Preparing your organisation for digital workspace success is vital to remaining competitive in today’s digital age. The need for digital workplace solutions, and the importance of the digital workspace is disrupting traditional workplace business models. With big changes ahead, IT Managers and CIOs need to plan for how they will meet and exceed their business demands while encompassing people, technology, legal requirements and infrastructure to ensure they stay ahead of the competition.
While many organisations may feel as though they already know how to prepare for a digital workplace, often it’s a lack of resources, alent, and leadership that can lead to key areas becoming stuck.
With this in mind, we delve into tips and questions to ask yourself to integrate the success of a digital workspace into key business processes.
1. Create A Consistent User Experience
It’s all about employee choice, flexibility and accessibility.
Within an effective digital workspace, the user receives a much more consistent experience. Platforms and programs should work on any device, be intuitive and easy-to-use. The aim is to get employees to work more seamlessly, using digital workplace technology that accommodate all skill levels and multi-generational experience. Keep this in mind when transitioning into a digital workspace strategy.
Questions to ask yourself include:
- How can I create a good user experience for users using the current tools we have?
- What tools are needed to supplement existing tools?
- Can we integrate all these tools to provide a more seamless experience, and reduce double handling?
2. Get Proper IT Governance
Data and information are your organisation’s key asset. Rules and regulations need to cover data collection, shareability, utilisation, protection, cleansing and storage. You audience expect and require data security now more than ever. If they don't trust you, they won’t share their information. Proper governance is crucial and needs to:
- Support connectivity
- Support collaboration
- Minimise risk
- Enable compliance
Questions to ask yourself include:
- What governance models can I use as a benchmark for our organisation?
- What organisation policies and industry regulations must we comply with?
3. Keep Security and Compliance In Balance
Making sure that organisations remain secure and compliant is a basic foundation when it comes to operating a successful business. Digital workspaces come with unique challenges that may not be seen in more traditional styles of working environments. Because of this, digital workspaces often need extra layers of security and different types of designs to ensure compliance is met. In providing those things, organisations can find a good balance and make the workspace safe and effective for their employees and their customers.
Questions to ask yourself include:
- What monitoring systems do we have in place that keeps our data secure?
- What organisational policies are set that advise employees on what data can be shared?
- What crisis management plans are in place should there be a security breach?
4. Adopt BYOD Initiatives
More and more organisations are offering employees the opportunity to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and use their personal devices to do work and access organisation information.
The concept is also known as Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT), and Bring Your Own Apps (BYOA).
Initial resistance to adopting this strategy was based on security concerns. However, as big organisations adopted the idea (Unisys and IBM) it was found that productivity increased and technology costs reduced.
Before adopting a BYOD initiative in your organisation, questions to ask yourself include:
- What are the risks for your organisation if your data ended up in the wrong hands?
- What restrictions can you put in place to ensure personal work is not done on organisation time?
- How can you protect sensitive information from Malware?
5. Get Mobile
The consumer mobile technology market is thriving, and employees are expecting the same level of mobile access and benefits in their digital workplace. Organisations who don't allow for employee mobility will find productivity and employee satisfaction will be on the decline.
If employees can't easily connect with other employees, customers, vendors, suppliers and so on, then employees feel less empowered and output will be affected.
Questions you can ask yourself include;
- What communication and collaboration platforms are currently in place?
- Can communication and collaboration between teams be improved?
- What remote digital workplace solutions or telecommuting options would benefit the employees?
6. Encourage Employee Productivity
Typical organisation goals are to “increase productivity” or “reduce costs”, which can make it difficult for employees to meet the demands of their job if the resources and tools they use are not keeping pace. Organisations who have strong online social networks are 7% more productive compared to organisations without. Having the right tools for your employees allows them to share information they otherwise may never see. They can instantly message each other for answers, set virtual meetings and can follow up sales opportunities all from their smartphones - wherever they are in the world.
Questions you can ask yourself include;
- What are the collaboration challenges employees are facing?
- Are there enterprise collaboration tools and social networking platforms such as instant messaging tools and team workspaces available?
- What are the gaps in social networking and collaboration we need to fill?
7. Put An End to Physical and Technical Limitations
When there are no cubicles and few desktop computers that are required for employees, the possibilities are truly endless. Working from anywhere, on any trusted device, means there aren't any technical limitations or physical constraints forced upon employees by their employers. Clients don't see those constraints, either, allowing them to explore the freedom that comes from working with organisations in the digital workspace. More gets done, people are happier, and organisations reduce their overhead and operating expenses, making it a winning combination for everyone involved.
With the Digital Workplace Best Practices Webinar from Elcom, organisations can learn more about what they need when it comes to being prepared for the digital workspace. Many organisations think they're prepared, but they find that they really are not ready once they start to move into using digital workspace options. Fortunately there are ways organisations can get ready quickly, and can continue to move forward successfully. As they do that, their staff members will get on board and so will their customers, even though it means changes to what they are used to the the way of doing things with which they were familiar.
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