversations about business agility and digital transformation. While this concept has been a common concept for years now, it’s grown increasingly essential since the 2020 pandemic. I asked Xavier for his opinion on how the pandemic has affected the transition to the digital world.
