A new study by Samsung examines the impact of changes in society and technology on the workplace in the future, and challenges businesses to create safe and reliable smart offices in the new world of work - the so-called open economy. With an estimated 7,3 billion IoT connected devices in 2020, the need to keep every single device perfectly secure will increase.
The "open economy" will be characterized by intensive collaboration of independent workers (freelancers), the routine incorporation of innovations brought by start-ups, and a new kind of cooperation between former competitors.
Businesses have three years to securely connect. If they fail to capture the rapid change and innovation in the digital environment, they risk being left out of the game. In particular, the focus on the dispersed workforce, which consists of people working on any device, anytime and from anywhere, is essential. The fact is that many organizations are still significantly behind in the speed of adaptation to new technologies that will facilitate their journey to open ways of doing business.
The big danger is the fact that technology is ahead and changing at a much faster pace than many organizations are able to change their behavior and work processes. So companies definitely need to wake up and act now.
Not only will there be infrastructure hurdles to overcome and planning issues to resolve, but the real challenge for businesses is how they incorporate all the new technology to meet the needs of the new workforce. This group, often referred to as "Millennials", is fast becoming a key decision-maker for organizations and wants to use the technology and ideas they are used to from their private lives in their work. This includes everything from virtual and augmented reality to the next generation of personalized artificial intelligence.
Predictive intelligence is a special, emerging field that will have a profound impact on businesses over the next three years, and it is important that organizations implement a multi-layered data protection system to fully benefit from the benefits of an open yet secure way of working. Enterprises need to implement flexible security platforms that span the entire product ecosystem and enable companies to open their borders to new opportunities with greater confidence. At the same time, Samsung Knox is the most powerful security platform of its kind.
Nick Dawson, director of Knox Strategy at Samsung, says: "Powerful tools like Samsung Knox can already help businesses leverage advanced AI-enhanced tools to provide employees with a consistent work experience regardless of which device they're using."
The technological infrastructure that will power the so-called Open Economy is already in place around the world. This rapid development of technologies will mean an equally rapid evolution of companies that fit exactly into the so-called open economy. Brian Solis, founder of Altimeter Group, a digital attack consultancy, says: "We look forward to a future where companies will reap the benefits of digital Darwinism, i.e. the introduction of artificial intelligence, the use of the Internet of Things and machine learning."
As companies begin to realize their own visions of a more productive future, many unknowns arise. Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies present a huge opportunity, but also a degree of risk that has not yet been accurately classified. This follows from research carried out by The Future Laboratory, from which the entire study follows.
Ongoing investments in secure platforms that open the borders to new technologies are thus gaining importance again. If companies make these investments now, they will be able to safely incorporate any new entity into their business—not just machines, but also a new generation of people.
Companies face an important challenge to reshape conventional offices using Open Economy technologies. What specific tool they choose will vary greatly, but they will certainly have some common factors. One will be choosing a platform that supports the safe use of each device or application. Only then will it be possible to properly open its borders to new employees and partners - and partly to a new source of innovation incorporated directly into the company.
- The entire study is available for download here: www.samsungatwork.com/openeconomy.
