Collabor8 white paper

UNWIRED RESEARCH
A new report on the future of
collaborative work
by Philip Ross
COLLABOR88 principles for successful collaboration

COLLABOR8 A new report on the future of collaborative work
UNWIRED Research © Unwired Ventures Ltd, 2011 All Rights Reserved1
CONTENTS
Executive Summary 2
Introduction What is Collaboration? 3
The Changing Nature of Work and the Workplace 4
A New Paradigm for Team Space 5
Activity Based Working (ABW) 7
The Changing Nature of Collaboration 9
Emerging Technology 10
Collaboration 12
Case Studies 13
External Forces 17
Collabor8 - a Look at Eight Principles for Successful Collaboration 18
Futures 21
Conclusion 23
About the Author 24

What is Collaboration?
Collaboration can be defined as the process whereby people work
together. Traditionally this also meant being together, at the
same time and place. Now, with new technology, connectivity
and the ‘death of distance’, collaboration is being redefined as
the experience of people working together, sharing ideas, data
and analysis to develop collective solutions. What has changed
is that people no longer need to sit together in the same space
to undertake collaborative work.
This report sets out to look at the rise of collaborative work.
It will look at both synchronous and asynchronous working,
and review the benefits being derived from early adopters
of collaborative spaces. It looks at the drivers of change,
from technology and work process, to demographics and
sustainability, and defines a set of eight features or principles
for the future of collaboration.
Inter and Intra Company Collaboration
There are two types of collaboration – ‘intra’ and ‘inter‘
company. The most common area so far has been intra company
collaboration where people that work for the same employer
work together on projects, co-locating in the same facility
or connecting across distance so that distributed teams and
specialists can work together without travelling the globe.
Now, inter company collaboration will become paramount,
where people from different companies need to connect and
work together. Connecting people across different geographies,
technology and security systems will create its challenges.
But it is this area that will see dramatic growth as people
increasingly demand collaboration with customers, suppliers
and partners.
Emerging Technology
In response, a range of new technologies and solutions are
on the horizon. From high definition video conferencing to
unified communications and collaboration (UCC) software, a
host of developments will accelerate the ability to collaborate
successfully. New standards such as XMPP will allow inter-
company networks - buddy lists and presence to be shared
and used seamlessly, so that distributed teams across many
organisations can in effect become seamless, working and
communicating together.
One of the key ingredients in collaborative space is the ability
for people to use ‘augmented technology’ so that collaboration
feels like an extension of the natural use of pen and paper.
‘Haptics’ – the use of touch – will have a profound impact on
people’s ability to use new collaboration tools as interaction
and manipulation of data becomes more intuitive and natural.
In the future we predict the rise of ‘smart surfaces’ from
interactive screens and displays to digital wallpaper and
immersive space. These advanced technologies will be used
alongside complementary technology such as high definition
video conferencing, mobile technology and cloud based
services. People will collaborate in highly capital intensive,
technology rich rooms but also ‘on the pause’ as they connect
from a variety of destinations from hotel room to the home.
Early Adopters
CompaniessuchasBT,Cundall,Ernst&YoungandO2havealready
adopted new technology in specially conceived environments
to achieve new work process and innovation. And while the
impetus for today’s generations in the workplace may be speed,
travel and sustainability, the next generation still at school
or college has been brought up with synchronous experiences
learnt through social networking, instant messaging and real
time presence. They have all been taught with interactive
whiteboards in their classrooms, and use mobile technology as a
natural extension of their personas. As they enter the workforce
in the next 10 years, a natural migration to collaboration and
collaborative work will take place.
Executive Summary
What has changed
is that people no longer
need to sit together
in the same space to
undertake collaborative
work.

Collaboration Defined
AccordingtoWiKipedia,theworld’sencyclopedia, ‘collaboration’
is a recursive process where two or more people or organisations
work together in an intersection of common goals - for example,
an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature - by sharing
knowledge, learning and building consensus. So collaboration
is a particular type of work activity, involving more than one
person.
Knowledge workers need to work together to solve problems. It
was Peter Drucker who coined the term ‘knowledge work’ in his
famous ‘Landmarks of Tomorrow’ publication of 1959 where he
defined a mental process rather than physical labour. Knowledge
work is both cognitive and social – it requires people to work
together but also necessitates individual concentrated time as
well.
So collaboration is the process of people working together on
knowledge work. It is a process that involves conversation and
interaction, allowing people to externalise their own internal
thoughts and experiences to make them accessible to others
though speech, video, writing and graphic visualisation. These
interactions can happen both physically and virtually, either
sequentially or simultaneously.
Work Today
But for the majority, work today is predominantly about
individual endeavour. In fact surveys of people’s occupancy
patterns and utilisation in a typical office show some startling
results. On average, when you ask people how much time they
think they spend at their desk they report 76%. But when an
observation study is carried out, the reality is that only about
44% of time is spent at the desk. People no longer sit at their
workstations all day. They are in and out of meetings. And they
look for space to concentrate and collaborate. Ask almost any
company and they report that there are never enough meeting
rooms.
Much of today’s workplace is still dedicated to individual work,
with rows upon rows of identical desks ordered for certain tasks
such as computer or telephone work. But a recent survey by
Unwired found that all companies reported a lack of available
spaces for teams and projects and a growing frustration with
an inability to concentrate in open plan offices.
Mismatch in the Office
The wrong space is compounded with new pressures on travel.
Once it was acceptable to jump on a plane to attend a meeting
or team session. Now the combination of sustainability and
cost cutting has resulted in the search for new ways to work
across distance. All too often today these rely on an emailed
document and a poor quality audio conference; very primitive
ways to connect people to work together. Sharing a document
or an idea is a challenge. And email ‘ping pong’ sees documents
endlessly iterated as they move between recipients, elongating
process and decision making. There is little knowledge of, or
understanding of, the potential for new systems and spaces for
collaboration in the knowledge economy.
Introduction
The reality is that
only about 44% of time
is spent at the desk.

