Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Around the world, IT resources are growing fast, and their price is decreasing. In Brazil, for example, Internet access speed increased 56 times while the price to access the Internet decreased 67% (data source: Google 2011).
When I started working in IT around 1994, companies used to choose who would have email and Internet access, and only a few employees had those privileges.
Today, it is impossible for companies to have just some of their employees accessing the Internet and email because these tools are an important way for all employees to accomplish their tasks. According the Fecomercio, over the last four years, Brazilians with Internet access grew from 27% to 48%.
The Internet is becoming more popular, and social networking is growing faster than we realize. It is also playing an important role in our lives. According to an American survey by comScore, the time people spend in social networks is six times more than they spent four years ago. Regarding Latin America, the average navigation time spent on social networks grew 88% last year.
Nowadays, companies have similar doubts about social networking as they did with the Internet back in 1994: will they give employees’ access to social networks? To make matters worse, many people are choosing which companies they will work for by the technologies offerred and the permission to access it.
The game is changing, and marketing open jobs requires new features, so companies need to reevaluate their ways of thinking.
Aldo Navarro Zuquini Junior is IT general manager at Brazilian Grupo Águia Branca
