Are you aware that disruption is happening in your workplace and are you ready to meet the challenges? Find out how.

FOR a number of years now, the world has been talking about how companies the likes of Uber and Airbnb have disrupted the transport and hospitality industries respectively. But is this what disruption is really about?

True disruption goes beyond a competitor invading another's turf. It begins from within an enterprise and how it thinks about changing its existing business model.

Disruption is significant in Southeast Asia because it has 630 million people half, of whom are between1 15 to 30 years of age. The young ones now entering the workforce grew up in a world more connected than ever before. Their expectations in terms of speed of communication and ease of access to information is putting a lot of pressure on traditional enterprises to adopt a digital culture in order to attract the new generations into their workforce.

These digital natives are driving change. They are interacting with brands differently from the generation before. But while young people may lead the way, it isn't just a young people phenomenon. They may be the catalyst for change but that does not mean it stops with them.

Seismic Shifts
Digital natives isn't the only shift in play. Three other broad trends that complement the changes have risen too. They are:

Let's explore how these trends affect the current workforce.

Technology:
Malaysians spend an average of 8 hours on the Internet, almost 4 hours on mobile Internet per day2. The report also added that 61% of the population believe that new technologies offer more opportunities than risks.

Fueling this is the rise of the Internet of Things (loT), cloud computing, mobile broadband connectivity and smartphone penetration, all of which have enabled new services not previously possible. With the cloud and loT, businesses can connect to critical business applications and data anytime, anywhere, real-time and securely, turning things into intelligent assets.

Mobile phone penetration3 in Malaysia stands at 131% and this coupled with the coverage ubiquity, the processing power of the smartphone and useful mobile apps, means that more people can be connected remotely and they can collaborate outside the office more than before, making work no longer a place people go to, but rather an activity they do.

Digitisation:
Today's world is increasingly going digital. Some early adopters have taken to this trend, such as embracing e-commerce, and beefing up their social media presence.

But going digital isn't just about getting online. It's about rethinking how business is done. It's about evaluating how you as an enterprise have been doing things and visualising how you would do things differently. It is about reimagining how you can collaborate with new trends like the "as-a-service" and "pay-as-you-go" model, so as to reduce your operational challenges and keep your customers and employees happier.

Mobility:
Tying up all these is the recognition that the concept of work is changing. A recent survey of Malaysia noted that 8 in 10 Malaysian respondents preferred the flexibility and autonomy in the way they work, as they believed it can increase work productivity and improve job satisfaction4.

According to a report5 for agile working to succeed, teams need to be more inclusive and collaborative, while given a chance to be heard, regardless of their position. They also need to encourage people to adopt new ways of working and thinking that lead to long-term behaviour changes.

What Can You Do?
The coming together of technology, digitisation and mobile workstyles to promote agile working may sound great on paper but how does one go about doing it? Start by asking what kind of strategic outcomes your organisation wants to achieve and then proceed to engineer solutions that will be able to meet these objectives.

Because agile working means employees will move away from a time-based concept to a task-based one, therefore they need to be connected in order to communicate and collaborate effectively. In evaluating the kinds of solutions for a Mobile Workforce, you'll need to identify a solution that's flexible, easy to implement and budget for.

Flexibility is about acquiring a solution that is powerful, yet customisable for all kinds of business sizes, whether it's 10 or 500 people. Flexibility also means having tools and features to hold your employees accountable and to ensure productivity does not suffer just because one is not in the office.

Any solution would need to be easily implemented without taking more than 6 weeks to deploy. This must be complemented by a great user experience to encourage instead of discourage usage.

A solution needs to be upfront with the costs of operation and not have complicated billing structures. In this respect, a "pay-as-you-go" model would fit best as such a scheme can be considered an operational expenditure instead of a capital one.

Lastly, a solution is only as strong as its weakest link and enterprises have to ensure that products and their service providers can deliver security in an uncompromised way, and that means not only end points but the entire solution chain.

Blubber:
"Our integrated solutions help businesses of all sizes succeed by simplifying and improving the way they work. Our Mobile Workforce proposition is specifically designed for businesses that want their employees to be more productive, no matter where they are."
- Paul McManus, Head of Enterprise.

Section:
A MOBILE WORKFORCE
As an integrated and trusted solution provider, Maxis has the capabilities and solutions that can support a mobile workforce.
Amongst some of the solutions on offer from Maxis Business are:

A CXO CHECKLIST
There isn't any doubt the Mobile Workforce is the wave of the future. So what are the most effective steps you can take to make this journey? Here is a checklist.

Find out more today at maxis.com.my/mobileworkforce or call 1800-82-1919

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