For over one hundred and twenty years our workplace - the
office - has been dominated by fixed work with people sitting
at individual desks, supervised by people watching them work.
Time and motion based on Taylorism was the predominant
model. “Work system should be taught to all clerks and close
watch kept until they have thoroughly learned it. To ascertain
how well they are proceeding, suddenly ask for an eraser or a
ruler and see how long it takes for them to locate it.” So read
the 1926 book Office management: Principles and Practice by
William Henry Leffingwell.
And this fixed work was enabled by fixed technology. From the
Remington Typewriter and Bell’s telephone in the 1880s to
IBM’s PC in the 1980s, there has always been heavy equipment
on desks that has tethered down the office worker. As well as
heavy, personal desktop technology, paper and personal files
have tied the worker to his or her desk. People store many
linear meters of paper and filing each, at or near their desk. In
many workplaces, between 15 and 17 % of floor space is given
over to storage, and the paperless office has yet to materialise.
Yet much is about to change and challenge not just the use
of paper but the need to file and store it. ‘Digital flow’, new
display technology, tablets and ebooks will all reduce the ‘half
life’ of paper.
Allocating one person to one desk or office has been the
predominant approach to organising work, clustering people by
department in a building that represents the static corporate
hierarchy. The office has reflected status and power, not
role and function. But it has also represented stability and
certainty, and for the company inflexibility and sloth. Change
was difficult, expensive and slow.
While desks are usually empty, research shows1
that you can
never find a meeting room. Space for teams, projects, M&As,
pitches or war rooms are needed but not available. The types
of spaces that people will demand for the types of work
undertaken in buildings are changing.
When people do find a room for a team session, the barriers
to collaboration and connectivity are extreme. Complexity to
get people onto a network, sharing resources such as a printer
or projector are substantial in most workplaces today. And for
non-employees with so-called ‘alien devices’ it can be difficult
or impossible to connect and use peripherals such as printers.
And most meeting rooms lack the basic ingredients for successful
collaboration. A flip chart or white board is all too often the
only provision for capturing creative thought. Meeting rooms
today are ‘vanilla’ – bland solutions with table and chairs and
basic audio visual equipment such as conference phone and
projector. The approach is ‘one-size-fits-all’ with little regard
to the real needs of people and projects.
The Changing Nature of Work and the Workplace
1 UNWIRED research report 2008
Early offices were
based on individual
efficiency, with workers
supervised based on
the Taylorist principles
of the time
The barriers to collaboration
are often extreme, here a
team trying to share network
connectivity and peripherals
Most meeting rooms today are
bland or ‘vanilla’, providing
unimaginative space for people to
work with each other

Research from Washington University has found that dedicated
project rooms which allowed ‘displayed knowledge’ resulted in
‘latent memory’ – an experience that allowed participants in a
meeting to remember the process that was undertaken and not
just the results or agreed actions recorded. In another study,
a leading technology company found that providing dedicated
project rooms to software teams accelerated development time
by a factor of 10.
The findings point to the trend to allocate rooms for particular
projects, so that teams have dedicated space which can provide
dramatic advantages to a team as well as a process. Whether
for an acquisition, M&A, pitch or project, dedicated space can
provide dramatic advantages to a team as well as a process. This
approach requires a number of factors to be put in place, from
management culture to new workstyles that enable mobility
as well as enabling technologies that allow place independent
working. It is the first stage on a journey towards ‘activity
based working’.
New Ways of Working
Most companies have started to experiment with flexible
working. Many have introduced the idea of hot desking or desk
sharing, with moderate ambition of occupancy efficiency to the
extent, for example, that 5 people share say 4 desks. Sharing
ratios are often the limit of current thinking, and represent a
first step on the journey to a new workstyle.
The term ‘hot desking’ owes its origin to the Royal Navy that
operates the principle of ‘hot bunking’ where sailors share a
bed or bunk on a 24 hour basis – not at the same timezz
of course. And so this approach needs to be questioned as
the most appropriate response for knowledge workers in the
collaborative economy. All too often they were attempts to
save cost - there was little gain for the individual and the
spaces created were often poor and unappealing. Now a new
approach is evolving.
Space to Work
In my book, Space to Work (co-authored with Jeremy Myerson)
four key trends were identified for the knowledge company,
based on research with over 200 businesses worldwide. These
are represented by the diagram and show the tensions at work,
between permeable and contained work, and between high and
low corporate visibility.
The corporate office becomes an Academy – a place for people
that provides choice and empowerment, enabled by technology
and an accepting leadership culture. This balances with the
Agora – the increasing ability to be effective ‘in the field’, in
front of customers or working from new, third spaces. It means
that people have to come back to the corporate office on a
less frequent basis and so challenges the need to give them
a desk.
The other trends are about new space. Working near the home,
in the community, was called Lodge to evoke the period in
history when piece work from home, or community based
working, commerce and trade were the norm.
A regrouping by people from the same profession was also
recognised – the 21st Century Guild. Guild buildings were the
first commercial buildings in the world, where people clustered
by profession, skill or trade. Now we see a re-emergence of
the Guild, as employment by the corporate entity is joined by
freelance and independent careers – the portfolio workers that
now form a major part of many organisations.
In the diagram below, people find their own balance or
equilibrium, based on their profile. But what is clear is that
the ‘academy’ corporate centre will contract, while work in the
agora and lodge will increase. But the kinds of space provided
by the academy will be different. When people do come into
a building, they will do so to be with other people. They will
want to interact and collaborate, and so much of the space will
be different, providing places for people and not containers for
desks and paper.
A New Paradigm for Team Space
Space to Work2 identified four key trends in
the knowledge work economy
2 Space to Work by Jeremy Myerson and Philip Ross, published by Laurence King

Third Space
As the Agora grows, space ‘in between’ the corporate office
and home environment - referred to as third space – will grow
in importance. People, enabled by mobile technology and
new culture, and aware of the need to minimise travel, will
increasingly want to work on the pause in third space, dropping
in to find space to concentrate and collaborate as well as use
specialist technology.
Already, a range of innovative ideas have emerged, from clubs
and hubs to serviced offices and public buildings. One of the
most interesting third spaces is The Hospital, a club for media
executives that was set up and funded by Paul Allen (a founder
of Microsoft). Members pay an annual subscription, and have
use of a building in London’s Covent Garden where they can not
only work, meet and eat, but also screen a film, use a recording
studio or make a television programme in a full, state-of-the-
art studio.
At Regus’ Berkeley Square centre, a club workspace has been
created to allow people a drop in destination that is flexible,
shared and informal. Private work pods are interspersed with
soft seating and meeting spaces that people use as if they were
in an airline lounge. More formal space can be booked, but for
many of Regus’ Platinum and Gold card holders, the lounge is
exactly what is needed for ‘work on the pause’. A professional
space to drop into, connect and work.
As mobility increases and people are able to connect ‘on the
pause’ using portable technology, the demand to collaborate
across distance will only increase as people find new ways to
work together without sitting in the same building.
The Hospital is a club for media executives in
London and provides new spaces for collaboration
outside of traditional offices.
As people work in new ‘third space’, for example
here in Regus’ Berkeley Square club, they will
collaborate with colleagues virtually using
software and other tools.
People, enabled by
mobile technology and
new culture, and aware
of the need to minimise
travel, will increasingly
want to work on the
pause in third space...

