DIY PLM and Zero Email Policy

Let’s talk about emails today. How many of them are you reading or writing daily? A lot? Emails are with us for the last 50 years. Will it stay with us for the next 50? Actually, some researchers are saying that we are reading fewer emails. Especially when it comes to younger people. Read last year NYT article – Email gets an instant makeover. Take a look on the following chart below from this article.

Younger people are actually banning emails and moving towards social networks. I remember the story that happened to me few months ago on board of the flight to Europe. Talking with my neighbor, I discovered that he has no email account. When I asked him how he is communicating, he said – Facebook and cell phone.

Do It Yourself PLM (DIY PLM)

What is DIY PLM? Earlier, this year, in my presentation during Autodesk Forum in Moscow, I analyzed PLM implementation options. You can see my presentation here. DIY PLM is one of the ways people are implementing PLM these days.

One of the observations, I’ve made is that email is one of the fundamental tools companies are still using to create an easy path to PLM by allowing to people to communicate and run product development processes.

Zero Email Policy

About a couple of weeks ago, I was reading the following ABC News article – Tech Firm Implements Employee Zero Email Policy. Employees of tech company Atos will be banned from sending email under new company “zero emails” policy. Here is a very interesting quote:

CEO Thierry Breton of the French information technology company said only 10 percent of the 200 messages employees receive per day are useful and 18 percent is spam.  That’s why he hopes the company can eradicate internal emails in 18 months, forcing the company’s 74,000 employees to communicate with each other via instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface.

What is my conclusion? I think zero emails can be an opportunity for PLM vendors to propose some “new collaboration” infusion to companies. At the time companies are tired from emails and new generation is shifting towards something different like Facebook-style communication, PLM vendors have some advantages. It is already happened. Lead PLM companies are thinking about new “social” ways. You can see Dassault’s 3DSwYm, PTC Social product development and some others. However, vendors, please don’t make it lame… like emails. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

image is courtesy of neboweb.