Atos bans email, baffling bloggers

The news was originally announced back in February. ... [CEO] Thierry Breton mentioned it again...and the newswires...jumped upon it.
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Customers and partners will still...communicat[e] as normal, but internally the way that Atos...communicate[s] will change. ... Atos intends to adopt and implement social business practices...[using] tools such as...wiki[s] and...Microsoft Office Communicator.   

   
Susanna Kim adds the official talking points:

Caroline Crouch, a spokeswoman for the company...[said] the overall response “has been positive with strong take up of alternative tools.”
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The company says by 2013, more than half of all new digital content will be [from the]...editing of existing information. ... Crouch said Atos is evaluating a number of new tools to replace internal email.   

Henry Blodget sees a trend:

A huge French company has just banned the use of email. ... This trend at the corporate level mirrors email trends among young people--the future workforce.
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Email is still an extremely convenient way to communicate, so it's not likely to go anywhere. But there's no question that email is losing share.   

But Your Humble Blogwatcher calls it a "Stupid idea":

Breton...likens email to industrial pollution, and wants all communication...face-to-face, on the phone, or -- and I cannot believe I'm writing this -- via text message. ... [I predict] resistance from staff, who just want to get their jobs done, without some ivory-tower CEO getting in the way.
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[If] your company has developed a culture of misusing email, simply switching...to a different medium isn't going to fix the problem. ... [By] mandating the shuttering of its email system, [Atos] will simply move the problem.
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I have a crisp $100 bill here that says there'll still be significant email use inside Atos in 18 months time.   

And Derek Thompson agrees:

Atos executives assume that moving to chat will save its colleagues' time. ... Encouraging office chat invites the same over-sharing...that turns email from a productivity-booster to a time-suck.
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[T]he central issue here [is] productivity. ... [T]he literature suggests that activities that look frivolous -- such as inter-office gossip over email...might help overall productivity. ... Frivolous email might...by creating distractions that help us manage our focus...be enhancing it.
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As long as electronic communications are simple, available, and free, people will talk...a lot. [The alternatives] can be as much of a time-suck as email.   

  
And Finally...
Serious String Validation
  
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.