As agile working becomes more widespread, companies
will begin to adopt Activity Based Working (ABW) as the
predominant model for work and the workplace. ABW has as its
core premise the basic assumption that a work setting should
not be a reflection of the corporate hierarchy or status of the
individual, but should reflect the task at hand.
The office is no longer homogenised so that a ‘one-size-fits-all’
takes workspace to the lowest common denominator. Instead,
it is recognised that during any individual’s typical working day
a number of tasks are performed or undertaken and these are
varied and require different tools, approaches and facilities.
ABW identifies these tasks and creates bespoke, focused and
tailored specialist spaces by task, which varies in design,
atmosphere and available resources. People move between
different ABW settings during their typical working day.
One of the key tasks that ABW caters for is collaboration.
Whether a high tech space with state-of-the-art technology,
or a low tech, sparse environment, ABW provides a tapestry
of inspiring space, where individuals are free to choose their
setting based on the task at hand, their mood, and who they
want to work with.
Case Studies of ABW
There have been a number of notable pioneers of Activity Based
Working. One of the first was Interpolis, the insurance division
of Rabobank, the Dutch bank. In the mid-1990s they took
an initial 1500 people into activity based working, and the
success of this project has been a model for others:
Macquarie Group, Sydney, Australia
Macquarie Group’s new building on Shelley Street in Sydney has
adopted activity based working, with over 2500 people sharing
a range of spaces that they choose based on a particular
activity. The spaces are rich and varied, with a dynamic central
street as well as a plaza area on each floor. Everyone carries
a laptop and uses wireless technology to connect, so people
can work from anywhere. Macquarie has reduced paper by 73%
and one of the surprising findings from post-occupancy is that
use of lifts (elevators) has reduced by 50% as people choose to
walk up the central stairs between floors.
Microsoft, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Microsoft’s new campus at Amsterdam’s Schipol airport changes
the rules. Nobody has a desk, and the workstyle is activity
based working. A range of spaces have been created, from
small private cocoons for concentrated work and for on screen
working and review by one or two people, to open team tables
and private, individual carrels. Everyone uses a laptop, and the
space has no fixed phones at all, with Vodafone and Microsoft’s
Enterprise Voice solution providing converged telephony and
messaging that is delivered to a person, not a desk. The
workplace is almost paperless, with people printing on average
only one page each per day.
Activity Based Working (ABW)
Activity Based Working in one
of the Plaza spaces at Macquarie
Bank in Sydney
Specialist spaces for two person working and
team work at Microsoft in Amsterdam
Activity Based Working
has as its core premise the
basic assumption that a
work setting should not be
a reflection of the corporate
hierarchy or status of the
individual, but should reflect
the task at hand.

Business Benefits and Drivers
These are the early signs that work is changing. Corporations have begun to adopt new ways of working for a variety of reasons,
and report a number of clear cost-benefits and return on investment (ROI) cases:
customer satisfaction and
responsiveness
More time ‘client facing’ is often a result of new work styles, where people need
to be back in the office on a less frequent basis. New ways of working results
in a more nimble organisation, with faster decision making and accelerated
processes.
cost saving and operational efficiency
(reduced churn costs)
Reduction of real estate leased by 30% has been achieved in new ways of working
programmes. Churn costs have been reduced to near zero.
mobility and flexibility Introducing the enablers for mobility within buildings means that people are also
able to work effectively from other locations.
sustainability and carbon reduction New ways of working results in less space, and so reduced emissions. With resource
management software, space that has not been booked can be hibernated.
competitive advantage and
differentiation
New ways of working can provide tangible differentiation and also advantage
through lower costs and improved flexibility.
public relations People in their tens of thousands have made visits to innovative workplaces.
recruitment and retention of staff A more vibrant work environment has been shown to be a positive factor in
attracting talent.
disaster recover and contingency
planning
An approach to ‘work anywhere’ as part of business as usual, also allows a more
flexible solution for continuity planning.
3 Allen, T.J. (1971) Communications networks in R&D laboratories. R&D Management
4 Reder and Schwab, 1990; Perlow, 1999; Brill et al., 2001
Back in 1971, some pioneering work by T Allen3 found that
people only communicate within a 30 metre radius inside
physical space. Further apart was equivalent to being in totally
separate buildings. He studied behaviour of researchers in
laboratories, and showed that people closest to each other
communicated more. Other studies found that people began
to interact when they moved around a physical space or were
‘seen’ in the office. An ‘encounter’ can then migrate into a
conversation and collaboration experience.
Other studies have shown that knowledge workers spend between
20 and 35% of their time in interactions with colleagues4. Most
of these encounters have tended to be unscheduled and occur
in hallways, doorways or the famous ‘water cooler’ moments
that are part of folklore in Silicon Valley. These interactions can
be intentional, but more often than not they are unintentional
– the chance encounters that were seen by many to be essential
ingredients for information exchange but also interactions that
led to innovation through collaboration.
But these studies were carried out in an age before technology
allowed alternatives to physical, co-located experiences. Now,
with the adoption of new workstyles, distributed teams and the
pressures on travel, it is no longer enough to rely on a water
cooler…
The Move from Individual Work to Teams and Groups

