Technology transformation
and readiness assessment
 

This is the second in a series of articles discussing the workplace of the future and particularly what businesses need to do to enable remote working as part of business as usual. The way we work has been transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made it clear that a remote working model is not a “nice to have” for global businesses, but a prerequisite.

The new world that will take shape as we work through the pandemic and beyond—the fourth wave of remote working—will be determined by organizations deploying remote working at scale and extending remote working possibilities with next-generation technologies driving competitive advantage.

The first article discussed the six imperatives that are needed to drive effective remote work, namely:

1. A scalable network
2. Cloud-ready applications
3. Strong and secure mobile connectivity
4. End-to-end monitoring of performance
5. Zero-trust security
6. A resilient end-user support model

But of course, remote working is just one part of the workplace of the future, and you cannot look at the six imperatives outlined above in isolation—you need an overall technology transformation agenda in place. In our first article, we also asked the question, “Are organizations ready for technology transformation?” The point here is that any organization’s transformation agenda will now be radically different from one that was put in place six months or even six weeks ago, especially with the COVID-19 crisis acting as a catalyst. In fact, enabling the workplace of the future necessitates resolving a unique set of challenges to drive a competitive advantage amidst deployment at scale and extension into next-generation technologies. As such, these six imperatives are all technical building blocks that need to be carefully aligned for organizations to be future-ready for success.

This next article aims to discuss what technology leaders need to do to make the fourth wave a reality from a technology transformation perspective. We’ll delineate the high-level imperatives all leaders need to be considering, as well as look at what must be done from a tactical perspective and discuss technology solutions. The objective is to provide a path that all organizations can follow as they enter the new world of “business as unusual.”