Tribute to the very talented and smart Chris Banman of Beyond Digital for inspiration on this article. He’s a master of this concept.
Unification means making something a single unit.
I see it as becoming “one” with something, or taking multiple things and combining them.
What does that mean in a life, technology, business context?
Having as many relevant tools or functions as possible accessible from only one place, or from as few places as possible. Then, having as much expertise as possible when using the tools, so there is little resistance and results come more easily.
Driving, for example (for anyone who has driven for a few years). You have everything within easy reach, and you’ve used every function thousands of times. Steering, shifting, braking, turn signals, radio, AC, wipers… You’re one with the car. Especially the nice car.
On a Mac, if you have multiple email addresses that you check regularly through multiple tabs in a web browser (Yahoo, Gmail, and your company’s Exchange web access), unification is moving all three into one program (like Apple Mail) so you can check all three at once by launching one application instead of switching between multiple tabs.
An important part of both those examples, however, is in both cases there is a consistent element: the driver! The user.
This is a huge concept in IT system architecture, I think, and should be carefully considered whenever solutions are being planned. Tools can be combined, technology systems can be unified, but at the end of the day, the user needs to be okay with it all.
The user needs to want that unification, and it needs to make sense to the user in their very personal work flow. So, unification isn’t truly complete without closely involving the user, getting their sign off, training them, then measuring results.
The outcome is awesome. Technology systems are consolidated and unified, tools are all in one place, systems are simplified, and the user is a well-trained machine who is “one” with the new technology system.
How does that kind of unification lead to success, sooner? It prevents wasted effort, helps keep focus, minimizes distractions and interruptions, and gives well-tuned power to the driver.
Then it’s just like a Sunday morning drive up the Sea to Sky Highway in an Audi R8 at shocking speeds, without even noticing the cockpit controls and hardware that make it all possible.
