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On August 2, 2021, the new Windows 365 operating system became available to users. Why do experts see this event as almost the beginning of a revolution in the labor market and corporate IT solutions?
About the expert: Oleg Lebedev, head of the development department of OBIT LLC.
Microsoft has created a platform that experts say will redefine the concept of pervasive integration. Users can now work with their applications, tools and data in real time in a familiar environment from any device they have access to – be it a desktop computer, laptop, iPad, Linux or Android devices. The new Windows 365 is a service that allows companies to create Windows-based cloud PCs and assign them to employees. The system can be accessed through any modern browser or Microsoft Remote Desktop application.
This will radically change the structure of consumption of IT resources and in the future will lead to a transition to their maximum sharing.
Bring Your Own Device
In the early 2010s, the trend towards using your own device for work purposes began to gain momentum in most Western countries. Over time, the trend has grown into a full-fledged format, called Bring Your Own Device, or Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Even before the pandemic, it was ubiquitous: according to a Gartner study, 75% of smartphones used in companies in 2018 were owned by employees.
BYOD significantly increases productivity: employees who can use the most comfortable and familiar devices for them work better and show greater loyalty to the employer. More importantly, BYOD saves companies money.
In a number of industries in developed countries, BYOD has already become, if not a mandatory requirement, then one of the key criteria when choosing an employer.
Despite certain risks associated with protecting corporate data, 69% of IT decision makers have a positive view of BYOD, according to Ingram Micro research. According to ITProPortal, an employee who can use their own device works an average of two more hours per day.
As Cisco emphasizes in its report,
salary is no longer a tool to attract talent. The new currency of the workplace is freedom, including the freedom to choose professional tools.
In our country, employees are still motivated by compensation. However, it is obvious that the amount of compensation and tools to improve personal efficiency are directly related. If employees can improve their productivity and performance (and therefore potentially pay) with best-in-class products and services, everyone wins.
According to a Cisco study, companies that switch to BYOD save up to $350 per year on average per employee. And according to the forecasts of Global Industry Analysts Inc., by 2026 the BYOD market size will exceed $157 billion. Among the most famous players are such global giants as Accenture, Cisco, Honeywell, IBM, Oracle, SAP. For the most part, they also act as adherents of this model.
So, SAP has developed a specialized mobile platform that allows employees to work from anywhere with their own device. SAP has also created a system that allows you to decommission a device in just a minute, which guarantees data protection in case of loss or theft of, for example, a smartphone. The BYOD model has been rolled out globally and all divisions have shown growth.
Recent trends followed by global developers (and Microsoft is proof of this) suggest that people want to choose software and services for their professional duties. They want their own, “tailored” and familiar workplace that allows them to achieve better results, to be available anywhere. What’s more, when they change employers, they want to keep using their workplace, just as artisans used to use their tools.
Bring Your Own Software
The pandemic has only exacerbated this trend: while working from home, employees are not only using their own devices, but are also actively switching to using their own software. Employers, for all their fears, are unable to resist this: strict requirements can scare away valuable personnel. These circumstances become a driver for the development of such a model as Bring Your Own Software (BYOS).
BIOS is a term attached to a model where teams and employees choose the software they prefer to use and subscribe to it using their personal or corporate credit card.
Here is an example of using BYOS in action. It’s Friday night and you still haven’t finished the project and want to work on it at home over the weekend. To do this, you will have to log into the network file system from home using a virtual private network. It will probably disconnect several times during the working session, and when finished, you will send the finished project by e-mail to yourself. Or, bypassing corporate policies, you simply “upload” the document to a file hosting service, which is automatically available online on all your synchronized devices. Familiar? If you had a cloud workplace, you would effortlessly finish and save the project in a familiar environment.
BYOS completely removes the dependence of personnel on the “dictatorship” of the IT department and the procurement service, when it is necessary to make a request for any additional software, coordinate it, and then wait, hope and believe that it will be fulfilled.
Such complexities lead to the fact that, despite the strictest security policy, employees download and install programs that are not licensed or approved by companies – simply because they need additional options.
This phenomenon is widespread among companies of any size. In a recent Broadcade survey of 200 CIOs, 83% of respondents experienced the use of unauthorized software despite their companies having policies against purchasing SaaS (Software as a Service) without approval.
