The traditional hardware break/fix model is becoming increasingly difficult due to a variety of factors that have converged to create a whole new dynamic.

Hardly a day goes by that an IT manager doesn’t experience how COVID has changed the way business is done, including the delivery of IT hardware maintenance to a distributed employee base spread over a wide geography.  And these workers now expect an Amazon experience for everything – a world of instant gratification based on an “I want it now” mindset.  It’s also changed the way retailers are supporting their customers, which includes more online ordering, curbside pickup and virtual shopping.

The technical workforce is changing too.  Existing skilled and knowledgeable technicians are aging and close to retirement. Newer technicians are often less career motivated and likely to job shop more frequently. And many, both young and old are subscribing to the flexible Uber-like model of employment, striving for a more enriched work-life balance.

These challenges are driving companies to look for ways to leverage predictive and preemptive analytics and remediation to solve problems.  Intelligent field services allow organizations to act quickly to meet employee needs. Likewise, as technology and lifestyles change, innovations have emerged that provide the Right person, with the Right skills, and the Right part – On time.

Intelligent Scheduling & Dispatch

To optimize technical resources, it’s important to take a logistics approach – not only for parts logistics, but also human logistics and information logistics.  A well-designed workforce management system with an analytics engine running in the background continually optimizes schedules based on pre-defined criteria to figure out which field technician is the best one to run a call and ultimately drive efficiency.

This also improves the end user experience by delivering the service on time with the right parts so there’s minimal revisits, and customer satisfaction is maintained at a high level as well.

Pre-defined criteria at minimum includes information about each technician that identifies their entire breadth of skills, completed training and associated certifications.  But it doesn’t stop there.  It’s also about the parts. These systems provide complete visibility real-time to what inventory and parts every technician has access to, either in their vans or in local storage hubs that they can visit to pick up whatever they need on their way to fix a problem.

This can’t happen through a single point in time snapshot either.  The system is continually adjusting throughout the day, and integration with an ITSM tracking system allows complete visibility for management of support tickets if necessary.

Mobile ��ʪ����Ƶ

It’s no secret that the pandemic drastically changed the workplace especially where people work.  The rapid increase of people working from home left a lot of organizations unprepared.  Pre-COVID, most employees would be in an office and when they needed support it didn’t matter to them when exactly and where the technician was.

Now home users want to know when someone’s coming to the house, and not only do they want to know when that technician is going to be there, they also want to know what that technician looks like to make sure that who shows up at their door is actually the technician that was supposed to arrive.  Providing users with a mobile app synced with the dispatch system provides that level of transparency.

Mobile apps for the technicians can significantly simplify their job too.  Using augmented reality technologies, remote senior technicians can now help those onsite as though they were there themselves – many times helping multiple people at the same time.  The onsite technician’s mobile phone becomes the interface that allows the remote expert to view the broken hardware and, as an example, allows them to highlight which parts to remove or which screw to turn by circling it on the screen.  In essence they are virtually standing over the shoulder of the onsite technician and walking them through the repair.

Even without virtual help, mobile apps can provide onsite technicians with the knowledge they need at their fingertips to fix an issue that can take the form of interactive videos or 3D graphical models of the broken equipment with related repair steps.  And of course, written manuals and step-by-step procedures can be accessed through a detailed mobile knowledgebase.

Essential Lifecycle Management

Automated parts management is the most efficient way to ensure technicians have everything they need to repair hardware issues and to contain costs.  These tools provide continual demand planning and fluctuate as necessary based on usage, historical trends and peak seasons.  They’re basically a learning system that fluctuates to meet minimum replenishment requirements and manages any excess inventory.

So say demand for parts drops in a certain geography, for example if some hardware was upgraded in offices on the West Coast of the U.S.  Inventory can be pulled back and redistributed to East Coast offices that still have the older hardware to keep costs down.

Accurate inventory management also supports advanced exchange programs where work-from-home employees can send in defective devices, and hot spares can be shipped to them overnight so they can get back up and running right away eliminating the need for a technician to even come to their house in the first place.

��ʪ����Ƶ – Leading Innovation

In these challenging times, new strategies are needed to keep the business running.  ��ʪ����Ƶ is an industry leader in IT Field Support Services and as things change, ��ʪ����Ƶ moves with them. Our solutions are built on innovation that delivers an exceptional user experience and helps drive efficiencies.

If you think your organization could benefit from a support model that provides the Right person, with the Right skills, and the Right part – On time, then contact us today to schedule a meeting.

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The State of the Industry

Prior to the pandemic, many organizations typically delivered service desk support from a call center.  In the months that followed, it became necessary to send their agents home giving them a taste for an alternative working model, one that, to a large degree, had not previously been an option. Recent surveys reveal that the workforce including service desk employees prefer the new work-from-home alternative.

It’s easy to see that a remote work model is possible to sustain given the number of organizations that have successfully transitioned to that work-from-home approach in the last 18 months.  In addition, industry data supports that these workers remain productive outside of the call center.

This suggests that the remote service desk model is effective and IT leaders should have confidence making this a permanent solution.  In fact, ��ʪ����Ƶ has implemented a work-from-home model for our service desk employees with equal or better customer service and productivity.

Strategies to Transition to a Work-from-Home Service Desk

When the pandemic forced ��ʪ����Ƶ to transition our service desk agents to a fully remote (i.e., work-from-home) model, we were able to move swiftly without any service disruption or quality issues because our operations were already in the cloud. So, for any organization considering a similar move, there are several strategies that are critical to transitioning your service desk as well.

1.  A “Service Desk in the Cloud” Model

A cloud-based service desk utilizing a SaaS tools platform offers several advantages when an organization has to send its service desk agents home to work remotely. These tools include an ITSM system like ServiceNow for example, contact center technologies, and remote support and diagnostic tools.  The primary advantages of this cloud-based model are the ability to extend the tools seamlessly to the agents and to eliminate the need for data centers, servers, VPNs and even the call center facilities themselves.

Essentially, as long as agents have internet connectivity, they are able to perform their jobs with the same efficiency and productivity as if they were in a call center.  Not only does this guarantee excellent customer service, but also improves recruitment of talent and employee retention because today’s workforce prefers a remote work-from-home opportunity.

2.  Take Advantage of Latest Cloud Technologies by Integrating with Partners

Another challenge facing many organizations is that they have invested heavily in their own service desk tools that were implemented specifically for an on-premise operating model that they can’t easily abandon. However, relocating their service desk agents home requires the use of cloud-based technologies to enable them.

A popular strategy is to integrate with a third-party partner’s cloud-based tools to get the benefits without the heavy investment.  For example, ��ʪ����Ƶ’s Enterprise Services Platform provides the best of both worlds. We enable our customers to take advantage of our cloud-based infrastructure that includes significant innovation while they can continue to leverage the value-added technologies that they have already invested in.

3.  Leveraging Automation

A service desk that leverages automated resolution and self-healing options offers many advantages to an IT organization looking to move its agents to a remote working model.  IT leadership can now be more creative with how its agents are utilized.  With basic issues being resolved via automation, service desk staff are freed up to resolve more complex incidents. This creates the capacity for these issues to be dealt with more efficiently and at lower cost regardless of where the agent is located.

