OPINION
12
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Connectivity
will not
stop at the
individual
workspace
but will
expand to
include entire
buildings
and their
infrastructure
Technological progress has radically
transformed the workspace in the
last ten years. Companies now
envision their workforce of the
future as more mobile, more flexible,
more efficient and more networked.
Here are six trends they should
take note of in order successfully
to meet the requirements of the
employee of tomorrow:
1
Individual cloud-based work
environments – the browser is the
new operating system.
One of the basic technologies
driving many innovations is the
cloud. Today, it is possible for
personal workstations to be
represented down to the last detail
in the cloud and accessed via a Web
browser. As a result, the personal
work environment is no longer tied
to a conventional work ‘place’ but
becomes independent of time, place
and device. No matter where I am,
when I work or which device I am
using, the cloud gives me access to
my work environment at any time, be
it apps, files, identities and services.
The browser is thus turning into the
new operating system and work is
becoming a state that I can choose
to activate or deactivate at any given
time.
2
Holistic workspace
management is putting an end to
management silos and a one-sided
focus on specific devices.
Providing knowledge workers with
a suitable workspace in the future
requires certain investments to
be made, and employers who
are taking steps to make the
work environment mobile are
heading in the right direction.
Right at the top of the list is
holistic workspace management
that puts an end to management
silos and a one-sided focus on
specific devices. Employees
use more than one device to do
their work and, in response, IT
management technologies are
becoming increasingly user-centric,
rather than being based on a
specific device. Unified Endpoint
Management of traditional, mobile
and hybrid devices is becoming
more and more important,
enabling administrators to manage
the workspace environment
independently of the devices used
and to focus on the user instead.
3
Enterprise Service Management
– New synergy effects are also
emerging across the entire field
of employee service through so-
called servicisation in companies.
Over the last decades, IT service
management has developed
extremely efficient processes for
the provision and administration
of services. Connectivity will make
these processes available for non-IT
services, too, in the future. The HR
department, for example, will use
them to on-board a new employee,
or to handle requests for leave or
notifications of illness.
4
Offices will be smarter than
ever before, with IoT & Augmented
Reality playing an important role in
this transition.
The need to be able to use an
increasing variety of devices for
work is set to rise in future. The
connected and autonomous car will
increasingly be used as a mobile
office. Wearables will enable new
and more efficient work processes.
Data glasses, for example, will show
logistics staff the location of goods
in storage halls or assist surgeons
during operations. The option of a
new kind of virtual conference is
also on the horizon, with participants
meeting in an augmented office even
though they are actually thousands
of miles apart.
Connectivity will not stop at
the individual workspace but will
expand to include entire buildings
and their infrastructure. Functions
such as lighting, heating, access
controls and projectors will be
‘smartly’ connected to the work
environment. Knowledge workers in
the smart office can then check the
availability of rooms and book them
for meetings, for example, or locate
members of staff within a building,
automatically regulate the lighting,
launch teleconferences and dial in
Oliver Bendig highlights six workplace technology trends
to watch out for in 2017
Tomorrow’s world of work
participants automatically. This will
lead to better time management,
more efficient allocation of office
resources and more effective
collaboration.
5
Workstations will be more
and more able to act as virtual
assistants.
Music streaming apps like Spotify
are setting the trend. In line with
a user’s personal taste in music,
they make recommendations
about what to listen to in certain
everyday situations like getting up
in the morning, taking exercise or
relaxing in the evening. Technology
will generally become more
‘empathetic’ to work contexts of the
future, helping knowledge workers
to become more efficient, more
productive and more motivated.
Time, place, devices, bandwidth and
user behaviour will become factors
that are automatically taken into
consideration in the provision and
use of IT services. My workstation
will, for example, identify who my next
meeting is with and automatically
call up our last conversation, recently
shared files and the necessary apps.
Tomorrow’s workstation will become
a kind of super assistant that will
quickly learn from my interactions
what I need in each specific situation
and provide it.
6
The work environment in 2017
will be about more than just
technology.
Digitisation will surely also change
the habits of knowledge workers.
Work and private life will often
lie side by side on one device,
and this harbours certain risks.
The topic of data security and
privacy will require a great deal of
attention; care must also be taken
to ensure that the blurring of work
and private life is not detrimental
to work-life balance. In principle,
technical options could be deployed
to achieve this, but experience has
shown that responsible role-model
behaviour on the part of superiors
has the most lasting impact. After
all, modern knowledge workers
should not just be able to work
more efficiently, they should also
have a higher quality of life!
Oliver Bendig is
CEO of Matrix42.
More than 3,000
customers around
the world, including
BMW, Infineon,
and Carl Zeiss,
currently manage
approximately 3
million workstations
using workspace
management
solutions from
Matrix42.
