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Future uncertain

Crystal-balling five IT requirements for business in the future.

Sahil Mungar
By Sahil Mungar, Head of sales and marketing for FNB Mobile & Connect.
Johannesburg, 01 Apr 2014

Fifteen years ago, if you had to predict what IT requirements for business would have looked like, would you have been correct? With technology and business converging and rapidly advancing, IT requirements are set to change the face of business in the not too distant future.

Companies of the future will increasingly build themselves around mobile workforces. If employees are not required to physically attend the "bricks and mortar" structure of the office, then they can create the office wherever they are.

This would require companies to rely on mobile communication systems and security systems to ensure integrity and maintain service levels that would usually be expected in a closed network environment.

1. Personalised assistance

Some companies already use IP communications (Skype, Google Talk, proprietary IM platforms) to get team members or subject matter experts from around the world to assist employees in the field with problems, in real-time.

Personalised assistance also takes the form of user-focused interaction on digital channels. A live chat function can help customers via video/voice/text help in real-time with a call centre agent, without leaving their computer screens.

This requires re-evaluating the current call centre operations model. Real-time systems and automated service bots mean no waiting times, fast query resolution and people-friendly staff.

2. HR structures and personal branding

Currently, HR systems worry about taxes, leave balances, birthdays and the like. More critical today is the maintenance of the workforce and need to ensure the chain of command for operations. Leave approvals, increases, bonuses, recruitment, performance management and training are provided by HR systems to help execute the admin tasks of manager/employee relationships.

Future companies will opt for flat structures. This means the overheads should reduce. Further, these companies will also recruit staff on an ad-hoc basis. Therefore, when a certain project is required, a quick search of potential candidates will be performed, their rates viewed, their past experience and qualifications reviewed, and then people will be recruited for the delivery of the once-off project or activity. This creates a job market in a real sense of multiple subject matter experts available at various times for ad-hoc work.

Companies will no longer suffer the cost of staff downtime, as staffing will occur as and when required. This means people will tend to be "free agents" with personal brands. Recruitment sites will become shopping sites where companies choose the best-branded person.

3. Health-conscious employee and community initiatives

Healthy employees mean less sick time and more productivity. Healthy communities mean sustainable and loyal consumers. Systems required by companies would need to monitor the eating habits within canteens to predict risk levels for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases to determine medical contributions, forward planning in terms of employee downtime, among other efficiency practices.

Companies of the future will increasingly build themselves around mobile workforces.

Healthy communities will probably develop via health surveys; free clinics and other sources of obtaining community health data will help companies forecast future customer ages and intervene with social programmes to extend community life expectancy as much as possible.

4. The social work environment

The social work environment will comprise a different culture than it has today. People will work with each other, similar to a group of friends as opposed to colleagues, as social groups as opposed to teams. Work hours are likely to increase with the increased demand from skilled workers, thereby creating an environment where people spend up to 10-12 hours a day with each other.

Current social interaction requirements include social networks, private chat groups and communities, family Web sites, e-mail lists, etc. These technologies could be morphed into the future social work environment; however, employers will need to adapt to integrate into the social space of collaboration - not just e-mail.

5. Multi-geographic teams

Multi-geographic teams will consist of people who may be anywhere in the world. A project manager in China, developer in India and implementation teams in Johannesburg will become increasingly common as people choose to live and work where they please. Technology will help communication lines remain open, and efficiencies in the airline industry will make travelling, when required, faster and more convenient.

With technology bringing the world closer together and ever increasing forms of digital communication, it is anyone's guess what the workplace will look like 10 years from now.

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