The New Working Model

The remote service desk model comes with several challenges. Many organizations are not prepared for this change in the way people want to work, because they have not invested in cloud-based technologies that would support this type of operation in the long term.

A IT service desk strategy with a strong foundation grounded in best practices anchored by a cloud-based infrastructure is the ideal solution, which ��ʪ����Ƶ illustrated in our successful pivot to a remote work-from-home model for our agents. The good news is businesses don’t have to reinvent the wheel. These technologies are readily available with a proven support model to deliver the desired outcomes.

Learn more by clicking here to get a copy of ��ʪ����Ƶ’s “Practical Guide to Service Desk in the Cloud” eBook.

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So what are some of the trends that define this new era of tech employment, and how should you adapt to this IT Staffing crisis? Understanding these better will make it easier for you to address the issue.

Uncertainty Still Prevails

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic means that there’s still a significant sense of uncertainty across the industry. The situation is subject to change at any moment, so it’s quite difficult to be proactive and plan for the future.

What this means in the realm of technical staffing is that companies are reluctant to hire new workers on a permanent basis. Instead, employers are showing a strong preference for hiring people temporarily.

It’s tough to predict what the economy and the workforce will look like a few months from now. Some believe that society will soon return to normal, while others think there might be another lockdown.

With such a sense of certainty in the air, there’s no wonder that employers want to play it safe by only hiring people temporarily.

This also means that many companies are experiencing IT Staffing problems. If a skilled employee has a permanent contract at a company, they’re less likely to take a risk and give that up for a temporary position.

In these uncertain times, it makes sense to work with IT staffing firms to ensure you don’t miss out on top talent.

Remote Work is Here to Stay

It’s also now quite clear that remote work is here to stay, particularly in the tech industry. The COVID-19 lockdowns have shattered the belief that real work can’t be done from home.

IT professionals are also enjoying the change. Working from home has drastically improved their work/life balance for many working in the IT industry. This means if you’re not offering remote working options, you’re going to miss out on some of the top talents in the industry.

On the other hand, companies that embrace the new remote work paradigm can hire some amazing talent. IT staffing firms can now find you great talent from all around the world. You’re no longer constrained to only hiring candidates in the immediate geographical vicinity.

If you’re a company based in the U.S., there’s nothing stopping you from hiring a talented programmer based in any city across the country. Of course, this is making the hiring process more complicated than ever before, so you’ll need to enlist the help of a strategic staffing agency if you want to make the right moves.

Act Now or Lose the Candidate

The job market in the tech sector is becoming incredibly competitive. This means you’ll need to act fast if you want to make new hires. It’s not uncommon at the moment for applicants to withdraw their applications because they already received an offer from another company.

In the past, you could perhaps get away with taking your time, but those days are over. This might mean that you need to rework your hiring process to accommodate this new paradigm.

Not only are fewer workers prepared to take a chance on new companies, the new remote work system means that companies from around the world could potentially steal your applicants.

IT staffing companies can assist you in streamlining the whole hiring process. This means that you can hire the best IT talent before the competition.

Increased Importance of Recruiting Tools

All of these difficulties with the hiring process mean that you’ll need to use all the methods at your disposal to get the edge over the competition. IT staffing agencies are working with innovative new recruitment tools that can help you find the ideal tech workers for your company.

Data analysis will be one of the key themes of the professional world in the years to come. It’s likely that the ability to obtain and interpret data will be a key part of finding business success.

Good IT staffing agencies have tools that do so much more than just trawl the job search sites such as Monster. The latest generation of recruitment tools uses advanced analytics, which will allow you to find the top percentage of candidates.

If you don’t work with a recruitment company with access to these tools, it’s unlikely that you’ll secure interviews with the best talent in the field.

��ʪ����Ƶ Can Help with Your IT Staffing Needs

As you can see, the IT staffing game has changed. Hiring the right staff is no longer as easy as it once was. Not only do you need to adapt to a new remote working system, but you also need to navigate a whole new kind of labor market.

With that said, you can turn this change and uncertainty to your advantage. In this new working environment, only the companies that can adapt to new circumstances will have what it takes to rise to the top.

By working with a professional IT staffing company like ��ʪ����Ƶ, you can find the IT staff you’ll need to stay in the game. Unlike other companies who simply try to find workers and tick boxes, ��ʪ����Ƶ really takes the time to try to understand your organization and your needs.

We use our advanced data collection and analysis techniques to help you find the best fit for your company. In a professional world defined by labor shortages and hiring difficulties, we go the extra mile to help you find the right staff and rise above the competition.

If you want to enlist our services, today, and let’s get the ball rolling.

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A few years ago, I moved to a city in a neighborhood with steep hills overlooking downtown.  It was a complete change from NY as you can imagine.  Houses are closer together, noise is constant, and “nature” consists of small grassy areas shared with dogs.  All during the day and especially weekends, the streets are flooded with people walking, jogging, and of course, riding their bikes – but not me.  I’ve been binge-watching Netflix instead, but recently realized that something had to change so I decided to begin bike riding again.

I dug my bike out of storage and jumped on thinking things would be the same as before.  It didn’t take long for surprise to set in.  What I hadn’t anticipated was how much things had changed and how my old bike didn’t fit my new environment.  I realized that while I thought it would literally be like “riding a bike”, it was nothing like that and I ended buying a new bike that better fits my needs.

This is the same challenge many organizations will be facing as COVID cases trend downward and decisions are made to returning to the office.  While things may look the same, the actual experience for workers will be vastly different and new unforeseen problems will crop up that companies should be planning for right now.

Innovation

When buying my new bike, I went specifically to a bike shop with experts who could walk me through innovative technologies that didn’t exist when I bought my old bike, like for example sensors on the back with radar that tracks how close cars are and alerts the rider.

Companies sending workers home should take the same approach.  Find experts in the industry who understand the latest innovations and how they apply to specific personas to enhance the User Experience.

Digital Experience

Biking today is all about making the experience better.  Bikes can always be tweaked between rides, but how about during the ride itself?  Technologies exist today that capture biomechanics info in real-time to help you adjust your form while riding and can also automatically adjust seat comfort or handlebar heights based on whether you’re on flat pavement or climbing a hill.

IT organizations should expect that the move back to the office will create new issues for workers who have become comfortable working remotely.  While supporting these users, organizations should not only measure the attainment of SLAs as an indication of quality, but also the experience the person had while being supported.  For example, tracking User Sentiment in real-time and establishing XLAs will provide valuable insight into how users really feel about the support they’re getting and the resulting adjustments that should be made.

Support

When my old bike had a problem, I had two options to get it fixed – bring it to a bike repair shop that used their general knowledge to fix it or try to figure it out myself without much help. Fixing bikes today however is a different story with the resources available (e.g., YouTube videos, extensive online documentation, face-to-face video calls with repair techs who can walk me through it) and powerful diagnostic tools that can find the source of problems much easier.

