The right platform to build the next pyramid

How did the Egyptians build pyramids without Slack and Office365? Strange question? I know. It will make sense shortly.

“Where is the file?” or “Where is the link you sent me?” These are the most frequent questions, just after “You are on mute,” which we’ve all seen in online meetings.

It wasn’t always this way. For the younger audience, I have to tell you, there were times when there were no computers. A fax machine was the ultimate technology advancement. I know, mind blasting. This is not me reminiscing about the 'good old days'. It’s more like a starting point to highlight how we got here.

It used to be that any document sent over fax was archived. Sometimes it was even numbered and put in a binder next to other binders on a shelf. The same thing happened for any incoming document, before it got distributed to the receiving person. Everyone in the entire company knew that if they needed to find a document, that was the place to go. And hard to believe, there were even people whose job it was to do that! Life was simple then.

Then Microsoft came to the company and introduced a personal computer. The power to create your own documents right at the desk and keep them stored inside this magical device in the f-i-l-e d-i-r-e-c-t-o-r-y with multiple versions – that power was overwhelming. To share a document was so easy. Copy the file to a floppy disk, walk over to your colleague and voila, you both have the same version. At least, you had the same version until both of you changed it on your machines and the versioning nightmare began.

Fortunately, the technology of file servers was introduced. Now all the lonely computers could share the files through a common repository. This new, amazing technology solution solved the problem. Except, everyone was able to create their own filing structure where the reasoning behind and purpose was not shared with the rest of the company.

Still, it was better than before. An additional benefit was that you could store some versions on your local machine and some versions on the file server. It was important to creatively name the files using 8 characters. More software was written to help us to find these files.

To smooth the communication issue, email was introduced. Finally, not only could you create a document, but right there from your fingertips, this document attached to an electronic mail was delivered to many people at once at the speed of light, from desktop to desktop. The technology improved our productivity again.

Sadly, the sender wrote '... send me back any changes as you see fit ...' and the email software introduced an amazing feature 'Reply All'. As a bonus, finally every CEO was able to design their own filling system inside their mail client.

Amazing progress, but still a dark age compared to our current era. Conferencing meant getting on the phone with other people and chasing the latest version of a file, together with the latest version of software which could open and edit it. A simple conversation took 10 emails flying back and forth. These were the times where the IT departments were dictating that you could only keep a limited number of emails and attachments. You had to keep forgetting.

But then a ray of hope came. The instant messaging showed up on our desktop. What normally would take several emails was quickly resolved in minutes. No more stupid email threads with attachments. A quick chat and things were done. The few drawbacks of the initial versions of instant messaging were quickly overcome. Not only could you save these chats but you could also easily share files. Only the technology neophytes would complain that to find a file they have to check their local machine, the file server, the mailbox and the instant messaging platform of their choice. That was the minority who was about to retire.

Somewhere there also communication opened and companies could start directly conversing with their customers. Not through email or phone. No. It was there where the customers were. This was social media. We now had the ability to directly talk with a customer, while at the same time, engaging just the right colleagues through Slack and then copying and pasting everything into a CRM. That moved the needle of efficiency majorly to the right.

But there was something missing. Something which could really take our communication and collaboration to the next level. Yes, we can thank Covid for Zoom and Teams and Slack meetings. That was the missing piece of technology, which allowed 20 people at the time to stare into your bedroom. Not only could you talk (even if you were on mute) but you could also send messages, attach files or share links to websites. The flood gates of communication and collaboration opened.

Was that all? Of course not. We've also added cloud file storage, document management systems, portals. The list is long. For the less advanced people in our companies who couldn't remember where things are, we bought enterprise search engines, which could only connect to some of the systems mentioned above.

The recurrent pattern in this? It feels like we are living inside Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, searching for the holy grail of communication and collaboration. As we try to progress, we keep wasting our time and sinking deeper into the quicksand lagoon of information.

The solution for this? I have this great idea for this new, amazing technology which combines every single communication channel into one simple interface using blockchain and AI. This time, it will really work and will help us build the next version of the pyramids.