WP Future-Work v7 110606 Final · Consumerization: Employees increasingly demand more freedom as to...

White Paper

Future Work Environment

How companies can facilitate the workplace of tomorrow

May 2011

White Paper Future Work Environment May 2011

© PAC 2011 www.pac-online.com

Table of Contents

1.! Management Summary.....................................................................................................3!

2.! Trends and Challenges of “Future Work Environments” .............................................4!

2.1.! Current trends and requirements for future work environments ..................................4!

2.2.! Resulting ICT challenges.............................................................................................5!

3.! Technological Concepts to Address Challenges to the Future Workplace ................7!

3.1.! Unified communications and collaboration ..................................................................7!

3.2.! Device management....................................................................................................9!

3.3.! Desktop virtualization ................................................................................................10!

4.! Demands on IT Services Providers ...............................................................................11!

4.1.! Plan ...........................................................................................................................11!

4.2.! Build...........................................................................................................................12!

4.3.! Run ............................................................................................................................13!

5.! Interview with Siemens IT Solutions and Services......................................................14!

6.! About Siemens IT Solutions and Services ...................................................................17!

http://www.pac-online.com



1. MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

The working environment of knowledge workers is currently undergoing a

substantial transformation. The way employees work and the tools and

technologies they use today have changed drastically in the last ten years

and will change further still in the years to come. Companies that want to

ensure the productivity and satisfaction of their workforce have to address

these changes. They need to provide their employees with a working

environment that is innovative and appealing, but at the same time secure

and efficient to manage.

However, many companies today lack a well-defined long-term strategy for

shaping future-optimized workplaces for their employees. Their approach to

dealing with the ever increasing heterogeneity of devices, applications and

services is ad hoc. While this is understandable in the short-term, it runs the

risk of ending up as an uncontrollable, unsecure and unproductive jungle of

technologies. Companies need to define a long-term ICT strategy and an

understanding of which technologies can support them in this venture.

In addition, most companies today lack the resources and expertise for

planning, implementing, and running the necessary ICT environment

themselves in an efficient and secure way. They need a reliable and

experienced partner to support them in addressing these challenges.

This white paper describes the major trends that will shape the workplace of

tomorrow, identifies the resulting ICT challenges companies need to address

and provides an overview over the most important technological concepts to

deal with these challenges. Finally, the white paper elaborates on the role of

service providers in supporting companies to plan, build, and run innovative

workplaces and the requirements these have to meet.

3

Many companies today

lack a well-defined long-

term strategy for shaping

future-optimized

workplaces for their

employees.




2. TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF “FUTURE

WORK ENVIRONMENTS”

2.1. Current trends and requirements for future work environments

The following trends are influencing how working environments will look and

feel in future:

Mobility and ubiquity: Todayʼs businesses – including SMBs – are often

part of global value networks. They work closely with globally disparate

suppliers, partners and customers and often have decentralized production

sites all over the world. As a result, employees increasingly work from

various locations and need to be productive irrespective of where they are,

what device they are using or what network is available. They want to work

from home, from a customerʼs site, or on the road.

Instant communication: The number of internal and external

communication partners increases significantly in such global value

networks. At the same time, customers expect instant availability and

response, no matter where their contact person is currently working. Service

quality today is a major competitive factor and is strongly dependent on

efficient communication processes and technologies.

Enhanced collaboration: Working in mixed project teams with globally

disparate partners from various locations, departments, organizations, and

cultures also involves more complex coordination and decision making.

Under such circumstances it is key for businesses to provide a working

environment that supports efficient collaboration beyond physical proximity

in order to reduce travel costs and speed up collaborative and planning

processes. Virtual team rooms with the ability to share and work

collaboratively on documents are just one example of supporting work in

mixed teams.

Real-time collaboration and communication: Traditional asynchronous

and one-way communication tools such as e-mail or fax are less and less

suitable for communicating and collaborating in these environments. Real-

time communication and collaboration tools such as instant messaging or

audio-, web- and videoconferencing are becoming increasingly significant.

4

Employees increasingly

work from various

locations and need to be

productive irrespective of

where they are, what

device they are using or

what network is available.