Supporting employees can now be done with innovative tools that dive deep into their devices to identify what the underlying issues really are and many times resolve them automatically.  The User Experience is dramatically improved also with intelligent virtual agents (chatbots) that can actually fix problems.  And for those users who like to do it themselves, powerful self-service tools exist putting the power in their hands.

Security

Riding a bike in the city requires a level of security that is much stricter than what I needed on my NY bike trails.  I now need to lock my bike in a rack or to a light pole so it isn’t stolen, even if I step into a store for two minutes.

Security in the office should be just as strict since attacks from hackers and malware have significantly increased recently and are not just targeting people working from home.  Security solutions like DNS proxies to protect users from dangerous websites, zero trust administration providing system access to users for only what they need, and multi-factor authentication adding an additional layer of login security should be deployed enterprise-wide.

Configuration/Setup

As I said before, my bike in NY was tuned perfectly for how I was using it, however, getting it to that point took a while requiring me to make adjustments after each ride.  While I was ultimately able to customize my bike for my needs, the first rides weren’t as comfortable and my rides weren’t as enjoyable.  New bike designs now allow much easier and quicker customization though.

When returning to the office, organizations must ensure the devices they have will maximize their productivity.  A technology like zero-touch deployment can also be a great solution allowing users to self-configure their own devices with everything they need to be productive on Day 1.

Make Returning to the Office “Like Riding a Bike”

Returning to the office is inevitable so it’s critical that plans be made now to handle it properly.  Employees need to be assured that the experience they’ll have won’t affect their productivity.  Applying old pre-COVID support models won’t always work anymore.  The nature of business has changed as have employee work styles.

If you think it’s going to be “like riding a bike”, make sure you’re taking advantage of new technologies and innovations to make the ride smoother and the User Experience enjoyable.  You don’t want to be riding through a city but be lost in the woods.

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Why EaaS Is the Acronym to Look For Going ForwardOdds are, you’re working on an even tighter-than-usual budget, so leverage limited resources like Essentials as a Service (EaaS) to stay competitive.

As part of your digital transformation strategy, you’ve made the decision to move key applications, even mission critical parts of your business, to the cloud…for all the right reasons.

It’s the key to creating a more agile, responsive and competitive IT organization; a highly efficient and effective environment where finite resources are able to focus less on maintaining IT operations and more of their cycles creating new capabilities for the business.

But what about all the remaining mundane, break/fix, keep-the-lights-on operational tasks that are ‘essential’ to supporting the always available, 7 x 24 expectations of the business?

If the care and feeding of your office applications have been moved to Office 365 or Google apps, and the most critical business apps are now being delivered aaS, what about the remaining physical infrastructure that connects users when they are in the office or their physical devices – desktops, laptops, tablets and phones?

What about the care and feeding of those end user devices that consume a tremendous amount of cycles to configure, track, and deploy, as well as the service desk functions that are ‘essential’ to delivering availability, uptime and an exceptional experience to your user community?

Essentials as a Service (EaaS)
In 2020, IT leaders and CIOs will want to consider Essentials as a Service (EaaS), offloading the remaining operational aspects of support to IT infrastructure experts to further drive agility and efficiencies throughout their organizations.

Based upon the limited growth of budgets in 2020 (Gartner estimates only a 3.2 percent increase worldwide), IT organizations are not going to be able to add dollars or people to the mix, so they will want to leverage their limited resources to do higher value creation work, increasing the competitiveness of their organization versus simply maintaining the health and well-being of their IT infrastructures and end-user support.

Put in the context of Gartner’s Bimodal IT delivery model, EaaS is simply a better way to consume mode 1 services. Bimodal is all about transforming legacy IT into an agile, rapid response organization that quickly adapts to changes in a company’s competitive landscape.

In this operational construct, there are two modes of IT delivery: Mode 1 focusing on stability, being operationally sound, keeping the lights on, and Mode 2 focusing on creating new capabilities and applications that drive better end-user and customer interaction, e.g., web-based apps, mobile apps, the really cool stuff that differentiates them from their competition.

One can argue whether there really needs to be two modes of operation to deliver a more agile IT environment, but the idea that offloading the mundane break/fix aspects of IT support to free up limited resources to focus on higher value and more fulfilling pursuits is a sound concept that organizations need to explore this year.

Delivering to new expectations
In addition to helping organizations more rapidly respond to the needs of the business, EaaS can also help organizations deliver to the heightened expectations of the new demographics made up of millennials and gen x/z’s, and that’s all about delivering an exceptional customer experience whether that is an internal customer like an end-user, or an external customer buying a product or service.

Today’s ‘customers’ expect an experience that is highly available anytime, anyplace, on any device; an experience that is simple, intuitive, and secure.

The question is, does an IT organization want to invest the time, money, and resources to set up and maintain an operational support structure to deliver this heightened level of user experience, or should they leverage an essentials as a service provider that specializes in delivering that experience as a consumable service, as a contracted outcome?

Does it really make sense, given your strategy of offloading operational tasks to focus on higher-value business targets, to invest in global, follow the sun 7 x 24 x 365 multi-lingual end-user support with predictive, proactive, automated intelligence, natural language, and omnichannel support?

Or is it better to leverage an essentials as a service provider that delivers these state-of-the-art support services that are architected to deliver an exceptional end-user experience?

The most essential EaaS elements
Uptime and reliability – In order to deliver a truly exceptional experience people need to stay connected to their technology.

The reality of delivering to everything on-demand, need it now, consumer-driven expectations of end-users today is that downtime, interruptions in service, and slow performance are simply unacceptable.

EaaS providers are constantly looking for ways to infuse innovation in the form of tools, process,es and automation into their service offerings to improve uptime, reduce clients’ costs and enhance the end user experience.

Today, delivering to standard expectations and even satisfying SLAs and KPIs are table stakes. Organizations are looking for new ideas and enhanced services that save time and money, increase efficiencies and reduce ticket counts, and that’s all about delivering innovation.

From a support standpoint, the goal is to eliminate issues proactively, so an interruption to the user never happens – and if there is an issue, to resolve it faster so the user is impacted as little as possible.

This includes leading-edge technologies such as automated self-healing to capture and resolve issues in real-time and predictive analysis to mitigate issues before end-user escalations.

It also includes proactive analytics detailing the health of a device as well as the ability to look back retrospectively to determine the root cause of an issue. And finally, self-help interfaces allow end-users to hit an ‘easy button’ for one-click resolutions to fix issues without having to call for help.

Kiosks and Genius Bars – A challenge facing companies today is how to provide instant access and support to users in a consumer-oriented environment. This year a trend that IT organizations will want to consider is leveraging an EaaS provider to deliver technical support via café-like locations in high traffic areas on corporate campuses convenient for end-users.

These walk-up support desks are staffed with qualified technicians with great customer service skills. Quick fixes performed immediately or loaners provided for longer repair. Kiosks and Genius Bars are also used to showcase approved corporate technologies like an Apple or Verizon store.

This is a great way to support traditional workers who demand the most out of technology and to hyper-enabled tech-savvy workers who bring their own device (BYOD) to work.

Self-service portals – EaaS providers have developed one-stop digital portals that allow end-users to see the status of their service desk tickets and request items to procure or services to be delivered via automated service catalogs. Service catalogs are a central listing of the goods and services that are available to the end-user.

