“Work is what you do, not a place you go. The next generation of workforce will know that and be ready and able to work anywhere. Work has migrated beyond the conventional boundaries of time and space into a wider environment and those who manage the estate need to be prepared. The office is rapidly becoming just one of a network of options, and for many people their work and personal lives are becoming more integrated”

Gus O’Donnell, former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service Working beyond Walls

Many organizations are just beginning to understand how changes in design and the use of technology can lead to improved operating performance. Across technology and IT industries, the corporate workplace transformed years ago,cutting up to 20% of business costs, while increasing efficiency. Others, like financial services, legal services, and banking are just beginning to make their way into real estate strategies to create a flexible, efficient, and highly responsive workplace environment that can not only boost workforce productivity and collaboration, but also rein in IT costs and risks.

The management of people needs to be based on business outputs rather than a traditional culture more closely focused on inputs: with “Activity-Based Working” you lose your desk and gain your freedom, all for better efficiency.

Employees can now expect to be connected anywhere to everything needed to do their job. Leading technology analyst firm says by 2016 over 30% of BYOD strategies will leverage personal devices, applications, data, and social connections for enterprise purposes.

Clearly, cultural change is a significant barrier to workplace transformation and that will likely continue within many organizations until it becomes clear that not embracing some form of workplace transformation becomes a competitive disadvantage.

Is your business ready for the change? Here how you can start your transformation supported by Cisco:

• Upgrade and migrate to newer operating systems and software
• Adopt new collaboration technologies: chat, video, collaboration rooms (physical and virtual)
• Implement automated, remote and self-service support options
• Support ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD) options