Touchscreens offer 'a window on a whole new world' for enterprise IT

The rise of touchscreens must be embraced by enterprise, Computing's most recent IT Leaders' forum discussion concluded

Touchscreens and the bring your own device (BYOD) trend offer an entirely new model of doing business that organisations must embrace to remain competitive.

That's what Salvation Army CIO Martyn Croft told today's Computing IT Leaders' Forum examining the future of the touchscreen in the enterprise.

"Part of this journey is shifting the way you work," he said, adding that traditional Microsoft documents used in the workplace will become less common as enterprises increasingly use mobile devices. "That file-based work is something we're moving away from," he added.

He said that touchscreens offer "a window on a whole new world and we have to embrace that change".

Accessibility was as another key topic at the event, with Jim Henrys, enterprise strategist for Intel, pointing out "we're no longer in a one size fits all world", and that "work is now something you can do anywhere, anytime". He argued that productivity has vastly increased across many enterprises as a result.

Ruchir Rodrigues, managing director for digital strategy and delivery at Barclays Bank, agreed. "This is just the start, there's going to be tremendous innovation in this space," he said, having told the audience how the bank is using tablets to improve customer service.

The panel agreed that in certain sectors tablets would become ubiquitous in customer service roles. Rodrigues suggested that soon it would be possible to set up a bank account and apply for a mortgage by merely using a mobile touchscreen application.

Henrys said Barclays use of tablets was a great example of an organisation "using the right device at the right time in the right place".

The panel agreed that touchscreens are not appropriate for every situation. For example, the deaf and blind need something they can physically feel like braille, which is not something today's touch devices can yet provide.

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Touchscreens offer 'a window on a whole new world' for enterprise IT

The rise of touchscreens must be embraced by enterprise, Computing's most recent IT Leaders' forum discussion concluded

Richard Edwards, principal analyst at Ovum, said that every enterprise employee is now a "technology consumer," able to choose their own mobile device, be it an Apple, Google Android, Microsoft Windows or even BlackBerry product. This choice is "changing the way in which employers do IT", Edwards added, with IT departments no longer able to standardise computer hardware or software throughout an organisation.

This poses a challenge for IT teams, he added, given that Apple's iOS and Google's Android are not the simplest to integrate with the kind of Windows-based office packages like Word, Excel and Outlook that are still used in the vast majority of businesses.

But according to Edwards, the touchscreen-enabled Windows Surface Pro, which he described as a mix between a tablet and a laptop, is "an exceedingly good choice" for those wanting to use a touchscreen device in the workplace.

However, despite the increasing use of touchscreens, there's still going to be an important place for more traditional input devices in enterprise. Simon May, infrastructure technical evangelist for Microsoft, told the audience that "we will still see the traditional keyboard and mouse", but they will be alongside more innovative methods of input developed as we move along the "continuum of UI design", which will eventually include motion control – something that Microsoft has already experimented with with Kinect for Xbox 360.

Smartphones and tablets have only been on the market for a few years, but already touchscreen use has infiltrated most enterprises, especially among younger employees.

Which is hardly surprising given that, according to Salvation Army CIO Croft, touchscreens are "the new rock and roll".