Five key areas for Collaboration/Digital Workplace teams to be aware of in 2018.
Editing note: Collaboration or Digital Workplace? Whilst most organisations have settled on Collaboration which I always preferred to Unified Communications we are starting to see a move to Digital Workplace. End User Services/Desktop and Collaboration should be a single service and once you add in property services Digital Workplace seems to make sense as its own discreet tower/service. In addition the move to cloud/hosted/subscription services supports the collapsing of the IT service towers.
Having said that what would be my top 5 priorities for the Digital Workplace team in 2018. In no particular order…
Homogeneity or Heterogeneity in communication tools. I think we’ve all been in the Highlander discussion…there can be only one or not.
There is no clear answer or preference as to whether an organisation should focus on a single platform and trade off possibly not receiving the best in class across the Digital Workplace technologies or whether it chooses to allow multiple platforms and lives with the management and end user challenges. It very much depends on factors unique to each organisation on which will be the best approach. What is clear is that we need to push organisations to make a conscious choice and pick a path otherwise it’s very easy to find a Digital Workplace which is complicated to manage, costly and provides a poor end user experience.
Mobiles
Mobiles are considered a secondary device in the enterprise yet they dominate in the consumer world. All enterprise services will eventually be mobile first and the Digital Workplace team not only need to factor this into their key services but also be seen as an enabler and advocate for the move.
Working Environment
There is a ‘just right’ formula to create the most productive physical working environment. Just enough floor space and meeting rooms for collaboration and team work but also enough private space for serious thought and one to one communication. It takes a high degree of effort to find that formula and it is complicated that IT do not often own the workplace environment working in partnership with the facilities team and the business unit which owns the floor space. Remote working should also not be forgotten with key services accessible securely and effectively away from the office.
External…External…External
So much of the collaboration services today focuses on internal communication and yet an organisation’s success depends on external collaboration and communicating with customers.
For its faults Email remains the bed rock of enterprise Collaboration but change is coming. Email has begun a death spiral in the consumer world and while it certainly will not disappear in either world it will lose its prime importance over the coming years and will eventually reshape the core communication habits within an organisation.
There are rarely definitive answers in our industry but if the Digital Workplace team are aware and have a position to all the above they will be in good shape to answer the more detailed questions which surround each of these areas.