INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Mobile Technology
How Wi-Fi connectivity can create
the smart workplace
/////////////////////////////
Wi-fi connectivity and mobile technology can have a
massively positive impact on the workplace. Morten Illum,
EMEA Vice President at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard enterprise
company, argues that if the workplace of the future is
smart, as well as connected, it can become a much more
personalised environment for the workers operating in it.
R
ecent research by Google supports
a point I have been discussing with
customers for many months now;
there is no real difference between the user
experience and the employee experience
any more.
What that means is, if you expect to
schedule your Sunday with your mobile
phone calendar, upload photos to cloud
storage and connect with people using
applications, you will expect to do pretty
much the same thing on Monday, when you
arrive at the office.
In 2018, many of us don’t feel efficient
unless we’re able to access applications
on demand and this applies to our work
as much as our personal lives. Given we
spend as much time in our offices as we
Morten Illum,
EMEA Vice President
at Aruba
do at home, we have to consider how the
workplace can become better equipped to
meet our daily expectations.
Designing the workplace to better
incorporate technology is not about being
futuristic. It’s about meeting the minimum
requirements that users now have.
A business that does not consider how to
improve its workplace design to suit our daily
habits risks alienating its employees, and
ultimately decreasing productivity, losing
talent or both.
Maximising efficiency of space
So how do we go about creating a better
workspace? It starts with considering how
to make everything more efficient. More
efficient tech, more efficient space, more
efficient people.
A win-win solution for the business and
employee would be if building designers
and technology companies collaborated on
the designing of new, or redevelopment of,
existing buildings.
Working together to create a digital plan of
each space, as well as the kind of structural,
technical plans traditionally drawn up by
those in the industry, could increase the
chances of these spaces meeting the needs
of its occupants.
This could be as simple as re-arranging the
furniture to give teams more of a chance to
interact, with screens, docking stations and
charge points to keep people productive with
whatever device they are carrying.
The point is, if these different viewpoints and
experiences come together to create ‘smart’
www.intelligentcio.com
INTELLIGENTCIO
75