So instead of putting a new employee through what can be a long, frustrating onboarding process, instead they go out to an automated service catalog to choose their corporate-sponsored device, business applications, corporate credit card, etc.

Validation and authorization of the requests are automatically generated to their manager or approval party for authorization. The employee then receives their device configured based upon their persona, ready to go when they power up the first time.

Mobility Device Support – It’s all about connectivity anytime, any play, on any device but delivering that experience from a mobility perspective based upon the many tasks that have to be orchestrated and executed can be frustrating and time-consuming for IT support resources.

Essentials as a service can deliver a more seamless experience by delivering devices fully configured, not just with a browser and email but with the mission-critical applications that the user needs to do their jobs.

They can also manage the security of the devices and mobile endpoints and finally, provide Telecom Expense Management to audit and resolve cellular billing issues on a monthly basis.

Product Lifecycle Services – Procurement, integration, and logistics may sound pretty old school, but the reality is that many large organizations do not want their finite resources focusing on the tactical execution of integration, configuration, storage, shipping, and asset tracking of end-user equipment and devices.

Whether it’s a single laptop or a complex deployment of a highly integrated set of technologies, essentials service providers can assess requirements, develop the plan and then source, configure, integrate, and ‘palletize’ the solution. And then as part of full lifecycle support, they can also receive aging equipment back into logistic centers for asset disposition, brokering the equipment and sharing the proceeds or decommissioning hard drives and certifying disposal.

Focusing IT on higher value creation
In 2020 IT organizations can continue to deliver these types of ‘essential’ services using their own internal resources much as they’ve done in the past, but the question is, why?
According to Gartner, 28 percent of spending within key enterprise IT markets will shift to the cloud by 2022, up from 19 percent in 2018.

If it makes sense to move mission-critical applications to multi-cloud environments and SaaS providers, what additional efficiencies can be gained by offloading the remaining, often mundane, and repetitive IT support functions?

Essentials as a Service allows organizations to focus resources on higher-value creation, deliver even greater agility to the organization to respond faster to the needs of the business while at the same time, enhancing the end-user experience.

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A rush of challenges accompanying social distancing have hit organizations like a tidal wave – How will we make sure our employees are productive? How will we be able to service our customers and maintain those relationships? How will we conduct business as usual?

We at ��ʪ����Ƶ have one client who was thinking about a remote workforce well before COVID-19 even appeared.  We had established a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) for Montgomery County (PA) long before the pandemic hit providing a high level of business continuity and emergency preparedness that no one could have anticipated needing.  They had the foresight though to provide their diverse workforce of social workers, law enforcement and justice system employees with the devices and connectivity to work and remain productive indefinitely.  And when COVID-19 hit, they were able to react immediately.

“People already had access to this system and those running with our VDI platform were literally able to go home and continue to work…that same day. They didn’t miss a beat!”

Anthony Olivieri, Montgomery County Chief Information Officer led the workforce initiative and had these observations:“People already had access to this system and those running with our VDI platform were literally able to go home and continue to work…that same day. They didn’t miss a beat!

We had about 1700 people at the height of this and now we’re getting more requests for the rest of our users as our courts, domestic relations and other departments come back online. We’ll be closer to 2700 users in the next few weeks.

The next phase is how do we keep all this going…to get to what will be the new normal. We’re looking at the next layers of virtual infrastructure to further enable people to work from home.”

There is much to be learned from the actions Montgomery County took to protect the organization and keep the county running without interruption during tough times and to dramatically transform the user experience providing their employees with a true Digital Workplace.

With COVID-19, organizations were forced to implement Work from Home solutions to thousands of employees, in many cases in less than a week.  Think of what had to be considered as part of that process.  Their employees would need the right devices (e.g., desktops, laptops, tablets) that allowed them to get to the applications they needed to do their jobs and collaborate with their colleagues.  Their connectivity also had to be reliable and their environment secure.  And all of that had to happen with the flip of a switch.

While many organizations have found short-term success, it’s been in the context of business continuity as opposed to the “new norm” so the question becomes how sustainable are these temporary, often make-shift solutions?

You’ll see different predictions from global health organizations on how long coronavirus is going to last or at least get to a manageable level.  There are a variety of opinions and data analyses, but they share a common theme – coronavirus isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and we could still be managing the effects of it on our daily lives through the end of 2021 and even into 2022.

As a result, IT industry experts are predicting a substantial increase in the number of remote workers in the future.  For example, Gartner predicted pre-COVID that the percentage of people working remotely would rise to 30% within the next few years, however it has since revised that number (post-COVID) upward to 48%.

The logic stands to reason.  Many employees are becoming used to a Work from Home environment and are proving they can be just as productive as they were in the office.  Also with the workforce reductions resulting from COVID new staffing models will leverage alternative solutions like contingent workers and temporary contractors at least until organizations are able to return to optimal full-time employee levels.

All of these things will allow organizations to take advantage of associated cost optimizations like reductions in physical office space which will be critical for their financial recovery.  Also, this new operating model will directly support Digital Workplace strategies which by definition provide a more flexible “consumerized” workstyle driven by an anytime, anyplace, any device dynamic which is what employees are demanding these days.

Take the Long View

With this new paradigm looming, organizations should be preparing long-term solutions now like virtual desktop technologies.  These solutions provide an agile foundation that directly address the challenges faced by organizations setting up a permanent remote workforce like:

• Devices: virtual desktop technologies allow users to access their workspace using anything they want including desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.This is a huge advantage because it allows organizations to deploy existing equipment with flexibility and supports the use of personal devices by contingent and temporary resources
• Applications: users can access enterprise applications from anywhere including being able to interact and collaborate with their co-workers with the same ease as if they were in the office together
• Security: access to the environment can be strictly managed and secured against breaches to weak home office networks.

The key is starting now and not waiting for the next surprise to come should things take an unexpected turn.  Organizations should be planning for the long haul and acting sooner than later.

Nobody truly knows at this time how the next couple of years will play out, but what’s certain is it’s unlikely things will return 100% to the way they were.  New challenges will continue to crop up down the road, and it’s imperative that your employees be setup for success.  Providing a solid virtual desktop foundation that can be built upon over the years should be the first step in that journey.

About Montgomery County  Montgomery County is the third largest county in Pennsylvania covering 500 square miles with over 800,000 suburban Philadelphia residents. With a budget of appx. $385 million the county employs 3,000 people. Led by its forward-thinking Information and Technology ��ʪ����Ƶ department, CIO  Anthony Olivieri, Deputy CTO, Gordon McGowan and their team have driven innovative IT deployment to ensure workforce productivity, disaster recovery and business continuity for county government.

Its latest success has been weathering challenges to workforce continuity through deployment of a broad Work from Home initiative to quickly enable field employees to work remotely and securely through virtual desktop technology.
Always willing to network with his peers, Olivieri said in our recent interview he is always happy to discuss technology, and the successes and challenges Montgomery Country has seen. He can be reached at aolivieri@montcopa.org.

