| In this final chapter, we shall review some of the topics we have discussed so far and take a hard look at the state of autonomic computing today and where it needs to be in the future. Sir Arthur C. Clarke, noted science fiction writer, futurist, and inventor of the satellite industry is a family friend. Arthur's father and my grandfather were the best of friends in England. A few years ago, Arthur gave me some good advice, "Beware of anyone who is predicting the future." So it is with some trepidation that I attempt to review the future of autonomic computing. The new connected e-business on demand economy is changing the fundamental rules of business, and the fundamental nature of work itself. No longer will the traditional, static, compartmentalized, stovepipe, and hierarchical model of the workplace suffice in a speed-based, agile, flexible, global, and knowledge-based economy. Mobility, speed, simplicity, connectivity, integrated processes, and highly interoperable systems and applications are the emerging drivers of enterprise efficiency, effectiveness and inventiveness. At the center of the new economy are people—specifically people's skills, intelligence, relationships, and imagination as the currency of value. And new hybrid business infrastructures that combine the power of IT with places and spaces newly conceived and adapted for more mobile and collaborative work are proving to be a key ingredient in the electronically mediated workplace. The fundamental reality is that corporations will be compelled to substantially increase their investment in people to maintain competitive advantage in the connected on demand economy. This increase in IT investment will compel corporations to transform in part—"bricks to clicks"—to shift resources to these incremental investments. The second fundamental reality is that many traditional workplace locations and settings are incompatible with the highly mobile, wireless, and collaborative style of the knowledge-based workforce. To attract and retain talented employees, traditional workplaces must be adapted for new flexible work styles and expectations. For these reasons particularly, workplace transformation is emerging as one of the key drivers of change in the overall on demand/e-business transformation. It is the implementation of the major strategies, implementation processes, success criteria, organizational best practices, and performance metrics of workplace transformation. But these alone are insufficient without the commitment and resolve of senior enterprise leadership to embrace workplace transformation as a key imperative in reinventing the enterprise to compete in the new economy. |
