1) Executive Summary
2) Introduction: Digital transformation and the demand for agile workspaces
3) The barriers to success
4) Four strategies for increasing agility: Strategy 1: Improve user experience and engagement Strategy 2: Implement BYOD Strategy 3: Improve Mobility Strategy 4: Implement SaaS
5) Environmental impacts
6) Conclusion: Taking the initiative on agility
Organisations seeking to become dynamic, efficient and productive are increasingly concerned about the lack of agility in the provision of ICT to their users.
84% of CIOs feel that their inability to respond quickly enough to business demands is directly affecting the competitiveness of their organisations. As a result, the vast majority (82%) are investing in digital transformation as part of the solution, however a combination of cost, user experience and legacy applications is holding back progress.
These are the headline results from research carried out to investigate how far organisations have progressed in building agile workspaces, enabling workforce mobility, and digitally transforming the work environment.
It was undertaken by independent market research firm, Vanson Bourne, surveying the opinions of 200 CIOs and senior IT decision makers.
The research assesses whether CIOs are delivering on the promise of digital, particularly when it comes to meeting the growing expectations of a workforce that demands a connected and collaborative environment.
In particular, it looks at how far CIOs have come in creating an agile, usercentric workspace – one which gives users everything they need to work productively from any device at any location and at any time.
So, are there issues for organisations in adopting new ways of working, or are they in place but failing to deliver the expected improvements in business agility?
Overall, the findings show that while CIOs are making progress in building workspaces that are more agile, they need to overcome a number of hurdles.
While there are a wide range of issues detailed in this report, the biggest issues slowing transformation are the cost and complexity of dealing with legacy applications, and the restrictions imposed by outdated financial models.
CIOs are responding to the challenges through strategies addressing mobility, user engagement, cloud delivered applications, and BYOD, but with limited success.
On a more positive note, most CIOs are responding to the challenge with increased flexibility and are also taking a more environmentally friendly approach towards their workspaces.
The key findings are that the overwhelming majority of organisations are seeking to improve agility through digital transformation, however:
Ultimately, organisations are seeking to take advantage of digital transformation and increased agility but are finding it a significant challenge due to the legacy of outdated financial models, applications, and working practices.
A new approach is therefore needed which takes advantage of the latest developments around cloud technologies and commercial models to deliver workspaces-as-a-service.
Taking this approach removes many of the barriers identified and supports the broader digital transformation agenda.