We are living in times of great changes, from technological and economic to social and cultural. Urbanisation and electronic communications have truly made our world one global village where the creation, distribution, use, integration and manipulation of information in real-time is at the heart of economic, political, and cultural activity.
Digital natives were born in the age of digital technology and are now adults. They have grown up in a culture of real-time online collaboration and information sharing, learning through browsing and multitasking.
This is a generation that wants to communicate and get things done anytime, anywhere and anyhow.
The arrival of 4G technology heralds further changes. Its utility goes way beyond the convenience of effortlessly streaming HD video on your smartphone or tablet, having blazingly fast internet access on the go, or providing a very high speed MiFi zone in your car for kids to connect their gaming consoles to.
A key challenge companies have in a real-time information society is the integration of human resources with information or processes for interaction with other employees, customers or suppliers. Fortunately, the technology and services that enable such organisational effectiveness are available, and Malta is at the forefront in this regard.
The challenge is for business leaders to adopt such services fast enough to ensure that their business operation remains ahead of the curve and not miss the proverbial boat due to hesitation to drive organisational change.
Helping your employees work smarter and better, anytime, from anywhere, using smartphones, laptops or tablets equipped with cellular connectivity should be seen as a value-enhancing process that positions your company ahead of your competition. Secure workforce mobility through the use of 4G devices secured through centralised device management should be seen as a great opportunity to improve productivity.
Workforce mobility provides a competitive advantage
More importantly workforce mobility provides a competitive advantage over other companies that are yet to understand the value of an employee who is keen on closing a deal, resolving a customer complaint posted on Facebook that could have gone viral within minutes, and logg-ing in remotely to restart an automated business process.
Malta can boast a leading edge electronic communications infrastructure. Moreover, 4G has just been launched on the island. 4G is the latest generation of cellular network technology, and it’s a step up from anything you’ve experienced before.
The majority of 4G devices available today are limited to speeds of 100Mbps download and 50Mbps upload but the network that has been deployed is already technically capable of supporting higher speeds.
Typical speeds that can be experienced today, taking into consideration factors such as coverage, network load and mobile device capabilities, are likely to peak to 85Mbps on download and 35Mbps on upload.
We are just at the beginning of a new revolution in work practices. Mobile telephony started this revolution just over 20 years ago and eventually mobile e-mail enabled a certain degree of employee mobile productivity away from the office. This happened while internet became pervasive, engineers continued squeezing incredible computing power into increasingly smaller electronic devices, and digital natives entered the workforce.
In just a few years we have seen mobile data speeds increase from a few kilobits per second when GPRS was introduced, to the blazingly fast 4G you can experience today in Malta. At the same time we witnessed the explosion of mobile apps and software industry disrupting cloud computing.
Enterprises are moving away from traditional in-house hosted IT stacks to adopt cloud services seeking capex-free, pay-as-you-go operating efficiencies while enabling internal resources to focus on core business.
Gartner predicts that the Software as a Service market will grow at a steady CAGR of 19.5 per cent through 2016 as use of office productivity suites, ERP, HR, CRM systems, and data storage move to the cloud.
Cloud services together with 4G are key ingredients which will transform the meaning of the workplace as we know it.
Mobile broadband has already brought about a significant shift towards mobile working to the extent that the very fast adoption of tablets by enterprises even took Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt by surprise, who admitted this during a recent Gartner Symposium.
Companies in Malta have started embracing cloud and mobility to drive a cultural change within their workforce. Vodafone Malta operates a paperless, hot-desking office environment while laptops, tablets and smartphones take centre stage as the main device through which most business is conducted. Key business systems are hosted in the cloud and accessible in a secure manner from anywhere through a web browser or a mobile app that sits on the smartphone or tablet.
Ubiquitous smartphone and tablet use in the consumer space will also drive more m-commerce and m-care. Enterprises need to be ready for this as customer support will definitely not remain limited to office hours.
Consumers, particularly digital natives and future generations, expect extended support on any day and time of the week. Enterprises aiming to provide the best customer experience need to increasingly provide such support through mobile knowledge workers.
It’s time to think about how your business is gearing up to meet the challenges ahead and maximise the opportunities of technological innovation.