Messaging News - December 2008 - (Page 22) he Millennials. Boomlets. The Tech/Net/Digital Generation. Echo Boomers. Generation Y. Call them what you will, but this group of nearly 70 million Americans (generally accepted as aged 18 to 27) are projected to reshape the world. Having the unique experience of being raised during periods of great downsizing/rightsizing, and witnessing parents being laid off, this generation—that has never experienced life without computers—is impacting enterprises and small-to mid-sized businesses alike. “Generation Yers don’t expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long—they’ve seen the scandals that imploded Enron and Arthur Andersen, and they’re skeptical when it comes to such concepts as employee loyalty,” observes Bruce Tulgan a researcher, speaker and expert on generational differences in the workforce. “They don’t like to stay too T long on any one assignment. This is a generation of multi-taskers, and they can juggle email on their BlackBerrys, while talking on cell phones while trolling online.” Tulgan, who co-authored Managing Generation Y with Carolyn Martin and leads training sessions at companies on how to prepare for and retain Generation Yers, calls Gen Y “the most education-minded generation in history.” After analyzing Gen Y consumer behavior, Bruce D. Temkin of Forrester Research, Inc. observed that for many Gen Yers, “cell phones are for much more than just talking. These young consumers are considerably more likely than older consumers to use just about any wireless service. Even when compared with Gen Xers, Gen Yers are more likely to send or receive text or picture messages; download ring tones, games, and music files; and use instant messaging on their They also prefer portable devices, use their PCs as media centers, and are social computing aficionados.” Campus Computing Project As Gen Yers exit campuses and enter into the workforce, it is useful to examine not only consumer habits that may tag along with them into the enterprise, but also the messaging habits from campus life. Begun in 1990, The Campus Computing Project (CCP) is the largest continuing study of the role of information technology in American higher education. The 2008 Campus Computing Survey— based on data provided by senior campus IT officials, typically the CIO, CTO, or other ranking campus IT officer, representing 531 two-and four-year public and private colleges and universities across the United States—is useful to analyze what messaging environments and practices most students are accustomed. When Gen Y Joins by Stephanie Jordan cell phones.” Temkin collaborated on a series entitled Designing For Gen Y that offered approaches to Gen Y consumers based on Forrester analyzed survey responses from nearly 50,000 consumers with the goal to understand the differences between Gen Y and older generations of consumers. Temkin writes, “The analysis showed that Gen Yers are more apt to like style, fun, and technology; seek out what’s hot; make purchases based on image; consume all types of digital media; and use every wireless service on their mobile phones. Each of these elements creates a different set of design requirements, such as injecting fun and social networking into the experience and developing experiences that bridge the PC and the phone. Given the unique needs of Gen Y, companies may need to design experiences just for them.” In addition, Temkin notes: “Forrester analyzed consumer survey responses to understand the differences between Younger Generation Y (18- to 22-year-olds) and Older Generation Y (23- to 27-year-olds) consumers. The analysis showed that Younger Gen Yers are more motivated by fun and style and are more connected to technology than older consumers. 22 MESSAGING NEWS DECEMBER 2008 Fully two-fifths (42.4 percent) of institutions participating in this year’s survey say that they have migrated or are about to migrate to an outsourced student email service; three in ten (28.3 percent) are reviewing institutional options for outsourcing student email during the current academic year. In contrast, just 14.8 percent of institutions have migrated to outsourced email services for faculty. The majority of campuses outsourcing student email have opted for Google (56.5 percent), while two-fifths (38.4 percent) are using Microsoft and 4.8 percent are using Zimbra. Across all sectors the percentage of college classrooms that have access to wireless networks continues to rise. Overall, about twothirds (67.6 percent) of classrooms have access to wireless, up from 60.1 percent in 2007 and 31.0 percent in 2004). Classroom wireless access is highest in private universities (76.0 percent, up from 68.9 percent in 2007) and lowest in community colleges (56.1 percent, up from 44.1 percent in 2007). A highlighted area of concern on campus is the cost of peer-to-peer (P2P) compliance. According to
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