DigiTech Magazine - US CIO2020 - Fall 2015 | Page 11

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2.
1.
 USERS
CAN WORK
ANYWHERE
The concepts of “flexible working” or “mobile working”
are often more palatable ways of saying “saving money on
office space by having fewer desks”. This is actually pretty
important and can be a strong message in a business case:
if new technology can reduce occupancy from 9:10 to 6:10
you are opening up serious cost saving opportunities.
More importantly though it also creates more variety in
working spaces for different personality types. The near
ubiquitous (in the UK at any rate) open-plan offices are
becoming linked with stress and lower job satisfaction, as
well as hindering creative thinking and problem solving.
Good technology should enable users to be able to access
the same resources from the office, from a coffee shop or
from home. This is simple to implement if the architecture
is done correctly.
“it also creates more variety
in working spaces for different
personality types”
 START WORKING
SYNCHRONOUSLY:
IT’S SO MUCH EASIER
Many office-based processes are firmly rooted in a pre-
computer age and are based on asynchronous working.
We go to meetings, then wait for the minutes and actions
to be sent round, then meet again to see if anyone has
got anything done in the meantime. We engage in email
conversations that can span days or weeks. We check
documents in and out and track our changes so other
people can see what has been worked on when it’s finally
their turn. The whole thing is exhausting and a big waste of
resource.
Real-time document collaboration allows many users to
work on the same document at the same time over the
internet. It’s been around for a while and once users try it
they rarely go back. One client who implemented this found
that some processes that previously took days could now
be completed in hours. Meetings can be changed from
somewhere to talk about work, to somewhere to get work
done: create the document and the actions while you’re
talking, not later. It also releases group creativity by letting
people make changes and iterate more freely.
Instant messaging groups allow project teams to work
together and get answers to questions almost instantly
without having to be sat next to your colleagues. Tools like
slack take this further and allow longer conversations
grouped around a topic or team to happen in real-time.
And away from the black-hole of email inboxes.
A further happy side-effect of this is to challenge the
common presenteeism-based performance assessment
and put some trust back with your employees.
CIO Magazine Fall 2015 Issue
11