Personalised Technology Stimulates Innovation in the Workplace

Personalised technology
stimulates innovation
in the workplace
a ComputerWeekly report in association with
thinkstock/LDProd

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Organisations that embrace the move towards personalised technology can create more
opportunities for collaboration and find new ways to grow the business. Lisa Kelly reports
thinkstock/Tatsianama
The convergence of mobility, cloud, big data and security is not only driving a
digital revolution, it is fundamentally changing the way we can work. Workers will
increasingly bring their own knowledge, their social circles, digital footprints and
identity to work, along with their own devices.
As this trend develops, organisations are likely to evolve from bring your own
device (BYOD) strategies to a ‘bring yourself’ approach that puts people first.
However, organisations are moving at different paces. Many IT chiefs are
enthusiastic about the business benefits of mobility and cloud and the
efficiencies they bring. Gatwick Airport, for example, is no longer issuing
BlackBerry devices to employees, but is allowing staff to use their own devices
under a modernisation programme built on cloud-based technology.
BYOD chimes well with the move to mobile and cloud technology. But it is also
a vote winner with employees, who can bring in their preferred devices rather
than being restricted to standard issue corporate devices.
The spectre of insecurity still frightens many organisations, however, and
concerns over security risks and data leaks persist.
Acceptable use policies and software such as mobile device management
systems can help to mitigate these risks, but some organisations are more risk
averse than others or have more exacting compliance regimes.
Public sector organisations have not encouraged BYOD schemes, for example,
but even this is starting to change. New guidance on end-user devices and
security by CESG, the information security arm of GCHQ, demonstrates a
Harness the power of the people

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softening towards employees using their own devices at work – within the
parameters of tight security rules.
CESG’s End User Devices Security and Configuration Guidance policy says that
devices must be managed by the employing organisation throughout their life,
and recommends 12 security controls that need to be considered.
Dave Aron, Gartner fellow in the analyst’s CIO research group, says that
nevertheless a revolution is taking place with the combination of new
technologies.
“Mobile, big data, social media and cloud are in a collision to create massive
opportunities and threats. The internet of things is coming down the line and
everything will be talking – not just mobile devices. Digital will become broader
and deeper,” he says.
Changing attitudes
As this transformation gathers pace, Aron says the division between personal
and professional life will blur. This has consequences for organisations that do
not provide technologies that can match the experience of technologies used by
employees outside of work.
“If you want to be an organisation that attracts good candidates and motivated
individuals, you need to think about your digital design,” he says.
People want to work in more mobile-oriented companies where they can share
information whenever they need, to do their job effectively, Aron adds.
“There is the temptation to say we have an entitled digital generation and you
have to make everything happy for them, but work is work. However, this is an
opportunity to bring innovative digital minds into organisations and fresh pairs of
eyes to see what works well,” says Aron.
Many organisations assume things should stay the way they always have been,
he says. But bringing in a different perspective can change attitudes.
“Today, there is a sense that the only limitation is our imagination. There are so
many different ways of doing things, and new technologies and mavericks are
pushing the envelope,” he says.
Aron foresees a future where employers might hire teams of workers, with their
own equipment and expertise, rather than recruiting individuals.
“It can be argued that HR is a failed experiment and that organisations should
hire preferred teams – where the organisation has a relationship with a team,
not an individual,” he says. “It’s not a case of bringing your own smartphone to
work, but bringing your own team.”
While this may be blue-sky thinking, it highlights what is already becoming
possible. Working outside an organisation used to be a cold and lonely
experience in terms of available technologies, facilities and collaboration.
“Today, mobile and cloud means anyone outside an organisation could have a
potentially better environment than the corporate environment,” says Aron.
As the move to personalised technology accelerates, organisations will need to
reinvent themselves or risk losing the best people and customers. This means
organisations should look at their assets and services and rethink what they can
do with them.
“Mobile, big data,
social media
and cloud are in
a collision to
create massive
opportunities and
threats”
Dave Aron, fellow, CIO
research group, Gartner

