Special report: consumer technology adoption driving big company changes
Consumer adoption of technology is driving a change of mindset within organisations as it forces the pace of their digital developments. By Glynn Davis in Munich
Speaking at the Fujitsu Forum 2013 in Munich this week Mark Fabes, head of IT and digital at McDonald’s, suggested the challenge for the likes of McDonald’s was its “disruptive customers” who visit its stores with technology in their hands.
“They expect to interact with you. The question is how do we take our formula [of offering food] into this digital-savvy world and to ensure our staff are energised to deal with these customers by empowering them with the right technology. We’re looking at new technologies to do more than just service our customers with food,” he explains.
Fabes says the bring-your-own-device debate is being dealt with at McDonald’s by making sure the technology used in its stores is “exciting and current”. He adds: ” We open up the services they use – such as Facebook and we try and mobilise the apps as best we can. Bring-your-own-device goes away if you give current technology to your employees. It’s worked for us.”
With its naturally young – digitally-savvy – audience it is a similar challenge at University Campus Suffolk where its students inevitably bring their own devices on to the campus. Peter O’ Rourke, director of information technology IT services at University Campus Suffolk, says: “We knew every device we owned but now we’re flipping to a model where students have one-and-a-half devices each and we don’t know where they are. Our students bring this technology with them and we need to embrace this.”
But the tough task in achieving this revolves around changing the culture within the organisation. “We’re telling academics that they need a more interesting approach. We need to move from a small [campus-bound] base to making things more open. Including publishing academic papers,” says O’ Rourke.
This is not so much of an issue at McDonald’s where Fabes says once the business case has been proven then it has been possible to make many investments in technology. This company has chosen to take up the challenge of operating in what he describes as an always-on society where opening hours are also getting longer. Areas to have received funding include trials of self-service kiosks, digital play floors, and tablets for consumer use in its stores.
