This document discusses how technology is changing the nature of business and work. It argues that offices and traditional work models are becoming outdated as technology enables new flexible and distributed ways of working. The future of work involves ubiquitous connectivity, intelligent environments, and putting users and communities at the center. Organizations must embrace these digital transformations and rethink their strategies, operations, and talent to remain competitive in this new landscape.

1. the changing shape of business –
the impact of technology on the
business model
Jerry Fishenden, 2007
[Edited copy]

2. agenda
• big picture
• the bank
• the pervasive age
• the future organisation in the user-centric age

3. big picture

4. ... when the only tool you have is a hammer,
every problem looks like a nail ...

5. … re-thinking the work model in
Britain
• building / location centric
• low productivity
• log-jammed in email and paper-process hell
• heating already over-heated wealthy parts of the
country
• wasting £18Bn a year (1.5% of GDP) through
inefficient use of property (source: UK Royal Institute
of Chartered Surveyors)
• traffic congestion is costing UK business £20Bn per
annum (source: CBI)
– 62% of UK citizens get to/from work by car (source: ONS)
– 85% of all journeys are by car
– transport contributes 25% of carbon dioxide emissions,
85% of this is from road transport
• UK initiatives on:
– bringing the disabled into the workforce
– transport
– Kyoto targets
– flexible retirement / benefits / patterns of working
… do not even mention the transformational and economic
impact of technology as part of core public policy …

6. questions
• if you were designing an
organisation today, would you
start by assuming you need
geographic premises and a
traditional "head office“ or town
hall?
• if you were designing your bank
today, would you design it the
way it is now?
• if you had the luxury of a clean
sheet of paper – what would
your ideal vision for your bank
look like? And what role would
technology play in bringing that
vision alive?

7. ... if you’re too focused on your
current business, it’s hard to look
ahead and even harder to make
the changes you need to ...

8. … a longer look in the rear-view mirror
• agrarian revolution
– four crop rotation
• industrial revolution
– Joseph Jacquard’s Loom
• mass production
– division and specialisation of
labour
• “digital revolution”
– economic and societal
innovation: enabled by IT

9. 1876 1970’-1990’s
2006
an
innovation
explosion
Mobile,
VOIP, Video,
IM, Blogs ….
the landline era

10. Forrester Research, Benchmark 2006
“Online seniors are
more likely than
Boomers to get
photos by email”
“Online seniors are more
than twice as likely as Gen
Yers to check stock online”
“Online Gen Yers are twice
as likely as Younger Boomers
to pay to download music”

11. Forrester Research, Benchmark 2006
41% of US households
shopping online … (a 5 million
increase in 2005 alone …)
5 million seniors shopped
online in 2005 ….

12. the myth of fast technology
• the mouse – invented 1964
• the CD – 1965
• the fax – 1843
• LCDs – 1888
• ... “the period from concept to
product is about 20 years in the
industry in general ...”
• “any technology that is going to
have significant impact over the
next 10 years is already 10 years
old” [source: Sketching User Experiences,
Bill Buxton]

13. ... the future workstation?

15. Source: Sketching
User Experiences, Bill
Buxton

16. Your bank … what business is it in anyway?

17. what is your bank anyway?
• a bank?
• a financial (services)
organisation?
• something else entirely …?
(hint: third option above ….)

18. reality?
• isn’t your business really
about ... storing and
managing digital bits – and
providing the most effective
complementary services?
• why focus on some digital
bits – and not others?
• if you can handle financial
bits … why not everything
else digital?

