The Future Requirements of Corporate IT Strategy

Summary

Whilst the world suffers from the largest economic slowdown in history, and we all vilify the bankers for their role in creating the mess, a silent revolution is occurring. We are, quite literally, slipping into the future of work, and most of us do not realise it is happening.

Create An Ipad App

A few months ago Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPad. The great and the good got on their blogs, and wrote about how this was an enlarged iPhone and how they couldn't see the reason for the device. I must admit to being quite cautious in my own opinions of the device, whilst at the same time acknowledging in my waters that something fundamental was afoot. I couldn't do anything to assuage my feeling, as I quite simply couldn't get hold of the device to find out.

However, I now possess an iPad, and having had the opportunity to interact with the device for over a month, have had time to think about what it means. Far from being critical of the device, I find myself in the position of understanding just what Steve Jobs has done on a technological level. He has quite simply created the future of work. In the following article I will attempt to explain what I mean and, hopefully, to persuade you, the reader, to share my point of view.

Explanation

In itself, the iPad is really a screen with a large battery and an antennae. We can get all caught up in the beauty of the thing, the technical advance of the touch screen interface and the format of the device, but that would be sidelining the discussion, and isn't really pertinent to the points I am about to make.

Firstly, the device is portable (highly portable). This is something to do with its size, but also to do with the lack of keyboard; both features enabled by the technological innovations. But these innovations aside, this is one of its greatest assets.

Secondly, like the Psions of old, you can use this device intermittently for days without the need to recharge. This is also a technological advance, but more importantly it supports and enables the portability aspect of the device.

Thirdly, it is designed to interact. This is its crowning glory. Simple interaction. As users, we do not need to be world class IT experts to work this device and to interact with the web; all of that is taken care of by the software and the apps. This is where the device becomes the future of work. All of the major app software developers are now creating API's into each others' apps. This is great, as it means that if I love using Omnifocus to manage my life, but my work colleague likes to use Taska, I will soon be able to interface through a 3rd party like Toodledo. I only use these three Applications as examples, as they are not all yet interacting as described. But this is the direction in which much of the software Development is going.

You then need to ask yourself the question, what does this mean going forward? For example, if I am employed by a company which has a Microsoft centric operating system, why would I chose to use Microsoft, when I could choose to use another product which better suited my needs? If I am forced to use Outlook at work, but I hate the program and the hardware restrictions imposed upon me, I might forward the email to my Gmail account and work on the iPad instead. Why should I use the Outlook calendar system when I prefer iCal, which allows me to integrate my working life with my social life. Perhaps I don't want to use Microsoft Project at work, because it's too complicated. Instead I may want to set up a quick little collaborative project time line and forum on line. The firewall at work prevents me from doing this, but my iPad allows me to do it, and the apps allow me to be up and running and sharing in minutes.

Take for example a fictitious working family who need to manage their accounts and expenses. The husband uses MYOB, but he is required to have a separate expenses program for work, which may or may not interact with his online banking. His wife has a separate expenses system for her work and a different personal banking arrangement. Their accountant who does their tax return uses SAGE. At the moment all parties interacting in this technological soup are required to use separate proprietary systems. As a result, no one is able to manage all accounts under one roof and all are required to learn and interact with a number of different systems. This is highly inefficient.

What is becoming clear at just this basic level, is that the role of central IT must change dramatically over the coming years in order to enable this sort of networked, interactive computing model. The question central IT need to ask is "how do we enable this sort of behaviour within a secure environment?" How can we control the digital presentation of a meeting from Livescribe, whilst allowing it to be shared freely with the people who are allowed to access it? The answer must refrain from limiting participants choices; rather it must enable choice. If it can do this effectively, then the future of work will be a much more productive environment, and the role of technology as an enabler will become much more pronounced.

On the Apple iPad website there are a few examples of companies which have embraced the new technologies. It is interesting that there are a range of different reasons given for doing so, but predominantly it is one of efficiency. Efficiency is constantly used as a justification, and in these case studies it is easy to see that efficiency could indeed be improved. However, efficiency savings go deeper than the obvious ones, and this is certain to be true going forward. Currently there is a young generation of workers who are required to separate their entire technological and online social/collaborative lives from work due to the restrictive IT practices of the past. These restrictions prevent employees from working efficiently, and from collaborating and sharing, whilst at the same time restrict the choice of Applications which they can use to get the job done.

Conclusion

The message is simple: we are entering an era where technology will become part of every aspect of our life, and we shall interact seamlessly on multiple fronts using an array of Applications and devices. Businesses need to alter their internal IT processes and procedures to allow this to happen. Success will be recognised by our ability to 'do at work' what we 'do socially' with our technology, and failure will be defined by our inability to accomplish a task that would otherwise be achievable outside the workplace.

The Future Requirements of Corporate IT Strategy