Windows 10: Business Evolved
You don’t need to be a gamer to understand the basic principles of a first-person shooter. It’s simple: you see everything through the eyes of your character, and you fight the bad guys.
A classic case is Halo, one of the main launch titles for the Xbox. It was and still is hugely popular, with a great sound-and-vision experience as you’d expect. But there’s more to its success than that. Its full name was Halo: Combat Evolved, and if you think of it as a business analogy those words are pretty appropriate.
For a start, like all good stories it contains lessons we can apply elsewhere. For ‘bad guys’ we might read ‘competitors’ or, more generally, challenges and confusion. To overcome conditions like these we not only have to be smart: we have to evolve, we have to work together with others and we have to be well informed.
We have to be well equipped too. Halo’s main character, Master Chief, has a variety of multi-purpose weapons between which he can switch at will. We too need a means of bringing it all together, so everything works seamlessly without having to think too hard about it. In business, as in galactic battle, we don’t want to waste time hunting for intelligence or ammunition. In short, we want software and hardware to work in harmony – and we want everything to be versatile and to work the way we do rather than vice versa.
It’s this kind of thinking on which Windows 10 has been built. It blurs the boundaries between hardware and software so enterprise ‘warriors’ can work with technology far more fluidly. The words ‘business evolved’ aren’t part of its branding, but to my mind they’re not a bad way to think about it.
The save-time Continuum
Modern enterprises operate in the same way. If business is a battle, it isn’t being fought with conventional armies any more. As in Halo, the combat has evolved to something more like guerrilla warfare, in which people move and act freely, working not just in the office but at home, in public places, or on the move. To make this approach truly successful, they need to have the right devices, the right levels of security and the right platform in place.
Take Continuum, for instance: it enables people to work with apps and content in all modes and across all devices, even when switching from one to another. The devices can pick up where people left off, they scale up and down as necessary, and the on-screen features stay consistent but morph themselves to suit the circumstances.
What’s more, the devices themselves can adapt to different roles: for instance, the 2-in-1 can be a touch tablet or a keyboard notebook, and the Lumia 950 XL display (see below) can act as a smartphone or as a PC screen. The Master Chief doesn’t have to think too hard when swapping to a plasma rifle – and he doesn’t even have to fire it to use it as a weapon. Why should things be any different for your users?
New devices
Windows 10 can be deployed on new and existing devices to deliver all kinds of innovations designed to help you get on with the job in hand.
The new devices are particularly exciting – and they’re all brought together on this, the most powerful operating system ever built. They include:
- Surface Book – a laptop that brings together best-in-class performance with the versatility of pen and touch
- Surface Pro 4 – a laptop-replacing tablet that’s thinner, lighter and faster than ever
- Surface Hub – taking team interactions in virtual meetings to whole new levels
- New Lumia phones – the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL offer powerful hardware and top-of-the-line imaging for increased productivity, and the Lumia 550 is the most affordable 4G LTE smartphone on the Windows 10 platform
- Microsoft Band 2 – the new Band has a curved screen and boosts productivity by giving people wrist-based access to apps for email and text. It can help wearers live more healthily too, with a barometer and apps for running, biking, the gym, and golf
- Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition – designed to help Windows developers mix holograms into enterprise environments so users will literally be able to see things from every angle
Just imagine: all these devices, all of them powerful, all of them fit for purpose in the mobile and fast-changing world of the modern enterprise, and all operating on a single, consistent, powerful and familiar operating platform.
It’s just like being in a first-person shooter, with every weapon or device you need at your disposal. Only this time it’s real – and for you and your business, the combat couldn’t be more evolved and the outcome couldn’t be more crucial.
And for a quick summary of everything Windows 10 can do for you, watch this short animation:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=V9oGjbKbcmk
