The modern workplace does not exist. A digital workplace is subject to rapid change and looks different within every organization. The expectations of users continue to evolve as new SaaS applications are being introduced at a rapid pace - and with them the urge to start using them quickly. However, the push for a "state of the art" workplace also creates a sprawl of applications and shadow IT, and thus affects the user experience over time.
A strategic approach is needed to keep a grip on the digital workplace, and to ensure that it will continue to meet the needs of the future. How does an organization lay a solid foundation for the development of a scalable, flexible and future-proof workplace? How can you simultaneously ensure that it runs at optimal levels and continues to meet the expectations of end users?
More than a desk or user
A fundamental, strategic IT approach to identity & access management, data management and integration of applications is a good start. This will help evolve the modern workplace into more than a mere facilitation of the place of work and its users. It becomes the foundation of the IT landscape in which applications, employees and usability come together in a sustainable way.
Within the 'SaaSified' IT landscape, it is very easy to connect more and more applications. That's why it's become essential that the framework answers questions about data availability, guidelines, certifications and API accessibility, among other things. By providing clarity in advance, you help prevent that processes start falling completely outside the scope of internal compliance policies; think, for example, of marketing departments using Google Forms to conduct surveys with customers.
Ideally, organizations should adapt a single identity provider to manage all employees. This is a simple way of creating grip on who gets access to which applications. In addition, it is wise to design the foundation flexibly; after all, a modern workplace is not set in stone. How is your data infrastructure built up? To which degrees can it be scaled? And last, organizations must be able to unlock crucial business information easily, so that it can be transferred to other solutions in the event of future changes.
Structurally meeting and exceeding expectations
The foundation has been established. How do you, as a next step, ensure that the modern workplace really does live up to expectations? The litmus test is, needless to say, the user of said workplace. Testing this can be done more proactively (and less burdensome), than via surveys. By continuously monitoring the end-user experience in the background, measuring and controlling how applications within the IT landscape interact, you can safeguard the optimal functioning of your workplace.
In the future, the way people interact with the workplace will continue to change. Perhaps they require access to applications in a different way or the process of navigating the application chains will change. With Digital Experience Monitoring, you maintain insights into how the modern workplace functions, making it easy to spot and respond to changes in a timely manner.
By monitoring user actions and their devices, as well as performing simulations at both application and chain level, you establish that the IT infrastructure is not just in place, but that it achieves its purpose - even when destinations change. This helps you stay in control of a landscape that is subject to daily change, and enables an organization to provide a modern workplace that actually remains 'modern'.
