By Stacey Farrar, product marketing manager at BitTitan,
and Christopher Chesley, North American digital workplace growth leader for SoftwareOne
When the COVID pandemic hit and companies were compelled to extend
operations outside of their office walls, they faced a sizable challenge: How
do you enable users to work regardless of where they are? A lot of the tools
that enable remote work were not in place. This wasn't about executing
long-term strategy-it was about creating patchwork solutions to address a set
of urgent and immediate needs.
But the patched-together legacy systems and tech stacks that arose
during the shift to remote work are no longer serving organizations. These
patchwork systems of multi-vendor solutions create a drag on collaboration,
innovation, and overall productivity.
In SoftwareOne's Patchwork Workplace
Report,
500 IT leaders were surveyed about patchwork solutions, and 71% reported that
their current IT setup has at least some patchwork elements, such as
multi-vendor solutions (often around cybersecurity). Only 29% said that their
company systems were completely centralized, which indicates that most
organizations have room to centralize their networks and applications.
In other words, there are many reasons why
different applications and solutions come to be clustered together. However, when you have a number of individual solutions that don't
communicate with each other, productivity and innovation suffer and take significant hits.
Five concrete ways to
move your company beyond patchwork solutions
Ninety-three percent
of organizations with patchwork elements in their IT infrastructure report
suffering from adverse effects to some degree, and 78% of IT leaders agree
patchwork systems make it harder to achieve business goals. So, with that in
mind, how can organizations with patchwork systems eliminate disparate tech
stacks and create a seamless work environment?
A great place to start is by evaluating where you stand on what we call
the Five Pillars of Workplace Maturity. These
pillars are pragmatic tools that IT leaders can use to build a modern workplace
that encourages productivity and collaboration.
1. Cloud Office
"Why do I need a VPN to open a Word document?"
If you find yourself
having to answer this question from workers, stop wasting time and valuable
resources on outdated legacy systems and upgrade to a cloud office. Cloud
computing can unlock centralized employee access, improved security, and data
backup and storage. The cloud can also help you achieve cost savings and drive
efficiencies across your organization. A cloud office is a true form of working
from anywhere.
2. Content Services
"Where do documents live? How do I share them?"
If this question comes your way, your company needs to digitize
operations and files to streamline business ops, and in doing so, reduce
physical paperwork and employee frustration. With content services, you can
enable employees to securely access files from anywhere and return to work
faster, saving time and money.
3. Hyper-Automation
"Is this the best use of my time?"
44% of the IT
leaders reported
that one of the main complaints with disparate tech stacks is the lack of
automation and the manual processes they have to repeat. Meanwhile, 36% said
that patchwork systems negatively impact productivity.
But with
hyper-automation, you can automate manual processes to reduce risk and increase
productivity. Employees don't need to live in fear of hyper-automation-in
reality, it can do much to optimize workflows and create time and space for
more engaging work.
4. Unified Communications and Collaboration
"Why must I use different tools to work with different
teams?"
How can anyone be an expert in 15
different systems? The more systems you have, the more interfaces you need to connect
to. And the more interfaces you have, the greater the likelihood of something
going wrong. In other words, patchwork systems not only stifle innovation but
drain resources as well.
Patchwork systems can arise from a variety of factors. Still, over half
of IT leaders (52%) say decision-makers' attempts to
please the entire workforce by including everyone's favorite tool/program are
partially to blame. Having unified communication, collaboration, and
conferencing tools ensures that your users can collaborate with anybody at any
time-regardless of where they are-on any device. Take the time to
understand your organization's needs and wants for tools and systems, then
remove any redundant tools with duplicate capabilities.
5. Emerging Applications and Technology
"How can we modernize our tech stack? Will it change how
we collaborate in Cloud Office?"
Ninety percent of IT
leaders agree
that eliminating patchwork systems would make it easier for their company to outpace
competitors. With emerging applications and technology, you can ensure your
organization and employees are agile in the face of disruptions and fully
prepared for the future of work.
Putting the core
pillars in place
Nearly half (48%) of the IT leaders say their
company plans to do a significant IT upgrade
to streamline patchwork systems within the next year. Meanwhile, almost a third
(29%) are already in the midst of a migration.
If your organization isn't planning to do the same, it risks falling behind the competition and hindering employees'
abilities to do their work.
In the face of a rapidly evolving work landscape, maturity trumps the
insecurity of lesser-evolved systems. If your organization understands that
it's time to build a clear pathway to a modern workplace, then it's time to put
in place a well-integrated system that allows for seamless operation and easy
maintenance. Let's take a closer look at the steps involved in that process.
Consolidating
possible solutions for patchwork IT
The first step in this process is assessment: You
must assess what your needs are and find solutions that can ensure your needs are addressed. Next, identification: Pinpoint which solutions aren't serving
operations and can be eliminated. Then it's time to find migration software
that can support your needs.
Executing a migration
to help resolve patchwork IT
A migration is the most unified way to resolve patchwork IT, but it's
also a significant undertaking. The first step is to assess your environment
and make sure you have the full scope of understanding of what data and
solutions need to be moved. Get input
from stakeholders and end users to ensure they are on board with the changes
being made (for example, moving from Microsoft to Google).
Then, ensure all data
and information are moved properly (with the right tool), so end users can
still access their mail and documents even if it's in a new location. Next, be
sure that all parties are aware of the risks involved. If not migrated
properly, companies can lose important data while trying to eliminate redundant
applications and solutions.
How to mitigate the
risks of resolving patchwork IT
End users may not understand how to use the new applications in
question, so proper change management is
critical to helping ensure your end users have the resources and training
needed to use the new solutions once the patchwork environment is resolved.
Implementing the right
migration tool is also incredibly important. Having the right tool will help
you assess the size and scope of data that needs to be moved, as well as ensure
it is migrated to the right locations for easy accessibility (and less
confusion for end users).
By following these steps and
precautions, MSPs and IT professionals can resolve a patchwork system and keep
it from happening in the future, creating smoother operations and end-user
productivity to keep business moving forward.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Stacey Farrar
Stacey Farrar is a product marketing manager at BitTitan, where he oversees go-to-market
strategy and product messaging for MigrationWiz. His areas of expertise include
cloud automation, SaaS, product marketing and management, digital marketing,
customer engagement, and business development.
Chris Chesley
Chris is an experienced technology professional with decades
of experience in the industry. He has worked for leading companies such as
GreenPages, Quest Software, and Ecora Software, and has a deep background in
architecting client solutions. Chris has over 15 years of experience with
digital workplace technologies, specifically with the Microsoft 365 suite.
In his career, Chris has designed and implemented
infrastructure solutions, provided demonstrations, managed customer relations,
and developed successful problem-resolution strategies. He is skilled in
various technologies, including end-user computing, virtualization, storage,
backup, unified communications, and collaboration.