TOP-PERFORMING companies should not impose a narrow set of computing hardware and software on to employees, but instead let them choose their own device and the apps they want, a new report recommends.
The latest quarterly technology forecast from consultants PwC urges businesses to take advantage of the powerful smartphones, tablets and hand-held devices their employees already own.
The report refers to “millennials” – people born after 1980 who are coming into the workplace already comfortable with technologies like smartphones and a wide array of apps for accomplishing tasks.
Forcing a laptop and a limited set of software on someone like this would be “like cutting off one of their arms”, said Bo Parker, head of PwC’s technology centre and innovation group in Silicon Valley. “You make them less productive if you tell them to standardise.”.
Parker says much of the innovation in software is happening in the consumer arena and businesses are being forced to adjust.
The challenge for companies is that, after years of trying to standardise the technology they use, different smartphone types from providers like Apple, Google and BlackBerry “have the potential to create complexity” all over again.
However the two do not have to be mutually exclusive, he argues. “There’s a role for standards and a role for innovation.”
Many firms are cautious about allowing mobile devices. Parker likens this to the concern around PCs when they were first introduced into business, but with one crucial difference. “The mobile device is very heavily personalised. It’s like the transition to PCs but on steroids.” Fears around smartphone security are overplayed, Parker adds. “It’s not rocket science any more to secure a mobile device.”
The report acknowledges this is a very different approach to the control that businesses usually have over the technology their employees use. Parker argues conversely that it liberates companies to be more flexible and responsive, whereas the old way of IT locks organisations into eight- and 10- year cycles that hamper them from being able to adapt quickly to changes in the business.
“Change is speeding up but companies are not speeding up with that change,” he adds. “It’s beginning to dawn on the best-performing organisations that the nature of the [technology] assets tends to be the anchor that slows them down.”
According to Parker, cloud computing underpins this trend since it allows smartphone users to be constantly connected to information. “If it was just a mobile revolution without the cloud, we wouldn’t be seeing as much value,” he said.
“Cloud computing is a way to avoid making a 10-year bet on huge installations of software and the servers and all that stuff which represents a heavy asset. In today’s world, I don’t think anybody expects their business model to be stable for eight to 10 years any more.”
