By Christopher Papa
The arrival of touch technology has revolutionized consumer device usage and looks set to do the same for enterprises ? in fact, according the Forrester Research the total tablets shipped is set to reach 375 million by 2016?. Put simply, people are used to touch technology in their personal lives and are now expecting the same experience in their professional lives.
Stemming from the success of consumer touch devices, a new generation of touch-enabled enterprise grade devices holds the promise for businesses of being able to support and maximize a new era of always-on connectivity and an empowered evolving workforce using the latest tools and capabilities to work remotely, flexibly, and productively.
With the potential to harness a new level of productivity and efficiency from a flexible workforce, it?s no surprise that enterprises are asking if they can incorporate the touch experience in a secure and managed way.
To invest in and deploy any new technology, businesses must always ask a number of difficult questions to help decide if the business requirements will be met with the right benefits and at the right level of investment.
Touch technologies are no exception; however, the one big difference is that this is not just a software upgrade and an extra handful of features. Instead, it is vital that enterprises understand and consider that, by revolutionizing form factors, touch is really about upgrading the way business is done and workers operate.
New touch operating systems bring to life a new generation of business tools that not only seek to meet the demands of an evolving, tech savvy and ?tech expectant? workforce, but also represent the route to genuine productivity gains by enabling workers to get their job done anytime, anywhere.
For businesses, this is a strategic decision as much as a technology decision and, as such, they should ask ?how can touch drive productivity and device choice, while addressing security, manageability and ROI?? If all the answers stack up, it could be a simple decision.
Producing productivity
Upfront, it is all about providing a touch-friendly interface. Not only does this drive an effective workflow and responsiveness of quality business-class tablets, but also enables ultrabooks, laptops and tablet-laptop hybrids all to support more traditional output tasks. Throw in the ability to run and use a host of traditional apps and it is clear why touch offers considerable benefits to today?s workforce and businesses.
Understanding how and where employees are productive is vital in deciding how touch-enabled devices can be used to maximum advantage. For knowledge workers, productivity can be increased by having one device that can function as both tablet and laptop.
If a tablet is functioning as secondary device, certain operating systems also offer one interface which enables users to move seamlessly from working on conventional PCs, to tablets and mobile devices, and back again.
In the retail sector, sales people can approach customers with a proposition which can be immediately demonstrated on a tablet device. Quick and flexible access to information means deals can be closed on the spot and communicated to head office immediately.
For the public sector, students are able to easily collaborate in the classroom and remotely by using highly flexible devices such as tablets. The healthcare sector also benefits from touch enabled devices, as portable technology enables doctors, nurses and staff to access and update patient information immediately, streamlining and improving patient care overall.
Whether it?s improving patient care by accessing patient records immediately or increasing transactions by processing them at point of sale, touch-enabled technologies offer employees easy input devices which are portable and desirable while meeting the specific demands of their business or occupation.
Reassuringly secure
In addition to productivity gains and supporting the workforce, enterprises choosing touch technology are just as dictated to by security as any other. Globally, the average cost of a data breach is $136 making security a key concern and a significant factor in limiting costs?.
By offering a desirable alternative to consumer devices, enterprise-class touch-enabled technologies address the security risk factor and compliance complexities stemming from trends like BYOD by presenting employees with the type of technology they most want to use while also meeting the demands of IT.
Touch technology is great for productivity but keeping devices, data, connections, and networks safe without restricting workflow and preventing employees from getting their job done is a permanent concern and focus.
Regardless of the internal IT resource available, it?s probably fair to say that no IT team has the capacity to continually monitor for every single growing and emerging cyber threat.
The adoption of touch devices in the enterprise represents a growing number of endpoints at which these types of attacks are targeted. Therefore, a level of reassurance is a ?must have? for businesses and protection against core threats including viruses, malware, spyware trojans and device damage or loss is vital.
In addition, the mobile and flexible working enabled by touch technologies like tablets, mean that data no longer resides on one device, but moves across devices and into the cloud.
Therefore, data protection must move beyond simply protecting the device to protecting the data as it moves with end users. It?s no wonder that data protection and encryption are the top concern of IT managers when it comes to endpoint security?.
To enable secure collaboration, data protection needs to be all-encompassing, easy-to-manage and must extend across multiple platforms from devices to removable media and public cloud storage. File level encryption ensures the protection of data at rest, regardless of device meaning that security levels are enhanced despite the introduction of mobile form factors.
In addition to platform coverage, it?s key to choose encryption technologies that won?t interrupt existing IT processes or negatively impact system performance. Security can be additionally strengthened through advanced authentication measures, port control options, physical hardware lock and optional tracking and recovery services.
Business-class protection of company data is part of the equation which is pivotal to the success of this new generation of touch technologies, employees and a new working culture. But limited budgets are a reality, and so secure devices with secure operating systems are crucial to meeting the evolving enterprise and employee demands.
A different way of managing
IT professionals need simple, intuitive, and automated tools to more efficiently deploy, manage and secure end user devices and support their changing workforce.
