Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 44 | Page 37

////////////////////////// T he idea that company employees discuss and share their inner musings on corporate secrets when standing around the water cooler is probably more down to the movies than it is related to any form of reality. But if people are talking at work, one of the up-and-coming topics these days is their workflow, or lack of it. Regardless of whether people talk at the water cooler, the tea station, or while queuing for lunch, we all discuss our working life experiences with each other in an informal way. It’s a sort of supplement – or you might say antidote – to human resources. And it’s where the crux of working life is really played out. So, in an increasingly connected and digitised world, may I suggest that the thread of water cooler conversations might be shifting slightly? Armed with new tools to transform the way many company processes are being carried out, people may now actually start discussing the state of their digital workflows and measuring their job satisfaction as a result. A new yardstick for job satisfaction People are now looking at the way work really gets done inside their organisation in a far more granular and analytical way. Regardless of whether or not an individual is fully aware and cognisant of the digital workflow that their role may fall into, they are probably in one, nonetheless. What everyone will know, instinctively, is that there is a flow of work between customers, partners and other members of an organisation. What we can do with digital workflows is more accurately locate areas where work can be carried out more efficiently. More than ever before we also know that people have more choice about the technology they use every day. We’ve witnessed the rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to work and the general consumerisation of IT that came with it. These experiences should tell us that if you don’t give people the right tools, then they will go and look for them. Equally, if you don’t give people the right applications, www.intelligentcio.com “ Chris Pope, VP Innovation, ServiceNow THESE EXPERIENCES SHOULD TELL US THAT IF YOU DON’T GIVE PEOPLE THE RIGHT TOOLS, THEN THEY WILL GO AND LOOK FOR THEM. engagement systems and wider workflow patterns, then they will instinctively go and look for them, or make them. Unrestrained innovation in a digitally native territory The shift to digital business brings with it new opportunities. Non-techie business people are starting to embrace so called low-code software application development platforms that allow them to build elements of app functionality that work just the way they want them to. INTELLIGENTCIO 37