Availability has increased – I’m sure we
have all managed two to three different
conversations at the same time while
we are ever-present at our home office
desk; the times the conference call is
on mute and you are messaging away
to various others about the call or on
other subjects.
The conference call itself has become
more personable, with the number of
faces visible on a call being almost
everyone and black screens being the
black sheep.
And not to mention the time spent with
the family has dramatically improved –
no more business trips or late nights in
the office.
We are also seeing that company culture
is changing. I have worked in companies
where a hard 8.30am start to the day
was mandatory, being at your desk and
‘productive’. Working from home was
seen almost as a ‘holiday’ and a chance
to ease the workload and availability,
with mistrust being at the root. Flexible
working hours and allowances for ‘life
situations’ were frowned upon. The only
I think we can all
agree that business
outlooks have
shifted and hopefully
companies can
appreciate there are
various trusted ways
of working in the
modern world.
way to conduct meaningful business was
over a coffee and a handshake.
I think we can all agree that business
outlooks have shifted and hopefully
companies can appreciate there are
various trusted ways of working in the
modern world.
I can see a short-term implication of the
‘always available’ situation we are in,
with some conference calls placed to fill
diaries and working times now seemingly
24/7, however this will balance out as
companies will focus on productivity
while still ensuring the mental welfare of
the employees as well as the physical.
What advice would you offer
organisations looking to improve
their remote working models?
We have already discussed how
important it is to offer secured access
to critical systems and, along with that,
is the importance of protecting company
data and making personal devices as
corporate as possible, segregating
business and personal applications. This
can be achieved with the creation of a
‘workspace’ – a dedicated portal on a
device which is for business application
use and can be fully ring-fenced and
protected, yet allowing employees
access to all applications and services
as though they were sat in a head office.
Engagement between the business and
employee is vital in a remote working
environment, so services across all
functions should be made available
to the employee to request and track,
preferably from a central portal or
console. This empowers the employee
with self-service type capabilities while
offering excellent customer experience
and driving high customer satisfaction.
Companies should also automate
service request/fulfilment processes
to increase operational efficiency and
lower costs of service delivery.
One consideration is that it would be
too easy to provide every employee with
every application and this can be costly
from a software licensing perspective at
the client and at the server, as well as
a nightmare at renewal anniversary and
audit times.
Managing the company software estate
allows insight into who has, who uses
and who needs which application and
will be a major factor in cost control for
remote working, especially to balance
against tightened budgets from a
COVID fallout.
If these four components of Secured
UEM, Digital Workspace, Enterprise
Service Management and Software
Asset Management could be combined,
then remote working is safe, agile, cost
effective and productive, for both the
employee and the company.
How will the business survive
post-COVID?
Moving forward, looking past
COVID-19, there will be an inevitable
change in customer priorities and
behaviour, which need to be reflected
in a company’s strategy, as well as
its operations.
I read an interesting post recently,
which posed a compelling question –
which C has done more to drive Digital
Transformation in your company: CEO,
CIO or COVID-19?
If there is a silver lining to this
situation, it can be that our ability to
adapt and overcome and our agility to
look at new norms will leave the global
business community leaner, yet more
robust and ever-increasingly relevant to
the times ahead. u
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