2009 Trends to Watch: Flexible Working

Introduction

The need to provide flexible working solutions is a reality for the majority of enterprises in Western economies in 2009. A myriad of reasons exist for this trend, including the goal of helping employees achieve a better work/life balance, staff retention requirements, a desire to improve business processes or cut costs, as well as encouragement through various forms of government legislation.

Scope

• Assesses enterprises' approach to flexible working solution adoption and the factors that will resonate with decision makers.
• Clarifies the stakeholders that will be involved in decision making and the degree to which their roles and objectives vary.
• Outlines the competitive landscape among solution providers that are targeting this space.
• Provides recommendations to vendors that are positioning solutions for flexible working.

Highlights

The fact that cost cutting will be firmly on the agenda in 2009 suggests a new drive for flexible working processes, thereby bringing with it an opportunity for technology vendors to position a host of technology and consulting solutions.

Datamonitor's market analysis suggests that the drivers for flexible working solutions outweigh the inhibitors, with enterprise IT decision makers rating the likes of employee-centric benefits and cost savings highly. However, evidence from end users also suggests that there are clearly some concerns, most notably those relating to security.

One of the features of the flexible working solutions market is the degree to which different vendors/services providers with differing backgrounds and traditional areas of expertise are targeting the market. The result is a highly competitive marketplace, which at present has yet to produce an outright market leader.

Reasons to Purchase

• Understand the drivers and inhibitors to the adoption of flexible working solutions.
• Appreciate the trends which Datamonitor believes will influence the flexible working solutions market in 2009.
• Gain actionable advice for positioning flexible working services and solutions.