Last week we had an interesting discussion in Bern, where I visited the after work event “Erfolg in der Netzwerkgesellschaft” (see http://www.commonsense.ch/4-after-work-event-bern/ and http://tirsus.com/blog/erfolg-in-der-netzwerkgesellschaft-2/). One major point of discussion was: Social Software in organisations (aka Enterprise 2.0) will change the way applications are operated and supported within organisations.
That is a plausible statement, because developments like Social Software, “Bring your own device” (BYOD) and the easy-to-use apps on mobile devices were already brought to the organisations by their knowledge workers. And, the new instruments have already found their way into daily workflows. If you have a look at the strong growth of smartphones and tablets, more and more knowledge workers will request a kind of user experience at work comparable to the one they are familiar with from their own devices.
Currently, CIOs and other responsible persons are wary about the right way to deal with these new developments. There are still many reservations in terms of the new developments brought to the organisations by the organisations’ knowledge workers. Security, governance and compliance are only exemplary aspects that have to be addressed in this context.
So, what will happen? In a few years, many reservations will be addressed by special and mature solutions of the vendors – the big vendors have already a few solutions in place. Meanwhile it makes sense for organisations to create their custom-adapted strategy to deliver the same comfort at work knowledge workers are already familiar with.
No matter how an organization will decide about the usage, their employees will find a way to simplify their daily work with new technological options. Not to deal with this behaviour of knowledge workers will raise the complexity of an organisations’ application landscape and the corresponding information management. Aspects like security, governance and compliance cannot be addressed by watching and waiting.
Let’s face it: Developments like Social Software and BYOD will change the information and application management of organisations. Do nothing will not help. Flexibility and agility of your information and IT management is in demand. Here and there, heavyweight and costly legacy solutions must be replaced by lightweight and “fit for future” web solutions. The digital workplace is almost here.
Any comments? Just let me know what you think. And do not hesitate to ask if you need help in your organisational context.