A number of changes are underway that are driving a new vision
for collaboration.
Information
Today we typically deal with single source information that
is usually asynchronous. It is viewed and used ‘off line’, and
typically it is ‘flat’ – what you see on screen can be output to
paper. Tomorrow, people will use information in new ways; it
will come from multiple sources that are typically synchronous,
real time or ‘live’, streamed or delivered to new, always-on
devices operating with multiple, simultaneous applications.
‘Digital flow’ will change the nature of the information
presented as depth though urls, embedded multimedia and
hover information means that what you see on screen can no
longer be output to paper.
People
Today most collaboration takes place between people inside
the organisation. Cisco estimates that 80% of collaboration
is intra company. This will now change dramatically, with
Cisco predicting that this figure will reverse to where 80% of
collaboration is inter company as people increasingly need to
connect dispersed teams.
Context
One of the most interesting changes will be context aware
systems and software. Today you have to find information
through search engines and knowledge management software.
Tomorrow, contextual systems will not only push the knowledge
you need to you at the right time but connect the right people
together.
Security
The approach today ensures that people have to remain inside
the organisation’s firewall. Tomorrow, we believe that security
will be more inclusive, selective and fluid, providing the means
for the inter company collaboration that will be essential for
successful teams.
The Evolution of Collaboration
From communication (email) to sharing, then the net (blogs
and wikis) and now aggregation (real time authoring) there is
a growing complexity in the technologies used between people
for collaboration. What was once a debate about sharing
documents, has now become far more complicated, with a
range of technologies that can be deployed to share both text,
voice and video. At the moment they can be categorised by
their complexity and the scale of the potential collaboration,
from one person to many.
But knowing what tool to deploy for what purpose is not straight
forward. A range of options presents a range of challenges, not
least in the training and etiquette for a new way to connect
and communicate.
The Changing Nature of Collaboration
Case Study : Boeing
At Boeing, for example,
over 27,000 external
suppliers collaborated
with Boeing’s development
teams on the Dreamliner
project. The company held
over 1 million collaboration
sessions in 12 months with
this ‘extended community’
using tools such as WebEx
and, as a result, have
reduced time to market.
The Collaboration Heat Map, Source: Unwired and Cisco
Tweets / Microblogs
Co-authoring

What is clear is that there is a range of emerging technology
that is set to change the landscape for how we work together
both in the same place and across distance. These can all be
seen to be transformational technologies, in that they have the
potential to alter the nature of how, why and where we work.
Mobility
There are a number of facets to mobility. The key is the
combination of a portable device and high speed connectivity.
But the mobility roadmap becomes more overcast as cloud
computing allows a new dimension to be realised. The delivery
of software as a service (SaaS) from remote data centres is
ideal for portable devices that have limitations in processing
power, storage capacity and battery life. Processing that is
done in the cloud leads to the concept of a thin client that can
be used by anyone through a ‘virtualised desktop environment’.
Indeed the concept of ‘virtualisation’ will apply across fixed
and mobile devices, as more of the software needed for work is
hosted remotely.
With these tools, and data hosted remotely, a new paradigm
will emerge – when people come into a space or building they
will do so because they need or want to be there. They will
no longer have to ‘commute to a container for work’ because it
houses the corporate computing infrastructure.
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing peaked too early. The adopters of the first
systems complained of judder – making participants look and
sound robotic. Creating the call was fraught with challenges,
and the equipment occupied large, engineered, specialist
rooms.
Now much has changed. The rise of high definition video
conferencing from the likes of Polycom, together with the high
end fixed solutions such as Telepresence from Cisco and Halo
from HP has resulted in a new era for video as the experience
and quality of collaboration across distance becomes close to
being in the same room at the same time.
Driven by travel savings, there has been a wide scale adoption of
video conferencing as companies realise that they can connect
to customers, the supply chain and colleagues across the globe
and experience productive meetings and other sessions.
But the rise of video is not just about high end video
conferencing. The penetration of lower quality ‘web cams’
into portable devices such as laptops and mobile phones as
well as fixed PCs has led to a huge rise in the use of video
for communication and collaboration. From systems such
as Skype to corporate tools such as WebEx, people are now
getting increasingly accustomed to seeing the person they are
speaking to.
Cisco report that 60% of the IP packets on their network are now
video, and they predict that by 2012 video will account for the
majority of traffic on the public internet. This also represents
the huge rise of video as a medium for communication. From
the use of YouTube to video casts, people are increasingly
familiar with its format and power.
Emerging Technology
Case Study : Tesco
Tesco, for example, now have an 80 – 90% utilisation of their
Telepresence systems and have embraced WebEx collaborative
software. They have found that they are saving 2 hours per
WebEx user per week and travel costs have been cut by 45%.
Cisco’s telepresence solution creates a virtual
meeting room, bringing people together
across distance.
A new paradigm will
emerge – when people come
into a space or building they
will do so because they need
or want to be there.

Intelligent Devices and Surfaces
One of the criticisms of new technology is that it forces people
to change the way they work. Altering a process, even if it
means improving it, has issues to do with acceptance and
training. Technology ‘laggards’ often reject such changes.
But much of the current innovation can be categorised as
‘augmented technology’ – where people’s habits and behaviours
are only made better by enhancing what they do, not changing
behaviours.
The growth of ‘haptics’ or touch technology has increased the
awareness of the potential for change. The success of the
iPhone has led to mass understanding of the power of haptics
to manipulate data and manage an interface.
People can understand and use haptics without training. It is
intuitive and natural, and so provides a strong contrast to the
keyboard. In fact the Qwerty keyboard, named after the row
of letters in the top left hand corner, was designed to actually
slow down touch typists to prevent metal bars colliding. Not a
great basis for data entry in a digital age.
Now surfaces will provide multi-touch experiences, and these will
be both vertical and horizontal. The use of multi-touch plasma
screens as interactive surfaces will make the manipulation of
software, documents and data more natural.
Web2.0, Unified Communications… and the Rise of the
Jelly Bean
The web has moved from being about ‘find and use’ to a
platform that also allows ‘share and expand’. This extension is a
natural migration into the world of collaboration, and so much
of the so-called semantic web is about shared experiences. As
people realise the benefits and added value that comes from
sharing, tagging and revealing location information, a new era
of collaboration experiences will emerge.
One of the most profound changes that people will experience
will be ubiquitous presence indicators – the so-called ‘jelly
bean’ that will start appearing in almost all applications and
on all devices. Corporate presence indicators such as ‘in a
meeting’ or ‘out of the office’ appear today alongside names in
address and buddy lists. Tomorrow they will appear within all
applications alongside people’s details to allow a constant view
of colleagues, clients and others in distributed networks.
And the intelligence will extend to a point where the jelly bean
is automatically fed by calendars and, in the future, location
aware sensors, accelerometers, digital compasses and GPS data
from mobile devices.
Contextually aware, geographically located and state driven,
these systems will begin to break down the barriers between
time and place and also allow in the future the ‘engineering’ of
serendipitous encounters based on people’s profile, contextual
information and real time location.
As people are brought together to interact, more and more
space will be dedicated to this type of activity, together with
rich, enabling technology. As social awareness starts to appear
within all applications in Microsoft Office, people will have a
new awareness and ability to interact and work together.
These concepts follow a broader change that is happening as we
shift from user centric to people centric software and design.
As people experience the personalisation that presents itself in
sites such as Facebook, they will demand the same experience
in other environments. And we believe that this will extend
into physical space as well.
You can now display and interact with digital
content using touch interactive tables like these
developed by SMART.

