Are Your PCs a Match for Digital Workspaces?
The changing nature of work demands devices with features that meet the needs of workplace evolution.
The office of yesteryear featured large, wired phones on employees’ desks. When you called, you hoped the person was there to answer. These days, many employees use their cell phones for work. Not only do they not have an office phone, they may not have a desk – or even an office.
Hotdesking, huddle rooms and telecommuting are just a few examples of the digital workspace phenomenon, which promotes a fundamentally different workstyle. This evolution in work and the workspace has prompted PC vendors to rethink their notebook designs. Some of the new features of these devices are influenced by the smartphones that killed off desk phones.
Case in point: instant, easy authentication.
“When you think about cellphones today, you have a fingerprint reader in the power button,” says Rahul Tikoo, vice president of Dell’s mobile commercial line. “Why aren’t we doing that in PCs?”
That’s why Dell’s new Latitude 7400 has ExpressSign-in, which works with Intel’s Context Sensing Technology to detect when the user is at the keyboard. Then Windows Hello scans the user’s face for log in.
Battery life is another way that smartphones are setting user expectations about what they’d like to see in their work laptops. For example, notebooks that support Dell’s ExpressCharge feature can power up to 80 percent in one hour.
PCs Increasingly Double as Collaboration Endpoints
Video collaboration is common in digital workspaces, which is why vendors are adding hardware and software features that enable their laptops and desktops to double as videoconferencing endpoints. The cost of the additional features is far outweighed by the savings from needing fewer videoconferencing suites in an office or accessories such as noise-cancelling headsets.
Some endpoints even have received certification from collaboration providers such as Google, Microsoft Skype and Zoom.
“We offer a range of Skype for Business-certified PCs,” says Frank Chang, Acer America senior director of product management. “This certification meets the most stringent specifications for Skype videoconferencing, ensuring a high-quality videoconference experience.”
Noise cancellation and microphone arrays are among the ways that PC vendors achieve these certifications.
“We offer TravelMate notebooks with two microphones that track the voice of the user and suppress keyboard strokes, enabling meeting participants to roam around the room and type during videoconferences without disturbing others,” Chang says.
High-quality audio also is important for avoiding the productivity-busting fatigue that comes with tinny speakers.
“We focus a lot on bass roll-off,” says Alex Thatcher, director of new products for commercial PCs at HP, which incorporates Bang & Olufsen technology. “The whole idea is to make your voice sound natural, not like you’re talking through a tube.”
The microphones that pick up ambient sounds for noise cancellation also can enable a notebook to double as a speakerphone. That’s a valuable feature for employees who often huddle around a desk to collaborate with remote colleagues and customers.
80%
The percentage of the global workforce that is deskless
Source: CMSWire, “10 Trends That Will Shape the Digital Workplace in 2019,” January 2019
Know Your Users
Many PC manufacturers are creating laptops and other endpoints for specific user “personas,” based on how these users most often employ their devices. For example, “corridor warriors” are employees who spend their workday in an office setting but often go from meeting to meeting. This workstyle requires laptops that are lightweight, with batteries that can go a whole day on a single charge.“Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen customers developing personas — especially enterprises,” says Alex Thatcher, director of new products for commercial PCs at HP. “A very large auto manufacturer actually hired a [specialist] to help develop their personas and better understand how to match the right devices with the right users.”
Manufacturers are tailoring specific features to meet the needs of various user personas.
“If a customer needs devices for road warriors, we recommend our Travelmate series with spill-resistant backlit keyboards and a drop-tested, tough exterior,” Chang says. “If they use a lot of videoconferencing, we recommend our Chromebase 24 or Chromebase 24V2. They give us the job description, and we recommend the product that best suits it.”
Gigabit Speeds on the Go
Fast wireless connectivity increases productivity because users don’t waste time downloading big files — or calling the help desk because their videoconferences keep tiling and freezing. Most devices use the 802.11ac wireless networking standard, which offers speeds up to 1.3 gigabits per second. However, many endpoint devices will soon begin to incorporate 802.11ax, a new standard that should be ratified in the second half of 2019. Also known as Wi-Fi 6, 802.11ax is designed for bandwidth-intensive applications such as 4K video collaboration and is compatible with older Wi-Fi networks.
“802.11ax is going to become the standard going forward,” Tikoo says. “We’re going to have it across our Latitude portfolio.”
Users who are road warriors may also want to consider embedded cellular connectivity. Some 4G notebooks are noticeably faster than others because they support newer “categories” of the underlying LTE technology. For example, LTE Category 16 supports download speeds of up to 1Gbps.
“I call it wired experience in wireless mode,” Tikoo says. “You can almost get the experience of being connected to wired Gigabit Ethernet in your office with Gigabit LTE.”
Organizations looking to deploy laptops should consider how employees use their devices, as their activities can affect both Wi-Fi and cellular performance. For example, remote users may need laptops that can hinge into tablet mode so they can be operated with one hand free. But cradling them means their body can block signals to the point that bandwidth plummets.
Vendors such as Dell and HP spend a lot of time pinpointing the ideal location for their antennas. Hands-on testing can help determine which model performs best no matter how employees hold it.
Rough and Tumble Designs
Aluminum bodies help increase durability. But as that material becomes more popular, vendors are turning to additional features to protect enterprise laptops.
“Look for those that comply with MIL-STD 810G and 810F, a set of U.S. military-grade tests that check the durability of a wide range of products,” Chang says.
Screens are particularly vulnerable. For example, the anti-glare features that keep them viewable even in brightly lit offices and outdoors can flake off over time, so HP uses acid etching instead.
Vendors also enhance their screens for users who may work in environments with dim lighting, which can create fatigue that undermines productivity.
“When investing in new systems for frequent business travelers or those that spend a lot of time in the field, such as executives and sales professionals, we recommend notebooks with back-lit keyboards, which helps them stay productive in low-light areas, such as airplanes and commuter trains,” Chang says.