About the Author  Gerard Coughlan is Director, Workplace Services at ��ʪ����Ƶ. Coughlan is responsible for thought leadership around the innovative technologies within ��ʪ����Ƶ’s services portfolio. He has more than 20 years’ experience designing and implementing Digital Workplace solutions across multiple industry verticals.

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This morning you’re sitting at home, one of the many that are being sent home to work by their employers to help combat the coronavirus outbreak.

You thought you’d appreciate, even enjoy joining the Work From Home (WFH) ranks when you heard the rumors last week.

Now that it’s happening to you, you do…and you don’t.

No commute, good. More flexibility, good. Substantial social distancing, even better.

But you’re already starting to miss the efficiency and frankly, the serenity of sitting down in a space that has been optimized for getting stuff done and cranking out work at a high level.

So, to help ease the transition for the recently WFH’d, here are some life hacks to consider…

First, own your space

Where you ultimately set up shop can have a significant impact on your productivity as well as your mental and emotional wellbeing.

It’s your first morning as a newly minted WFH worker and since you don’t have the luxury of a 1^st floor study you’re staring at your laptop in the living room or kitchen nook. You quickly realize that’s not going to work.

Perhaps you start in the place where you have your home computer. Now that FEELS pretty comfortable. It’s always been a great place for doing bills and checking email with easy access to Netflix on a nearby smart TV. Unfortunately, that may be the worst location in the house to go to work each morning.

• Find a place with a door, any door. I know a salesperson that actually set up his office in a bedroom closet to create a breakwall between himself and the rest of the household.
• Make sure you have enough bandwidth. If your house has ethernet jacks in each room it’s not an issue, but most don’t. Test the wireless signal at the location you’re considering. If it’s too low, you can add a Wi-Fi range extender to boost the signal strength but try to find a place where the native signal strength is good enough without the extender. They can be a bit complicated to set up and may deliver intermittent performance at times.
• If possible, create a space with a view.  Basements are often the easiest place to set up an office but in many cases, the only thing you can see at eye level is a wall with no window or worse, a cement wall with no window. Give strong consideration to any room with a view, even if it’s your master bedroom with a folding table to score a window to the outside world.

Second, fully leverage your IT department’s WFH enablement and supplement where necessary

Under normal WFH circumstances your IT department may provide a package that includes things like a laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse, camera and a printer.

But when sending 1,000s home at a moment’s notice to help ensure the health and wellbeing of their employees they often have to rely on the technology that is already available in the employee’s home which is typically a computer and an internet connection.

It then comes down to what you have at home and what you need to be productive.

You may be using a monitor and keyboard at work. If those are available through your work, great, if not, for the duration of your time working at home, do you really need them? I used both in the past in an office but now that I WFH, I don’t miss the bulky monitor and keyboard taking up space on my desk.

On the other hand, for me, a wireless mouse and a noise canceling Bluetooth earpiece are essentials, so both are part of my WFH setup.

For your phone requirements, if your IT department provides the option of installing a software-based voice extension (soft phone) on your computer, that’s a great way to extend the function of your desk phone to your home office.

If not, or perhaps in addition, consider transitioning to your mobile phone as your primary way to communicate at work. If you do, you may want to include your mobile number in your corporate VM greeting on a temporary basis as you work from home.

Even if you use your mobile phone as your primary phone, you will most likely still have your corporate extension and voicemail (VM) in place. If that’s the case, a great time saver for WFH’ers is ‘unified messaging’ where your corporate VMs are posted to your email. No dialing in to check if you have a message, they pop up automatically, and when you click on the email your VM is played as a .wav file. If you do not have that option today check with your IT department to see if that’s a possibility now that you WFH.

And remember, smile, you’re on camera. Take time to set up how you present yourself when you enable video on a conference call from home.

Be intentional about what is visible in the backdrop behind you. Keep it professional and simple. Place a light in front of you,reduce rear lighting as much as possible and close the shades. You don’t want the majority of the light coming from your laptop screen below you, that makes us all look a bit scary.

If you don’t have an external camera that you can position at eye level, elevate your laptop with a box so you’re not looking down at the camera. And finally, invest in a lens cover or simply place a piece of tape over the camera so you don’t find yourself broadcasting when you’re unaware.

At the same time, instead of shying away from the camera, embrace it. Turn on your camera for internal meetings and suggest others do as well. The impact of seeing your coworkers, communicating face to face and sharing as if they’re in the same room is emotionally uplifting while helping to reduce the isolation we’re all feeling due to social distancing.

The one constant whether you’re using a corporate provided device, or your home PC/laptop is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection back to the home office. That is preferred method by most organizations to connect WFH workers across the internet. It leverages some serious technology in the form of IPsec Triple DES encryption to secure the tunnel which guarantees that no one’s hacking into your connection.

Maximize your WFH efficiency and peace of mind

Time management is the key to being efficient whether you’re working in an office or working from home. Working from home just provides additional opportunities on both ends of the spectrum to increase as well as decrease your personal productivity.

The best way to ensure that you stay productive and minimize distractions is to establish an understanding with family members that you’re not anymore available in your home office than you were when you were sitting in an office miles away. Of course, there’s always going to be the occasional interruptions and that’s ok, but setting expectations properly from the beginning is the best way to stay focused.

Be cognizant of the background noise you take for granted on weekends – kids playing, dogs barking, garbage trucks – become very adept at managing the Mute button on your phone.

Keep track of the times you check the news and social media during the day. That becomes especially hard when the latest updates on the pandemic or the crazy gyrations of the stock market ping/vibrate our phones every few minutes. To keep yourself productive and for you own peace of mind, keep it to a minimum.

Use this as an opportunity to improve your health by getting up and walking more – you don’t have to sit at your desk for 8 straight hours. Take a break – walk the dog, call a family member. Eat better lunches instead of the bagged lunches you used to take to work – your refrigerator is right there.

And finally, take advantage of the dividend you receive every day by not driving to and from an office. Turn your reprieve into the most productive time of your day.

Getting even a ½ hour jump on your day is huge. You will quickly come to appreciate the uninterrupted time you have to get things done before the day kicks into high gear, especially when you consider at that very moment, you could be sitting in your car stuck in traffic.

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Each year, companies across the globe in a variety of industries reach out to information technology firms in hopes of finding the partner that can best meet the technology and business needs of their organization by requesting a proposal, also known as the RFP.

Those in the IT space who see thousands of these RFP’s, each with its own set of unique requirements, are forced to strike a balance between what looks good on paper and what would be truly effective in a live environment, all the while focusing on what differentiates them from the competition but careful to avoid overpromising and underdelivering.

It’s a thin line that at times feels akin to a tightrope stretched high above the ground with no safety net below.  At our firm, I read hundreds of RFP’s each year. And, while they all have their own flavor, many, if not all, have striking similarities.

Case in point: I challenge anyone today to find an RFP that doesn’t contain any of the following buzz words: Innovation, Automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) or 21st Century End-User Experience.

They seem to be woven into the very fabric of every RFP from the small scale, single tower opportunity, to the largest ITO. And, they seem to come complete with the promise of cost savings and less human intervention. But, is there any substance to them or are they merely vaporware?

