Conclusion: Since the rise of personal computing in the 1970s, organisations have focused on acquiring digital tools and, since the late 1990s, on promoting digital skills. While we are now in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, where digital skills are essential, the so-called soft skillsof employees also need to be constantly updated and upgraded.

Conclusion: Scenario planning is a formal approach for developing and exploring possible future situations or marketplace environments. It allows organisations to be more flexible and agile by considering the possibilities for change. It helps organisations – and for the focus of this paper, the ICT teams – identify the environmental uncertainties and allows ICT to

Conclusion: Organisations should tap into their management team (department heads, managers and team leaders) to keep their working-from-home employees committed to the organisation. These organisational leaders have the most direct relationships and therefore are the most qualified to invite engagement from employees and other stakeholders. However, new models for engaging

Conclusion: Many organisations are interested in next-generation office space designs that leverage technology to promote collaboration and workforce transformation. Leaders in this field incorporate a human-centric approach. However, environmental factors in designing next-generation workspaces are also considered. Workplaces are the intersection between people and place,

Conclusion: To support the changing workforce, businesses should look at adaptingtransformative workplace designs to maximise productivity and collaborative efforts. Early adopters of modern workplace designs have tried a variety of approaches in an effort to provide tangible improvements to staff productivity. Unfortunately, in many cases, the high hopes for

Conclusion: While there was significant media attention on artificial intelligence and blockchain in 2017, the primary concerns of Australia’s CIOs remain focused on the more pressing issues of migration to the Cloud, and its impact on IT operations and staffing. Where discussions of artificial intelligence play a role is in automation processes and workforce

Conclusion:IBRS has observed that many organisations’ eforms initiatives face five common challenges. To help ensure the best long-term outcomes for an eforms initiative, each of the five challenges must be considered, and remediation strategies put in place.

In December 2017, IBRS joined eight globally recognised thought leaders to discuss the Future of Work as part of Adobe's Think Tank series.

IBRS advisor, Dr Joseph Sweeney, not only presented a view of how technology is impacting the workforce during the live panel discussion but also moderated the pre-event brainstorm session and assisted with pre-event briefings.

The

Conclusion:The future of customer service will rely heavily on automating assistance with targeted empathy¹.

Expect virtual digital assistants to heavily reduce the need for contact centre services and become the preferred choice as a CX channel.

Amazon’s $100 million investment...

A decade ago, IBRS made the case that there were many different “modes” of collaboration and stressed the importance of choosing the appropriate mode for specific work activities. A framework provided clarity in matching the different collaborative modes to work. The framework included five aspects: power, process

Conclusion: Abbreviated trialling of RPA platforms is shaping up as a relatively low risk, low cost approach to exploring the use of robotics to aid business process rather than lengthy technical evaluations.

However, business process re-engineering experience shows that just automating existing business processes without addressing inherent inefficiencies and adding

Conclusion: Virtual Teams have become common in most organisations, and technology and globalisation have been the major enablers. Leaders and team participants have found themselves as participants by default and without choice.

For many, little training or education has been provided to help individuals recognise that their future work environment is going to

Conclusion: Abbreviated trialling of RPA platforms is shaping up as a relatively low risk, low cost approach to exploring the use of robotics to aid business process rather than lengthy technical evaluations.

However, business process re-engineering experience shows that just automating existing business processes without addressing inherent inefficiencies and adding

Conclusion: As the nature of work is becoming less routine and linear, the most effective collaboration solutions are supporting the ways that teams and individuals want to work.

At the same time, customer service techniques are changing to appeal to individuals in the ways that they like to be treated.

Developments in business work flow and customer service

Workforce transformation embraces far more than just mobility: it embraces not only where work gets done, but how, when and by whom. Much has been written about the fact that many jobs will cease to exist, while many others will transform beyond all recognition. And the impact these workforce changes will have on hiring practices and the structure of business is significant.

Enterprise Mobility is opening up new approaches to performing business activities. Early adopters of mobility technologies report significant improvements in process quality, as well as dramatically reduced latency for work activities. However, to achieve the expected results of mobility, organisations need to balance tactical mobility projects against longer term architectural approaches.

Conclusion: The digitisation of services that used to be delivered manually puts the spotlight on user experience as human interactions are replaced with human to software interactions. Organisations that are intending to transition to digital service delivery must consider all the implications from a customer’s perspective. The larger the number of