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More companies are using GPS to track vehicles that are thousands of miles away, as well as employees who are in the same building. A growing number of companies provide satellite tracking services for organizations that want to track trucks and buses, and even for parents who want to keep tabs on teenage drivers. Some companies are using GPS to track the movements of workers on the factory floor.

RFID is another technology for tracking the movement of vehicles, animals, or people through a building or across the country. As the cost of RFID tags has fallen, more and more companies are using them to track packages, airline passengers’ suitcases, even livestock. To prevent or limit the spread of disease, cattle producers in the United States, Canada, and Australia are using RFID to track their animals.

Super-small sensors, sometimes called “smart dust” or “motes,” are beginning to be used in hard-to-reach places. One company is experimenting with tracking oil as it is stored, shipped, and sold by mixing motes in with the oil, where they act like tiny, floating RFID tags. Motes are also being tested for use in the early detection of wildfires in remote areas.

Social connections

Other technologies are used more for talking than for tracking. The world of extreme data has a strong social side to it, and today’s Internet is making it possible to discover business contacts quickly.

Many of these technologies first appeared in our personal lives, then migrated to business. Web-based social networks such as Friendster, Ryze, Tribe.net, and orkut sprang onto the digital scene a year or more ago as a neat way to find friends and classmates. Not surprisingly, similar sites have emerged for finding business contacts.

LinkedIn is the leading business network site. Its 2.4 million members worldwide use it to find clients, employees, business partners, sales leads, industry experts, professional services, and jobs. When members find people with the experience or qualifications they require, they then find a path of introductions to those people using their network of trusted colleagues. LinkedIn, and other business network sites such as Jigsaw and Common.net, are the new way to make business connections. They help take the “cold” out of cold calling.

Other consumer technologies are helping business people collaborate in new ways. Instant messaging, a staple of teenagers for years, is now a first-class citizen in the enterprise. In the past, office workers often clandestinely installed IM tools on their computers to enhance communications with coworkers. Now many organizations, including CSC, are using secure IM tools such as Lotus Sametime as part of the supported toolset for office communication.

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