Managing the Changing IT Landscape: User-Centered Computing

In my recent blog, “It’s time to put users first” I wrote about user-centered computing, a strategy for embracing consumerization that puts users first. Much like user-centered design seeks to optimize a product around the needs of customers, a user-centered approach to IT involves learning from research and user engagement. And for Intel IT, user-centered computing works very well.

Intel IT worked proactively with employees using an inclusive strategy based on three core principles:

• Inviting
  • Deploying early adopter programs to help guide IT strategies
  • Having employees participate in proof-of-concept studies, pilot programs, research, and surveys

• Listening
  • Conducting user segmentation research to target IT solutions and services to specific employee groups, optimize PC refresh rates, and improve technical support
  • Using a human-factors-engineering group to learn how people use and interact with technology to optimize workflows

• Informing
  • Sharing a variety of approaches on technical implementation and IT services to help guide employees on Bring Your Own PC (BYO-PC)
  • Educating employees on pros and cons as well as use cases, IT services, and the security capabilities of a variety of devices, helping to smooth adoption

To learn more about how Intel IT applies these principles, check out this IT whitepaper that I coauthored with my Intel IT colleagues Lisa Spelman, Director of Employee Computing Platforms, and Julie Rovegno, Manager of IT Products and Services. You can also listen to Lisa’s Inside IT podcast.

Does your IT organization practice user-centered computing? How do you make it work?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#UserCenteredComputing #Consumerization #IntelIT

http://www.intel.com/itcenter

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: User-Centered Computing

Are you ready to let users determine what IT services you deliver? Like it or not, they’re already using their own devices, not to mention the cloud-based services they want. Wouldn't it be easier to include them right from the start?  

I've been writing a lot on the importance of finding the right tool for the job. At the heart of that idea is user-centered computing—an inclusive approach to managing consumerization that puts all users’ needs first.

When I worked for Intel IT, we put this to action by moving away from the one-size-fits-all model to a customized approach that emphasizes the right fit and design for the job. We did this by:

• Conducting segmentation studies to understand job roles and how people work
• Inviting employees to participate in pilot studies and early adopter programs to improve and stabilize IT solutions before full deployment
• Conducting surveys that help:
  • Measure customer satisfaction with existing IT products and services
  • Identify the services that are most important to employees
  • Solicit input on gaps and unfulfilled needs in our service portfolio
• Providing greater choice and flexibility by offering more options for primary computing devices
• Establishing and supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and BYO-PC programs

This approach may seem radical, and it does involve changing the culture of IT. However, this change is necessary to fulfill the mission of IT: creating and delivering greater business value.

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#UserCenteredComputing #Consumerization

IT Center

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: Business-Class Technology

I recently blogged about how I define business-class technology and what separates it from the pack. It’s no longer a luxury, but a necessity (unlike that upgrade from coach … definitely a “nice to have”).

IT professionals need to protect sensitive data while giving users the mobile tools they need to innovate and collaborate. Intel vPro technology has the chops as business-class technology that delivers this balance: It’s designed to strengthen security and increase productivity across your business.

An inside look: How Intel saves time, money

Intel IT has been using Intel vPro-based processors as the Intel corporate standard, and they recently revealed four specific use cases. The bottom line? With powerful remote management capabilities, they’ve cut costs and reduced downtime, resulting in greater productivity across the business—even though IT is present at only about one-third of Intel’s physical sites.

Consider this:

• We’ve reduced the time to resolve password resets by 80 percent.
• On average, we’re saving remote employees more than $100 (U.S. dollars) on shipping and more than 10 hours of employee downtime with Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) Remote Control and ISO mounts.

Are you using Intel vPro technology in your business? If so, what benefits have you realized from this technology?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #BusinessClass

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: Touch-Enabled PCs in the Enterprise

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a blog on the emergence of enterprise app stores as a way for IT to gain better control. Today, I want to go one step further: I believe that enterprise app stores mark the beginning of touch-enabled PCs at work.

For consumers, app stores have become the de facto standard for delivering productivity tools, games, and content. As smart phones and other mobile devices become a part of everyday business, CIOs are realizing the power of app stores in the enterprise—both to achieve greater control and to deliver applications optimized for work streams.