With these enabling technologies, an acceleration in the understanding of the benefits of collaboration will result in a transition
for the corporation from the limited, static definition applied today towards a more dynamic and inclusive view of a collaborative
future.
The appearance of new tools in future versions of software will accelerate this trend and see a widespread adoption of the
principles of collaboration.
Gartner’s Collaboration Technology Curve describes the shift as follows:
From To
Single stack Heterogeneous
Application by application Universal queue (one
window)
On premises Cloud and premises
Bolt on Built-in
Unaware Aware
Enterprise only Inter enterprise
Developer driven Mash up / User driven
Mostly asynchronous More real time
What is clear is that the rise of collaboration is also part of the gradual shift to the permeable organisation, where activities
no longer happen inside a ‘walled garden’ but connecting ‘outside the firewall’ with new communities and partners becomes a
necessity.
Collaboration

Collaboration Case Studies
With the need for collaboration established, many companies are beginning to experiment with new environments and technology
solutions. They are on a journey towards a realisation that much of the future of workspace will be about collaboration.
But it is still challenging to find case studies of true innovation and adoption of not just new technology but new techniques and
approaches to collaborative work.
Cap Gemini - Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASE)
One of the early pioneers of collaboration was the consulting firm, Cap Gemini. They created a space called the
Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE) where people could come together, from 50 to 500, and be facilitated
to work together.
These sessions co-located people, and involved them by creating a series of scenarios and interventions. Ideas
and knowledge were captured in the format of the time – post-it notes stuck onto large, moveable boards that
helped to demarcate the space and change behaviours through the day.
But with the advances in technology discussed above, new format environments are emerging to allow
collaboration and knowledge capture between people in the space as well as those that can participate from
a distance.

Cundall
Engineering giant Cundall has 500 people working in over 16 countries across the globe. Rather than isolated
regional businesses, they wanted to develop the ability to be able to work on documents and drawings
simultaneously with colleagues and clients around the world.
Rather than just share slide packs and plans, they wanted to be able to annotate and draw to share ideas – to
create the same dynamism and interactivity that they achieved in face-to-face meetings.
A series of ‘connected meeting rooms’ have been created to link people together using both smart surfaces and
video conferencing. People can now set up data conferences, and write in digital ink in a variety of applications
such as Autocad, as well as share desktops from wireless laptops. The system, based on SMART Bridgit™
conferencing and SMART Board interactive whiteboards, runs parallel with video conferencing to get a ‘three
dimensional’ experience of collaboration.
Engineers can now view, discuss, amend and manipulate the same engineering drawing in real time and so
reduce dramatically the time taken to agree a final version between geographically dispersed teams.
Ernst & Young - CUBE
As a place for collaboration and teams working together on concurrent tasks, Ernst & Young’s space called
Cube is an excellent example of advanced technology used in a flexible environment. The space is clear
of any fixed furniture and so can be configured as needed for groups or teams. A series of six SMART
Board™ interactive whiteboard systems are located around the space, which can be used independently
or connected as a series to collaborate on documents and create a sequential process between separate
teams.

O2
cont...
The communications company has over 29,000 people working in disparate teams across the globe. O2’s
very ethos is ‘we’re better connected’, and so collaboration solutions were a key requirement for their new
headquarters building in Slough.
One of the drivers for change was the need for better connections between London and Leeds offices, with a
desire to reduce travel time and cost. But other imperatives such as reducing time to market also stimulated
change.
Ease of use was one of the drivers for O2. Their philosophy of ‘three touches and go’ is one which should apply
to all augmented technology solutions – simplicity and an obvious user experience. As Alan Parkin, Programme
Manager for Infrastructure Design and Delivery at O2, explained; “we can set up a conference in less than three
minutes. SMART’s collaboration technology fits perfectly with our mantra of ‘walk up and use’. It’s really that
simple.”
This compares to the previous situation where projectors were booked through reception and a lot of time was
wasted setting up meeting rooms. Now the 47 rooms have been equipped with permanent, advanced audio
visual and collaboration tools. With over 70 SMART Boards in the Slough campus, O2 is holding more than 500
SMART meetings a month using the SMART Bridgit conferencing platform.
O2’s new workstyle is called Our Space, and was a radical departure from their traditional way of working. As
more team work and ad hoc collaboration is desired, tools have also been incorporated into Our Space areas
for impromptu meetings and encounters. ‘Huggers’ or residents were contrasted with ‘Hoppers’ who book
space when in the office. This mix means that the Slough building is home to 2200 people, but only has 1500
desks.
Change management has also been thought through. Designated ‘shapers’ from each directorate ‘cascade’
knowledge to teams through monthly meetings, and a guide book and intranet portal have been created to
allow users to understand and use the technology.