19. future competition?
• ... where will competition come from?:
– ... other banks, financial institutions ....?
– ... or from another business sector that stores
other digital bits moving into financial digital
bits? (Amazon, Google, etc.)
• why does this matter? Well ...
– who has big data centres, just like banks?
– who has mass consumer reach, just like banks?
– and do you understand how they structure and
organise their employees and physical facilities
and operations?
– are you benchmarking yourself against the
wrong (potential) competitors?
• and what are your real assets and strengths:
not just secure data management, but the
value of related services such as
identity/authentication

20. mining without the miner

23. mining services transformation
technology adoption enablers
• robust, low latency IP based fiber
networks
• vision enhanced robotics
• immersive VR
• real-time data-mining and
analytics
• …. and (most importantly)…
• a business culture/vision that
understood the need for change
and how technology would
enable it to happen

24. talent
• how do you identify, recruit and retain the best
talent?
• typical hi-tech employer examples:
– workplace benefits (restaurant, crèche,
healthcare etc)
– latest s/w and h/w
– incentive programmes for recognition
– stock awards for long-term retention
– broadband provided at home
– mail redirected to home
– home health & safety checks
– flexible working
– ability to work reduced / compressed hours
(one Exec working full week over just 3 days)
– outcome-based rewards (not input or output)
– flat(ish) hierarchy

27. the pervasive age – its
implications
(pervasive = ubiquitous = seamless = ambient …)

28. beyond mobility:
pervasive computing
• pervasive, personal and
ubiquitous
• any time, any place,
anywhere, any device
• interact using …
– speech and non-speech
sounds
– gestures and tactile interfaces
– navigation through context
(glancing)
– physiological means

29. ambient-assisted living
• independent living enabled by technology
• centred on citizens and their needs
• example:
– enabling the elderly to continue living in their
own home as long as possible, living
independently under their own control, with a
higher quality of life
– bathroom scales, blood pressure monitors,
blood glucose monitors, heart-rate monitors
that update the patient and their GP (eg. via
wireless & broadband)
– drugs that tell you when they’re out of date,
or if you’ve forgotten a dose
• involves sensing and smart processing,
evaluation and communication
• involves measuring a person's location and
using location data in a way that benefits
them
• (see the EU’s Framework Program 6 & 7)

30. intelligent environments
• office, home and public
buildings running embedded
technologies:
– controlling lighting, heating
(energy efficiency) and security
– entertainment (music/film etc
following you around the
house)
– dynamically moving calls and
content between desk/mobile
phones, PCs other devices
– knowing you’re there
– telling you what’s available

31. … more than just conferencing …

32. towards digital communities

33. the future organisation in the user centric age

34. towards the organisation of tomorrow
• re-thinking the requirements for real estate
– new real estate requirements postponed for
years
– organisations more geographically dispersed
– existing building space re-purposed
• increase in staff work/home satisfaction
• increase in citizen satisfaction – direct contact
point
• “localisation” of work a reality in ways never
previously possible
• organisations seen as thought leaders in new
ways of working – with technology that
employees want to use and citizens and
businesses able to interact with services in
new ways

35. the digital community
• employees key
part of the local
economy
• key –
partnerships
between
business and the
community
• drives bigger
picture agenda
– e-services
programme
– accessibility –
access to work
for all

36. .. its getting personal!
• lifetime stores of
everything:
– articles, books,
cards, CDs,
letters, memos,
papers, photos,
pictures,
presentations,
home movies,
videotaped
lectures, voice
recordings,
phone calls, IM
transcripts,
television, radio
…. (mylifebits)

37. MyLifeBits
MyLifeStore
Gordon Bell, Microsoft Research, http://www.mylifebits.com

38. from personal computing to community
computing – grid in the wild
• today, SETI@Home
• tomorrow …?

39. supercomputing?
… moving out of the lab, and under your desk …

40. the user at the centre
• users as reviewers (Amazon,
etc)
• users as producers:
– videos online
– blogs
– social networking / tagging,
tag gardens and the harvest
– personal channels on IPTV
• declarative living
• impact on business

41. not user centric – password fatigue

43. handwriting
speech
amazing, immersive
visualisation
new modes of interaction, experience

49. Microsoft IP Ventures - http://www.microsoft.com/about/legal/intellectualproperty/ipventures/default.mspx
EON Reality - http://www.eonreality.com/

50. zztest.swf
http://zenzui.com/ http://labs.live.com/Deepfish/default.aspx

53. http://research.microsoft.com/sds/default.aspx
whereabouts clock
text2paper
TextIt Notes
peripheral ink display
HomeNote

54. content connections
content presentations/interactions
people need to find and act on
ANY content relevant to their
activities, from ANY application,
on ANY device - in the context of
their current activity

55. gotchya! identity, privacy, security,
social/cultural

56. shops at
Morrisons
(source: loyalty card and
credit card)
subscribes to
Vodaphone
(source: mobile phone)
overweight
(source: connected
bathroom scales)
iPod owner
(source: RFID tag
alcoholic
(source: The Red Lion
EPOS)
fashion victim
(source: street CCTV) design with human dignity,
privacy and security in mind

57. ... and finally ...

