Why you should fast track your Digital Workplace Transformation?
By: Shristi Verma
Tags: Digital Workplace, Digital Strategy, Digital Transformation

There is no denying that Digital Workplace has emerged as the buzzword for the new age corporate world. The concept is still growing and there is a need to cohesively build a clear and shared understanding of the term. The digital workplace doesn’t teach the client how to do business, it uses technology pragmatically to make doing business more coherent and organized. The best way to describe where the industry is when it comes to digital transformation is a PR or marketing exercise, people integrating digital transformation rhetoric into their quote, without answering the questions at hand; if the end-users should be looking for outcomes, and need help, how will they get it from vendors that can’t answer their questions?

If you look at the Google Trends analysis for the term “digital workplace” you’ll see that the term is reaching a break-out moment. It is evident that the internet plays a large part in many businesses, no matter the industry. Plus, it doesn’t look like it is going anywhere anytime soon, so we might as well use it to our advantage. If we have the internet and specialist digital marketing specialists such, it may be in the best interest of your business to use these services and tools available.

Now, every major global consultancy seems to be getting on the digital workplace train. Gartner had created a hype cycle analysis around the term and for 2015 had rebranded its annual portal conference to Digital Workplace Summit. Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, McKinsey and others are also actively engaging around the topic.

And many smaller consultancies around the world are writing about the topic and designing various services that include the label “digital workplace”.

The digital workplace concept is coming of age. But we need to make sure the industry treats the term with respect and doesn’t use it as just another trend to drive software and services sales.

While the term itself has been in use for several years now, the idea of the “digital workplace” is still emerging and will continue to do so for many years.

Gartner’s definition (by Matthew Cain): “The digital workplace is an ongoing, a deliberate approach to delivering a more consumer-like computing environment that is better able to facilitate innovative and flexible working practices.”

Gartner’s definition of an “approach” gets at the fact that digital workplace management is a perpetual, continuously moving effort, rather than a final product. It also connects the term to the impacts of having “innovative and flexible working practices”. This connection, however, can be limiting as digital workplaces can have many other impacts as well.

WHY GO THE DIGITAL WAY?

· It is proven that employees who work for companies that make applications available and highly approachable spend 17% less time on the manual processes.

· 87% of Chief Information officers believe digitally empowering employees can drive at least 5% additional revenue growth over 3 years.

· 54% of CIOs agreed with the ability for their workforce to more easily access business applications has reduced churn rates.

· 94% of IT survey respondents reported significant benefits from adopting SaaS.

· By getting to the point where 6 in 10 employees strongly agree they have the materials and equipment they need to do their work right, organizations could realize an 11% increase in profitability.

· The top goals of overall digital workplace strategies are: To grow revenue (40%), Gain a competitive advantage (40%), Improve business procedures (40%), Accelerate decision-making (37%), Improve employee productivity (33%). ( Source)

· When firms make applications highly accessible and available then there was a 16% increase in team collaboration and also 16% faster decision-making.

· Empowered employees project a substantial 34% increase in efficiency, a 2x increase in the quality and also better recruitment and onboarding by HR.

Digital workplace transformation to improve the employee experience is not a single-phase implementation that happens overnight. Developing a thorough digital workplace strategy that lays the groundwork for success at the very beginning is essential, but this involves many stages, and most organizations don’t know where to start.

Despite these challenges, there are several best practices that business leaders can keep in mind to ease their digital workplace transformation. Developing a robust approach starts by aligning the right people, setting a clear, agreed-upon vision, assessing the organization’s current technology stack, and creating a detailed roadmap to achieve success.