Creating Business Agility

Chapter 4Breaking the Barrier of Physical Infrastructure

If you are reading this chapter, you already know how the innovative technologies of cloud, social, mobile, video, and big data with predictive analytics have impacted our businesses and fueled business agility in all dimensions. These technologies have enabled us to carry out most of our business functions remotely without being physically present on site. They have not only removed the barriers of physical infrastructure but have also helped greatly in reducing the cost of operations and in carrying out business globally with minimum cost.

Effective Use of Technologies

The recent innovations in technologies and in business models have broken the barrier of physical boundaries. They have allowed us to go beyond the physical infrastructure to carry out all sorts of work and study, to purchase, sell, exchange information, trade, and carry on commerce across the globe. A simple task like holding a meeting previously required us to travel to offices within a city or across cities, countries, and at times, continents. Now with technologies like Cisco's WebEx, Microsoft's NetMeeting, Join.me, and Oracle's Beehive, we do not need to commute to offices or travel across countries or continents to hold meetings unless face-to-face meetings are absolutely necessary. In a global environment, workplaces have practically no boundaries, with employees located all over the world.

Technology like Join.me has helped us in collaborating ...