It occurred to me nearly four years ago as I sat in my office chair late one evening thumbing through the latest in a series of lengthy RFPs that something about this one was different. As I read further, I noticed nearly every paragraph contained or referenced at least one of these buzzwords. When I was finished, I went back and counted eighty-three instances where innovation or something that fell under its umbrella was mentioned.

It was then I realized that the IT industry as a whole was staring into the face of a tsunami of new expectations, largely fueled by buzzwords, lack of experience and lack of understand. Like many in our industry, we were scrambling to find a foothold amidst the onslaught – after all, how do you coherently and cogently respond to a question of need where the premise may be flawed from the beginning?

Gone were the days when operational excellence and a “shift-left” mentality was enough to separate us from the competition. Prospective IT clients were demanding more, not only in terms of excellence and stability, but more in the way of incident avoidance and less human interaction, Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, all aligned to support a greater, more meaningful end-user experience for a younger, more socially connected and tech savvy workforce.

If that weren’t enough, this new way of doing business needed to follow the same blueprint of operational excellence we’d spent years building only now it had to be better, faster, stronger and, here’s the kicker, at a discount to traditional services. In a nutshell, prospective IT clients were demanding more for less.

That got me thinking. Maybe our clients were onto something with the more for less approach. What if there was a way to cut cost while delivering an excellent service that gave them greater functionality, more flexibility, and an improved end user experience?

Science fiction, right? Well, with the rise of Artificial Intelligence, automation, chatbots and proactive tools, for the first time less human interaction seemed possible and at a fraction of the cost, but would it really work and how close would it come to matching the lofty expectations?

Expectations, after all, set the stage for perceived reality at some point in the future. Just like the trailer for our favorite new movie, we anticipate the full feature to resemble the action and suspense consolidated in the two-minute teaser, but often we find ourselves feeling let down when the movie doesn’t live up to the hype. It is the same in IT.

Our clients read articles, talk to friends and colleagues in and out of their industry, attend workshops and speak with vendors that offer a glimpse into the latest tools and technologies, each attempting to entice them with their line of products and/or services.

After all, our clients are just like us, they have businesses to run and must do so in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible, so it’s no surprise they have latched onto the wave of innovation.  But just as they are hoping AI, chatbots and proactive technologies will make their businesses run smarter and at a fraction of the cost, it is up to us to truly partner with them on this journey to ensure reality and expectations are aligned.

The operational effectiveness of these tools and technologies take center stage when it comes to driving efficiencies and cost savings and if they only work half as good as advertised, the result is little if any impact to the bottom line, a frustrated business, and a broken partnership, which is a losing proposition for us and our clients. So how do we combat this problem?

It is incumbent upon us to narrow the gap that exists between reality and expectations – particularly if the client’s “reality” simply isn’t. After all, a hook is a great way to capture the attention of your audience but if there is no substance, no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, how effective can we or our clients be in the long run? In efforts to narrow the gap we are leaning on experience to drive the narrative.

After years of research and testing we now have real-time examples that are revealing the value of these new tools. No longer theoretical, we’re now able, by examining any of our diverse set of clients, to quantify the efficiencies and resulting savings and use that information to present to future clients in a way that is real and tangible. It is this fact-based approach that allows us to align the expectations with reality, careful to consider the unique needs of each client and their dynamic end-user bases and build a roadmap that aligns to their business and budgetary goals.

A recent example is with one of our healthcare industry clients. They had, for years, run their IT organization internally, but due to budget constraints were forced to look outside to free up key members of the organization for future initiatives as well as find cost savings. This has become commonplace in the industry and we were able to sit down with this client and construct a roadmap that included a phased transition and ultimately a transformation of their IT organization.

We uncovered areas inside the business that provided significant opportunities for our tools and technologies to drive real efficiencies and savings. The roadmap we designed for them allowed us to work together to help the business run better, faster, and stronger by driving down contacts to their service desk and reducing the number of deskside occurrences through proactive analytics and resolution.

We were also able to return time and productivity to the user base by providing more meaningful and innovative ways to connect, increasing satisfaction at all levels, and at a significant reduction in operational expense. And in reality, these solutions would not have been brought up in the RFP process simply because the client didn’t realize these were the right questions to ask and areas to audit.

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Security threats populate a much more varied threat landscape that healthcare executives must contend with

The evolution of technology in healthcare brings with it both incredible opportunities as well as risks.

Today, healthcare accounts for 30% of the world’s data production. Payors and providers made substantial investments by spending nearly $9 billion for cloud solutions just two years ago and that’s expected to double in the next few years.  Organizations report solid ROI on that investment, including productivity gains of 15-20% primarily through the adoption of AI by cloud providers.

Consumers also are behind the evolution of technology by adopting a “bring your own data” mentality, largely enabled by EMR (Electronic Medical Records) that improve access and portability.  This year as much as 25% of data used in medical care will be collected and shared with healthcare systems by patients themselves.

These developments are exciting, but they are accompanied by serious risks.  For example, ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations have doubled and providers have typically been unprepared to respond to these attacks and to protect patient and organization data.

The Four Pillars of Technology Transformation

We are often asked by healthcare clients about best practices to help them prepare for the opportunities and risks during their healthcare technology transitions. So, let’s start by identifying what the industry refers to as the four pillars of healthcare technology transformation.

Health IT
Precision Medicine
Connected Health
Security

Health IT — Growth in clinical applications as well as the reliance upon private, public and hybrid cloud require modern infrastructures that can support new, growing workloads. Technology will continue to automate manual tasks and reduce bottlenecks to accelerate the speed of innovation. IT will deliver differentiated business models and capabilities to patients and internal healthcare users. All this will be achieved through a modern data center with automated service delivery and transformed IT operations that utilize multi-cloud integration.

Precision Medicine — Rapid transformation is well underway in big data and analytics, machine learning, and clinical genomics and HPC. Organizations are expanding their capabilities to analyze data that exist across disparate systems. Big data analytics across EMRs, data warehouses, research, case studies and patient data will enable healthcare organizations to develop and exploit insights through massive volumes of data.

Connected Health — Innovative devices, healthcare IoT, TeleHealth and patient engagement make up the Connected Health pillar. Innovative devices and displays put organizational success within the healthcare provider’s hands through technology designed specifically for the way they work. IoT and digital workplace solutions will deliver seamless user experiences without sacrificing management or security.

��ʪ����Ƶ will integrate IoT, identity, application and enterprise mobility to deliver anytime, anywhere access to all apps and services across all devices. Of course, all this innovation we are witnessing will only accelerate with the adoption of 5G bandwidth.

And perhaps most important of all, technology will empower patient engagement, including the development of technologies that provide new means of care, such as telehealth, teleconsultations, patient portals, etc.

Security — The fourth pillar of transformation is security. It must be not only its own a center of innovation, it must protect the three other pillars along with entire IT infrastructure–from edge-to-edge, and end-to-end. This is new way of thinking about security as we move away from point security to comprehensive security and we’ll break in down in more granular fashion in just a moment.

