Business Info - issue 134

Eddie Ginja Adam Fleming businessinfomag.uk magazine 20 PREDICTIONS 2018 Eddie Ginja, head of innovation at KYOCERA Document Solutions IoT has been transforming the workplace year after year, and in 2018, it’ll become even more important. This is because companies and organisations will want to be more agile and provide cheaper support services, whilst collecting the data and parameters that enable them to innovate faster and potentially springboard the competition. Collecting and crunching (relevant) data and intelligence is the best, fastest and most cost-effective way to do this. Cloud technology has been with us for a few years now, as proved by the very competitive and commoditised cloud-services market. The emergence and rapid evolution of organisations such as Rackspace is a very clear indicator that this technology is only becoming more important; you are now able to buy any cloud service you want – and there are companies that will manage it on your behalf. Despite this, cloud printing is not yet mainstream in the enterprise segment. As enterprises outsource more and more of their services to the cloud, we think 2018 is the year that cloud printing will become more mainstream. Adam Fleming, chief technology officer at Apadmi There are a few key technologies that are sure to shake up a number of industries over the next year. The first of these is the use of digital assistants. We’re getting used to the likes of Alexa turning on and off our lights at home, and integrating voice-activated assistants into the workplace is the next step. It will help to smooth out the minor interruptions that break up the working day, allowing employees to set reminders, construct lists and order supplies, without having to break away from whatever task they’re working on. There have been many discussions around the role Artificial Intelligence What technologies are going to have most impact on the workplace in 2018? And are there going to be any breakthroughs that we will be talking about for years to come? Business Info asks the experts. Workplace 2018 The real boom in 2018 will be Augmented Reality (AR), which will overtake Virtual Reality (VR) (AI) will play in personalisation.With GDPR legislation coming into force in May, companies will need to re-think how they collect and use data, meaning the smarter use of anonymous data, combined with AI and machine learning. Systems will begin to react to what you do, rather than who you are (or claim to be). In the enterprise world, the same technologies will personalise apps, whilst detecting activity that might suggest stolen or compromised credentials. The real boom in 2018 will be Augmented Reality (AR), which will overtake Virtual Reality (VR).While VR's fully-immersive environments are ideal for training in sectors like healthcare, AR is where the true growth in adoption will be. If incorporated well into wearables, AR could provide employees with valuable hands-free information, which could prove critical out in the field. Phil Lander, head of B2B at Samsung Europe Samsung’s Big and Small: How to do Bigger Things in Business report states that the workplace is entering an era of ‘digital Darwinism’, when new technology will rapidly shape business. We are seeing technologies such as Virtual Reality making an impact through improved retail experiences, with Thomas Cook in the UK and Jaguar Land Rover utilising this technology in their showrooms. This is just the beginning for VR, and we can expect to see significant growth in people training and teleworking.We are also seeing AR becoming an exciting area for services to be developed to enhance the customer experience. Another trend affecting productivity in the workplace is the rise of mobile working. By 2020, 48% of the workforce in developed nations will be classified as mobile. This trend has already changed the definition of an office, with the static, physical offices of the past giving way to more flexible, collaborative and digital workplaces, which further increases workers’ appetite for mobile technology. Samsung advises businesses to plan for smartphones, in the long- term, to become the hub of the digital workplace. Over the next few years, increasing convergence between PCs and mobile devices will open up new mobile workflows that will unlock new levels of productivity and efficiency for businesses of all sizes. Mobile devices that promote features such as display, size, battery performance, the experience of editing documents and note-taking will increasingly make their way into the workplace as mainstream business tools. We have led the convergence between PCs and mobile devices, and have worked with police forces throughout Europe on one of the biggest technological advancements in modern policing. In the UK, we’ve issued Galaxy Note devices to front line officers and staff from Cumbria to Essex as a replacement for traditional pocket notebooks. The mobile devices contain online ‘apps’ which allow officers to record a crime without having to return to a station, reducing admin and enabling them to spend more time on the front line. This is already delivering an average of 18 minutes additional time on the streets, per police officer, equating to a million pounds worth of additional policing annually. Simon Dudley, director of product strategy at Logitech VC Increasingly, video will be integrated into an employee’s workflow, making it a much more central part of day-to- day activity within the office. Instead of being a separate method of working and collaborating, it’ll integrate into all elements of an employee’s workday. Phil Lander