Is there a need to Accelerate transformation to prepare for an uncertain future

A recent survey suggests that Canadian professionals want technology to improve flexibility and productivity in the new normal.

A survey of 1000 people by VMware and Hill + Knowlton Strategies found that half of the participants had never worked from home before the epidemic. Now that they have tried it, 62 percent of the participants feel that they should not expect to work full-time in an office in the future. However, many of them say that they need better tools to do their work remotely.

"It's clear that change is expected," said Katrin Ellingson, a cloud services sales specialist with VMware at a recent ITWC webinar. "What is happening now is that it is accelerating the journey to make businesses more resilient, more resilient, and well-prepared, ready to drive recovery and growth and prepare for future challenges It is possible."

The COVID crisis has exposed the vulnerabilities that exist in organizations, Ellingsen noted. At the same time, it has created a better alignment between business and IT to adapt and prepare for the future.

Three phases on a ‘future-ready’ journey

During these unprecedented times, organizations are facing three phases that call for action, said Chris Beggs, a digital architect at Teramatch.

The first was a reactive or triage phase where organizations had to move quickly to enable remote workers and maintain their businesses. During this time, IT leaders were investing in security, data protection, and retrieval because remote workers needed to access corporate data safely. Most organizations have passed this phase, Beggs said. "I think we are really starting to realize how strong and resilient we are."

Now, organizations find themselves in the second phase, where they are building an attachment to the business and adapting to the new normal, said Bez. At this stage, businesses seek to target investment to increase automation and flexibility. They want to optimize costs and rebound in business development.

"We are actively looking at the acceleration phase, which is becoming a digital-first organization," Beiges said. In this third phase, organizations are deploying innovative work styles and hardening businesses against future challenges. "This is how we enable IT to help realize our business initiatives," he said. "And it's really increasing that velocity."

The road map to the future

Speeding up the journey is not without its challenges, Ellingsen said. "Many organizations have complex and outdated backup and disaster recovery processes," she said. They are looking at how to modernize disaster recovery solutions using the cloud to help reduce costs. Prioritizing spending from maintaining legacy applications to driving innovation is the second priority. Also, organizations continue to look for ways to improve security across all endpoints, applications and networks, she said.

A results-based focus workshop helps organizations work through these issues and develop a road map to ensure their success, Beggs said. "We have found that it sets a clear direction where business wants to be, where technology is today and where we start to fill gaps," he said.

The workshops provided by Teramach are designed to align with the business vision with IT's priorities, Beggar said. “It shows you how to use IT to realize business vision and increase velocity. Whatever the next challenge may be, the organization will be better able to adapt. "