The MWP transformation starts with users and identity. We must acknowledge every business is different and the personas and scenarios driving the technology requirements will demand drastically different technological approaches. To help identify some of these requirements, the following should be considered.
WHAT EXPERIENCE DO USERS EXPECT?
Today, people from all generations are inundated with amazing consumer technology which makes life easier – and for the most part, they take it for granted. Things as simple as using an iPhone on the move than picking up an iPad, Windows, Mac or even Android device later with all changes synchronised, or WhatsApp for group chats is something which people could not live without now. The reality is, most now expect all the creature comforts available to them in their personal life using consumer tech to be available in the workplace and more.
WHAT CAN YOU DELIVER?
Taking the high expectations of users and making them a reality can seem impossible. It is very common for executives to demand a different device to everyone else in the organisation, which could deviate from a carefully selected device and application portfolio. It is important to deliver a common and repeatable device management process to reduce risks associated with sprawling device pools, software, and hardware. The MWP delivered correctly can deliver just this experience, for all staff.
MANAGING OUTCOMES AND REALITY?
Ensuring effective due diligence is performed upfront to define the correct outcomes is critical. Performing discovery within the organisation is what drives successful project outcomes by performing interviews, surveys, proof of concepts, and working groups to obtain an analysis of the user base and processes to ensure a detailed understanding of requirements is achieved. This approach encourages executive and employee engagement which is critical.
HOW TO DRIVE ADOPTION AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT (ACM)?
Businesses are springing up everywhere touting ACM capabilities, and for good reason, ACM drives employee engagement and productivity as when users are empowered and feel more confident, they do more. ACM needs to be considered from the project outset where it will make the most impact. For ACM to be effective, projects need to include communications, executive sponsorship, training, employee engagement and more. Once this is in place a schedule and timeline of activities should be developed to map out the ACM journey.
WHAT ABOUT PERSONAS?
Definition of personas is part of the due diligence and planning performed when commencing on your MWP journey, defining these upfront helps define the required outcomes. Once the initial work has been completed, finding a solution becomes much simpler. To assist – there are five high-level personas which are typically defined within most organisations, and most workers will fall into one of these categories:
- Front line (retail staff, shared desktops, factory workers, possibly a mobile device only)
- Knowledge & Task workers (Operational staff, call centre, data entry, IT, Developers, Marketing, Sales, Operations, etc)
- Power Workers (people with traditional workstations, traders, video editors, modelling, etc)
- VIP’s
Looking at these personas in more detail, what they are likely to need and what could be an example deployment.
Front Line
Front line workers have seen a lot of attention from the major technology companies recently, typically, these employees may not have had personal accounts or devices and the devices may have been off the network, making them difficult to manage. Using the technology now available in MWP and with purpose-built front-line worker accounts or SKU’s now available from the major vendors at a reasonable price it’s now possible to manage and secure these workers while driving employee engagement and productivity gains required by businesses today.
For front line workers, we recommend secure mobile devices using BYOD and app protection policies and implementing Information Protection to protect corporate data. To provide access to the corporate line of business apps, give access to a virtual environment connected via an Edge OS or thin client for when they need to access certain applications.
Knowledge & Task Workers
Knowledge and Task workers have a wide variety of tasks to complete, sometimes these are not easy to quantify, as well as needing to be flexible in locations and devices. There may be quite a few different types of knowledge or task workers within the organisation who have very different requirements.
MWP principals can ensure a cohesive experience across any device, be it Mac, Android, IOS, Windows or Linux, meaning choice for users. It also provides the ability to be flexible in reacting to requirements which traditionally may have been project related. A desktop (virtual or physical) or laptop, headset and phone are usually the tools of choice, however, empowering task workers with MWP toolsets can help them be more productive.
Managing applications and data rather than devices can help knowledge workers work within company governance boundaries while adapting to changing demands.
Power Workers
Power workers normally require either high-end compute or graphics and traditionally had powerful workstation(s) for their workloads. This may be one category which may not change hardware for their main PC, however, giving them the flexibility to work from anywhere using a high-power or graphics enabled VDI in the cloud, and provisioning this in minutes rather than weeks, could change the way these workers interact.
VIP’s
VIP’s generally just have a requirement to work on their own with lots of travel, their own pick of devices and an expectation of a perfect service at all times. This means devices were not secure, the data on the devices wasn’t secure and a separate team for managing VIP workloads. MWP brings flexibility, security, and manageability to any device.
To be certain we have the correct personas and outcomes, a persona to outcomes matrix should be created, defining these and other bespoke personas which match to technology outcomes – noting, however, the flexibility of MWP means things can be shuffled as required.
So, that just leaves us with the why and the how when it comes to implementing a Modern Workplace. Read part three of the MWP story.
