The Transformed Workplace

The quality, ease of use, and extensibility of collaboration capabilities have made their mark on employee workspaces following the Covid-19 global pandemic. Many organizations that would have otherwise not enabled employees to work from home were forced to do just that. And in doing so, they were pleasantly surprised at how well the applications performed from home Internet access.

That’s not to say the experience has been all smooth sailing. Companies have experienced challenges, such as managing remote workers, and problems with connectivity and video quality.

Nonetheless, more than 70% of companies plan to continue their work-from-home strategies, for knowledge workers at large, as well as contact center agents. With this shift come changes in the IT budget and technology priorities. Companies are planning to spend more on work-from-home technologies, including video conferencing, Internet connectivity, collaboration tools, and more, even if other parts of the IT budget will be cut.

They also are providing more equipment for, and IT support services to, home workers, including webcams, headsets, Wi-Fi support, and advice on Internet plans.

We recommend companies consider the following:

• Make sure home workers have access to applications they use in the office, and that performance is as close to on-par as possible. Those who haven’t re-evaluated new collaboration applications or remote contact center agent capabilities need to start an evaluation as soon as possible.
• Work with network service providers to optimize home Wi-Fi, routers, and Internet access. Additionally, make sure data centers, VPNs, hosted servers, and connectivity to them are upgraded to support the massive numbers of remote workers.
• Evaluate and implement analytics tools in order to measure utilization, performance, and success. Network management, application management, and agent analytics tools will help with these goals.
• Leverage technology to address the No. 1 challenge of home workers: Managing them. Through the use of team collaboration, video conferencing, and analytics tools, leaders must re-learn the art of management in a virtual environment.
• IT spending likely will change. Get ahead of the curve and make sure to make the case for important applications, services, and technologies that may be undervalued.

This report examines companies’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic and how they will change their workplaces moving forward.