Computing Mobility Summit panel discussion: Integration, applications and diversification

Panel of CIOs discuss what tomorrow will look like

"Only Doctor Who will be given a sonic screwdriver," said Paul Boyns, head of IT strategy and policy at the BBC during a panel debate at the recent Computing Enterprise Mobility Summit.

Boyns was referring to the need to tailor interfaces, applications and security settings to the specific role and responsibilities of the user and the device they might be using. All panellists agreed that this was a particularly challenging task.

1990 to 2010 was the golden age for CIOs, according to Stuart McSkimming, CIO of the charity Shelter.

"Every user used the same device - a PC or maybe a laptop," he said. "Now every user has a wide range of different devices. Data entry is still done on mainly PCs, but sales and marketing use completely different devices - it's incredibly challenging for us."

All panellists agreed that mobile technologies are causing far-reaching changes in the workplace and beyond.

"Between 1960 and 2010 office design did not change that much," said Steve Watt, CIO of the University of St Andrews. "Now mobility and collaboration are driving change.

"Office space is one of the most significant costs for organisations," he went on. "But a third of the time it lies empty. The obvious answer for many is to downsize. There are now 1.3 billion mobile workers in the world and this is going to increase."

Citing the education sector as a barometer of IT trends, Watt spoke about technologies coming together on fewer devices.

"A short while ago students were coming in with four or five devices: a laptop, a Kindle, a tablet, smartphone and a games console. This is reducing now. There's a trend towards touch-based devices with mobile connectivity embedded. For example, the iPad Mini - they have an iPad to the ear, it's becoming smaller."

McSkimming agreed that touch was becoming the interface of choice, but predicted that this would not be forever.

"I'd give it maybe a five-year window before something takes its place," he said. "Maybe gestures, I don't know. I don't think touch is the keyboard of the future."

John Adegoke, EMEA technology compliance director at group M, looked further into this future to a fully integrated office space.

"The goal is integrating all devices, getting everything you need from day to day, being able to interact everywhere. I think we'll see a chair being interactive, a desk ... all these things will recognise who's using them by some sort of fingerprint ," Adegoke said.

Boyns agreed that the number and type of interactive devices would increase, believing that the job of organisations like the BBC would be to provide ancillaries for staff to plug into whatever device or platform they were using.

Chair Ashley Jelleyman, head of information assurance at BT, gave the analogy of his printer to show how vendors are striving towards a common interface: "I can connect via wireless, Bluetooth, wire ... any sort of connectivity," he said.

The panel then went on to speak more about meeting the challenge of cross-platform integration with a discussion of enterprise app stores. Jelleyman said BT now has an app store for BlackBerry.

Boyns said the BBC was looking at this too. "The context is extremely important," he reiterated. "We're looking at a sort of service catalogue, services delivered in the right sort of format according to the user's job, for Android, BlackBerry, Apple .. managing permissions and applications effectively."

Panellists were lukewarm about the idea of app stores for user-created apps, citing data protection and security issues.

"The amount of integration decreases with distance from the head office," said McSkimming. "One person has written it. You'd need a whole new set of criteria."

Watt said that many of his students were developing good applications, but that the university doesn't use them.

"What data will they be accessing?" he asked.

Summing up, Jelleyman said: "People's use of personal devices has given them much greater expectations. Facilitating users to use devices of their choice must be a who, what, when, why rather than a how."