BT - Agile Development Centres - BT Innovate and Design (BTID)
cont...
BT has created 100 ‘collaboration stations’ around the world for over 2000 developers to work together with
advanced technology. With over 3000 BT people involved in development and 12,000 sub contractors, new
methodologies were needed to accelerate the time it took to get products to market.
The move to Agile Development introduced the idea of the ‘two week sprint’ – a faster approach to project
process – as traditional ways of sharing information and knowledge such as WiKis were deemed too slow.
“Collaboration on the same thing and the same time was required”, explained Bola Oshisanwo, Director of the
Agile Development Centre at BT. “We observed that developers stood around white boards and scribbled. We
wanted to replicate this but it couldn’t be in the same room. So we needed electronic white boards that could
be conferenced together.”
The collaboration station that BT has set up combines shared desking for developers (a ratio of between 1:2 and
1:5 people to desks has been set) with a collaboration space, focused around a large round table with adjacent
SMART Board interactive whiteboard. So that developers could behave naturally in the space, ceiling mounted
microphones have been used so that audio and video conferencing can complement software collaboration.
In addition to a SMART Board, 2 cameras have been used, one focused on the collaboration station space,
and another on the SMART Board itself. This allows the gestures, pointing and movement of the developer
scribbling to be seen by remote collaborators, as opposed to just the annotations,
providing a more rounded experience.
BT found that developers did not use the dedicated high tech telepresence video conferencing rooms. Instead,
they wanted the right tools in their space.
The key technologies used for BT’s Collaboration Station are:
Sharepoint•
WiKi•
LiveLink•
Lync•
SMART Bridgit•
SMART Meeting Pro•
Audio conferencing•
Video conferencing•
The facility allows people to collaborate across distance, in multiple geographies and time zones. And while
today the use has been mainly ‘point-to-point’, linking two distant spaces together, in the future it will allow
‘multipoint’ with numerous groups connecting in real time, accelerating processes 24/7 through different time
zones.
One of the big benefits has been a reduction in travel. For example, a group of five developers were able to
resolve a problem within two days rather than travel to India for five days.

Cisco
Cisco has used Media Net to create and run virtual company meetings. Not only does this create an
event at between 1/3 and 1/10 of the cost of a physical event, but it extends the reach of the event
by a factor of between 5 and 10 times. Cisco’s annual GSX sales conference was traditionally held in
Las Vegas for 13,000 people at a cost of $4307 per person. Last year the event was held virtually
at a cost of only $437 per head, and an additional 3000 people were able to ‘attend’. Interestingly
participants gave a higher rating for the content than they did at the previous ‘physical’ event.
As an early adopter, Cisco is an interesting case study in the future for collaboration. For example,
in Q2 2009, 100 million minutes of WebEx conferencing were used. And with 700 Telepresence rooms
around the world, Cisco has saved a staggering $250m in avoided travel costs.
In 2009, Cisco realised over $1.1bn of cost savings, comprised as follows:
Telecommuting $299m•
Connected Workplace $12m•
Virtual Expert $125m•
Remote Collaboration $601m•
Sales & Marketing $15m•
In their Bedfont Lakes workplace in the UK, they have been able to increase capacity by 60%,
through new ways of working as well as increased work from home. All the tools are now in place
to make advanced collaboration a reality.

As well as the trends described above, there are two key external
forces which will accelerate the move towards collaboration:
demographics and sustainability.
Demographics
Today there are for the first time four generations at work
together. The newest entrants to the workplace, the Millennial
Generation (also called Generation Y), promise to exert more
influence than even their Baby Boomer parents. This group,
born between 1980 and 2000, is more numerous than the
boomers. It is also a generation celebrated for its confidence,
its dedication to equality in the workplace, and its keen, global
perspective. But most important, the Millennial Generation
takes information delivered by digital technology for granted.
For them it is intuitive, invisible and essential and the
infrastructure that delivers it, ubiquitous. As a social impact,
for probably the first time in history, these young people are
considered authorities on something that the older generations
haven’t mastered in the same way.
What are the characteristics of the other three generations?
Traditional Generation
Born between 1928 and 1945, these are the oldest members of
the workforce. They tend to exemplify faith in the Institutions,
loyalty, willingness to conform, and the importance of hard
work. Many of this generation are retired. But a growing
percentage is staying in the workforce, offering outstanding
knowledge and experience.
Baby-boomers
This group is so large; it is divided into early boomers, born
from 1946 to 1954, and late boomers, with dates from 1955
to 1965. Both share a strong emphasis on individuality,
youth, and adventure. They are confident in their prosperity
because they were raised amidst economic growth. Boomers
have humanised the workplace, making it comfortable and
encouraging innovation at all levels. They are exploring
retirement in interesting ways – They are expecting an extended
active and vital work life by working part time, telecommuting
or consulting.
Generation X
These born between 1966 and 1977 are typically identified as
slackers, winners and cynics. There is tension between them
and the boomers. If these children of divorce and day-care
had a slogan, it might be a sarcastic, “thank you for the world
you’re leaving me.” But Gen X is also very entrepreneurial. They
were raised in times of idealism and equality, so they lack the
social and cultural limitations of their predecessors.
Getting Ready for the Digital Natives – the ‘Net’ Gen
What is clear is that the next generation (still at school) will
be even more radical in their attitudes and approach. The ‘net
gen’ or digital natives have grown up with the internet and use
technology in a very different way to other generations. They
are learning with the internet, use SMART Board interactive
whiteboards in their class rooms and carry with them more
computing power than their predecessors had in their
workplace. They will be the generation that moves the goal
posts – the first to be able to live on line, to read on screen and
to be happy with less privacy and the ubiquitous connectivity
that still leaves digital immigrants out in the cold.
Travel and Sustainability
Commuting is one of the most challenging behaviours associated
with work. It consumes an average of 80 minutes a day per
person worldwide according to figures from the Universities of
Sheffield and Michigan. Today in London, 24 million trips are
made every day. For example, 3 million people use the tube
each day, there are 11 million car and motorcycle trips a day
and 9.5 million people walk or cycle. A staggering 2 billion bus
journeys are made each year.
Bringing an estimated 10 million people into office buildings
for work each day at the same time is no longer sustainable. A
different set of patterns for work will emerge, based not just
on ‘home working’ but on suburban and polycentric models that
change the nature of commuting.
But as these models of dispersed working emerge, and people
are increasingly separated from their colleagues, customers
and partners, new ways of connecting and collaborating will
be needed.
External Forces
Children at Teddington School use SMART Board interactive whiteboards,
and connected laptop computers as an integral part of their learning.