The bottom line is, it’s our responsibility to protect data (and patients), detect threats, and control access to every point of the infrastructure. That operational construct is critical to our ability to effectively manage risk, today and tomorrow.

Transformation Brings Risk

The consequences of data breaches in healthcare go beyond identity theft because compromised data can put a patient at risk, incur costly fines, damage the provider’s reputation, and hinder organizational effectiveness. Worse yet is the potential loss of control of interconnected medical devices, systems and operational processes which could seriously endanger patient care.

When we think about the digital transformation of healthcare operations, it’s important to understand how it brings with it greater risk. First, technology allows more users in more places. Those accessing your system are no longer limited to the secure walls of a building. Whether it’s a hospital complex, remote physician offices or administrative support center, information is now shared via the cloud and accessed from both company and personal devices.

The number of applications and devices utilized daily is growing. On average, the typical worker utilizes three or more different devices to access company information, with 75% of them saying they’ve personally experienced attacks on at least one of their devices in the past year.

These endpoint devices are becoming increasingly more difficult to protect. Mobile devices, cloud data and user behavior are critical to address, hard to enforce. So, what’s a healthcare provider to do?  We are often asked, what are the best practices to protect information and ensure operations aren’t compromised. The response must be, direct, multi-layer threat protection. That requires a “unified” approach and it’s the best way to protect healthcare operations and keep them running efficiently.

How to Address 8 Critical Areas of Protection

Think of multi-layer threat protection in the form of a workplace security stack that addresses eight critical areas of protection. Historically, managers have applied security to one or more levels, in effect, protecting certain areas and leaving others vulnerable. A comprehensive, holistic approach requires that we apply edge-to-edge, end-to-end security, and that requires all eight layers be addressed, including:

Endpoint management – monitoring and proactive/automated remediation for end user devices.
Advanced malware protection – detection, containment and removal of threats across all endpoints.
Secure remote access – secure connections to the enterprise network by any device, at any time or location.
Secure internet gateway – to block malicious destinations before connections are established.
Apple/ iOS security protector – advanced protection for IOS devices over wired, wireless and cellular networks.
Mobility management – single sign on access to business applications based upon the users’ persona.
Identity management – visibility and dynamic control of users and devices accessing wired, wireless and VPN connections.
Next generation firewalls – unified threat management, content filtering and advanced malware protection.

When we talk about endpoint management, many endpoint solutions claim to block 99% of the threats. With that level of effectiveness, why should you worry about anything else? Well, for one thing it’s that remaining 1% of threats that tend to be the most disruptive, challenging to defend against, and costly to healthcare operations.

For advanced malware protection, the focus is preventing, detecting and reducing risk. We can prevent with antivirus, file-less malware detection and cloud lookups. To detect, we can use static analysis, sandboxing, malicious activity protection and machine learning. And to reduce risk, we identify vulnerable applications, including low prevalence and proxy log analysis.

A critical place for additional focus is the cloud. Users and applications have adapted to the cloud, so security must as well. With 49% of the workforce now mobile and 82% admitting they don’t use a virtual private network (VPN), security controls must shift to the cloud.  We look to our workplace security stack areas, secure remote access, and secure internet gateway to provide protection for those accessing cloud data. With this layer of defense, we can block malicious destinations wherever users go, even when they connect outside of the VPN.

We must also now address iOS devices for security protection. Once assumed always safe, iOS devices are now increasingly targeted and vulnerable to attacks just like other mobile and desktop devices.

Ensuring the latest Apple phone is given the same attention as Android, Windows and other SaaS applications in your security plan will address some of the remaining 1% of threats that are lurking to find vulnerabilities.
Identity management is another important area to address. Who is the user, and should you grant them conditional access?  A best practice is a single point of identity and access management for all endpoints across the network–wireless and wired. This identity and access management should offer:

Profiling – Who is the user, what device, where is it?
Posturing – Is the device clean? Is anti-virus up to date?
Quarantining until device meets minimum standards
Access granted based upon role, device, time, location, application, etc.
Guest – Simplified self-service access
Real time view & analysis of all users and traffic

Implementation of next generation firewalls completes the multi-layer threat protection. Next generation firewalls deliver integrated threat defense across the entire attack spectrum.

In Summary

With the increasing technology being utilized throughout healthcare, security should be on the mind of every CTO, CMO, CEO and board member. And when we talk about security lapses, often we think about data breaches, and while a significant issue, security threats populate a much more varied threat landscape that we must contend with.

Security attacks upon healthcare are becoming more frequent and more serious just as they are among other sectors that make up our critical infrastructure. As concerning as a phishing attack or a loss of data might be, the loss of control over our critical healthcare systems and devices upon which we rely for quality of care would be potentially the most catastrophic of all. The good news is we have the tools and technology to secure our critical infrastructures and ensure the confidence of our users, patients and families.

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Leaders in the grocery and retail industry must explore how IoT is part of their near- and long-term digital transformation strategy.

As a child, I remember visiting the Home of the Future exhibit at the Epcot Center in the late 1980s, where lights, refrigerators and ovens were being controlled by computers. At the time, I was amazed by that, and thought, “wouldn’t it be cool if you could put a casserole in the oven before going to work, and while sitting at your desk, turn on the oven and dinner is ready when you arrive home.” Little did I know the future would include the Internet of Things (IoT) and make that fantasy a reality.

IoT is growing as more connected devices are released each day. This technology opens up many opportunities for retailers to transform the store employee and consumer journey. If you’ve spent time trying to find that one last item in the grocery store, you know how frustrating that can be. What if shoppers could pull it up on their smart phone or summon an in-store product-finding robot to point them in the right direction. IoT beacons can be used with store planogram data to provide product-finding services.

Or, what about customers who have gone to the store to pick up certain sale items only to find that the shelf is empty on the first day of the sale? IoT smart shelves can alert store team members to low stock and help the team focus on replenishing high churn displays.

Worse yet is leaving the grocery store and then realizing some favorite items were on sale. When shoppers checkout using a loyalty card, shopping habits are tracked by retailers. Retailers can use this data to notify shoppers via a mobile notification when they are near favorite items in the store on sale. Responsive customer service via near field communication will be the new billboards.

The holy grail of IoT for grocery would be automated checkout. Go through the store, pick up items and walk out as the sensors on the items are read upon exit, totaling your bill and automatically paying it using the payment method set up in your mobile wallet.

As part of my job with ��ʪ����Ƶ, we work with large grocers to uncover IoT opportunities and implement solutions to redefine the consumer’s journey throughout the brick-and-mortar store. Items such as digital menu boards, digital signs and digital price tags can be installed throughout a store allowing for real-time pricing and the ability to offer flash sales at key times of the day, which can even be synched to marketing efforts.

Mobile point of sale (POS) implementations can be used in peripheral store departments such as wine bars, food counters or for click and collect. Mobile POS implementations include consumer and store associate solutions running on iOS or Android devices—as well as solutions running on retailer owned devices—all providing more convenient checkouts for the consumer.

There are also solutions for store management, which allow them to spend more time on the sales floor engaging with customers and employees. For example, managers are able to see sales data, monitor POS terminals, send and receive alerts, and perform manager functions on an iOS or Android device.

