Digital transformation and the demand for agile workspaces
This digital revolution in our personal lives has ironically also had a substantial impact on the workplace where it evolved.
It has changed our expectations about how we work, where and when we work, and what our working environment should be like.
In the last few years particularly, employees have begun to demand greater flexibility over working patterns, and more choice and control over the technology they use.
This change in attitude and expectation has meant increasing pressure on user experience and user engagement, particularly for those organisations seeking to recruit and retain talent.
A new generation of tech-savvy younger people are entering the workforce – bringing with them a new way of thinking about work, and increased concerns over the impact of technology on the environment.
At the same time, digital-native businesses and start-ups are entering established industry sectors in a highly disruptive manner. These new entrants can move fast, attract staff with ease, and can create and roll-out new services and products in days and weeks, rather than months or years.
Many CIOs are acutely aware of this problem – 84% stated the inability to quickly roll-out new services and applications to their workforce is impacting their organisation’s ability to stay ahead or overtake the competition.
A new generation of tech-savvy younger people are entering the workforce – bringing with them a new way of thinking about work.
These significant shifts have placed considerable pressure on CIOs to build workspaces that are more agile; equipping staff with all the applications, data and collaborative tools they need, and at the same time allowing them to use the devices they want.
They must do all this while retaining control of corporate IT, maintaining security in the face of an ever-increasing threat surface, and sticking to the all-important budget.
This digitisation imperative is affecting all businesses, with our research finding that almost all organisations (95%) are either currently undertaking digital transformation initiatives or planning to do so in the next 12 months.
As these forces coalesce, CIOs must find ways to integrate digital solutions and engage staff at every level with the IT department. The cornerstone of this approach must be a user-centric, self-service environment that gives end-users the ability to work whenever and however they desire.
The digital workspace of the future will be happier, more agile, and greener – CIOs that fail to enable a smarter way to work will fail to realise the productivity and efficiency gains that digital transformation promises.
This report investigates the strategies for increasing agility, the challenges facing CIOs and asks how they can overcome them. As interest grows at the executive level in how digital technology can unlock efficiency and productivity, CIOs have considerable expectations to meet.