But the pace is far slower than it was during the boom’s heyday. The focus of tech communications has shifted from “gee whiz—cool!” to technology’s business and consumer benefits. Though the so-called geek space is active – wireless, business enterprise and application software, semiconductors, consumer technology and software, telecom, videoconferencing, network management and security software are the hot spaces – it is being talked about differently.

Why? The stakes for tech companies are higher than ever. Business software and hardware costs are high – a piece of new business software can easily cost $1 million and up. Yes, the “gee-whiz” factor still exists – folks want the coolest ringtones or downloadable games – but gee-whiz isn’t a core value, for business or consumer, anymore.  Instead, it’s “what can this do (for me or us)?” and, especially for business users, “how big a bang is there for our buck?” Businesses want to know their return on investment: What kinds of definable, measurable productivity improvements can they expect for the technology they’re laying out so much money for, and where are the statistics to back it up. Consumers, meanwhile, want to know whether an upgrade to already existing technology will really make a positive difference in their lives. “People want to see how technology can solve the biggest, thorniest problems,” says Edward Barbini, vice president, media relations at IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

And because of the hype during the boom, technology products and services today must pass through far more rigorous hoops to prove they’re worth writing about, let alone buying. The far smaller cadre of experienced industry reporters and editors, burned during the boom, are now, understandably, “show me the ROI” cynics. So the pressure is on tech communicators to be able to talk about the diversity and applicability of products and services in depth. And they have to be clear about the value they bring to the table. “We’re being forced to prove the value of technology,” says Tony Sapienza, principal partner and co-founder of Topaz Partners, Malden, Mass. “It has made our job a lot tougher,” agrees Mark Hampton, senior vice president and manager of the San Francisco office of Text 100 Public Relations.

Tech has even changed how people communicate. Wireless technology now enables e-mails and text messages to be sent or picked up from anywhere. Earnings calls, conferences and seminars are routinely broadcast over the Internet. Reporters use Instant Message software to conduct interviews. A communications person can go days without hearing a human voice – something Mark Fredrickson, vice president of corporate communications at EMC Corporation in Hopkinton, Mass., cautions his team not to let happen. Personal relationships with analysts and the press “keep us in tune with the marketplace,” he says. “Sometimes it’s better to say what you want to say over the phone and not leave a paper trail.”

Accessing information has changed as well. Busy reporters, analysts or PR pros can open their RSS readers (software that customizes news feeds) and check the latest news, blogs or press releases, or download headlines to their PDAs. Blogs and bulletin boards are yet other elements that communicators must know how to address. But as some of them pass rumor and publicity as well as fact, they also make a communicator’s job more difficult and sensitive. “The average person thinks a press release in Yahoo! News is real, legit news,” says Shelley Bird, chief communications officer of NCR Corporation, Dayton, Ohio. “That creates pressures for my team.”

And if all this weren’t enough, Sarbanes-Oxley has changed communications. “Everything (a company says) will be deeply scrutinized in a way it wasn’t before,” says Andrew Lark, until recently vice president, global communications and marketing for Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, Calif. And it is forcing a lot of fiduciary training in corporate communications.

Over the last 10 years, the tech industry has been catching up in sophistication and maturity to other industries. “We have caught up to best practices and are now leading the charge in new and emerging practice areas,” says Anne McCarthy, senior vice president, global communications, at enterprise software maker SAP America, Inc. in Newtown Square, Penn. “There’s still name-calling and mudslinging, but less. Maybe communicators are having better luck counseling CEOs.”

© 2004 Heyman Associates, Inc.