Social media: Networking has always been an important part of (business)

life. However, over the past years networking has shifted from the physical

to the virtual world. What are termed the “digital natives” are not the only

ones who use social media today to organize and manage their network of

friends and business partners or to bolster their professional expertise and

reputation. Companies have to understand that the use of social media has

become an important part of private and professional life and they should

support their employees accordingly.

Consumerization: Employees increasingly demand more freedom as to the

devices, applications and tools they want to use in their daily work routines.

As the boundaries between work and private life blur, they want to use the

same devices, applications and services in their professional and private life.

In this environment it is key for IT departments to know the demands of their

employees and to provide them with innovative tools and technologies.

Otherwise, they face the risk that tech-savvy employees will help themselves

and use consumer services that meet their specific needs but that might not

be suitable for business use. However, consumerization does not only relate

to tools and technologies, but also to services and processes: employees as

private consumers are used to instant availability of new technologies and

very short innovation cycles. In this age of mass-customization, they are also

used to a very high degree of individualization and expect a similar

experience in their business life.

2.2. Resulting ICT challenges

The resulting demands on businessesʼ IT departments are extensive and

providing employees with an attractive, innovative working environment is far

from easy. Businesses face a number of quite substantial technological

challenges when designing, implementing and running modern workplaces:

Diversity: The future workplace will be significantly more heterogeneous

than today. For IT departments it is becoming increasingly difficult to control

fully the devices employees use, the applications they download or the

Internet services they use. They face a severe individualization and

consumerization of the workplace and are at the same time forced to support

and efficiently manage the resulting heterogeneous ICT landscape.

Complexity: There are many factors alongside device and application

diversity that also increase heterogeneity. One example is the merging of IT

5

Employees as private

consumers are used to

instant availability of new

technologies and very

short innovation cycles.

They expect a similar

experience in their

business life.




and telecommunication networks, tools and applications that significantly

increases complexity for ICT departments. Another example is the

emergence of mixed environments of on-premise, private and public cloud

infrastructures. ICT managers have to walk a fine line between reducing

complexity wherever possible and managing complexity where it is

unavoidable.

Standardization: A key method of reducing complexity is standardization.

Homogenization and standardization of desktop landscapes involving the

respective technologies and processes can result in significant reduction of

complexity and cost through centralized services and synergy effects.

Flexibility: However, standardization often comes at the expense of

reduced flexibility. And flexibility is necessary to be able to respond quickly to

changing business needs and new technological developments. It is also

necessary to address various user profiles and business roles, with different

working behavior and technological demands. Finding the right balance

between standardization and flexibility is a major challenge for ICT

departments today. Modularity of technological solutions and a more

component-based approach is one way to address this challenge.

Reliability: Mobile and fixed networks are the foundation of high-quality

communication and collaboration services. Yet real-time applications such

as video- and audio-conferencing tools make special demands on network

performance and security – particularly in IP-based online environments.

Network failures can therefore be costly and pose a severe threat to

business continuity.

6

Finding the right balance

between standardization

and flexibility is a major

challenge for ICT

departments today.




3. TECHNOLOGICAL CONCEPTS TO ADDRESS

CHALLENGES TO THE FUTURE WORKPLACE

Despite the challenges discussed above, many companies today lack a well-

defined long-term strategy for shaping future workplaces. Their approach to

dealing with the ever increasing heterogeneity of devices, applications and

services is ad hoc. While this is understandable in the short-term, it runs the

risk of ending up as an uncontrollable, unsecured and unproductive jungle of

technologies. Companies need to define a long-term ICT strategy and an

understanding of which technologies can support them in this venture.

PAC believes that unified communication and collaboration, device

management as well as desktop virtualization are some of the most

important technological concepts to address the challenges posed by future-

workplaces.

3.1. Unified communications and collaboration

Unified communications and collaboration (UCC) describes the bundling of

various communication services and applications on a common platform and

their integration with IT applications. Accordingly, UCC is not a single

technology, but an approach to and concept for integration.

The main goal of UCC is to enhance the efficiency of communication and

collaboration processes by unifying the growing heterogeneity of

communication and collaboration tools.

