It’s an irrefutable truth: COVID-19 has quickly changed the modern workplace. At the onset of the pandemic, many businesses rushed to put temporary solutions in place to protect their employees and keep up their operations. Because these solutions were only meant to be short-term, they are now starting to show their weaknesses and concerns around their reliability and security are beginning to arise. The result: Obstacles are looming everywhere for CIOs.
The issue is that for large organizations, the shift to a remote workforce isn’t as simple as opening a laptop and Slack. In fact, for 44% of organizations, it will require them to accelerate their digital transformation efforts to adopt new technology solutions and services, according to the CIO COVID-19 Impact Study from IDG. But the work doesn’t stop there, organizations will have to commit a significant amount of time, planning, and coordination to actively rethink how—and where—their employees work so that their workforce can be properly supported in the post-COVID workplace.
Remote working communication is just as complex for CIOs as it is for office workers, if not more so. Organizations must ensure the new solutions they put into place can enable their teams today and into the future. It involves a wide range of aspects, including technology, software, telecommunication infrastructure, personnel, and security.
An estimated 20% to 25% of workers won’t come back to the office full-time, working at home some day and in the office others, according to estimates by Global Workplace Analytics. At least 5% will be permanently remote, and in the case of a second wave of outbreaks, CIOs must be prepared to again pull people out of the office and send them home with little to no warning.
Simply put, the new way of working requires a new kind of infrastructure—one that’s flexible, secure, reliable, and meets the needs of all employees. A modern workplace needs a modern toolset like Microsoft 365 that can enable your organization for this new normal. Microsoft 365 streamlines business processes, transforms how your company collaborates wherever you are, all protected by a comprehensive security suite to ensure your customers and your organizations data and insights are safe.
To learn how Microsoft and ConvergeOne can help build an unstoppable team with a remote workforce, read our eBook.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE COMPLEX CHALLENGES CIOs FACE, READ THE FULL CONVERGEONE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP PIECE:
Post-Lockdown, CIOs Need a Remote-Working Playbook
Topics: Unified Communications, Microsoft, Remote Working
