Now that we have discussed the probable potential enterprise uses of wearable computing that the future holds, let’s throw some light on the challenges enterprises will face
Challenges for the Enterprise
With the proliferation of wearable devices, it is expected that these devices would slowly trickle into the workplace. ‘Wearables’ will definitely accelerate BYOD in the enterprise. The biggest challenge that enterprises will face is the volume of data these devices will produce. It will potentially bring the same dilemmas as mobile devices did, as far as provisioning. But the extent to which we see this will depend on how committed organizations are to embracing BYOWD (Bring Your Own Wearable Device).
Preparing the Enterprise for Wearable Computing
IT managers should get ahead of the coming wave. Device management policies would have to be implemented. A whole new set of rules and use cases will have to be formulated. Just allowing BYOD is not the answer, because that would mean opening up risks for the company IP.
Having said that, adoption of wearable technology in corporations will take time. For one thing, not every organizations will see its value — businesses will have to be convinced by the productivity gains before it jumps into managing yet more devices. Nevertheless, there will be many business-use cases where wearable tech would make sense. For such cases, perhaps the easiest way to tackle the wearable computing issue is to identify employees in the organization who are already using these devices, and provide a company sanctioned time to experiment with these devices and report these findings. Not only will this bring the company’s leadership team up to speed on this emerging sector, but it will also provide some free staff development.
In the end, every enterprise should embrace wearables not because of the consumer excitement but for an opportunity to drive business process re-inventions for their companies, there is no reason to not consider such a possibility.