Grocery retailers typically operate on small margins, and new technology can be challenging to implement. However, not doing so will likely be more costly as customer experience dominates the successful brick-and-mortar store. It is important for retailers to stay ahead of the competition while retaining consumer loyalty. Leaders in the grocery and retail industry must explore how IoT is part of their near- and long-term digital transformation strategy.

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The Internet of Things.

It seems that ambiguity surrounds many technology buzzwords and phrases. For instance, the phrase Internet of Things, what does it mean, and what impact can this have on our lives and business?

If you were to ask a dozen people to define what the Internet of Things really means, you would likely get a dozen different answers. My definition is simple, The Internet of Things is an evolution of the original Internet.

When you think about it, the original Internet content was input by people, and the associated consumers of that content were people. The primary focus of the Internet was research, business operations/communications and a new market for retail and consumer goods.

As technology advances, the Internet will be dominated by devices and sensors that provide information input, analysis, and direction to ultimately benefit consumers and businesses. This is the Internet of Things (IoT). Interrelated devices and sensors that provide the ability to communicate and act on data with or without human interaction.

This, in turn, will lead to “Things”, such as Smart Cities, Smart Roadways, Smart Factories, etc.

This evolution from traditional use Internet, to the IoT, provides businesses with opportunities, as well as challenges. In this new age of IoT, with billions of projected devices and sensors, businesses will face many challenges from a technology perspective.

For example, each device and sensor will need a network address to communicate. The original Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) can support a maximum of 4 billion network addresses. The American Registry for Internet Numbering (ARIN) announced in 2015 that it had run out of IPv4 addresses to assign to customers within North America.

What this means is that many businesses will need to plan for the adoption of the IPv6 numbering scheme. The IPv6 numbering scheme will support significantly more network addresses, somewhere around 52 trillion-trillion addresses per person.

Another area is security planning and management. Billions of devices, sensors, communication streams, and the associated compute and storage will be vulnerable to attack or exploitation. As more information is collected, the amount of stored personal information will increase. Many of the new devices and sensors lack basic protection against hackers, therefore appropriate planning for security and risk mitigation will be instrumental in deploying IoT solutions.

An additional challenge surrounds data storage and control. All these new devices and sensors will generate significant amounts of data, which will need to be stored and analyzed. Planning for this data storage and the analysis will be key for ongoing innovation within the business.

This all parallels what the digital transformation journey is all about, using digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities.

Businesses that embrace IoT for the information, analytics, and actions it provides, will find a competitive edge in the market. IoT will enable enhancement of products, services, and the customer experience while also providing a springboard for innovation and the development of new products and services. However, organizations shouldn’t rush to implementation without a thorough review of their current technology, and what they ultimately want to achieve from IoT.

While some of these topics may appear daunting, incorporating IoT into your business is a rewarding, and necessary action to stay competitive. We are on the verge of a new frontier in technology. New platforms such as Ethereum, which is based on Blockchain will continue to evolve IoT capabilities.

What we know today, will change tomorrow as it is an evolving landscape. Over time, we will see more possibilities that we are unable to even conceive of today. Take a closer look at IoT and make sure your business is taking advantage of what the future holds.

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When we think about the major trends and impacts of technology, perhaps nowhere are they more evident from my perspective than where we work and spend countless hours of our creative lives.

We often refer to this as the “Workplace of the Future”, but when I visit with customers around the world, what they say to me is, ‘The future is now, not tomorrow’, and they say that because it’s their workforces that are on the cutting edge, evolving how work gets done. And, that’s the big shift.

You see, for decades, it was the other way around – it was the workforce that had to adapt to new applied technology driven primarily by enterprise IT. Today, it’s the enterprise that must adapt to technology much of it driven by the users themselves. And the enterprise must respond quickly and agilely or risk getting left behind in the digital transformation shuffle.

Because of the rapid pace of technological innovation and societal change, the workplace is redefining enterprise technologies, architecture and processes, top to bottom. For example, over the next year or so, it’s expected 50% of the total global workforce will be millennials; 40% of data will be cloud-based; and IoT will connect over 20bn devices.

Gartner and other industry analysts point out the dramatically changing workstyle of people where consumer technologies are being introduced into the enterprise based upon personal preference. Analysts also note that their clients are investing heavily in mobile and virtual technologies because where a person works is no longer a place, but it’s where that person is.

Either an organization transforms the way it connects, communicates and supports the demographics of the new workspace, basing it upon an exceptional end user experience, or it risks being disrupted by competition.

So, what is driving the Workplace of the Future and what is it that organizations are striving to do to support and retain talented workforces that are the key to innovation and productivity?

Let’s start with Collaboration because when we enhance the ability of teams to collaborate wherever they are in the world, we can dramatically increase not only productivity but intellectual creativity.

The next is Customer Experience. This is where we provide our internal users the technology experience they expect… and that’s the same experience they know and expect as retail customers themselves from the perspectives of ease and intuitiveness of consumer technologies.

Next we have what’s known as a One Size Fits One Approach to technology. This is where we can have a dramatic impact on employee satisfaction and productivity because employees can now use the technologies they want versus what enterprise IT provides them.

And, finally, Mobility continues to play a major role in driving the Workplace of the Future because it enables our users to do their jobs anytime, anyplace, with any device.

The Mobile component ties together everything just mentioned, by giving users the ability to be productive on the go with peace of mind that their work product is safe and secure.

A significant amount of new smart technology is increasingly working behind the scenes to support the new Workplace paradigm and it’s beginning to have a major impact not only on productivity but on cost management.

So, let’s talk for a moment about Automated Intelligence.

If you want happy and productive users, you have to keep them connected, and Automated Intelligence is the key to delivering an exceptional, “always available” user experience. For example, at ��ʪ����Ƶ, we utilize Automated Intelligence to replace traditional reactive support models with the latest data-driven, proactive ‘resolutionary’ technologies.

Automated Intelligence has two goals, the first is to eliminate incidents upfront prior to having to get a support person involved.  Think of this as “fixing things before they break” or fixing them remotely via automation so a service desk call or field dispatch ticket is avoided.

The second goal is faster resolution when incidents do occur.  Sometimes the need for intervention by a support person is unavoidable.  If that happens, they must be provided with the ability to resolve the issue quickly to ensure the end user is back up and running faster and keeps them productive.

Automated Intelligence covers a lot of ground, so here are a few examples:

•    Automated self-healing is the resolution of issues without the need for human intervention or the use of scheduled maintenance to avoid potential issues in the future

•    Predictive support allows remote resolution of multiple underlying issues that could potentially affect an end user in the future

•    Automated self-service provides end users with easy access to automated solutions themselves

•    Predictive analytics enables support personnel to do deep diagnostics on the health of a device – even retroactively– to quickly determine the best course of action

•    Automated resolution provides support personnel with a dashboard to resolve common issues across multiple devices at once with the push of a single button

Automated solutions like these can significantly transform a support organization and will become more prevalent over the next several years. The key though is implementing these technologies across the enterprise to enable our workforces to do their jobs any time and any place, in a more collaborative and productive manner than was ever humanly possible before.

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