Touch is next out of the gates

IT isn’t paring down these apps for mobile devices; on the contrary, it’s optimizing them for touch-based interfaces. And there’s no need for compromise. By building an app strategy that focuses on touch with the Windows* 8 operating system on an Intel®-based device, organizations can get the enterprise-grade solution they need while users get the devices and experiences they love.

Just the other day, I was dialing a colleague using my laptop’s softphone and thinking how much easier it would be to simply touch the numbers on-screen like I’m able to do on my phone. It’s a faster, smoother, and more natural interaction.

Where do you stand on touch-enabled PCs in the enterprise? Which business apps would you want to be touch-enabled first?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #touchPCs #enterpriseappstore

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: App Stores in the Enterprise

I’ve talked a bit about consumerization strategy in a recent blog post, and by default, a huge part of success involves change. As consumer trends continue to drive their way into the business world, change abounds. The latest? App stores in the enterprise.

Enter BYOA—or Bring Your Own App

Users are now upping the ante on Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) by downloading apps that may or may not be IT-approved. It’s known as Bring Your Own App (BYOA), and it’s here to stay. It’s also risky. According to some TechTarget data I saw yesterday, IT orgs are much less likely to trust business data and services built for consumer applications than they are to support BYOD hardware.

According to a recent Forbes article, “With nearly two million apps in the Apple and Google* app stores alone, it’s nearly impossible for businesses to ensure the security and appropriateness of every app that an employee might download on a corporate or employee-owned device". The good news? App stores are a huge opportunity for IT to gain greater control—whether it’s through software installations, role-based app delivery, licensing, or regulatory compliance.

I think we’re going to see more and more app stores cropping up as this gains traction. In fact, I recently learned about the Microsoft* Application Acceleration program, which builds on the rapidly increasing number of business- and industry-specific applications available on the Windows* 8 operating system.

Does your organization have an app store, or are you considering one? Do you think it will give IT greater control?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #enterpriseappstore

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: Constant Change Keeps On Coming

In today’s business world, it’s sink or swim. The changes brought by consumerization—grand-scale changes that keep on coming—are disrupting the industry in new ways. Responding is not optional; it’s time for IT leaders to take charge.

What worked yesterday may not work today

Change has become the new mode of survival. It makes me think of a quote by one of my favorite authors, Stephen Covey, who challenges us to take charge: “Will we act upon life, or will we merely be acted upon?” A recent article in CIO.com has a similar take for the IT industry: CIOs must either “disrupt or be disrupted.”

The bottom line is that what worked before may no longer cut it. The article uses Netflix as a key example: This one-time major disruptor is now struggling to maintain its position with tough competition coming from Amazon, YouTube, and Hulu. Netflix initially tried to rebound with pricing and subscription changes, but angry customers responded promptly with their cancellations. In other words, Netflix was acted upon, and their business model was disrupted by external forces.

Tackling consumerization, starting with users

BYOD is the primary force changing the world of IT: Users want more freedom to choose their own devices—and sometimes services—to accomplish their jobs. And it’s constantly changing. To succeed, IT organizations must go beyond Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives and fully embrace consumerization with all that it entails. 

At Intel, we firmly believe the answer lies with a renewed focus on users. We recently published our perspective on the Future Implications of Consumerization in the Enterprise. With a proactive effort to improve the user experience, IT can empower users to create, consume, and share data using a range of devices at any time, in any environment—ultimately driving business productivity. And, as we see in the Netflix example, there’s no time to wait. IT must gain the control it needs today, while becoming an innovative, strategic partner that is integral to helping the business maintain a competitive edge.

When it comes to consumerization, are you acting or being acted upon? Do CIOs have the charter and organizational partnerships to drive strategic innovation?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #vision #innovation

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: Consumerization and the PC Refresh Cycle

When employees are armed with the right technology, it changes everything. For the business, this can mean increased productivity, stronger efficiencies, and reduced costs. For the employee, it can mean greater job satisfaction, higher morale, and, well, less of a chance they’ll leave your company. 

So many devices, so little time

When you can offer innovative technology choices to employees, you can deliver a better experience while maintaining the standards needed for cost-efficiency across your business—including performance, security, and compliance (no small thing).

And there’s no magic bullet. Different roles in the organization require different solutions, from laptops and tablets to two-in-one Ultrabook™ devices and desktop PCs. In fact, in an effort to help IT managers navigate the many options, we recently published a device selection guide.

