The Skype challenge- networks that exists both inside and outside the firewall

strategy+business magazine provides a short but IMHO spot on analysis of how new social software related technologies such as Skype (the peer-to-peer VoIP application) will "force management and IT executives to consider how to structure a network that exists both inside and outside the corporate firewall."

The article draws on a story in James Enck's EuroTelcoblog that project teams in Accenture used Skype to coordinate on work between Madrid and several locations in Pakistan because it was a better option than alternative communication technologies.

The s+b article concludes that: "as the Accenture incident illustrated, that won'’t stop employees who are dissatisfied with the quality of other forms of communication from accessing Skype anyway. Which means that, before long, management will have to address the potential of Skype or Skype-like technologies— and determine the peer-to-peer applications whose benefits outweigh their risks— rather than simply outlaw the technology and hope it goes away."

This really relates a lot to what I've been going on about with the Intranet Imperative.

Tags: collaboration, intranets, intranet imperative, extranets