To achieve success, we have identified 8 principles for successful
collaboration. As the diagram illustrates, the move to a different
style of work requires integrated thinking between the three
key pillars of any organisation – its people, its workplaces and
its technologies. By looking at the mental, the physical and
the virtual, a different set of behaviours can be established
(such as collaborative work) with new processes supported by
innovative infrastructure.
Our 8 principles are as follows:
1. ABW – The Agile Business
People no longer inhabit their offices or corporate desks.
Surveys show that in the average workplace, less than 50%
of the desks are occupied at any one point in time. A new
approach to the workplace is needed, based around teams and
tasks and not departments and functions. This approach is
called Activity Based Working and it is the future for agile
organisations.
To adopt Activity Based Working requires a fundamental rethink
of the need for and provision of workspace. It requires a detailed
understanding of the workforce – by profiling and identifying
discrete cohorts. Typical working days must be mapped and
then a range of task based settings with appropriate enabling
technologies delivered. The cost benefit is complex, but one
of the clear winners will be a reduction of real estate overhead
– by up to 30% based on experience.
Corporate agility will become one of the key drivers for
collaboration – speed to market, speed of decision making
between dispersed teams and the ability to remove downtime
and make better use of expertise will all drive collaborative
best practice.
2. Become Less Physical - Migrating to Cloud
Computing
Bringing people into the physical remnants of yesterday’s
order is not collaborative. Desks laden with paper in buildings
stuffed with fax machines, computers, servers and software is
not a vision of the future.
Companies need to become more footloose, and virtualise their
infrastructure so that the office does not represent the corporate
DNA. As this moves into cyberspace, people will only come
into the workplace for one reason – to be with people. And
as occupancy of buildings becomes more fragmented and work
disperses, people will need to collaborate and communicate
across distance.
The growth of the cloud will have a profound impact on
collaboration. On-premise systems will migrate to a range
of hybrid solutions, usually blending on-premise voice with
external software so that people can connect from anywhere.
Tomorrow, we believe that collaboration systems will be cloud
based applications as the software is provided as a service
(SaaS) to people as and when they need it.
The empty building is the logical conclusion of the journey
towards cloud based computing; a building devoid of all
infrastructure, software and processing power – in effect
people will come into a building only to be with and work
with other people. The empty building will be a collaborative
space for teams, training, mentoring and socialising. It will
represent the corporate brand and provide a narrative space for
the business.
3. Adopting Digital Flow
Paper has always dominated work and the workplace. An
estimated 17% of floorspace is used to store paper in the office
today. And paper is in effect the antithesis of collaboration –
it can’t be shared - it is analogue and off line. In days past,
paper flow was passed between people through the internal
post system, with each recipient adding comment in different
colours in a slow sequential process that resulted in a collective
review. But this process is iterative and laborious, and early
commentators cannot see the suggestions of those later in the
chain.
Collabor8 - A Look at Eight Principles for Successful Collaboration
Work Triptic – the collision between people, place and technology
creates the potential for innovation that can change the way we work
Source: UnWork.com

Now digital flow is set to change the rules. The previous IT
revolution was essentially to turn paper digital – what you
viewed on screen could then be re-output to paper and would,
to all intents and purpose, look the same. No longer. Now the
screen has depth with urls and hover information that cannot
be reproduced in two dimensions.
Digital flow will result in a slow death of paper and move people
into the digital realm that will naturally encourage interaction
and collaboration between documents being developed in on-
line, real-time systems.
4. Always On - The Corporate Jelly Bean
One of the drivers of collaboration will be the increasing
acceptance of networks, from ‘social’ to corporate. But there
has been a barrier to creating networks between companies.
A new standard called XMPP is set to change this, allowing a
‘buddy’ to be added from another company to internal network
lists for example on Microsoft OCS.
Fluid buddy lists will provide presence indicators to show the
real time availability of people both inside and outside the
corporation. Teams, be they distributed or co-located, will be
visible.
The corporate jelly bean means the adoption of a strategy for
converged communication and collaboration so that these
applications function seamlessly across the enterprise.
5. Web2.0 : Defining a Corporate Folksonomy
Derived from the combination of ‘folks’ or people and taxonomy
or the science or ordering information, folksonomy has
become synonymous with social or ‘collaborative tagging’ – a
phenomenon of the so-called ‘social web’. In effect it combines
the process of tagging or labelling to categorise content by
people in a social context.
Web2.0 was moving the internet from an approach based around
the activities of ‘find and use’ to a concept of ‘share and expand’.
Folksonomy develops these themes and advances the concept of
the ‘semantic web’ to a future where collaboration can become
meaningful within a corporate community.
The experience of people using applications such as social
bookmarking (Del.icio.us) and social photo sharing (Flickr) shows
the acceptance of tagging in the public domain. Corporates
need to embrace this and start building the foundations for
future collaborative systems.
6. Collabor8 Space
What is clear is that collaborative space, rich in technology,
with flexible infrastructure and versatile settings will be a
critical success factor. Physical space shapes behaviour, and
so by creating the right collaborative space, the behaviours
desired for collaborative work can be shaped.
7. Collabor8 Etiquette
People no longer have the tools to know how to communicate
well, let alone collaborate properly. The rise of the audio
conference and then video have challenged people to find a new
etiquette for communication. Now data conferencing will change
the rules again. This is confounded by the other formats of
communication that exist today, from formal letter, through fax
to email, instant message, text message, web discussion forum,
tweet or blog. What medium do you use for what purpose and
in what format?
A new guide to collaboration and communication etiquette
is needed, together with a new language – the rules need re-
writing.
8. Collabor8 Behaviours
The final ingredient to successful collaboration has to be the
desire to collaborate in the first instance. The process of
interaction requires trust and openness and a desire to work
with other people for the common good.
A change management programme needs to be introduced
to allow people to understand and identify new behaviours
necessary for successful collaboration. Psychometric types
suggest that it is often extroverts that dominate team sessions,
while introverts find it hard to contribute. Systems for inclusive
collaboration and behaviours that allow democratic participation
are essential for success.
Concept future collaboration
space, featuring interactive
walls, telepresence,
biodynamic lighting and
flexible furniture