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“It is about becoming bimodal and being able to change and move fast and
quickly: refactoring from staid and steady into something that becomes a source
of collective advantage and being able to do things another way,” explains Aron.
Clive Longbottom, founder of analyst group Quocirca, says many organisations
are still wrestling with the security aspects of BYOD.
“Instead of embracing new technologies and BYOD, many organisations are
banning it, but users in 40% of organisations are using sites such as DropBox
and Google Drive, even though they have been banned,” he says.
Social networking
Organisations that embrace the idea of Bring Yourself, rather than restricting it,
open up opportunities for collaboration and to grow the business, he suggests.
“With Bring Yourself, you have an army of people and can look at the social
aspect of technologies. For example, if you have 1,000 employees and 50% are
on Twitter or Facebook and they have 100 contacts each – that’s 50,000 people
you suddenly have access to,” Longbottom says.
“Organisations can spend a lot of money on buying databases and doing a
campaign, but with Bring Yourself, it’s possible to test a campaign with the
Tom Baker, CIO at Norfolk County Council, is excited about
the opportunities that technologies such as big data and
cloud create to allow people to work in better connected
and more innovative ways that put citizens first.
The local authority is working with HP, Vodafone and
Microsoft on the Digital Norfolk Ambition project to
transform working life at the council. The project will save
£10m over five years, while meeting security parameters and
compliance standards and maintaining the integrity of data.
HP and the council will create a cloud-based information
hub to deliver public services in Norfolk, enabling public
sector agencies to collaborate to solve social problems,
improve education standards and help to create a
knowledge economy.
“Large-scale collaboration between public services based
on integrity and trust identity technologies means people
can access data and systems in other people’s networks,”
says Baker.
This vision concurs with the Public Services Network – a
UK government programme to unify the provision of
network infrastructure across the public sector. It aims to
create an interconnected network of networks, which will
cut costs by 20%, increase efficiency and introduce better
working practices.
At Norfolk, people will be able to choose their own devices
to enable better collaboration; for example, council social
workers and NHS employees will become more joined up
and coordinated in their work with citizens. Workers will be
able to choose different devices from HP, such as tablets
or laptops, to best suit their needs.
“There is a huge amount of integration necessary and the
need to bring information and data together and to link
and match data. We need to join up public services in the
future,” says Baker.
He believes people need to be put first. “We will be able to
build services around the person and use the evidence
base to justify decisions and doing things differently. It will
mean it is easier to intervene to prevent something going
wrong, which is worse for the citizen and costs more
money,” says Baker.
He believes this approach will bring about a seismic
change in public services.
“It is vital and necessary to approach public services from
a citizen perspective,” Baker says.
The transformation will help with social challenges such as
a rapidly ageing population. Baker believes his role as a
CIO is to underpin technologies and the ability for people to
use information to have meaningful interactions.
“It is a wonderful opportunity to bring together practitioners
and exchange information securely – and put the citizen
first,” he says.
Council’s joined-up approach puts the citizen first

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contacts your employees already have. If only 10% agree, that’s 500 people and
campaigns can go viral,” he says.
Bring Yourself opens up other business opportunities, adds Longbottom. “If
there’s a problem with a product, they can be proactive in making people aware
and recalling it to show they are doing as much as they can; or they could offer
discounts to employees and friends, which is good for their reputation. It can be
a win-win,” he says.
But it is important to implement a code of conduct. Aim to work with employees
and get them to work alongside what you’re doing, he suggests.
Roy Illsley, principal analyst at Ovum, says the convergence of mobility, cloud, big
data and security has shifted the way people can interact and get things done.
“These technologies and 4G connectivity mean that people can bypass the
corporate network and change the way we work. It is now possible to provide
innovation at the point where it needs to be provided – at the frontline – allowing
people to do what they need to do,” says Illsley.
Instead of being defined and limited by technologies, people are free to work
more productively.
“A salesman with an iPad can get a web app to show a potential customer
information in a simple way. You can access the data you need through apps to
do the job you need to do in a more flexible and productive way,” says Illsley.
He believes the power of using apps to manipulate data will change the way
organisations do things and interact and create massive opportunities as
information is shared in more meaningful ways.
“Organisations can focus on a top-down approach and put people and
processes first; so employees can make connections and find better ways of
working,” he says.
“It is now possible
to provide
innovation at the
point where it
needs to be
provided – at the
frontline – allowing
people to do what
they need to do”
Roy Illsley, principal
analyst, Ovum
thinkstock/.shock

Personalised Technology Stimulates Innovation in the Workplace

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