Gartner Says a High-Performance Workplace Will Be Essential to Business Success During Next Decade
Analysts Explain Why IT Must Move Beyond Lowering Production Costs To Enhance Non-Routine Activities
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 17, 2005 — IT needs to reinvent itself from being focused on cost driven initiatives and instead help key employees create higher impact growth objectives that promote business agility through non-routine activities, according to Gartner, Inc.
"Raising productivity by cutting the cost of production time is running out of steam," said Tom Austin, group vice president and Gartner Fellow. "To increase competitive advantage, organizations need to look for opportunities to increase market impact, including value and agility, by investing in a high-performance workplace."
Gartner analysts are discussing the role of skilled workers in creating a high-performance workplace during the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, being held here through May 19. High-performance workplace approaches augment the ability of people to perform non-routine tasks that support or facilitate unstructured, exploratory, creative, teaming, leading and learning activities.
"Businesses must help people deal with non-routine situations, empower individuals and raise the quality and impact of what people do," Mr. Austin said. "This shift is driven by major changes in the nature of work, the skills of the workforce and the upcoming fall off in opportunities for new 'big bang' automation projects."
Gartner is creating a new research focus on the work processes and technologies that enable people to better contribute to the overall success of the enterprise, whether the goal is growth or a need for efficiency. This high-performance workplace research is focused on the unique impact of people on the success of the enterprise and the conditions under which the organization, particularly the IT organization, can enhance their contribution.
As a traditional discipline, IT systemizes and structures. It displaces jobs, even as it creates new industries and new jobs. IT is primarily focused on driving down costs. However, Gartner analysts said enhancing people's ability to discover and innovate drives business.
"IT has been a roadblock to agility, innovation and creativity; it has been anti-creative and anti-collaborative," Mr. Austin said. "The high-performance workplace is focused on the unstructured, on transformational agility, innovation and creativity without losing sight of structured obligations."
Five technologies have a significant role in innovation programs. They include content and knowledge base management, expertise location, search and classification, collaboration support, and business and competitive intelligence.
"Collectively, these technologies provide information access; relationship mapping across multiple sources of information; patterns and trends information; and tools to allow people to find each other, connect and collaborate," Mr. Austin said. "The collective benefits of these technologies can be measured as high productivity, increased idea generation, and improved relevance and quality innovation program deliverables."
A high-performance workplace will enhance the structured and unstructured activities that are key to creating competitive advantage, driving long-term, top-line growth and enhancing productivity.
"High-performance workplace strategies raise the impact of skilled people," Mr. Austin said. "Skilled workers earn more and companies want more from them. Ultimately, the returns from augmenting non-routine activities will exceed the returns we've seen from automating business applications."
Additional information on the high-performance workplace is available in the Gartner Spotlight report Introducing the High-Performance Workplace: Improving Competitive Advantage and Employee Impact The Spotlight includes links to 10 additional reports that provided detailed insight into creating a high-performance workplace. The Spotlight report is available on Gartner's Web site.
About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo
Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with a look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. Attendees are responsible for more than $35 billion in IT spending for their respective companies, and rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use technology to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. For more information on the San Francisco event, please visit www.gartner.com/us/symposiumwest.com
About Gartner:
Gartner, Inc. is the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. Gartner serves more than 10,000 clients, including chief information officers and other senior IT executives in corporations and government agencies, as well as technology companies and the investment community. The Company focuses on delivering objective, in-depth analysis and actionable advice to enable clients to make more informed business and technology decisions. The Company's businesses consist of Research and Events for IT professionals; Gartner Executive Programs, membership programs and peer networking services; and Gartner Consulting, customized engagements with a specific emphasis on outsourcing and IT management. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and has over 3,900 associates, including more than 1,100 research analysts and consultants, in more than 75 locations worldwide. For more information,
visit www.gartner.com.
