COVID Changed the New Normal – It’s Time To Take the Next Step

The new normal has changed the fundamental way we work. And it has exposed the need for a cohesive digital workspace strategy, now more than ever.

In the initial days of the pandemic, companies scrambled to fix the basic logistics of enabling their employees to work from home. The pandemic lockdowns hit fast and hard, resulting in most organizations just “shifting” their employees to work from home mode – without much change in the underlying IT setup. The focus was on getting devices and systems set up for employees to access company data and applications to ensure services continued. IT departments had to deal with enabling secure access to applications and data over open networks overnight- pushing the underlying IT Infrastructure to the max.

Even as companies managed to overcome these challenges, since the focus was on getting operations up and running, transformation initiatives took a back seat. The result has been a patchwork response to a problem that does not seem to be going away anytime soon, especially with the second set of lockdowns being announced. The cracks started appearing in the form of hacking attempts, security breaches and overloaded systems unable to support the demands of a fully remote workforce.

So, how can organizations take the next step to support their remote workforce without draining their IT resources or compromising on security?

I will attempt to answer this question and others at the Digital Forum webinar hosted by Avasant on Wednesday, Dec 2 at 9 am PST. I am honored to be joined by Illyse S from Intel, Henry Guapo, Partner at Avasant and Walter Yosafat, Avasant Distinguished Fellow, former CIO and regional CEO at Wyndham Worldwide, Genpact and American Standard Companies, in this discussion to identify what the office of the future would look like. You can register for the webinar here.