Advice and designs are kept as technology-agnostic as possible. Our focus is on achieving business benefits from digital technology. We follow architectural principles, web standards and established design conventions that apply across technology platforms. The basics for delivering digital content and communications are well-formed

But we avoid theoretical ideals. Visions are great for insipiration but can prove costly in practice. Maintaining hands-on expertise ensures we know what works, what doesn’t and what unexpected consequences can occur. Our strategic insights are grounded in practical reality

To provide a baseline for evaluating and creating practical solutions we work with:

• Microsoft Office 365/SharePoint platform for enterprise solutions
• Apple devices and apps for mobile productivity solutions
• Niche apps showing early disruptive potential

Choices

Digital workplace solutions can be organised in three overlapping categories:

​	Business Systems	Content & Communications​	Personal Productivity​
​Purpose​​:	Completing formal transactions	Managing access to intellectual property	Making decisions Getting ‘things’ done
​Activities:​	Product Development Sales and Support Operations Industry-specific	Search Intelligence Coordination Messaging	​Analysis Editing/Creation Task Management Notifications

Software vendors offer solutions in the form of platforms or applications. Platforms generalise to span categories and activities but sacrifice niche functionality within each. Applications focus and offer a ‘best of breed’ capability but risk creating silos and duplication. New entrants bring fresh thinking to traditional systems. They deliver quick wins but often with limited longevity. Innovations grow bottom-up, priorities scale top-down

In short, what’s best for something will be worse for something else. Interactions are a lot messier in practice than in theory or demonstrations. What matters is having a clear criteria for deciding which trade-offs will deliver the most value

Why Microsoft? There are three dominant platform vendors that cover the essentials for a digital workplace (identity, content management, communications and productivity tools) – Google, IBM and Microsoft. We find Microsoft to be the most committed and accessible

Why Apple? Apple leads the way in modern design thinking for mobile interactions, making technology more accessible for everyone and demonstrating the benefits of simplicity

What niche apps? For example, DropBox and Box challenging traditional enterprise content management by providing faster and more convenient file storage, sync and sharing

For more background information, view our Design Tenets and Project Methods