As the figure below illustrates, UCC integration incorporates voice and data

networks, fixed and mobile networks, communication tools, and IT

applications in different ways:

• Voice over IP (VoIP): integration of data and voice networks;

• Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC): integration of fixed and mobile

networks;

• Computer Telephony Integration (CTI); integration of traditional

voice with IT applications; and

• Unified Messaging (UM); integration of various communication

channels such as e-mail, fax, instant messaging and conferencing.

7

UCC enhances the

efficiency of business

processes by unifying the

growing heterogeneity of

communication and

collaboration tools.




UCC integration may enhance the efficiency of businesses on various levels

as UCC yields a number of new functionalities that improve the productive

use of communication tools:

• Click-to-service allows users to initiate calls, conferencing or instant

messaging sessions from IT applications;

• Through unified messaging, users can communicate using multiple

channels via one single application;

• One-number and find-me-follow-me automation makes it easier to

track and reach co-workers irrespective wherever they are;

• Presence status can be used to control current availability; and

• CTI enriches communication with personal information and

preferences by automatically pulling data from corporate databases

when a call is initiated or received.

These features will ultimately help to make communication and collaboration

processes more efficient as they provide for higher intuitive usability of

communication tools and eliminate the necessity to constantly switch

between applications. In addition, they reduce employeesʼ response times

when instant reactivity is required, while decreasing the number of unwanted

communication attempts.

8




3.2. Device management

Many companies today are not only seeing the number of communication

tools their employees are using sky-rocket, but also the variety of devices

used, such as smartphones or tablets. The result is an ever growing plethora

of mobile devices with various operating systems among the workforce that

the IT department is barely able to control and manage efficiently. The

administration of all these devices can eat up a significant share of IT

resources, particularly in larger companies.

Device management solutions support businesses in efficiently managing a

variety of mobile devices and ensuring compliance with corporate security

policies. A centralized middleware allows IT departments to perform a

number of administrative tasks over the air, that is, without the need to

physically manipulate the devices. A variety of device management solutions

today allow the administration of a broad portfolio of devices with different

operating systems, such as Appleʼs iOS, Googleʼs Android, Microsoftʼs

Phone 7 etc. Multi-tenant solutions allow centralized IT departments to

provide shared services to various subsidiaries or IT service providers to

provide fully-managed device services for their clients.

Tasks that should be supported by the device-management solution include

the inventory of hardware and software resources, configuration of devices,

the rollout of software, and back-up or restore of data and applications. In

addition, device-management solutions support the remote implementation

of security features, such as password lock, remote lock-down and wipe of

the device in case the device is lost or stolen, patch management and the

central definition of security policies, for example USB lock.

9

Device management

solutions support

enterprises in efficiently

managing a variety of

mobile devices and

ensuring compliance with

corporate security policies.




3.3. Desktop virtualization

Reducing the complexity of desktop environments is a major concern for IT

decision makers. Desktop virtualization gives them the opportunity to move

from a fat-client model to thin clients, that is, applications, tools and data are

stored and operated on a central server rather than on local devices. The

(operating) system resources of several clients are hosted within what is

termed a “virtual machine” on the central server where they can be efficiently

administered.

Desktop virtualization provides several key benefits:

• Shared resources result in reduced complexity as ICT resources

are homogenized and standardized;

• Desktop virtualization allows for the centralized management of

desktop environments resulting in synergy effects and cost

efficiency for provisioning a large number of clients;

• At the same time, IT service processes such license management

and software rollouts are significantly simplified and less time-

consuming; and

• Beyond that, all data is stored in a central data center, resulting in

higher security as less data resides on mobile devices that may be

lost or stolen. In this way, approaches to safeguarding the security of

the device can be supplemented – and in future may even be

superseded – by virtualization approaches that safeguard the

security of the services used on the device.

Desktop virtualization means that ICT architectures and services today are

more and more centralized as internal and external service providers are

able to provide shared services to various tenants in a very cost-effective

and secure way.

10

Desktop virtualization

safeguards the security of

the services used on the

device – rather than the

device itself.




