Accenture Technology Labs' research in Human-Computer Interaction explores how emerging technologies can help further enhance the effectiveness of the workforce and drive business performance.
Research in workforce performance includes:
Collaboration: Examining how new technologies enhance the way we interact with each other (including how our gadgets talk directly to other devices) and provide new communication opportunities for project and team oriented work. For example, the Accenture Virtual Corridor highlights how emerging technologies can enhance team work in geographically dispersed organizations by providing an always-on virtual meeting space.
Interaction: How businesses and consumers can use new technologies to improve not only the way they interact, but also the content that they share. Find out how digital pen and paper technology can help drive business performance in your organization.
Visualization: Providing new ways to navigate and discover data and information by embedding elements of the virtual world into reality and/or bringing attributes of the real world into a virtual environment. Our Interactive Wall prototype, for example, is a very large, high-resolution interactive screen that puts vast amounts of information at peoples' fingertips, helping them see the "big picture."
As today's workforces become increasingly distributed and knowledge-based, Accenture Technology Labs is focusing on the vast potential of human-computer interaction to solve business problems and dramatically enhance the way organizations support their workforce.
"Organizations are faced with more data than ever before; new and more diverse workforces have made the concept of a global team a reality; and technologies are transforming the way we work," says Charles Nebolsky, Accenture's Human-Computer Interaction program director. "Our human-computer interaction (HCI) R&D is focused on helping clients capitalize on these emerging opportunities and maximize the efficiency of their workforce."
For example, Lucian (Luke) P. Hughes, director of HCI Research for Accenture Technology Labs, believes that emerging technologies can help companies mitigate the significant cost and risk involved in an offshore transition, or help them maintain an effective working relationship between onshore and offshore teams.
"Human-computer interaction draws on rapid developments in the way people interface with technology and can create real business value, from boosting productivity to reducing the risk of managing distributed workforces," says Hughes.
Capitalizing On Technology to Improve Human Interactions
"Humans aren't changing, but computers and technology are driving new dimensions in how we communicate, collaborate and work," Hughes continues. "Devices are becoming smaller and cheaper, and rich interactions are emerging on the Internet. Social technologies like blogs and wikis, video conferencing and instant messaging are becoming industrialized and enabling distributed work teams to improve their performance."
At Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, for example, travelers tap a 7-foot high by 10-foot wide screen developed by Accenture Technology Labs to read the latest news from CNN.com, get up-to-the-minute weather forecasts, and view sports stories and scores—all at the same time. The result is an immersive experience that not only delivers information, entertainment and advertising messages, but could enable collaboration within an enterprise. In the context of advertising, the Accenture Interactive Network at O'Hare is the first of what Accenture believes could evolve into a network of wall-sized screens.
Getting Ahead Of the Learning Curve
Similarly, the Internet and the technologies that interact with it are better enabling distance work, collaboration and training. To address the knowledge transfer issues of a changing workforce, Accenture Technology Labs has developed a suite of tools called Enterprise Knowledge Retention, which guides teams through a successful knowledge capture and transfer program. The Web-based system accelerates the transfer of applications, knowledge and processes. By slipping seamlessly into natural routines, expert knowledge capture is a byproduct of work instead of a separate activity. Newcomers can be brought up to speed with equal ease.
Accenture Technology Labs is at the forefront of learning technology research and development, exploring such innovations as courseware, the virtual classroom, self-service performance support and remote mentoring. Like all the new human-computer interaction technologies under construction in the Labs, learning innovations are being crafted to help clients successfully retain and transfer knowledge more quickly, with lower costs and across greater distances.