Employers recognize that SaaS is getting out of control. Another survey conducted by the Cloud Security Alliance showed that 72% of IT leaders do not know how many shadow applications are used in their organization. This is not surprising. In companies with 800-1000 employees, at least one employee installs 7-10 new SaaS products every month.
Employees are used to working the way they want, when they want, with whatever software suits them best. And when they have the ability to sign up for virtually any SaaS with a credit card, IT teams will increasingly take a back seat.
How the market will change
According to IDC, more than 50% of technology spending worldwide is already outside of IT budgets. This creates a trend to change the paradigm of the relationship “developer – buyer”. Until recently, enterprise software vendors sold features to the CIO, not to end users, so user experience wasn’t a top priority. Indeed, software enterprise platforms of yesteryear can hardly be called “intuitive”. In the new conditions, when the customer is the user himself, solution providers are forced to focus on his wishes.
Applications have exploded in the last couple of years, in part because they’ve become easier to create. There is no longer a need for expensive server hardware and developer hardware. Companies can cut costs, reduce leased space, reduce support overhead, and take advantage of on-demand scalable computing power.
As a result, more and more products with similar functions appear on the market, and the one who “gets through” to each specific user will win in the competition. The user himself decides whether he wants to work in a particular CRM system, for example, whether he is satisfied with its interface, etc. The employer no longer has the “serfdom” to impose tools and solutions. And this means that it will be increasingly difficult for large corporations to receive orders in b2b – in the near future, the decision maker will not be the CIO, but the employees themselves.
To reach customers and outperform competitors, developers are developing a model freemium, in which the basic product is provided free of charge, and the extended version is provided by a paid subscription. The model itself is not new, but until recently it was used mainly to attract individuals, while the new format of BYOS’s work makes it an effective tool for winning business customers.
The scheme is simple: if the user evaluates the product and wants to use it in his work, his colleagues and subordinates will join him. And when a sufficient number of employees start using the same tool, the organization will be forced to explore the possibility of acquiring a business account – usually for security reasons.
This model is already being used in the West: companies such as Box (which specializes in cloud storage) have been successful using bottom-up marketing of enterprise software, which was not very common five years ago.
This trend is beneficial for employers as well. There is an example when employees of one company, on their own initiative, began to use the YouSendIt file exchange service. IT professionals took notice and implemented it company-wide, replacing FTP services that cost them $70 a year. YouSendIt’s total payment for the same period was $25.
What’s next
For today’s employees, the virtual workplace is becoming an integral part of their offering to employers—when they move from place to place, they just want to turn on any device and immediately be in the comfort of their own professional ecosystem.
The next logical step is cross-integration of operating systems and products, the ability to interact with colleagues and partners, remaining in the system / service that is convenient for you. Developers when creating their solutions will have to provide for this possibility, or as a result they will have to leave the market.
If earlier a personal computer / laptop was the center of the user’s digital universe, was maximally configured for tasks and skills, was his reflection, now this center is moving to the cloud. Employees, especially those with high qualifications and rare competencies, gain freedom. The labor market is transforming in the direction of the uberization of the functions of workers.
Changing the place of work or field of activity, the employee can simply “turn off” his workplace until the moment when he decides to return to this direction, or “take it with him” and use the data accumulated in the course of professional activity in a new place.
Another predictable trend is the emergence service of preconfigured virtual desktops. Based on the preferences, field of activity, profession and business of the user, a ready-made workplace with already installed tools will be formed. Perhaps using the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
How are we?
To overcome the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies today are innovating and digitalizing businesses at a time never before imagined. Projects that previously took at least a year are being rolled out in months or even weeks — three times faster on average than before 2020.
Despite the fact that BYOD did not have time to gain popularity in our country, most likely, BYOS will experience explosive growth. This is confirmed by the statistics of returns to offices and the massive reduction in office space. The transition to Bring Your Own Device was held back by security considerations – Bring Your Own Software closes this gap: access to data and corporate information is regulated at all levels.
An additional factor in the development of BYOS in our country will be the opportunity for companies to save on software – many products for individual users are free or cheaper than for corporate clients. Thus, hiring employees with their own workplace becomes more profitable than investing in creating new ones. And the larger the scale of the company, the greater the benefits.