Lenovo, the world’s leading PC manufacturer, unveils fundamental shifts that will drive technology trends in 2018 and beyond. In the IDC InfoBrief, Enabling the Future Workspace – Agile, Intelligent and Engaging, commissioned by Lenovo, it is predicted that the changing workforce demographics and rapid adoption of new technologies will lead to fundamental changes in the workspace and how people work.
The IDC InfoBrief finds that Asia’s millennials, who will make up more than 50 per cent of the workforce by 2020, will drive transformation in workspaces across Asia Pacific, excluding Japan (APeJ). 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 or 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.
The IDC InfoBrief also predicts that APeJ will represent the largest market for innovation accelerators, forecast to reach more than US$600 billion by 2020. These changes will result in new norms across Asia Pacific, from people’s approach to buying devices and how they collaborate, to how people obtain and interact with data.
The five key technology trends identified in the IDC InfoBrief are:
1. By 2019, 20 per cent of Asia 1000 companies will have a device as a service (DaaS) agreement in place, and one per cent will have completely transitioned to DaaS.
2. By 2019, two-thirds of Windows 10 devices (PCs and tablets) will be managed via unified endpoint management (UEM) platforms and one enterprise in every three will have consolidated its desktop and mobile management IT teams into a single operations unit.
3. By 2020, 40 per cent of digital transformation initiatives will be supported by cognitive or AI capabilities, providing critical on-time insights for new operating and monetisation models.
4. By 2020, Asia 1000 firms will use open innovation to allocate expertise to 15 per cent of new projects, aiming to increase their new product introduction success rates by over 50 per cent.
5. By 2020, over 20 per cent of information workers will leverage AR at the desktop or on mobile to manipulate digital information, interact with real-world objects, and to collaborate with colleagues.
A smarter, intelligent workspace is taking shape
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 – physical space, work culture and technologies. Enterprises also need to be aware of the potential challenges of change management; workspace transformation requires concerted efforts across multiple levers to lead in the digital economy. IDC recommends transformation to cut across five areas, including:
1. Operating model transformation
2. Information transformation
3. Leadership transformation
4. Omni-experience transformation
5. Work source transformation
Lenovo recommends taking a user-centric approach to providing a truly engaging digital experience
According to Lenovo, to provide a truly engaging digital experience in the workspace, taking a user-centric approach to transformation is key. It is essential for enterprises to look past the idea of traditional PC to create a mobile, smart and personalised experience for its employees. This can be done through providing a variety of form factors and design choices to meet modern workspace demands, offering next-generation devices, ensuring device mobility and at the same time maintaining enterprise-grade reliability. On the physical workspace front, transformation can be accelerated with bimodal IT and agile practices, solutions and commercial models tailored for different segments and markets as well as solutions that allows both devices and management capabilities.
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.
