Saw this recently published by IBM, summary below, full press release: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23716.wss

The predictions, made in a keynote address by Mike Rhodin, General Manager of IBM Lotus software, at the VoiceCon conference here, include:

1.      The Virtual Workplace will become the rule. No need to leave the office. Just bring it along. Desk phones and desktop computers will gradually disappear, replaced by mobile devices, including laptops, that take on traditional office capabilities. Social networking tools and virtual world meeting experiences will simulate the feeling on being there in-person. Work models will be changed by expanded globalization and green business initiatives that reduce travel and encourage work at home.

2.      Instant Messaging and other real-time collaboration tools will become the norm, bypassing e-mail. Just as e-mail became a business necessity, a new generation of workers has a new expectation for instant messaging (IM) as the preferred method of business interaction. This will fuel more rapid adoption of unified communications as traditional IM becomes the core extension point for multi-modal communications.

3.      Beyond Phone Calls to Collaborative Business Processes. Companies will go beyond the initial capabilities of IM, like click-to-call and online presence, to deep integration with business processes and line-of-business applications, where they can realize the greatest benefit.

4.      Interoperability and Open Standards will tear down proprietary walls across business and public domains. Corporate demand for interoperability and maturing of industry standards will force unified communications providers to embrace interoperability. Converged, aggregated, and rich presence will allow businesses and individuals to better find and reach the appropriate resources, removing inefficiencies from business processes and daily lives.

5.      New meeting models will emerge. Hang up on routine, calendared conference calls. The definition of "meetings" will radically transform and become increasingly adhoc and instantaneous based on context and need. 3-D virtual world and gaming technologies will significantly influence online corporate meeting experiences to deliver more life-like experiences demanded by the next generation workers who will operate more efficiently in this familiar environment.

I assume that many of us have experience working with clients, particularly given the current American direction toward service-based information work.

What new corporate models are you seeing emerge in your workplace, and how are you incorporating them in such a way as to protect (or evolve) your relationships with your clients?

I'm experiencing a corporate model that is re-emphasizing the meritocracy as a way of "earning" freedoms "from" the office (I put "from" in quotes because I do not think that all offices need be oppressive).  The client needs must still be met, but we are building web-based technologies to make it easier for them to interact with us abroad (online forms for gathering information from a client as a project progresses, for example). 

What interoperable/open-standard tools are you using to collaborate with colleagues, whether personally or professionally?

This is an area that I have seen lacking in most companies I've interacted with, if only because there is no one point person serving as a "collaboration guru" to help companies embrace the technologies that could help a business evolve.