No two digital businesses will be the same. Each will have its own unique processes, assets and user demands. This dynamism is constantly increasing, and the result is that any delay in moving forward means falling even further behind. If your systems have few options and can’t deliver the choices that enable your workers, the gap will continue to widen.
Staying current requires that IT infrastructure provides a people-centric experience, effective security and the choice to deploy any technology in a manner that optimizes results. Delivering a people-centric experience requires the organization to provide a work environment that meets the expectations of a new generation of workers, seamlessly delivering their tools of choice. Organizations that can’t do this will lose in the competition for top talent. For this reason, IT groups need platforms that deliver a wide range of choices without excessive complexity.
An organization must have choices in terms of how to integrate on-premises IT assets, cloud services of all types and the individual tools employees need to be productive―and that fit specific needs. Making the right IT infrastructure choices to best serve your organization is essential to a successful digital transformation, enhancing operations rather than disrupting them.
To make this possible, the IT team requires building-block platforms that are contextually aware to simplify meeting changing demands and provide needed choices. An IT platform that is contextually aware can automate the management of specific aspects of usage and dramatically reduce complexity for IT staff. This stands in stark contrast to platforms that require constant IT intervention and management for every change. The longer an organization is stuck in the past, the more intractable the problems become.
The ability to choose the best IT solution will have an impact far beyond the fundamental or production IT infrastructure. Providing more options for employees, contractors and “gig workers” is critical. The ability to support a wide range of user devices is an excellent example. Allowing workers to choose the device they deem “best” is so important that some employees will make job and career decisions based on that. Every day these options are limited is a day the company loses out on top talent. However, supporting a broad range of devices shouldn’t overload IT, and contextually aware systems solve the problem.
The ability to offer the right IT choices for many operational activities is essential to a smoothly functioning business. For most employees, no two workdays are exactly alike. In some cases, the need to meet requirements for month- or quarter-end reporting substantially changes the workday. Employees must now interact with more corporate data and reports to complete their part of the process. This may require different applications or cloud services to complete these tasks. This must be seamless, with technology that facilitates the dynamic workday in the modern business.
Another common digital business scenario IT platforms must support is the constant creation of new project groups, focused on specific initiatives. These groups demand specific technology choices. An excellent case in point is the need for a broad range of collaboration tools, allowing each group to choose what works best. For example, technology teams may prefer HipChat while marketers prefer Slack. And project groups also need the ability to add consultants or contractors quickly and simply, while giving them the appropriate access to internal systems. Digital businesses need IT systems with contextual awareness to simplify supporting all of these demands to empower project groups.
Being a successful digital business requires IT systems that support a highly dynamic, data-driven entity that employs a gig workforce that uses a wide range of technologies. Constant change requires an IT ecosystem that delivers choices both now and in the future. To ensure that IT can deliver the many options that enable the agility and flexibility digital businesses need now, focusing on contextually aware platforms that offer a wide range of choices for IT, management and workers is critical.