Manageability has long been and remains complex, with as much as 75 per cent of IT budgets going toward maintenance. Systems management should be and can be simplified to accommodate the advent of touch technology.
With the arrival of a host of new touch devices, IT managers face the challenge of managing a growing number of devices without a growing budget. To effectively manage such a wide range of devices, management solutions need to be centralized with automated processes that provide cost reducing solutions.
Such a unified system presents IT with a dashboard of tools, driving efficiency by reducing time-consuming tasks like deployment, monitoring and updating systems. The capability to manage an entire fleet of devices, whether on- or offline, in a one-to-many capacity is key to time, and therefore cost savings.
A key ingredient of these types of management systems is deep integration with industry leading consoles helping businesses deploy, configure, manage and update devices.
It is also important to recognize the specific management needs of each business. While certain characteristics are vital in a management solution, every business has its own device mix and unique end point demands which need to be met.
A degree of choice
It?s clear that touch functionality is more than an upgrade. It?s a response but also a catalyst to the evolution and development of computing. Not only are the way businesses use PCs changing, so too are device form factors in order to accommodate changing roles and uses. The traditional desktop and laptop PC is evolving just as the traditional ?9 to 5? office based working routine is changing.
Employees increasingly expect to work wherever and whenever they want and to be assessed on their productivity rather than presence. The Evolving Workforce? research from Dell and Intel showed that 60 percent of employees want to be measured on the quality of their work as opposed to time spent in the office.
There is an ?anytime, anywhere? attitude to data access which is changing the expectation both on productivity and the devices designed to enable it. With practicality, efficiency, reliability and security now dominating workforce demands, a new generation of laptops, tablets and hybrid devices are fast becoming the business tools of choice.
As the trend of IT consumerization continues to grow and an increasingly ?tech savvy? workforce expects the latest technology available for work, it is easy to see why enterprises are seeking to deploy professional tools, appropriate to businesses use but with consumer appeal.
Touch functionality is set to be a major element of these new tools, with a new level of usability that bridges the gap between tablet and laptop. Consumer usage of touch devices in their personal lives has set an expectation in all areas of their device use, whether at home or in the office.
Optimized for touch, but also to maximize an evolved familiarity with tablet based operating systems, Windows 8 has supported the development of varying versatile device designs including tablets with dockable and detachable keyboards and tablets that convert into to laptops.
The new designs are certain to appeal to both the job sectors where tablets are popular but also to the broader, increasingly mobile workforce that want the convenience of a tablet with the input productivity of a laptop.
Technological enhancements like Corning Gorilla Glass offers a high level of durability meaning that touch devices are robust enough to take on a range of environments and can meet the demands of industry. These design developments are fast becoming a vital focus for enterprises, especially when we consider that IDC estimates that one third of the world?s workforce will be mobile in 2013.
Assessing the value
There are a host of factors for enterprises to consider when deciding on any technology investment. On average, institutions currently managing tablets spend an estimated $2,235.20 configuring these devices to work within their organizations.
These costs are often several times more than the actual expense of acquiring the device, meaning that an informed decision is first and foremost about understanding the business need and requirement versus what technology and equipment is already in place.
For businesses, the good news is that adopting a touch solution is highly flexible and scalable. Whether upgrading existing kit or undertaking a full migration, enterprises can choose an approach that best suits their needs and budgets in the short, medium and long term. Long-term ROI is what any investment like this is all about.
With ultraportable devices being put in the hands of flexible workforces across the globe, selecting the right devices that are secure and durable is crucial to getting the optimum cost of ownership.
Another significant long term cost gain and saving is around supporting an evolving workforce. Using the right technology to enhance employee productivity and efficiency over time not only delivers growth to the bottom line, but a happier, more satisfied workforce also drives profitability.
Empowering employees with device choice and providing the right technology to help a more flexible working routine helps to minimize staff churn and attract the best talent.
When all the investment factors and business benefits have been weighed up, businesses may ask not ?can we afford to migrate? but ?can we afford not to??
Understanding the evolution
Touch functionality is one of the latest IT innovations in the spotlight. Designed to enable more flexible ways of working, it could be the ideal operating system to define and deliver true business-class productivity underpinned by device freedom, reliability and mobility.
New software, hardware and services, look set to provide ?best of both worlds? technology by providing enterprises with peace of mind around device and data security and manageability, while delivering productivity tools in desirable form factors to help meet the demands and expectations of an evolving workforce.
Touch functionality represents a technology development and evolution that enterprises must engage with and understand before making any strategic technology decisions. Not just to assess if the new technology is right for them, but also vitally, to understand what has and continues to drive the demands and evolution of this technology.
The author is the country manager of Dell Philippines
—————–
??Forrester Research World Tablet Adoption Forecast, 2012 to 2017 (Global)? forecast
??Ponemon Institute, 2013. Cost of Data Report [PDF]
??IDC, Worldwide Security 2013 Top 10 Predictions, Doc#: 239424, February 2013
