Technology may have removed the need for cables and desks, but
we are still a long way from working from the sofa. Eric Doyle
reports
Desktops of tomorrow should be invisible, if we are to believe the
technologists. Our view of the desktop will be changed by the
growth in power and functionality of the laptop PC and handheld
devices; the blossoming of wireless technologies; and the advances
being made in videoconferencing, with voice and handwriting
recognition systems receiving more development cash.
Surely, over the next five years, only a few will sit at an office
desk. Clerical workers will recline in coffee houses, road warriors
will be armed with weapons of maths destruction and trading room
staff will literally hold their futures in the palm of their hands.
Not so, say the analysts. The technology is almost ripe but the
environment is not.
Neil Ward-Dutton, principal analyst at Ovum, says, "Since the
arrival of the handheld, people have been preaching about the death
of the office but it won't happen for lots of reasons - many of
them cultural. Personal interaction is important for people to
develop ideas and even though videoconferencing is easier to do
now, it won't replace this."
This need to come together may mean that the office will always be
at the heart of a company but the way it looks could change. More
mobility will come by stealth as all new laptops are being fitted
with wireless capabilities. IBM has just launched a printer with a
wireless interface and, eventually, systems managers will take
advantage of these advances. The missing ingredient is the ability
to manage the desktop in the way it can be controlled in the wired
environment.
Ward-Dutton feels that the new challenges of the unwired desktop
have yet to be properly addressed by the technological culture.
"The core assumption of management software is that the PC, its
user and facilities are all stationary," he says. "Once
authenticated, the system knows who the user is in that specific
domain. Access to printers, faxes and other hardware and software
is fixed.
"If the user is allowed to roam, the system has to be able to
decide what facilities are equivalent to their privileges in other
domains and this will mean a major change to the way authentication
is handled. As the worker is given more freedom, the problems have
to be peeled back like the layers of an onion."
Gartner analyst and vice-president Brian Gammage agrees with the
view that the desktop will not change radically in the next few
years. "I hear discussions about wireless Lans and Bluetooth but
though people see the advantages, deployment is not happening
overtly," he says. "It is still a major job to integrate the new
technologies and manage the older systems. The way things are
structured does not encourage new technology."
According to Gartner's analysis, the cost of managing a notebook is
60% higher than a desktop system. "Before we see any major change
in the office, costs and the barriers have to be lower," Gammage
says.
For any change to happen there have to be pioneers who are willing
to take a hit as they strive to stake their claim in this new
territory. Although the financial climate and memories of the
dotcom bust have given birth to a new conservatism, the drive to
gain competitive advantage means that some experimentation has to
be undertaken to find what benefits the new technologies can
bring.
At Nationwide Building Society the new wave of laptops, the
pen-operated Tablet PC, and wireless technologies have been under
test for about a year. David Followell, Nationwide's head of
business futures and usability, is responsible for developing new
business practices based on the capabilities of the roaming
technologies. Initially, the Tablet PCs, sourced from Acer, have
been put through their paces in the the banking hall of the
building society's Bath branch.
"The tablet version of the laptop has fundamentally changed the way
we interact with our customers," Followell says. "We no longer have
to do all of our interviews at a fixed desk but can take the
technology to the customer."
This may change the appearance of traditional banks and building
societies. Followell sees the possibility of introducing sofas and
other soft furnishings to replace desks and chairs, removing the
physical barriers between staff and customers.
Over the past year, ideas have been modified as the strengths and
weaknesses of the desktop replacement have been revealed. Using
mobile computing, one staff member can pre-process customers by
taking their names and registering the nature of their queries
while they wait for a personal banking adviser. The preliminary
interview means that the adviser can be prepared for complex
issues, improving the speed and efficiency with which each customer
query is handled.
Limited battery life is a crucial drawback but security is even
more important. The Acer systems have served well, Followell says,
but data is held locally on the tablets and there is always the
worry that one may be left unattended and be stolen. "The tablet
format makes sense in this environment but the interface should be
the only thing held in the hand with the data residing on our
servers in the back office," he says.
This could mean a change in the technology to Windows CE-based
thin-client tablets wirelessly linked to the back office.
Gammage believes that cost of ownership will be the inhibitor to
any real change on the desktop. While enterprises are struggling to
get IT under control, major changes are not welcome especially if
this means increased management costs. "Nationwide's challenge is
to ensure that new systems and practices are cost-effective. If it
can't do that then it is not looking after its investors and that
is a crucial factor these days," he concludes.
Desktop details
- The office is being infiltrated by wireless devices and
interfaces
- Systems management, authentication and access rights are the
new challenge
- Managing a notebook costs 60% more than a desktop.