The digital company 2013 - key points

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released two briefing papers from a research programme which goals is...

"...to determine how technology will impact businesses five years from now. The analysis is based on a survey of more than 600 senior executives from around the globe, as well as in-depth interviews with business leaders and independent technology experts."

Here are some of the key points from the paper "The digital company 2013: Freedom to collaborate" which has been sponsored by AT&T, Nokia, PricewaterhouseCoopers, SAP and Concep, Return Path, WebEx:

• The “millennials” will expect to use technology at work as freely as they do in their personal lives. They will also be ready to collaborate.
  
• Senior management will have a clearer understanding of IT capabilities than is the case today.
  
• Social networks will be a fixture in the 2013 workplace, despite executives’ ambivalence on their role.
  
• The use of collaborative technologies will help cut through geographical and organisational barriers, and will give wings to virtual team-working.
  
• Digital tools will give employees greater control over the information they can access, which means less control for managers.