Predictions 2015

We’re making the following five predictions for office technologies in 2015.1. Smart machines: Smart machines will guide us through advanced features of office devices and not leave it up to the user to look at the operation manual to work out how to use a particular feature, thereby improving their own productivity. These also extend the functionality of the hardware into local smart devices and blur the line between hardware and smart device technology. The key drivers for change in this case are increasing expectations of intuitiveness and mobile workers having less time to spend trying to understand complex features.

2. Personal technology experience works its way into office devices: No longer will business users have antiquated and industrial operation panels and screens. Consumers are business users as well, and expect more from their devices. For example, “tablet like” interfaces on operating panels will become the norm. Office devices will look and feel much more like consumer devices that people are currently comfortable using.

3. Smaller, more productive, less noisy and using less electricity: This trend will continue at pace. With less space in most modern offices and hot-desking also growing in popularity, the need for smaller, quieter and more sustainable devices has increased. For example, the new range of Ricoh LED printers has been designed with these requirements in mind. While being rich in intuitive features and usability, they are more compact, use less material to make, are less noisy and use much smaller amounts of energy.

4. Cloud services seen as an integral part of hardware: With workforces becoming increasingly mobile and more collaboration needed across more disparate organisations, this will push the need further for cloud services. Employees are also using many more mobile devices to create, store and share documents. This all needs to be managed carefully and secure managed cloud services can enable more flexible ways of working. At Ricoh, we’re developing our cloud services continually to ensure customers’ employees can access and print documents securely and easily outside the office, while maintaining the highest levels of compliance and governance at all times.

5. The realisation that smart device users really do want to print from their own devices. Since the introduction of the iPhone, iPad and other smart devices, printing was almost forgotten as an important function, especially as the tablet is taking over from the PC. It can also be difficult to get certification for iOS devices to print to hardware. With little standardisation in the smart device market yet user levels continuing to grow at pace, the realisation is taking hold that this needs to be co-ordinated and managed more effectively. One organisation which is helping with this is the Mopria Alliance, of which Ricoh is a general member.

This is a non-profit organisation of leading global technology companies with the goal of providing simple wireless printing from smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. With a co-ordinated and influential structure like this now in place, we should see significant strides in this area in 2015
 
 

One of the key findings of that survey is that in 2015 CIOs are being driven to become more and more service-focused rather than technology-focused, as businesses increasingly view technology as a business enabler, rather than an essential cost centre. CIOs and IT directors are starting to respond to the challenges posed by shadow IT (where line-of-business functions procure and manage their own IT services.Our survey suggests that throughout 2015, the Services-Defined Enterprise will be very much part of CIOs’ transformational plans. One of the key objectives for any CIO seeking to transform the IT function into an internal service provider is to reduce the time spent managing and maintaining existing infrastructure– and instead focus on strategic activities in support of business strategy and line of business needs.

On the ground across our Irish customer base we are seeing innovations like Software Defined Datacentre (SDDC) and Software Defined Networks (SDN) having the potential to transform networks and data centres into dynamic service platforms — with centralised programmability making it easier for internal service providers to manage and provision multiple services across a single unified infrastructure. This was backed up by the results of the survey which resulted in over 50% of the CIOs in our survey predicting that SDx will impact IT and service delivery in 2015 and 2016.
 
 

As Datapac predicted this time last year, 2014 saw growing adoption of cloud solutions and services in the Irish market. This has largely contributed to reshaping the storage agenda with a greater sophistication in solutions emerging where traditional infrastructure and cloud solutions collide. It looks likely that the model of choice in 2015 will be hybrid. The hybrid approach provides a mix of public and private models. The more latency sensitive applications within an organisation can remain local, and services and applications that suit the public cloud can be migrated, reducing the local application footprint. Datapac works with global market leaders in technology research and development to allow its customers take advantage of latest developments such as the software defined data centre, bringing even greater flexibility and automation, allowing organisations to become more agile in responding to business needs and demands.

We also expect that Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) will grow at pace in 2015. DRaaS provides businesses with a more flexible subscription based cost model meaning they only pay for what they need. This utility style of billing suits a lot of organisations today, particularly as they look to manage their IT budgets as effectively as possible. With predictable spend, and better and more targeted RPOs and RTOs, this method of disaster recovery provides organisations with a very good return on their investment.

We also expect that IT security will be approached in a more holistic and strategic manner. What has become glaringly apparent is that a piecemeal IT security approach is not adequate to manage the increasingly sophisticated cybercrime threats today. We will see a marked increase in the number of strategic security reviews taking place. Organisations that take such a proactive approach are well placed to deal with security issues as they arise. A comprehensive ICT security strategy which provides protection to the entire business will provide the IT department with real confidence as security threats continue to escalate. They also have the peace of mind that in the event of an industry-wide security incident, they will be advised of best practice responses to suit that particular issue with a specific focus on how it effects their ICT environment. Particular trends we expect to see in 2015 include mobility control, network protection and tiered firewalling.

Security in relation to managing print and documents will grow increasingly important in 2015. A huge amount of sensitive information passes through printers and copiers, as well as mobile devices and this all needs to be managed effectively.Managed print solutions will also increasingly include workflow integration whereby incoming paper documents are scanned automatically and can be digitally stored and retrieved as required. This can vastly improve efficiency in an organisation, as well as reducing costs and improving compliance. Other smart features include developments such as user authentication to specific workflows and optical character recognition so that contents of the document are more intelligently routed after scanning.With these trends and features expected to flourish in 2015 as well as many more, we’re expecting another very exciting and busy year ahead.