Position Paper at WEBIS

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COMET K2 Competence Center - Initiated by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation & Technology (BMVIT) and the
Federal Ministry of Economics & Labour (BMWFI). Funded by FFG, Land Steiermark and Steirische Wirtschaftsförderung (SFG)
The networked enterprise: Current and future trends in IT-
based collaboration
Alexander Richter (Bundeswehr University Munich) und Alexander Stocker (virtual vehicle)
WEBIST 2013 – Special Session: Future Workplace 2013, Aachen, Germany

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 Introduction
 Research approach
 Observed phenomena
 New organizational structures
 Changing communication practices
 Increasing individualization of employees
 Blurring of boundaries between work and life
 Approaches to cope with
 Conclusion
Agenda
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 2

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 Web
 World becomes more and more connected by ICT
 Consumers of information have transformed to producers
 Social media has become mainstream in linking humans
 Content is more and more accessed via mobile devices
 Cloud computing becomes mainstream (in private domain)
 …
 Organizations
 Web 2.0 concepts and technologies affect enterprises on a large scale
 Technologies from the public Web are getting adopted by organizations
(internal and external platforms)
 Corporate Intranets become social
 Corporate Intranets (start to) become mobile
 …
Introduction and Motivation
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 Exploration of social software adoption in 20+ cases from industry
(including Siemens, Capgemini, …)
 > 200 interviews
 Online Surveys
 Usage data analysis
 …
 Some cases studies are published on www.e20cases.org
 - > Our `Big Data` for deriving future trends in IT-based collaboration
Research approach
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 4

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 Collaboration tools transformed to powerful collaboration infrastructures
allowing new modes of self organized collaboration
 Established information hierarchies break down due to increasing informal
communication via platforms
 Transparency on the employee-level is increasing (through their sharing of
content in platforms)
 Experience and knowledge of employees becomes visible
 (Information) work can be done anywhere
 Management as defined by controlling, rules and instructions has to
transform into leadership as defined by trust, commitment and dialogue
Observed phenomena
New organizational structures
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 5

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 Number of available information and communication channels is increasing
 Increased usage of multiple channels lead to a higher perceived information
overload
 Employees need (support) to select the right channel to achieve their
communication goals
 Corporate social software is by nature `open to use‘, i.e. its potentials are
often unlocked by trial and error
 Ubiquity of communication tools lead to changing individual interaction and
communication practices
Observed phenomena
Changing communication practices
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 6

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 Transforming individual communication practices affect the way of doing work
 Performing work becomes more and more individual
 Requirements to a more comfortable and individualized working environment
 Technology acceptance is not only a question of generations
 Trade-off between comfort (i.e. demanded by employees) and security
(forced by IT-department) becomes more and more apparent
Observed phenomena
Increasing individualization of employees
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 7

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 Same tools are used in private and business context
 Same mobile devices are used in private and business context
(`bring your own device‘)
 Same collaboration platforms are used in private and business
 (`bring your own service)
 People become more connected via the social Web
(`bring your own social network‘)
 Organizational borders start to open, enabling new modes of communication
with internal and external stakeholders on tools from the private domain
Observed phenomena
Blurring boundaries between work and life
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 8

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 Reduce uncertainty among employees regarding their open choice in tools
 Collect usage examples in reports and lessons learned
(i.e. collect individual success stories)
 Example: Internal Siemens Platforms References+
 Make the plethora of platforms accessible from a single point
 Establish a central access point, go for the digital workplace
(i.e. migrate wikis into one central wiki, establish Enterprise Search)
 Example: Internal Siemens Wikisphere, Siemens Technosearch
 Support employees to better handle the blurring of boundaries between work
and life
 Create additional leeway, set clear areas of responsibility, let employees be ‚not
available‘, respect their work-life balance
 Example: 1100 non-executive Volkswagen employees (with a blackberry) are unable
to receive emails on their blackberry after work hours
Approaches to cope with trends
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 9

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 Current and future trends in IT-based collaboration
 Four trends from 20+ case studies
 New organizational structures
 Changing communication practices
 Increasing individualization of employees
 Blurring of boundaries between work and life
 Approaches to cope with them
 Reduce uncertainty in communication channel usage
 Establish a single access point to content, communication and collaboration
(e.g. digital workplace)
 Support employees in keeping work-life balance
Conclusion
May 2013 / J.Bernasch VIRTUAL VEHICLE Company presentation 10

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Further information
www.v2c2.at
Dr. Alexander Stocker – Area A Information and Process Management
alexander.stocker@v2c2.at
Vehicle concepts for the future.