We have moved through four phases of collaborative work over
the past decades, each with added benefits. First we had basic
information sharing, then transactions, followed by interaction
and now true web2.0 collaboration.
Where do we go from here?
Immersive Space
One of the key requirements will be specialist space that
achieves corporate competitive advantage. Accelerated
process environments, ‘deep dive’ spaces where complexity
and modelling can be achieved, highly immersive visualisation
environments (HIVEs) where complex stimuli can be identified
and understood will all be part of a range of future spaces that
will be the destination of much corporate collaborative work.
There are already examples of these futures around the world.
For example, the ‘iRoom’ at the Yang and Yamasaki Environment
and Energy Building in Stanford University provides a dynamic,
connected environment. And this situation will get more
interesting as the leading players in workplace furniture begin
to innovate and bring new products to market.
Workplace Innovation Centres
We believe that a new typology of innovation space needs to be
developed that creates a place for people to work together. Not
a meeting room with its table and chairs, or a lecture theatre
or break out space, but a fully equipped, enabled resource
that provides a stimulating place for people to be creative and
collaborative.
The space has technology within, not just attached to the walls
but inside the space, and whole surfaces can become digital and
interactive. The space is inclusive and has all functions within
it, from print and scan to tea and coffee. People can move
between collaboration and concentration, while knowledge and
ideas are still displayed for reflection and contemplation.
These future spaces will become sought after in the corporation
and will begin to grow in importance as the need for solo work
at the desk diminishes.
Convergence - Towards UCC (Unified Communications
and Collaboration)
We will see a huge rise in collaboration across organisations as
the barriers to secure inter company collaboration are lifted.
Collaboration will increasingly use both voice and video,
alongside intelligent surfaces and devices that allow people
the tools to manipulate data and communicate ideas.
Presence and instant messaging will be central ingredients,
enhanced by developments such as XMPP and SIP, and these
will develop into richer experiences as geo-presence allows not
just the state of a person to be displayed but their real time
whereabouts as well.
Geopresence will become even more sophisticated with context
aware presence – an idea where only the people that it would
be useful to see are displayed based on a project, knowledge or
communications flow or time zone.
Today’s often disparate systems will converge and we predict
that a unified communications and collaboration (UCC) suite
will become the norm. The advance of corporate presence to
include geopresence and context specific presence will usher
in a new era of real time communities working on collective
solutions – ‘collaboration without leaving the document’.
Futures
‘iRoom’ at the Yang and Yamasaki
Environment and Energy Building
in Stanford University
Workplace Innovation Centre,
Hampton Wick
www.workplaceinnovation.co.uk

Companies that adopt the 8 principles will derive a range
of cost-benefit and competitive advantages. We have seen
that collaboration is multi-layered and multi-faceted. But in
common is the desire to change the nature of work and how
people interact to get faster, better and more rounded results.
The need to collaborate will become paramount in the creative
economy where knowledge work will become increasingly
important as process-orientated administration diminishes.
The combination of technologies, demographics, sustainability
and new work will all become factors in a move towards activity
based working – a future that is based on what you do and not
who you are – and part of a general democratisation of the
workplace as web2.0 changes the rules.
About the author, Philip Ross
Philip is CEO of the Cordless Group and UnWork.com, specialists
in the future of work with an emphasis on the impact of
emerging technology on people and their behaviour in the
built environment.
He has worked with organisations such as Ernst & Young, Allen
& Overy, GlaxoSmithKline, Cisco, McKinsey & Co, Nottingham
City Council, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Royal Bank of Scotland,
Jones Lang LaSalle and Ericsson on future concepts based on
emerging technologies.
Philip has spoken at conferences around the world including
the Wall Street Journal Europe CEO Forum on Converging
Technologies, alt.office in the USA and Corenet’s Global Summits
in Beijing, Auckland, Orlando, San Diego and Melbourne. In
1994 he wrote and published The Cordless Office Report and
founded Cordless Group.
He has written three books on the future of cities, work and
workplace: The Creative Office, The 21st Century Office and
Space to Work (all co-authored with Jeremy Myerson). He
has also contributed to a number of other books including the
Corporate Fool and the Responsible Workplace.
philip@unwork.com
Conclusion Appendices
The Creative Office, The 21st Century Office and Space to work – all
by Philip Ross (co-authored with Jeremy Myerson and published by
Laurence King)

About Unwired
work • workplace • technology • innovation
Unwired is a specialist in the future of work. Through research,
forecasting, publishing and events it predicts the way that
our patterns of work will change as a result of political,
socioeconomic and technological trends.
Unwired was founded in 1996, and has published over 50
research reports, including Creative Places for the BBC,
the New Millennials for Nokia and Rio Tinto and Workplace
Sustainability.
Its events include the WorkTech conferences held in London,
New York, Shanghai and Amsterdam.
For further information visit:
www.unwired.eu.com
This research was supported by:
About Steljes Limited
Steljes Limited is an innovative technology distributor
that sources products from around the world, working with
manufacturers to customise and bring their solutions to the UK
market through its specialised channel network. The company’s
innovative solutions enable people to interact and communicate
more effectively while working and learning.

The company has been sourcing products from around the world
for over 20 years, introducing LCD panels, projectors, plasma
displays and interactive whiteboards to the UK market. The
company has consistently been the UK’s number one supplier
of interactive whiteboards and recently increased its UK
market segment share to 58.85% in first half of 2010 (source:
Futuresouce Consulting).
Steljes Group is a privately owned company and has helped
companies such as SMART Technologies become market leaders
in the UK.
Telephone +44 (0) 8450 724 800
Email info@steljes.co.uk
Web www.smartmeetings.co.uk
Published by
Unwired Ventures Ltd
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Email info@unwired.eu.com
Web www.unwired.eu.com
Unwired Ventures Ltd, its employees, the advisory board and the sponsors of
Unwired are not to be held responsible for any losses, expenses or any claims
arising out of any reliance on the information contained in this publication.
Since most of the information in this publication has been provided by third
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it must be independently verified and applied to those individual circumstances
by a suitably qualified individual.
The very nature of the information contained in this publication ensures that
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