Member Article

Four technology trends to shape your business

It is no secret that thanks to cloud technology and to the promise of 5G networks, an uninterrupted, always-on environment is changing the way we live and work. Thanks to disruptive technologies and high-speed communications, we can shop, look up information and keep in touch with family and friends on the go, from anywhere in the world.

With barriers to communication broken down, the face of business has changed beyond recognition.

Employees using laptops or mobile phones can access information stored in the cloud and instantly share it with geographically dispersed colleagues. However without a solid understanding of how technology changes business practices, managers may miss out on the opportunity to work more efficiently and maximise productivity.

By taking a social approach that uses new technologies to empower people, managers can bring the best out in their employees. With 5G network speeds set to be 100 times faster than 4G by 2020 and the introduction of new flexible working regulations in many countries including the UK, mobility will be king. Therefore managers need to ensure that their teams have tools available which will enable seamless connectivity. With this in mind, these are the 4 trends that businesses can use to improve their bottom lines:

1.True mobility: Access to the cloud through tablet and mobile devices has made mobility a reality, especially with the introduction of BYOD (bring your own device) and BYOA (bring your own app) policies in businesses. However, many still need to overcome the challenge of integrating standard workforce devices and applications with personal systems. This is going to be even more urgent as wearable devices become mainstream in 2015, creating even more complexity.

The Workforce 2020 study predicts that the ability to work at any time and from anywhere is becoming a major factor in the business world, especially as more millennials join and shape the workforce. Companies need to ensure they keep up with the times and provide the technology that their workers need to complete their jobs, while keeping their customers happy. If they don’t, they risk losing not only their customers’ loyalty but also their best talent. Therefore, managers need to choose virtualised tools and systems that are designed to increase agility and accessibility amongst their teams, all while still giving them the control they need to plan and manage their own tasks.

2.The cloud for you: Often, we have seen the ugly side of the cloud as high-profile organisations have become victims of major data breaches. Unfortunately, a Forrester research report predicts that similar breaches will be inevitable in months and possibly years to come. These threats have pushed many companies to assess their own approaches to security and the risk factors that the cloud services they use are presenting.

Security is built on three pillars: trust, assurance and the right software. Indeed, not all clouds are created equal when it comes to these pillars. For example, some have flaws waiting to be exploited whilst others lack credible third-party verification. Free collaboration tools and apps are particularly vulnerable to these issues, as we’ve witnessed in recent news. Managers should not be using cloud-based collaboration solutions without exploring how easy or difficult it could be for an unauthorised party to gain access to sensitive data or information. At the very least, they should be choosing a cloud tool that offers two-factor authentication, single sign-on, and encryption.

3.Intelligence on demand: While business intelligence is invaluable to a company’s success, the problem with traditional business intelligence solutions is that they’re often complex and require specialists to deploy and use. Businesses can’t afford to be held back by these limitations and inflexible systems, so new intelligence models are needed to ensure everyone in the business has access to data when they need it.

On-demand intelligence, as a model, aims to provide usability, collaboration, security and transparency. This in turn reduces management overheads and provides visibility across the organisation, empowering users. The tool of choice for employees, therefore, should be one that focuses on the end-user experience as well as optimal integration. Once they have the technology in place that offers this, managers should be able to increase accountability and engagement among users.

4. Make your workspace lean: The lean workspace is a collaborative one, and it calls for use of innovative technologies to aid a functional work environment. Managers need to combine planning and execution to give teams the tools to self-organise and guide themselves through disruption, without the manager losing overall control.

Lean workspaces have been an ongoing trend for some years now, and with the UK flexible working legislation coming into play last year, it’s surely set to surge in 2015. Organisations will continue to explore new ways of working to help boost their workers’ productivity – including office designs and collaborative workspaces. However the biggest challenge that faces the lean workspace is resistance to change, whether it comes from a management level, or from existing employees.

Organisational change experts, such as Jason Little, advocate an agile and lean type of change that always involves the people directly affected by the change in question. Rather than changes that come from above, they emphasise co-creation among peers in order to achieve smooth and effective transitions. It’s best that organisations introduce tools and processes that are hassle-free, transparent and have a low-learning curve to achieve their change goals.

While 5G connectivity is yet to come, new technologies are already transforming the way we do business. Collaborative cloud tools enable teams to stay up to date and become increasingly involved in decision making, allowing people to work on their own terms and become more productive.

Keeping ahead of developments, harnessing emerging communication technologies and continually adapting are the keys to driving business growth and personally thriving in the always-on world. Only the managers who embrace these changes will create motivated workers who will help their businesses grow.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Projectplace .