58. new world of work – key trends
• economic transformation: the move from a
manufacturing-based economy to a services-based
economy will accelerate
• one world of business: political and economic
dynamics are forging a single global market, a
global workforce, global customers, partners, and
suppliers. Collaboration across time-zones, across
organisations, across firewalls will be commonplace
• always on, always connected: the challenges of the
“always on, always connected” world will be
converting information into insights; managing time
and staying focused on high priority tasks; finding
the right information and connecting with the right
people in an organisation via the best channel;
staying in sync with colleagues; and managing the
balance between work and family life

59. new world of work – key trends
• the transparent organisation: The systems that make
organizations more agile also make them more accountable.
• “NetGen meets Baby Boom”: the “net generation” that’s
coming of age today has lived its entire life in the digital age.
They are rapid adopters of new information technology and
are not only comfortable, but expect to work collaboratively
with others. They multi-task in ways that seem unfathomable
to many and increasingly will use their own devices – blurring
work/personal use and turning the workplace inside-out.
Email, the Internet, vivid real-time interactive games, instant
messaging and mobile devices are as natural to children
today as the telephone, television and ballpoint pen were to
the previous generation
• competing for talent in a shrinking workforce: demographics
show an aging, shrinking workforce in most of the developed
world over the next 50 years, so maximising the productivity
of the workers that are available is critical

60. talking points
• what is an “office” in our new always-connected
world?
• what does an automated reply with a subject
line pre-fix of “Out Of Office” mean? Or a
calendar schedule that says I’m “Out Of Office”.
Huh? What “office”?
• mobility and flexible working are the new reality
• ambient / pervasive computing is here
• society is changing … can technology keep up?
• technology is changing … can society keep up?
– eg. how will we cope with people who are both
retired and working and moving rapidly, and
continually, between both states?
– where do jurisdictions start and end? If I work for a
“UK company” but choose to do my work from
France, what does that mean?
• … do we understand these implications? Are we
planning for them?

61. if we can get this right – sample
impacts
• transport
– reduction in commuting, pressure off roads and
transport infrastructure
• energy
– reduction in petrol demand, and the surplus energy
requirements of large office environments (potential
Kyoto synergies)
• housing and communities
– impact on distribution and localisation (reduction in
tendency for one or two economic hotspots)
– preservation of smaller communities through
renewed economic viability
– citizens staying longer and more capably in their
communities
• equality of access
– disability at work (reducing those in benefits, outside
the productive workforce), enabling greater inclusion
through technology

62. ... the reality of technology
http://www.billbuxton.com/

63. summary
• the digital era is maturing
– moving from administration/operational support to impact
on strategy itself
• digital isn’t about the tech
– escape traditional thinking
– work anywhere, anytime is reality
– users at the centre (creative, interactive, pervasive): both
your own personnel and your customers
• engage technology at the inception of business
planning – not as an after-thought
• top areas?
– identity / security / privacy (internal /external)
– data-sharing/inter-agency working (interop, ontologies, etc)
– information/service access (“business APIs”; intermediaries)
– pervasive (ubiquity of access; devices; social impacts)
– economics of technological models (what’s best operational
efficiency may not be what’s best for local prosperity)

64. Source: MIX 07. http://sessions.visitmix.com/ , XB003 - ZAP!, WHAM!, KAPOW!: Windows Presentation Foundation and the Next Generation of
Online Comic Book Reading

65. the changing shape of business –
the impact of technology on the
business model
Jerry Fishenden, 2007
[Edited copy: client specific data
removed]