Lenovo: 5 things that will change the workplace

Millennials' flair for new technologies combined with enterprises' quest for competitive advantage will fuel adoption of high potential innovation accelerators, such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), cognitive/artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics, giving rise to new behaviours and practices particularly around human-device interfaces, collaboration, talent practices, visualisation and data-driven insights.

In the report 'IDC InfoBrief, Enabling the Future Workspace', Lenovo said these fundamental shift would drive technology trends in 2018 and beyond.

According to the world's leading PC manufacturer, here are five key technology trends that will change the workplace of the future.

• By 2019, 20 percent of Asia 1,000 companies will have a device as a service (DaaS) agreement in place, and one percent will have completely transitioned to DaaS.
• By 2019, two-thirds of Windows 10 devices (PCs and tablets) will be managed via unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms.
• By 2020, 40 percent of digital transformation initiatives will be supported by cognitive/AI capabilities, providing critical on-time insights for new operating and monetisation models.
• By 2020, Asia 1,000 firms will use open innovation to allocate expertise to 15 percent of new projects, aiming to increase their new product introduction success rates by over 50 percent.
• By 2020, over 20 percent of information workers will leverage Augmented Reality (AR) at the desktop or on mobile to manipulate digital information.

WHAT DOES THE NEAR FUTURE HOLD?

The answer to this is a more intelligent workspace being shaped.

According to IDC, to remain competitive in 2018 and beyond, companies in the region must take a holistic approach to create a smart office across multi facets. IDC recommends transformation to cut across five areas, including:

• Operating model transformation
• Information transformation
• Leadership transformation
• Omni-experience transformation
• Worksource transformation

IS IT NOW AN OLD TERM?

In a world enabled by intelligence, IT is not just "Information Technology" but "Intelligent Transformation" driven by big data, cloud and intelligence. A truly intelligent environment is created when every device is smart -- where the cloud enables devices such as PCs, tablets, smartphones, smart speakers, smart TV and AR/VR to provide content, services, and the best user experience to make life easier and better, and work more productive and efficient.

Lenovo is focusing its efforts on innovation and is investing approximately US$1.4 billion in R&D globally. It aims to help customers transform and lead this new world of intelligent transformation.

Lenovo Malaysia and Singapore general manager, Khoo Hung Chuan said this is an exciting time for fans of technological progress.

"We believe that we are at an inflection point, where a demographic shift and accessible technology will drive rapid changes in how we will work over the next few years.

"However, business leaders should not take this change for granted. In order to survive and thrive in this new era, organisations must create the foundations for a smart workspace today. This means investing in intelligent transformation that enables personalised computing technologies and innovations such as PCaaS, artificial intelligence, multi-device synergy and AR," he said.