During the recent Ovum Digital Futures event there was a great presentation on the ‘Workspace of Tomorrow’ featuring Julien Lesaicherre from Facebook and Evan Kirchheimer from Ovum. With NTT DATA’s drive in the UK to build a campaign around Employee Experience I was interested to hear what these two esteemed professionals had to say about this fast evolving space. Here is my take on their session.
Since 2007 there has been a noticeable switch. We always used to go to work to get access to the best technology. That irrevocably changed in the dawn of the smartphone and BYOD era. Nowadays we have much better technology in the home than at the office. At home, we have multiple iPads, the latest smartphone, smart TV’s and IoT connected devices all around the house which we can control from our mobile phones anywhere around the world. By contrast in the office, desktops are still the predominant hardware of choice, only those in the digital design labs get to use the really ‘cool’ technology and most of us struggle to get anything at work connected to our mobiles!
“Virtual assistants are a good example of the yawning gap between technology in the home and at work. I am yet to see anything resembling an Alexa in any office and yet how many of us have such a device at home.”
This change is much more profound though and goes far beyond device use. Messaging tools are now front and centre and the most used communication platforms. According to Ovum, whatsapp is the #1 platform although in China, the only app worth its salt is WeChat where 4 billion people access the app every month. Facebook sees its future in mobile messaging apps for calls, videos and messaging. Currently 70% of people in the UK use facebook but most of its users are the older generation and in the workplace.
This has given Facebook an idea. They have begun to break into the enterprise market with the launch of a new enterprise messaging platform enabling work teams to collaborate, network and share ideas across a secure messaging platform. Facebook and whatsapp are coming together at last.
Fast facts presented by Ovum, Sept 2018:
- 66% of younger workers would like to use more personal tech and apps for work
- People spend 70% of the time on just three apps
- 57% of those with no coding skills are interested in learning to code small apps for use in the workplace
- 75% of the world’s mobile data traffic in future will be video
- 25% of future internet users will be mobile only
- Today’s generation will first access the internet through their mobile – once upon a time that would have been the desktop
Access to the full presentation and other content shared during this event is available via the Ovum Digital Futures site. All content is free to download. For any other questions feel free to contact me or one of the NTT DATA team.