Path to Building A Digital Workspace

Terence Sathyanarayan

August 17, 2021

All, Digital Transformation, Digital Workspace

Building a digital workspace is absolutely worth the journey, but only a defined digital transformation can actually get you there, creating a sense of direction and purpose. In this article, we will look at some of the benefits of introducing a digital workspace and its benefits for your business. These digital workplace strategies ensure a smooth transition to an online workspace, improving employee productivity by providing employee satisfaction.

According to Gartner, the majority of digital workplace initiatives will not succeed in striking the right balance between distributed decision-making and reshaping the physical office space. Gartner also mentioned that digital workspace initiatives implemented through digital tools neglect the cultural changes that go with them making it impossible to efficiently execute.

Companies that do not embrace the principles of the digital workplace will soon be at a serious disadvantage in the market. There are a number of common causes that could lead to the failure of a digital workspace, such as a lack of focus on the long-term benefits of digital work, a lack of secure access, failure to meet employee expectations which eventually leads to poor customer satisfaction.

The digital workplace may not have a firm definition, but that means that its principles can be used to fit your business and create a virtual workplace where employees thrive. When your organization enables its employees to succeed, it’s only a matter of time before that success spreads to the entire business including your customers leading to improved retention and revenue increase.

The need for transformation :

The nature of the workforce is constantly evolving, and the growing need for people to acquire and retain the best talent is a critical aspect of any successful business. There is currently a rapidly growing demand for the opportunity to work from home and remote workplaces. As a company with a decentralized pool of employees, it is all the more important to provide the right tools for the job to provide the best employee experience. The growing need to attract and retain good talent and employ a workforce that is motivated and informed are crucial aspects of successful companies.

The number of non-desk workers is increasing, and it is no longer enough for a large organization to only take into account people who come to the office. There are more road warriors in today’s business who are more productive working from a Starbucks than being bound to an 8 -5 desk job. Sales teams and software developers work extensive hours remotely to achieve their objectives. To create a digital workplace consciously with these employees in mind, efforts to achieve digital transformation must not feel like yet another campaign that forces employees against their will. Afterall, without “Sales and Software development” teams actively engaged in the business, you really don’t have much a future in the ‘Digital Era’. Employees must be offered a unified user experience, not only in terms of the number of business hours available but also in terms of the quality of experience driven by technology automation.

However, a smooth and efficient digital workplace can improve employee engagement and enable them to take responsibility for leading the digital workplace transformation. Remember, in ‘People, Process & Technology” it’s the ‘People’ that will need to adopt and drive the technology to achieve holistic ‘Automation’. The strategically designed digital workplace can help employees save time and provide a smooth transition into the digital market. Moving from a ‘brick & mortar’ to ‘online’ is not just the need of the moment but will soon prove to be the most cost effective and fastest method to deliver value to your customers.

This also means that achieving a digital workplace state are not a quick and easy solution, but it is necessary that they need to act quickly in the face of the changing digital landscape before they become irrelevant in a market that wants to acquire products & services digitally.

Barriers to transformation :

Gartner in its 2019 CIO survey, indicated that a number of legacy systems are still in operation in businesses globally. “Legacy” is not good news for anyone trying to use technology to their advantage for their business. Getting technology upgraded without disruption to operations are one of the most important considerations while trying to move workloads online.

The CIO survey found that 84% of planning is still based on a 2-year horizon, but extending the planning phase can allow the IT group to play a vital role in catering to the needs of the digital company.  It has always been 2 years because hardware technology needs to be refreshed every few years to remain robust. Moving to a private or public cloud is the first step towards digital acceleration and help CIOs and CFOs forecast costs in advance without having an impact on system performance . Some acronyms to remember while navigating this ‘Cloud’ approach are : IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service, PaaS – Platform as a Service, SaaS – Software as a Service. There are several advantages and disadvantages in all these approaches so tread carefully and ensure you have the right advise before committing to annual cloud contracts.

Industry leaders know that implementing a digital workplace does not mean to acquire a pile of technical converged infrastructure, but rather combine a group of  curated systems into a unified collaborative platform as a central place where employees can work together and do multiple types of work online without being limited to a desk or an office.

Systems needed for transformation :

Automating these processes are sought out by many companies requiring to accelerate the digital journeys :
1) Human Resources Systems – Recruit to Hire, Performance Management & Appraisals
2) Supply Chain – Supply to Contract (S2C), Supply to Pay (S2P)
3) Finance – Accounts Payable, Tax Accounting, Bank Reconciliation, Account Opening & Fraud detection
4) Sales : Lead to Estimate, Estimate to Contract & Budget to Purchase

There are many interpretations of systems in today’s digital vocabulary, but we consider “A system is defined as  – People, Processes, and the right Technology working together in harmony to deliver, efficient, productive and agile platform for a business to grow and pivot when needed.”

Again, the key component in a system is your ‘People’. Digital workplaces that are committed to transformation can gain an advantage by introducing a technologically driven approach to provide increased employee efficiency while balancing their well-being.

When silos are broken up by digital workspace solutions, working seamlessly on cloud applications that are carefully orchestrated with lean business process automation will definitely enable efficient data management solutions for all employees.

As with any new business application that is being deployed, the transition to a digital workspace model is a transformation journey, but also an opportunity for sustainable growth.

Don’t make the mistake of first procuring a technology stack because they happen appear in the magic quadrant of a research company and then get your company and staff to adopt it just to get to get a return on investment made.
Be intentional about identifying a digital strategy, understanding first what a digital workplace should look like within your industry, define your detailed requirements and then evaluate what technology will cater to your company culture.
Remember “Culture eats Strategy for breakfast”  – Peter Drucker.

At Pulse Innovation Systems, we understand this could be daunting, frustrating and possibly expensive if not done right, so reach out and schedule a strategy session to discover our proven approach.
We have succeeded in making decisions and judgement’s simpler for business owners, through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.