Getting a fresh start

There’s another important angle to this. With consumerization pushing the environment forward, businesses can satisfy educated, tech-savvy users by refreshing corporate-provided PCs. I just had the opportunity to participate in an Intel® IT Center webcast on PC refresh,  and it got me thinking about some valid points:

• There’s a “mobile mismatch” at work – Intel market research data shows that while most workers are no longer sitting in one place, desktops are the predominant install base. Today, our jobs demand us to be away from our desks to collaborate with people.
• Slow and steady won’t win the race – Aging PCs are bringing us down with higher costs to the business in IT support and maintenance; less productive employees; and ultimately, greater demand for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
• Security, security, security – It’s no secret that older hardware platforms and technology are more susceptible to attack. The catch is that users are forgoing old technology for their own devices, therefore amplifying risk with potentially unsecured devices.

By taking a proactive approach to PC refresh—listening to and understanding your users and business needs—we can improve productivity and security while containing and lowering total cost of ownership (TCO).

Where does your organization stand on PC refresh? What devices are at the top of your list for 2013?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #PCRefresh

Managing the Changing IT Landscape: Collaboration as Competitive Advantage

Collaboration just might be the next big thing. But is it getting the attention it deserves?

According to a recent article from informationweek.com, people are changing the way they work—and it’s having a profound impact on IT strategies and budgets in 2013. Research conducted by business advisory firm CEB (formerly Corporate Executive Board) explored the IT implications of collaboration on productivity—and the results might surprise you.

The first big reveal? According to Andrew Horne, U.K.-based managing director at CEB, “People know that work is becoming more collaborative, but the surprise is that 50 percent of successful performance now depends on this—where 10 years ago 80 percent of the outcome of any task would have been down to the individual. It is the magnitude of the shift that we didn’t expect.”

In other words, productivity depends on it

What’s more, process-automation efforts of the past are no longer enough. To improve productivity, companies must think more about customization. Instead of creating highly customized (yet rigid) ERP and CRM solutions, there is a need for standards-based, cross-enterprise tools that can be customized in areas where you gain the most value—focusing on the way that employees actually perform tasks, where they perform them, how they service customers, etc. Think of what a physician can do with a portable, touch-enabled solution. And while sales managers will always need a CRM solution, they need access to it on the right mobile device.

I saw this in action last week while discussing the benefits and use cases of tablets, laptops, and new two-in-one Ultrabook™ devices with professional educators and healthcare administrators. These environments have an abundance of applications for enhancing productivity, quality care, and student learning. The goal is to connect educators with students, students with students, and healthcare workers to their peers and their patients. The concept of enhancing interpersonal engagement through and with technology proved to be the theme of the week.

Although this might seem intuitive, companies on average are spending only one-third of their IT budgets on the right mobile solutions—and according to Horne, anything less is too little. “Those pushing hardest for improvements are allocating two-thirds of all IT spending to the tools that are really capable of transforming the way users work,” he says. Any solution that gives knowledge workers what they need to share ideas and easily locate people and information has become critical.

How Intel is transforming collaboration

Another wake-up call is that the CEB research revealed a disconnect between IT decision makers and how end users actually get work done. Intel has worked actively to solve this challenge. To gain more from social computing and boost collaboration, Intel IT conducted research on the employee base by partnering with several groups across the business, including Human Resources, IT employee communications, and Human Factors Engineering. The goal was to understand how different business groups collaborate and communicate—and figure out exactly where the problems lie.

One component to this was a crowdsourcing exercise designed to collect feedback from new employees. Questions were centered around known collaboration issues—speed of innovation, barriers to working together, etc. And the results were quite interesting: 44 percent of the feedback related to organizational barriers and 45 percent to technology. Just 7 percent identified people, and only 4 percent cited environment or physical workspace. For more, check out the white paper by Intel IT, “Evolving Social Computing and Collaboration in the Enterprise”.

Again, it becomes clear that there needs to be a balance of three perspectives: technology, business needs, and the requirements of individual employees.

Do the research findings surprise you? Have you noticed the growing role of collaboration in your organization?

Chris
@chris_p_intel
#Consumerization #Collaboration #Productivity