4. DEMANDS ON IT SERVICES PROVIDERS

While these technology solutions can help companies realize future

workplaces, most companies today lack the resources and expertise for

planning, implementing, and running the necessary ICT environment by

themselves in an efficient and secure way. They need a reliable and

experienced partner to support them in addressing the challenges discussed

above (see 2.2).

Ideally, the partner should be able to provide end-to-end services throughout

the whole lifecycle: from consulting, implementation and integration to

operations and optimization.

4.1. Plan

Solid planning is the foundation of every ICT endeavor and significantly

helps leverage the necessary investments in technology. The planning

process includes the identification of business goals and technological

requirements for the underlying ICT landscape as well as the definition of a

long-term strategic roadmap and possible migration paths. ICT service

providers should fulfill the following requirements when supporting their

clients in the planning process:

Holistic approach: As future workplaces rely on rather complex ICT

environments, service providers should apply a holistic approach comprising

all technical portfolio elements such as network infrastructures, devices,

administrative tools, applications and service components.

IT and CT expertise: Until very recently, information and communication

technologies resided in separate worlds with specialized vendors and

services providers in each domain as well as separate market dynamics.

However, todayʼs workplace requires fully integrated IT and communications

tools. Accordingly, companies need a partner with in-depth technological

know-how and experience in both worlds: IT and (tele)communications.

Business needs and processes: Identifying user needs and process pain

points during the planning process helps to realize efficiency gains and

ultimately leverages business results. Service providers therefore need a

profound understanding of their clientsʼ underlying business processes and

11

Todayʼs workplace

requires fully integrated IT

and communication tools.

Companies need a partner

with strong expertise in

both worlds: IT and

communications.




strategic challenges. They need to involve business owners early in the

planning process to tailor technologies and processes accordingly.

Financial and legal implications: When designing complex ICT

environments not only business and technological aspects, but also potential

financial, tax or legal implications and compliance issues all have to be

considered. Companies have to ensure that the required security solutions

are in place to comply with legal requirements, such as for user-owned

mobile devices or for using public cloud solutions. Having a partner that can

either provide the necessary expertise itself or via qualified partners is a

major advantage.

4.2. Build

Key requirements for service providers supporting their clients in building,

that is, implementing and integrating all necessary elements of a workplace

environment of the future, are the following:

Integration expertise: For historical reasons, companies often have an

array of third-party solutions that rely on (semi-) proprietary standards.

Depending on the degree of proprietary standards used, interoperability

within heterogeneous third-party solution environments must be established.

System integrators with the respective expertise in integrating IT as well as

CT technologies can assimilate these heterogeneous infrastructures in order

to secure legacy investments. Particularly, larger corporations need partners

that have hands-on experience in managing large and complex projects.

Vendor independence: Companies need solution partners as opposed to

product resellers to realize modern working environments. They require

independent advice on the suitable hardware and software components and

an experienced technologist that can build best-of-breed solutions from

multiple third-party vendors. In particular, if they want to integrate existing,

heterogeneous technologies, their service partner should not be tied to

specific vendors.

Strategic partnerships: Nevertheless, it is helpful if multilateral strategic

relationships with the most important vendors in the IT and TC world exist in

order to guarantee a high degree of expertise in the related vendor

technologies.

12

Companies need solution

partners as opposed to

product resellers to realize

modern working

environments.




4.3. Run

Post-implementation management of complex working environments is

another challenging task. Constant monitoring, support, and administration

require specialized and experienced personnel. Companies that do not have

the required resources and expertise in-house may assign this to their

trusted service provider.

Broad service range: However, the operation of working environments can

take many different forms. The required ICT environment can be run on-

premise or hosted by the services provider, it can be managed on-site or

remotely, and it can involve hybrid delivery models. In particular, the

management of desktop architectures often involves many different

managed services concepts. In addition, workplace management may

include lifecycle management services such as end-user support,

monitoring, versioning and updating. A service provider that offers a broad

range of modular services and delivery models can offer the specific set of

services that best suits the clientsʼ needs.

(Global) delivery capabilities: Larger companies in particular need a

service provider with the necessary experience in managing large

infrastructures and application environments. Companies with global

production and service facilities should choose to work with a globally-

positioned provider that can implement and manage integrated solutions at

all international sites.

