Digital Workplace – 10 years after …

Published December 2, 2021 by Stephan Schillerwein

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a full decade (10 years and 3 months to be exact) since the first edition of the report “The Digital Workplace – Redefining Productivity in the Information Age” was published. At the time, this white paper was the first dedicated publication on the Digital Workplace.

[This article was translated using automated translation software – sorry for any errors or lack of proper style]

The report was produced as part of my research activities at the time for the former Infocentric Research. It was also the first whitepaper on this topic to receive global distribution. The interest in it was so great that at times we could hardly keep up with the initial manual delivery…

Foundation laid 20 years ago

The report was written from practice for practice. This may sound astonishing, since the topic was still in its infancy at the time. But it was actually possible, partly because I had already helped to build a highly innovative intranet another 10 years earlier, which in many aspects already then corresponded to the idea of a digital workplace that is still valid today.

At the same time, the white paper was based on a sound scientific foundation, particularly with regard to the productivity aspect and the resulting potential benefits. Incidentally, the aspect of productivity in connection with a Digital Workplace is a point that is still misunderstood by many people today. We didn’t talk about “Redefining Productivity” for nothing back then.

Still relevant and pointing the way forward

In the fast-moving world of digital media and digital transformation, 10 years is a long time in which an incredible amount is happening. If you take a look at the report today, however, you will see that not only are the foundations for a digital workplace that were presented back then still valid, but also that many of the points from it are still cutting-edge – and many companies are still working on them today.

Of course, there are also models in it that should be adapted to the current state of developments. A good example of this is the following diagram from the white paper:

This “framework” already contains all the building blocks that are also relevant in the present. In my current work, however, I use other groupings and presentation methods in order to make the elements reproduced here even more tangible and to be able to work with them more effectively.

Against this background, the report can still be recommended with a clear conscience to any interested person as a basis for understanding the subject. Or have you already mastered all the topics addressed in the report in your company?

Metastudy picks up the report again in 2019

Two years ago, a study on the publications surrounding the digital workplace appeared in the International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems under the title «The Need for Digital Workplace: Increasing Workforce Productivity in the Information Age» in the International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems.

Not only does the title tie in with our report published eight years earlier, but the content is also heavily influenced by the thoughts of that seminal work. It is a great pleasure to see that our work has had such an impact right up to the present day.

Green instead of blue – the 2nd edition

In early 2013, a 2nd edition of the Digital Workplace Report was published. This was unchanged in terms of content, but was published in a new design and with a foreword by Philipp Rosenthal.

Incidentally, both editions were always available free of charge (for printed editions, a small expense contribution was charged). They were and are freely available under Creative Commons license. The report can no longer be downloaded from the original publisher, Infocentric Research.

However, the whitepaper can be downloaded as a PDF at the end of this article.

Is the longer part of the journey still ahead?

A 10th anniversary of such a publication is always a time for reflection. How far have we come in the last decade? Where do we stand today? How much further is the road?
I will only answer these questions very briefly from my own personal perspective, because the answers to them are different for everyone, every situation and every company – in this respect, the questions are primarily intended to stimulate our own reflection.

From my observation, we have made much less progress in recent years with regard to the digital workplace than we had hoped in 2011. The reasons for this are many and varied and will not be considered further now. Of course, we are in a different place today than we were a decade ago. Many issues that required lengthy discussions back then are now almost a matter of course, while others remain topical. All of this has helped create a foundation on which we will move faster and better now and in the future.

Even though the Digital Workplace is a journey with no final destination, I still think that the greater part of the journey is actually still ahead of us. Sound discouraging? No, quite the opposite! Because it is also the more exciting part of the journey that starts now!

Download

Download of the reports as PDF: Whitepaper «The Digital Workplace – Redefining Productivity in the Information Age»