UK_YPRAC_Wearable

This article was first published in the June 2016 UK edition of Accounting and Business magazine.

It’s easy to mock when you learn that Sony has filed a patent for a SmartWig that will, among other things, help you navigate roads and monitor your blood pressure, but wearable technology – the smartwatch, the fitness band, the virtual reality headset – may be a lot more than a passing fad.

While the uptake may be low at present – only 3% of the US population has a smartwatch or a smartband – wearable technology is broadly as popular as tablets were at a similar stage in their evolution. Wearables may be little more than expensive toys at the moment, but it could be adoption by businesses rather than falling price that pushes the technology to critical mass. Research by PwC suggests that 72% of people would adopt a smartwatch if their employer provided it, compared with 42% if the cost of one was US$100.

But why would an employer do such a thing? Is there a business use for the smartwatch? Accountancy software producer Sage clearly thinks so: the new Sage Live accounting suite, targeted at small businesses, incorporates the Apple Watch as a platform, and will soon offer Android support too.

Real-time

It may seem like a gimmick but the design philosophy of Sage Live is ‘mobility first’: the product for users on the move is the core app, not a cut-down version of a web or PC product. ‘What we really want to focus on is the social element of mobility – how we can share information in real time,’ says Nick Goode, global vice president for cloud product management at Sage. ‘So much accountancy has been retrospective, whereas what you really want to know is what the cash position is at all times, how many invoices are outstanding, whether something has just been paid.’

For early Sage Live adopter James Foulkes, director and founder of online media agency Kingpin Communications, mobility is the key feature, which the smartwatch simply extends. ‘It’s very useful and quite easy to access sales and other data,’ he says. ‘I can get monthly data, I can get margins and set the dashboard, and I can carry what I want. I see it becoming quite important.’

Even though Foulkes can theoretically send an invoice from his watch, he admits it can be tricky to do so from a taxi, although he thinks things may well end up going that way. ‘For me the Apple Watch loses because you have to have your iPhone with you,’ he says. ‘In five years’ time it will be interesting to see where it goes.’

Some of the drawbacks – battery life is another – will inevitably be resolved by technological advances. Others, such as the small screen size, are inherent and will limit user interaction. Future uses will rest on what the device can do, rather than what it can’t.

‘Some of the really interesting uses are to do with identity and proximity,’ says Luke Gumbley, mobile product manager at online accountancy software provider Xero. ‘This is a personal device just for you, so you can digitally verify your identity without doing anything.’

For example, the W Hotel chain allows guests to check in with their Apple Watch, which even acts as their door key. In a business environment, this could translate well to a hotdesking environment, automatically monitoring and controlling access to buildings, rooms, IT systems and printers. Wearables will become a key part of the internet of things and a new era of user-definable apps working on the ‘if this, then that’ (IFTT) principle to create or suppress events based on location, time or activity.

Watch this space

‘Things that are too hard to authenticate at the moment become easy when you have a device that’s walking around with you,’ says Gumbley. He says people are behind the curve with the developing abilities of the technology: ‘The thing to do with an Apple Watch is to get one and walk around with it. When you walk, things that you expect not to be important turn out to be really great. Take navigation for Google Maps: the watch tells you to go left or right by tapping on your wrist. I felt like I was walking into the future quite a bit.’

For Gumbley, the tipping point will come when people start to find it easier to leave their phones behind and rely on the watch.

‘Voice will be the difference, the ability to send a message in a non-frivolous way,’ he says. ‘One of the things with the Apple Watch is how easy it is to dictate a message. That technology is getting better all the time. That will lead to more interesting mainstream use.’

This would require a new set of disciplines about having privileged conversations, and security and privacy are the leading concerns when it comes to wearables. There’s a Big Brother aspect to this, particularly when wearables monitor biometric data. But PwC’s research suggests that 53% of workers in the UK would be happy for data to be collected about them if it improved pay, benefits or working conditions, while 45% would even be happy for their employer to know their blood pressure.

‘We’re seeing a growth in corporate health and welfare schemes in the US, where companies are persuading people to wear fitness bands and reward people who’ve walked the most,’ says Nick Hunn, chief technology officer of wireless consultancy WiFore Consulting. ‘They’re rewarded in reduced health premiums, which justifies them giving prizes. Over here, you get patched up by the NHS for free, so why bother.’

One wearable technology that Hunn sees making a comeback is Google Glass, which was retired after its pilot launch. ‘The second generation is on its way and will be aimed exclusively at the professional market,’ he says. ‘It will have real uses in areas such as medicine or warehousing, or check-in desks – areas where that extra information while looking at a customer can help.’

From wrist to ear

Hunn also sees growth in ‘hearables’: ‘That’s the area I see most growth in, putting intelligence into headphones. People will buy them to do what headphones already do, then you’ll see people play with the data you get off the sensors. The ears are a better place to do that than the wrist of the body.’

We might be some way from the SmartWig, but there may soon come a time when we are not only using some kind of wearable all the time but have largely forgotten that we are wearing it and what it is doing for us.

‘There is a very high premium placed on convenience,’ says Gumbley. ‘People will get used to operating in this way, and people will expect more. Gradually wearables will become the best tool for something, and after a little while we won’t remember how we used to do it.’

Mick James, journalist