No matter how good your technology plan was going into 2020, it is time to recalibrate it. The business environment has permanently changed and will not be going back to “how it was” with or without COVID-19. Thousands of workers shifted to #wfh for the first time, and guess what? They were MORE productive than they have ever been. Applications that could have never been replaced were suddenly upended by a cloud service. None of these changes or experiences can be undone, so let’s learn to embrace it!
Step one is to have a plan. This has been covered in the past HERE, so go and revisit if you are still in reactive mode.
When recalibrating your technology plans there are three areas of focus that need to be considered. We will cover each one in-depth over the coming posts, but for now, here is the summary version:
Security of identity and data
Security now means more than enabling MFA (which is an excellent idea btw!), it means rethinking how security works in the new #wfh world. Deploying thousands of corporate devices on home Wi-Fi isn’t scalable or supportable for most organizations, which means you have to secure the identity and data that your employees need to access, regardless of the device or network it’s on.
Voice and video
The ability to communicate via voice and video is paramount both internally and externally. We aren’t going back to conference rooms full of people anytime soon. The shift to cloud-based voice services was highlighted by Stringfellow way back in 2015, so companies should have ditched their on-premise PBX systems by now. If they haven’t yet, now this thought is definitely on their radar, especially considering the fact that most professionals could only answer incoming calls from their offices which are now shut down! Video conferences are also the new norm and a consistent platform needs to be part of your planning in order to make room for this going forward.
Data access and collaboration
For those of you who had to figure out how to setup a VPN from home to access the corporate file share, this is for you! NOW is the time to move your data to cloud-based services and provide your employees with an efficient platform to share and collaborate on. This also means a review of how applications are accessed and delivered to your employees.
Just like many financial plans and budgets have been completely reworked, your technology plan needs the same treatment. The three focus areas above will be a great start to getting your technology plan recalibrated for the “new normal”. We will dive into each of these areas deeper in our follow up posts, stay tuned!