As the boundaries between work and life become increasingly blurred, businesses will begin to design certain areas of their offices to accommodate changing working.
Here's a great post from "down under" in Australia by Melinda Oliver with Smart Company, concerning the use of mobile technology and use of big data for business trends in 2014. This is targeted for the Australian business community but may be a model for the rest of the world as well:
Citrix Labs vice president and Office Chair chief technology officer Martin Duursma said businesses will need to constantly adapt their IT infrastructure to cater for the changes.
Here are six key predictions for 2014 from the report.
1. Employees will drive the technology used
The report finds that as staff bring their own devices to the workspace such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, and connect them to work systems, businesses will have to boost IT security.
“Rather than employees connecting to the enterprise in 2014, the business will have to connect to the workforce,” Duursma said.
“IT teams will need to accommodate this change to ensure the security of the network – in fact, failure to acknowledge devices joining the network ‘under the radar’ can leave businesses exposed,” he said.
He said that enterprise mobile apps could take off, with an increase in the number of mobile apps installed on employees’ smartphones, tablets and laptops.
“With users keen to maintain ownership of their personal devices and data it will be critical that the information contained in personal applications does not break out to corporate applications on the device and vica versa. As such, this must be a key consideration for organisations when selecting the relevant mobile device management software.”
2. The desktop still has a place
The report found that despite the increase of mobile device use, businesses will still provide desktop facilities.
“Australian and New Zealand organizations still want and need the desktop – in some instances rolling out large numbers in a single deployment – they just do not want to install the infrastructures themselves,” Duursma said.
3. Integration of systems between businesses will boost
Businesses will enable third-party organizations and channel partners to integrate with their internal networks and the information they host, the report predicts.
This integration will be made possible through increased use of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions.
“Providing this level of access ensures all relevant parties can rapidly draw the insight they need to efficiently and seamlessly collaborate with partners on their respective projects to deliver a superior experience,” he said.
4. Big data used to better advantage
In 2014 businesses will increasingly focus on the value of the data information they have already collected.
“With data storage vastly accessible and a plethora of data-mining technologies available, big data has transitioned from buzz to a real-world business advantage.
“Smart organisations will begin to take advantage of the business intelligence derived through big data to enhance their businesses dramatically,” he said.
5. Office design will shift to cater for mobile workers
The way employees use office spaces will shift in the year ahead, as businesses experiment with different ways of working tied with an increase in mobile device use.
As the boundaries between work and life become increasingly blurred, businesses will begin to design certain areas of their offices to accommodate changing working.
Areas for communication and collaboration, or quiet concentration spaces, will be key.
“Ultimately, it’s about providing staff with the tools and environment they need to engage with the task at hand and effectively carry it out.
“Businesses will increasingly deploy virtualization solutions and connected devices to take advantage of this shift, with increased employee productivity and reduced office footprint costs two of the many benefits to be had by doing so.”
6. The cloud will get bigger
More businesses will shift their IT infrastructures to the cloud over the next year, the report predicts.
This will require business to enhance their knowledge of how cloud services operate and the connected technologies for maximum results.
This integration of technology and mobility has increased dramatically over the past several years with the advent of smartphones, the Cloud and the internet.
These tools now make each employee their own office basically.
For example--my advertising consulting business now consists of an Apple Macbook Air, iPhone 5s and iPad.
The tree devices all sync via my home wi-fi through iCloud. Calendar appointments immediately sync from my Mac to iPhone and iPad.
Furthermore--with the capabilities of the Macbook Air and included software--If a client calls me and wants to see a presentation this afternoon--no problem. I pull up Keynote and customize a presentation to show on my iPad in a restaurant, use Garageband to produce a :60 radio ad for them, then get pics of the clients business via their website and create an iMovie with video pics and sound--and insert it into Keynote.
I can produce the radio ad or I contact one of my contacts who produces it--sends it to me via email an hour later, and voila!
And I can assemble this pretty much wherever there's wi-fi.
The question is--what does your business need to do to apply this technology and customer information to be more productive?
This obviously offers the ability to "go mobile" for many employees--so companies need to decide if this is worth the cost savings to close down certain office functions (and save money) or wait until a later date.
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