Innovation partnership: A valued, long-term relationship between customer and IT service provider should entail an “innovation partnership”: the provider should not only maintain the technologies once implemented, but have the incentive to continuously optimize the ICT environment over the entire contract period.

13

The provider should not

only maintain the

technologies after

implementation, but

continuously optimize the

ICT environment.




5. INTERVIEW WITH SIEMENS IT SOLUTIONS

AND SERVICES

Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) spoke to Korbinian Lehner, Director

Innovation Germany at Siemens IT Solutions and Services, about the

challenges businesses face today when planning and implementing

future working environments, and how Siemens IT Solutions and

Services can help customers realize innovative workplace concepts.

PAC: In your experience, how well are businesses prepared for the

requirements of innovative future workplaces today? How does

Siemens IT Solutions and Services support customers in defining

a long-term strategy in shaping their future working environment?

“Our experience is that business customers today are not yet fully

prepared for workplace concepts of the future. The good news is that

many businesses are aware of the pressing need to develop a future

workplace strategy. Many of our clients are currently building up the

necessary know-how and are embarking on initial projects.

We at Siemens IT Solutions and Services are following a long-term

approach to supporting our customers in their transition towards modern

working environments. The first step involves developing a common

vision for the workplace of the future. In what are called “Customer

Innovation Workshops” we develop such a vision together with our

clients.

In these workshops we first take our clients on a voyage into the future

and pinpoint the most important trends that will impact the workplace of

tomorrow. We focus on the most relevant topics for CIOs, CTOs and HR

managers in the next three to five years. Currently these include, for

example, desktop as a service, virtual desktops or user-owned devices.

In the second step we elaborate on the most appropriate tools and

technologies for realizing the common vision. We conduct feasibility

studies and offer rapid prototyping projects for the related technology

solutions. Our goal is a close partnership with our clients, matching

technology roadmaps with specific business and industry needs.”

14

“Our goal is a close

partnership with our

clients, matching

technology roadmaps with

specific business and

industry needs.”




PAC: Employees today demand a rising degree of freedom in

shaping their individual working environments. At the same time,

businesses need to manage their ICT securely and efficiently. How

can you help your customers to overcome this paradox?

“ʻConsumerizationʼ has been a major topic on our agenda since 2007

and we have been working on suitable solutions for our clients ever

since. Siemens IT Solutions and Services addresses the challenges

posed by consumerization in various ways: for example, by

implementing user-owned device and virtualization strategies, which

allow a complete independence of the device and hardware layer from

the service and application layer. We also devise strategies for the social

media activities of our clients. For example, we have developed

enterprise social media portals that offer the same functionalities and the

same look and feel as consumer services, but at the same time fulfill the

security and quality requirements of business customers.”

PAC: How can Siemens IT Solutions and Services help customers

to deal with the rising complexity of heterogeneous ICT

environments?

“We address the challenges related to complexity and heterogeneity

through our specific services architecture. In the past, different services

were usually combined in certain pre-defined services bundles. But

these bundles did not always match the individual requirements of each

customer and each end user within one company.

Today, we follow a much more modular service approach for all

outsourcing and end user services: based on a very granular services

portfolio, our customers can put together highly individual working

environments tailored to each employeeʼs specific profile and needs.

With our comprehensive expertise we support our customers in

achieving a holistic system integration, and we combine this approach

with the experience from our own company-wide application of future

work environment technology. For instance, we have long-time

experience in unified communication and collaboration, unified

messaging, desktop and application virtualization as well as mobile

device integration. It is our responsibility as an IT services provider to

manage the resulting heterogeneity of the IT environment for our

customers.”

15

“Based on a very granular

services portfolio, our

customers can put

together highly individual

working environments

tailored to each

employeeʼs specific profile

and needs.”




PAC: What are the most important challenges businesses face

when running complex working environments? How does Siemens

IT Solutions and Services support its customers in dealing with the

rising speed of technological innovations?

“In my view, businesses will have to address two major challenges in the

next three to five years:

First, they have to shift from a role-based IT environment to a user-

based IT environment. Each employee has to be serviced as a

ʻcorporate consumerʼ with very specific needs and requirements.

