Newspaper article Week 3

Mobility is key part of future digital workplace, say panelists

May 21, 2015 | By Fred Donovan

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Mobility will be a key aspect of the future digital workplace, agreed panelists at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium held Wednesday.

Suresh Kumar, senior executive vice president and chief information officer, client technology solutions, at BNY Mellon, explained that his bank has created innovation centers that enable cross-disciplinary teams to collaborate.

The physical changes include eliminating offices and cubicles; the technology changes include enabling employees to use their devices of choice.

"We came up with new workplace goals, such as improved collaboration, improved communication, and improved knowledge management ... We measured the employee experience to assess progress," Kumar said.

Kumar told FierceMobileIT after the panel discussion that BNY Mellon has implemented a BYOD (Bring-your-own-device) program using Good Technology's enterprise mobility management platform to ensure sensitive data is secured.  

Andy Erlandson, general manager for IT sales, services and support at Microsoft, related that his firm has implemented similar changes to Mellon at Redmond under the rubric of "workplace advantage." He explained that Microsoft has moved to a "neighborhood structure," where employees working on the same projects are located in the same area. "All of our desks are on rollers," he added.

Erlandson said that part of the workplace transformation effort is to enable employees to use mobile devices and apps to improve their productivity, as well as catch a shuttle or order food from the cafeteria.

"We are serving up what's cooking at this cafeteria and that cafeteria ... You can order your food from your desk and they will bring the food to you," he related.

"There are all kinds of great things you can do [with mobility]. I think that is what makes the workplace experience for us interesting," Erlandson added.

Dan Holohan, chief information officer at The Advisory Board, said that his company has a young workforce that demands new technologies and workplace flexibility. He said that 80 percent of the workforce is under 40.

Holohan explained that he undertook a major technology innovation program at his firm that included deploying wireless networks throughout the company and issuing 2,000 iPads to employees. He identified Wi-Fi blind spots at his company's facilities and fixed them. As part of the innovation he wanted to go "mobile" as much as possible.