Identity Management in the Workplace

Will the digital workplace evolve like the intranet did? I hope not.

Synopsis: The evolution of digital workplaces looks similar to that of intranets before them. It’s critical to recognize the patterns, master the success factors and know where the similarities end.

The digital workplace, from an organization’s point of view, is all the digital tools and services provided to employees to help them do their jobs. It’s not a metaphor, it’s a name – a collective noun. Each of those services runs on a server inside or outside of the organization. Each one of those services has someone inside the organization who wants it, or at least begrudgingly signs off the budget. All technology is eventually physical.

The concept of the digital workplace is useful for two reasons

Firstly the concept of “intranet” is constraining as it means “our stuff in a web browser”.

Social and collaboration tools are straining at the buttons of that concept like a middle-aged man in his wedding suit. Real-time tools such as Microsoft Lync are part of a continuum of collaborative tools that flit from web browser to desktop clients and to mobile apps. For some organizations (but not all), fencing off collaboration in the browser strategically and organizationally is plainly ridiculous. Looking at the whole suite of provided tools, and the market of unprovided competitor tools, just makes sense.

Secondly by acknowledging the fact that digital working has changed our working habits we can start to make more effective suites of tools to support the current reality.

Instead of assuming that people working outside of the office are bizarre and rare exceptions, we can begin to think of enterprise mobility as a normal 21st century work pattern.

Instead of assuming that people work with their line manager and team in the same office everyday we can begin to recognize the reality of working in a digital swirl with leaders, team members, project teams, people on the other side of the world, customers, suppliers and consultants. Giving that collection of tools a name, “the digital workplace”, is part of normalizing that unrecognized reality of change.

Giving that collection of tools a name, “the digital workplace”, is part of normalizing that unrecognized reality of change.

The intranet story we all know

As I’ve already mentioned, the intranet remains special. It is able to provide structure and, if done well, can be a cultural focal point for branding and values. Content management and publishing remains a massive problem, but employees still need to be able to find essential information in a hurry, and complete their expenses. Not. Dead. Yet.