+
EDITOR’S QUESTION
EUAN DAVIS, EUROPEAN LEAD FOR
COGNIZANT’S CENTER FOR THE
FUTURE OF WORK
W
ith the shift to digital, the rise of data and the growth
of platforms, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation,
virtual work and a ‘no-office’ culture have become
more possible than ever. The development of new and emerging
technologies makes it easier for workforces to spread across the
globe and for those disparate colleagues to be united into a cohesive
workforce when necessary.
/////////////////
Furthermore, the digital skills gap has contributed to the remarkable
growth of sourcing and subcontracting for digital functions and
processes, creating a more flexible, distributed and transient
workforce that can adapt quickly.
Our research surveyed corporate decision makers in the US and
Europe revealing that an emphasis on collaboration is influencing
companies to reconfigure themselves. Sales, marketing, service,
product development, production and technology staff are co-
locating together and focusing on serving a single customer segment
or functional need.
To capitalise on this trend and for these benefits to manifest
themselves, the physical workspace and tools empowering
employees have actually – perhaps surprisingly – never mattered
more. In fact, our research found that business decision makers
ranked the strategic importance of investing in an efficient and
effective workspace second only to focusing resources on the
latest technology.
This is because the current era of intercompany collaboration,
iteration and start-up experimentation requires people to come
together and work. That’s why organisations should reconfigure the
workspace, so employees can collaborate both on and offline.
In today’s digitally-focused world, organisations should champion
intelligence and imagination by building not only social platforms
but also physical spaces for the cross-pollination of ideas, with
opportunities to build digital assets or showcase innovation. These
spaces need to be considered the new physical or digital water
coolers for people to meet, encouraging spontaneous meetings
among employees and pulling together disparate teams and
processes, supported by tools and new collaborative technologies
that help people see and explore the art of the possible. For
www.intelligentcio.com
companies, it is time to get serious about their most important asset
– their people – and give them the power they need to work and
collaborate successfully in this exciting digital age.
Ultimately, leaders will need to reconfigure their work platforms as the
workforce becomes increasingly enhanced with technology. Expect
more back-office work to be automated and parsed out to software
tools and a more flexible and mobile workforce that can adapt to rapid
cycles of business reinvention as and when they happen. n
INTELLIGENTCIO
35