Gartner warns of IT workplace upheaval

Employees will 'swarm' more often and work solo less, according to Gartner

Gartner has urged firms to ensure they have the technology systems in place to support sweeping changes in the workplace in the next decade.

The analyst firm will introduce its ideas at the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit in London next month, and has released a summary of its discussions.

Gartner said that enterprises should begin planning how to manage " increasingly chaotic environments that are out of their direct control".

The decade will see many changes in the nature of work, the firm explained, and working groups, as opposed to solo tasks, will become more commonplace. This "swarming" will take in external workers, and must be catered for across company systems.

"Work will become less routine, characterised by increased volatility, hyper-connectedness and more," said Tom Austin, a vice president and Gartner fellow.

"People will 'swarm' more often and work solo less. They will work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organisation."

Simulation, visualisation and unification technologies working across " yottabytes of data per second", will demand an emphasis on new perceptual skills, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm warned that companies need to determine the changes that will most affect them, and then assess their technology needs.

Work will also become less routine, Gartner explained. Whereas now an individual is involved in all areas of selling a life insurance policy, for example, much of this process will soon be aided by the use of automation.

The idea of 'swarming' is second on the Gartner agenda, and enterprises will have to get used to the idea of working groups coming together on an ad-hoc basis. Swarms can form quickly to solve problems, and enterprises must be in a position to cope.

The idea of the swarm contributes to the majority of the recommendations, including "weak links". These are not technical, but relate to the way people at the office know each other.

Gartner said that the growing need to work with new people with unknown skills means that workers must have access to information about them, and that social networks will be key.

The next point is "working with the collective". Gartner said that enterprises must offer executives access to a business ecosystem and give them adequate control and access to its fruits.

"Gathering market intelligence via the collective is crucial," the firm said. "Equally important is figuring out how to use the collective to define segments, markets, products and various business strategies."

The recommendations should combine to give enterprises, staff and executives a competent and agile business environment that ranges from the way they keep in touch with peers to the way they make sales calls and fulfil orders.