Digital Workplace Services Enabling Shift to Hybrid Working

Rapid vaccination across geographies and a subsequent dip in infections are enabling global enterprises to transition from a fully remote to a more flexible hybrid-working model. With a “test-and-learn” approach, enterprises are evaluating hybrid working models to find the best fit for their businesses. In this scenario, service providers are playing a pivotal role in helping companies embrace digital workplace models of tomorrow by enabling workplace transformation.

These trends, and others, are covered in our Digital Workplace Services 2021 RadarView™. The report is a comprehensive study of digital workplace services providers, including the top trends, analysis, recommendations, and a close look at the market’s leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers.

We evaluated over 40 service providers across three dimensions: practice maturity, partnership ecosystem, and investments and innovation. Of those over 40 providers, we recognized 29 that have brought the most value to the market during the past 12 months.

The report recognizes service providers in four categories:

• • Leaders: Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, Cognizant, HCL, IBM, Infosys, TCS, and Wipro
  • Innovators: Computacenter, DXC, Fujitsu, LTI, NTT Data, Tech Mahindra, Unisys, and Zensar
  • Disruptors: CGI, CompuCom, ITC Infotech, Mindtree, Orange Business Services, and Stefanini
  • Challengers: Birlasoft, GAVS Tech, Happiest Minds, Microland, Mphasis, and UST

Figure 1 from the full report illustrates these categories:

Fred Pond, Avasant Fellow, congratulated the winners noting, “Most providers are investing in services to enable a hybrid digital model. These services should be designed to enable workplace transformation, lower costs, and provide more productivity for their customers.”

Some of the findings from the full report include the following. Enterprises should:

1. Assess digital workplace maturity to create a road map for a hybrid workplace.

• • Companies should establish a baseline to understand their starting point in the journey toward a hybrid workplace. Digital workplace maturity assessment frameworks help identify gaps and future workplace goals and metrics.
  • Shifting to a hybrid working model requires defining the right strategy, ownership, and governance, as well as designing an employee-centric digital workplace focused on user productivity.

2. Address changing employee expectations in the new model.

• • Companies need to develop a robust system for sharing information and listening to the needs of employees in the new model.
  • Technology-led solutions such as digital experience monitoring and management help in continuous measurement and improvement of the employee experience.

3. Revisit the physical footprint to accommodate hybrid working.

• • With some workers returning to offices, there is a need to revisit the physical footprint in the hybrid-working model. Enterprises may consider exiting or downsizing some spaces to reduce operational costs and redesigning the remaining space to accommodate the new working model.
  • By investing and choosing the right technologies and platforms, companies can integrate physical and virtual work environments to create a seamless experience for their employees.

4. Consider security a top priority to enable a digital workplace.

• • Rapid transition to remote/hybrid workplace infrastructure and the need to deliver cloud-based applications and resources to a distributed workforce resulted in a spike in the number of cyberattacks. The number of attacks has increased by 85% since March 2020.
  • Enterprises need to develop a strategy to identify potential security risks and prepare multilayer security solutions to protect its workforce and infrastructure (network, devices, and data).

“Like everything else in the post-COVID world, the employee experience is changing” said Abhishek Nayak, Senior Analyst at Avasant. “Organizations that don’t face this change will have problems with collaboration, productivity, and turnover.”

The full report also features detailed RadarView profiles of the 29 service providers, along with their solutions, offerings, and experience for enabling workplace transformation.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of the Digital Workplace Services 2021 RadarView™ (click for pricing).