Corona virus crisis and the new world of
networks and digital
An unprecedented wave of interest in “teleworking” or you can say “working
in mobility” or more conventionally “work
from home” social apps are spreading in our society with a pace that we
have never seen before. Often
dictated by urgency, the choices that employees make to communicate can seem
chaotic, as the tools of the general public mix with secure applications in
business.
In this context, the IT department must adopt the ancestral
adage “necessity rule the law”,
because often ill-prepared for a significant increase in activity, it is
brought to manage the present moment.
However this past epidemic or pandemic, the IT department will have to
restore order in its governance and in its equipment strategy. It should also
endeavor to redefine a continuity plan inspired by the lessons learned from the
events we are experiencing.
The test of reality and
emergence of social apps:
a.
It
allows you to join group video chat rooms with friends or co-workers. 50
million downloads in a month and seems to be leading social app in 82 countries
including to the US, and #1 overall in 16 countries.
2. Discordapp: Built specifically for gaming
communities, it allows you to connect persistent video, voice, and chat
rooms.It’s seen a 50% increase in US daily voice users. Joining the same
bandwagon, Bunch Live also climbing the
charts and going main-stream in mobile gaming community.
3. Loom: Free Screen & Video Recording
Software. You can easily record and share a video clip to co-workers instantly
as videos are uploaded as they are shot.
4. Around: it connects you through a small circular video window over
your screen to form instant communication with your colleagues while most of
your screen stay free for actual work.
An avatar based virtual office to check who is in a
scheduled meeting or away. It avoids clutter to find everyone’s free time as
you can instantly open a voice or video chat channel together by following
calendar meetings.
But
what about Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp? What’re the limits?
The limit of 4 participants per call may soon be lifted on
WhatsApp. What do other competing services offer? Let’s find out here today.
The limit of 4 people per call soon lifted on WhatsApp. The
latest beta of the mobile app on iOS and Android suggests it. But the question
is what does free versions of other competitive messaging offer in this area?
On the Apple side, they set the limit to 32 participants for FaceTime. Everyone has their own sticker within the limits of the display
available.
On the Mac, it displays up to 9, which represent the most
active users. For the others, an exclamation mark is displayed. On mobile, the
thumbnails that do not fit on the screen are grouped in a line at the bottom.
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| Novel Corona virus (COVID-19) crisis and the new digital world of networks |
Use of FaceTime requires an Apple ID.All iPhone and iPad are
compatible with at least iOS 12.1.4 support group calls and audio. For video,
you need at least an iPhone 6s, iPad Pro, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4 or iPad 5.On
Mac, group calls are available from macOS Mojave 10.14.3.
2
– Messenger
Like FaceTime, Messenger does not have a native call
recording feature. Registration for the service requires a Facebook account. Group
calls can bring together up to 50 participants, with no time limit. Up to 8
thumbnails appear on Windows and Mac; up to 6 on iOS and Android. Beyond that,
only the speaking user is displayed.
3
– Skype
Microsoft, the owner of the service, has implemented a "reasonable"
usage policy. Beyond 4 hours per video call, 10 hours per day or 100 hours per
month, we switch to audio. Cloud recording is offered natively. The files
remain available for 30 days.
4-
Zoom
With Zoom, you have to pay to store the recordings online.
The backup can nevertheless be done locally. The limit is 100 participants per
call (49 thumbnails visible at most), also on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
and the web version.
However, from 3 people, meetings expire after 40 minutes
unless the organizer has a paid license. The latter can register with an
e-mail, a Google account or a Facebook account.
5
– Hangouts
On Hangouts, the Google account is the only option. No
desktop application available (except on Chrome OS), nor native recording, but
no time limit for calls, which can gather 10 participants.
WhatsApp is currently the least "generous". In
addition, only mobile applications (iOS, Android) support group calls. In
addition, you cannot switch to video when you have launched a voice call.
The
test of reality
There is no question here of bringing work home, it is
already there. Our intimacy has invaded our professional life and vice versa
for a long time already.
Employees also demand certain flexibility in the workplace,
often to better manage the transitions of mobility induced by transport times.
Managers have often expressed doubts about the development of remote working
solutions.
However, faced with a fait accompli, they
must have good confidence. They must therefore move from management of
control to management of results. And there too, the coming days will be
examples of experimentation with the rules of good use of tools and revelers
of shared good practices.
For the most part, employees will not benefit from the
support necessary for the proper use of these tools. They will discover,
for the vast majority, by themselves, autonomy, remote collaboration, as well
as the routines, the benefits and the constraints of the teleworker.
Multi-specialized work must, in fact, be a managerial
project above all, it is not the solution to all problems, nor does it
correspond to all trades, but it must serve a coherent strategy. Strategy
driven by general management, but in which the business divisions, IT and HR in
particular, play a predominant role.
Back
to the office?
The open space and the flex office do not make employees dream,
and it is likely that some of them, having tasted working from home, do not
want to relive the hell of endless travel times, interruption, and isolation
among the multitude or the quest for the available work station.
They prove, in the test, that telework does not necessarily
rhyme with isolation, and that virtual communities also work very
well. There is no definite relationship between technology and
organization. However, the strength of use will profoundly change the
organizational approach of companies.
The rules that govern teleworking in all over the World
today will certainly have to be reviewed, because employees feel ready to
redefine the boundaries of work, they will also have a very precise idea of uses at the end of this health
crisis (and may be tools) that they will want to find in their daily lives.
The
shadow collaboration in question
If the ISD does not master all the solutions that will be
used by its employees during the confinement or homework test linked to COVID-19, this period is also an
opportunity for it to make a giant benchmark of solutions available, in full
size. It is also, for the IT department, the opportunity to carry out a
stress test of the robustness of the solutions used in extreme
conditions; and finally a means of testing the relationship with its
suppliers, and their flexibility and ability to meet urgent and specific needs.
This exceptional period after the ISD will
have to readjust its governance, and if ad hoc solutions have proven
themselves, it is integration, security and good protection of personal data
that will guide this new governance.
Four
years ago Gartner predicted that by 2020 a third of successful attacks on businesses
will target their shadow computing resources.
What
will it really be with the current craze around insecure collaboration
solutions that are flourishing?
This
forced march towards teleworking or work from home is an opportunity to better
understand the communication and collaboration needs in terms of mobility of
employees, at least outside the classic framework of company offices. It
will make it possible to gauge the maturity of use of these tools for employees
but also for customers, suppliers and other stakeholders of the company.
This
time of experimentation will undoubtedly be an accelerator for the digital
transformation of companies. All the crises over the centuries have seen
the birth of a radical transformation of society, the part that digital
technology takes today in social proximity will lastingly mark our uses.
