A worldwide study by IDC (News - Alert) has found that an increasing number of global information workers are "hyperconnected" users - using at least seven devices and nine applications.

 

The IDC study, sponsored by Nortel (News - Alert), covered nearly 2,400 working adults in 17 countries and focused on quantifying the state of connectedness today, tracking its acceptance and use across devices and applications and determining its impact on the enterprise.  

The study uncovered that enterprises around the world are facing an exploding "culture of connectivity" and that the “hyperconnected” account for 16 percent of the population thanks to easy availability of the Internet, broadband access, camera phones, Voice-over-IP, instant messaging, social networking, Web conferencing, video uploading and other communications tools.

 

The “hyperconnected” users are using gadgets ranging from phones to laptops to PDAs and even car-based systems as well as applications including Web 2.0 applications, such as Twitter, Second Life, and wikis.

 

"The conclusion is that there is this groundswell, for the increasingly connected to move into hyper-connected status and for the hyper-connected to move into the workforce,” said Vito Mabrucco, senior vice president at IDC Canada.

Mabrucco also said that the increasing demand for connectivity and applications as well as the blurring of personal and business uses of technology are expected to create pressure on telecommunications networks, broadband networks, and high-speed networks. These increasing levels of connectivity will have a significant impact on enterprises, creating challenges in managing these new tools while also providing information securely and ensuring that connectivity is productive.

 

Based on the findings of the study, IDC and Nortel stress that employers will need to make accommodations for the new wave of hyperconnected persons as these people become the next-generation workforce, and so that they can turn this "connectedness" into a competitive advantage.