The second major challenge is flexibility: the IT environment of tomorrow

must be able to support new technologies – even at short notice.

Businesses need ʻbreathingʼ IT systems and services.

Our aim at Siemens IT Solutions and Services is that our clients and

their employees can quickly profit from new technological developments.

We want to be there as a reliable partner for our customers as they

move towards new working environments.”

16

“Each employee has to be

serviced as a ʻcorporate

consumerʼ with very

specific needs and

requirements!”




6. ABOUT SIEMENS IT SOLUTIONS AND

SERVICES

Siemens IT Solutions and Services is a European based premium player

providing state-of-the-art IT solutions and delivering outsourcing services

with global reach. Within the IT service chain, the portfolio of Siemens IT

Solutions and Services ranges from consulting, software deployment and

system integration to the comprehensive management of IT infrastructures.

Through profound industry know-how and beneficial innovations, the

business technologists at Siemens IT Solutions and Services enable

customers to transform their business processes on an ongoing basis. With

a workforce of more than 32,000 employees Siemens IT Solutions and

Services achieved revenues of some 4.2 billion euro in fiscal 2010, which

ended on September 30, – over 75 percent of these revenues came from

outside of Siemens. Further information at: www.siemens.com/it-solutions.

17


http://www.siemens.com/it-solutions



18 OUR LOCATIONS PARIS Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) 92, Avenue de Wagram, 75017 Paris, France Tel: +33(0) 1 56 56 63 33 Fax: +33(0) 1 48 28 41 06 [email protected] MUNICH Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) Holzstrasse 26, 80469 Munich, Germany Tel: +49(0) 89 23 23 68 0 Fax: +49(0) 89 719 62 65 [email protected] BERLIN Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) Am Kupfergraben 6A, 10117 Berlin, Germany Tel: +49(0) 30 28 52 96 0 Fax: +49(0) 30 28 52 96 29 [email protected] LONDON Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) 2nd Floor, 15 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0BD, UK Tel: +44 (0) 207 251 2810 Fax: +44 (0) 207 490 7335 [email protected] BUCHAREST Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) Louis Pasteur 40, 050536 Bucharest-5, Romania Tel: +40 (0) 21 410 75 80 Fax: +40 (0) 21 410 75 81 [email protected] NEW YORK Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) 192 Lexington Avenue - Suite 1101, New York, NY 10016, USA Tel: +1(646) 277 7255 Fax: +1(646) 607 1716 [email protected] SAO PAULO Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) Rua Pedro de Toledo, 130, Office 61, Vila Clementino, Sao Paulo, 04039-030 Brazil Tel.: +55 (11) 5539 0280 Fax: +55 (11) 5539 0280 [email protected]

CONTACT Author: Nicole Dufft Senior Vice President +49 (0) 30-28 52 96-0 [email protected] Published by: Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) GmbH Holzstrasse 26 D-80469 Munich Tel: +49 (0) 89 23 23 68-0 Fax: +49 (0) 89 719 62-65 Email: [email protected]

ABOUT PIERRE AUDOIN CONSULTANTS Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) is a global market research and strategic consulting firm for the Software and IT Services industry. PAC helps IT vendors, CIOs, consultancies and investment firms by delivering analysis and advice to address a range of growth, technology, financial, and operational issues. Our 30+-year heritage in Europe - combined with our US presence and worldwide resources - forms the foundation of our ability to deliver in-depth knowledge of local IT markets, anywhere. We employ structured methodologies - undertaking thousands of annual face-to-face interviews on both the buy and sell side of the market, as well as a bottom-up, top-down approach - to leverage our research effectively. PAC publishes a wide range of off-the-shelf and customized market reports - including our best-selling SITSI® program - in addition to our suite of strategic consulting and market planning services. With 16 offices across all continents, we deliver the insight that can make a difference to your business. For more information, please visit our website at www.pac-online.com.


mailto:[email protected]










WP Future-Work v7 110606 Final · Consumerization: Employees increasingly demand more freedom as to...

Documents

Transcript of WP Future-Work v7 110606 Final · Consumerization: Employees increasingly demand more freedom as to...