This year my Autumn holiday was a bit different as I was one of the four bloggers who were invited by Fujitsu’s LIFEBOOK4Life campaign to visit Fujitsu Forum 2012 in Munich to hear about how the future workplace might look like and to experience new technologies to support that. We also got a tour at Fujitsu’s factory in Augsburg which provided some views how computers are made from mainboards to final product. The three days in Germany were insightful and fun. How can you not like to hear about new ideas, see innovative things, meet new people and of course experience the excellent German food and beer.
Fujitsu Forum is the largest IT-event in Europe which is visited by professional users and IT decision-makers, as well as Fujitsu channel and technology partners. In 2012 more than 12,000 IT experts from around the world attended the Fujitsu Forum in Munich. And I was one of them invited by Fujitsu LIFEBOOK4Life campaign with three other bloggers (called Insiders). The chance I wrote last time came true. Our trip to Fujitsu Forum 2012 was scheduled to contain breakout sessions and keynotes on Wednesday and a tour at the Fujitsu factory in Augsburg on Thursday.
This year the Forum’s motto was “Reshaping ICT – Reshaping Business”: How to combine business processes and IT to form a stable basis that will ensure growth and success in the future. Kind of redefinition of last year’s “Reshaping IT” theme. In short some buzzwords I heard most were: consumerization, BYOD, tablets, virtualization, in-sync, cloud and win 8. “One workplace – on any device”.
First day, Wednesday 7.11
photo by Kim Ekman, Vision 51
The first day at the Forum was full of exciting breakout sessions and keynotes and the exhibition area provided some innovative ideas and services from Fujitsu and technology partners. And of course you got to test new devices like Windows 8 enabled STYLISTIC Q572 -tablet with AMD Hondo platform and STYLISTIC Q702 hybrid tablet with Intel Core i3/i5. There were also some prototypes of future Fujitsu products.
The breakout sessions and keynotes provided some good insights about how the future workplace might look like, which decisions and technologies are needed to support that and what kind of tools are we using in the future. In short the three breakout sessions I listened “Has the Post-Pc Era Begun – What will be on your desktop tomorrow”, “The War Between Enduser Devices” and “Tablets & More – Cool scenarios for hot devices” can be summed to words: consumerization, byod, tablets, virtualization, in-sync, cloud and win 8. “One workplace – on any device”. The materials for all sessions can be found at Fujitsu Forum 2012 documentation page.
The three breakout sessions’ ideas about the future of workplace and tools were similar what I think about the issue: the work and workplace is changing to support mobility and working anywhere anytime. Some of the driving actors for this is that the borders between business and private life are blurring, consumerization (same devices home and work) and BYOD (bring your own device) are coming more common. We should think more about user-oriented workplace. Although the mobile computing is big the traditional desktop computing model isn’t going anywhere as there is always need for more computing power, larger screen, data protection and security.
In the future the devices we use will be more diverse and we have more of them. Thus there will be need for virtualization, syncing data and support for “One workplace – on any device” ideology. Different tasks have different needs for the device so we need a dynamic desktop experience. The sessions also provided some views about the tablets’ platforms and in Western Europe Windows, iOS and Android will be about equals in strength. It will be seen. It was said about Windows 8 that there will be a challenge with transition and touch monitors are needed to deliver significant impact on Win 8.
There were also some suggestions about the devices which can support our future workplace needs. At the desktop we could find the ESPRIMO X -series which has integrated desktop computer at the base of the monitor and the same form factor works in multiple use cases. And with the integrated Web camera with presence sensor you can lock the screen when leaving and login with face detection. Crafty. For the mobility aspects there are STYLISTIC Q572 and Q702 tablets and for laptop needs you have Ultrabooks LIFEBOOK U772 and more traditional LIFEBOOK T902.
After the day at the sessions and exhibition area it was time for lunch. A nice buffet with currywurst, burger and Weissbier. The final event for the day was Celebration Night with some comedians with guitars and then the stage was open for Amy McDonald. It was a nice gig by Amy but last year’s Anastacia was better :)
Second day, Thursday 8.11
The second day for us at the Fujitsu Forum 2012 was dedicated to for a tour at Fujitsu’s factory in Augsburg. It was kind of surprising to see how many workers there are although the automation percent was something like 85-90. Some mainboard components and checking is more easy to do by humans. Also the storage and putting things together were done manually.
After the visit to the factory it was more or less free time to roam the exhibition area because we didn’t have time for anymore sessions or keynotes. At the exhibition we found about Fraunhofer’s nLightened workplace with touch, rotate, scan, change light, adjust hight features and which runs on top of Linux. Again we saw the Made4You customization service which engraves with laser any product you want. Like my Twitter name and Fujitsu Forum 2012 hashtag to a metal cased pen.
The second day was interesting and it looked like there was some party starting when the Insiders and moderators had to head back home. It would have been fun to spend some more days in Munich but as usual the work calls.
Summary
Fujitsu Forum 2012 provided insights and ideas about how the future workplace might look like and we got to experience new technologies to support that. The three days in Munich went (too) fast and it was again great to visit Fujitsu Forum and to see other Insiders and LIFEBOOK4Life crew. Thanks LIFEBOOK4Life and Fujitsu.
If you want to read more check out what Antonia wrote about our trip to campaign site and Aba from FujitsuFans.com has made some previews and reports from the Forum.
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