2009 Trends to Watch - End User Computing

Whether it was greed, stupidity, or just bad luck that beset some of the most respected companies in 2008, the fallout from these problems will undoubtedly continue to affect all industries and sectors for the foreseeable future. So, what does this mean for your organisation and, in particular, your information workers? Well, with ‘information work’ now consuming in excess of 70% of salaries in developed economies, I believe that the time has come to re-engineer or replace those end user information management systems that were conceived and designed for a different era.

In terms of information processing productivity gains, most businesses and institutions have now captured and automated those core business processes that are capable of being instantiated in computer software, and these organisations are now looking for additional ways to differentiate their products, services, and business models through smarter use of user-oriented information technologies. Moreover, because many CEOs are looking to reduce staffing costs while increasing productivity, the proportion of salaries spent on information work can only increase in my view, and so enterprise end user computing strategies now become of critical importance.

The ‘new world of work’ clearly relies as much on unstructured information as it does structured information, and so as we move through 2009 I expect to see more solution sets that address both of these realms with equal importance. However, weaving together transactional, operational, and ‘transactive’ (pertaining to ‘social memory’) information types is no easy matter, and delivering this in a timely fashion and in a useful format continues to present a real challenge, especially as the worlds of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Business Intelligence (BI) are still far from united. However, there is hope on the horizon in 2009, as recent acquisitions and mergers in the ECM/BI arena hold the promise of some compelling applications, particularly in the area of BI analytics and enterprise search. Indeed, it seems to me that this is the perfect place to start experimenting with enterprise mashups, as analytics and search both lend themselves very well to one-off or short-lived, time-sensitive, situational applications.

Information workers must carry out their tasks and duties in a complex and increasingly regulated world, and so CIOs must find new ways to empower the beleaguered workforce without transferring that burden to an already overstretched IT department. In most circumstances this means delivering more with less, and at a time when the ‘credit-crunch’ is affecting almost every business sector, this means that business leaders must act now rather than later. The business issues that are forcing IT management to re-evaluate their information worker strategies are, of course, many and varied; but a common thread in 2009 will be the management and exploitation of social and transactive information’, i.e. that associated with specific communities of interest, their interactions, and their ‘products’ or output.

Businesses are comprised of systems, processes, and people. In an ideal world, these should combine harmoniously and efficiently within the enterprise, but collision and contention are generally the order of the day with the unfortunate end user typically being caught in the middle. However, things are slowly starting to change. The continued evolution of the consumer-oriented Internet, with its Web 2.0 architectures and models, is starting to have an effect on corporate IT. While the last couple of years have seen some organisations experimenting with Web native ‘social software’ (such as blogs, wikis, and communities), 2009 will see established vendors accelerate their ‘Enterprise Web 2.0’ solutions to market and those Web native vendors will challenge with niche offerings. IBM and Microsoft will continue to dominate the corporate collaboration market during 2009, and as their respective offerings embrace the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, so I expect many organisations will start to examine these offerings more closely.

Although the Web 2.0 movement is ostensibly about the way in which software and information are used, one cannot ignore the changes that are taking place in the world of end-user devices. While the Apple iPhone may have been the ‘gadget’ of 2008, an altogether more interesting device type has been steadily gaining ground: the netbook. Initially targeted at the consumer market, these miniature laptops may well be cheap enough to be bought on a whim, but they are by no means ‘boy’s toys’. With prices hovering around the £300 mark, today’s netbooks pack enough connectivity, functionality, computing power, and battery life to keep the mobile and travelling information worker productive all day long.

Over 2 million netbooks were shipped across EMEA during the third quarter of 2008, and although most of these units were destined for the consumer market, many of them will end up connecting to corporate networks – probably via a 3G dongle or WiFi hotspot – at some point during 2009. Early netbooks were built around less demanding Linux distributions and were targeted at domestic, enthusiast, and educational markets, but now Windows XP-based models are selling like hot cakes. Less expensive than the traditional laptop, and generally more functional than the smartphone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Intel Atom-powered netbooks and ‘nettops’ (Intel’s term for desktop variants) look set to enter the enterprise during 2009.

The consumerisation of corporate IT will move up a gear in 2009, and so too will the competition amongst hardware vendors. End user computing and communication devices from established brands, such as Dell, HP, Nokia, and RIM, will come under increasing pressure from innovative new players and platforms, and of course Apple will want to build upon its iPhone success in 2009 too. However, while the attraction of cheaper and ‘cooler’ devices will undoubtedly appeal to those holding IT purchasing budgets and expense accounts, my advice is to consider the full cost of ownership and corporate compatibility of such devices, as this typically dwarfs the cost of hardware purchases or rentals.

One device all enterprises should consider in earnest this year is the device you can’t actually touch, i.e. the virtual PC. Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) technology is maturing rapidly – perhaps more so than server virtualisation, but with so many architectures and approaches to choose from, organisations are in danger of adding even more complexity to their IT infrastructures than they have today. As always, Butler Group’s advice in this area is to conduct the relevant analysis and perform due diligence before committing to either a vendor or a VDI computing model.

Windows Vista became broadly available at the beginning of 2007, and a year later in February 2008 it got its first Service Pack. But despite the improved security, increased manageability, and enhanced feature-set of this operating system, large enterprises have, in the main, given Vista a wide berth. However, with ‘Mainstream Support’ of Windows XP coming to an end in April 2009 (‘Extended Support’ continues until 2014), IT managers must define some kind of corporate roadmap for their organisation’s end user computing environment, and so 2009 will see a lot of head scratching. With the Windows 7 Beta (the successor to Windows Vista) already in the public domain, my view is that Microsoft will launch its new operating system before the year is out. As Windows 7 is an incremental upgrade, IT managers with responsibility for end user computing environments and applications should give this release serious consideration, and evaluate the merits and business value it has to offer the organisation.

While it is undoubtedly an organisation’s transactional IT systems that provide the motive force required to compete within a given market, it is the business or institution’s information management and collaboration systems that enable that organisation to perform well by informed judgement, supporting decisions, and actuating strategies. Information management and collaboration technologies continue to be great levellers, as they enable smaller organisations to compete with much bigger companies and, when used effectively, enable larger enterprises to manage and maintain growth, scale, and agility.

Corporate employees now spend more time working on e-mails, documents, spreadsheets, and presentations than anything else, and as a result the number of digital assets that have to be stored, managed, and protected each year is going up and up. This continued proliferation presents something of a challenge for all organisations, as while on the one hand businesses and institutions want to foster a culture of information sharing and reuse, on the other there is a growing need for greater levels of control, compliance, and information governance. Over the next two to three years, business success and survival will depend on the organisation’s ability to exploit the information assets that it holds and the people it employs. With fierce competition across all markets and all sectors, organisations must now consider every tool and technology available.

Unlike 2008, which was the International Year of a root vegetable, i.e. the potato, 2009 is to be the International Year of Astronomy. Four hundred years ago, Galileo Galilei used one of his telescopes to see things that no one else had ever seen. Telescopes are still used today to look into the past as well as the future: astronomers use them to look back into the history of the universe, while military lookouts and commanders use them (in the form of binoculars) to gain advance warning of approaching foe and to see the lie of the land. Information technology is our modern-day equivalent of Galileo’s telescope. Used appropriately and expertly, IT allows the information worker to better understand his or her ‘business universe’. However, if used inappropriately and/or without due care, like looking at the sun through a telescope, then it can lead to temporary – or even permanent – ‘information blindness’. Make sure that 2009 is your Year of the Information Worker.