{"id":1657,"date":"2020-03-08T14:03:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-08T10:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techxmedia.com\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2025-04-17T23:54:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:54:53","slug":"unlocking-promise-digital-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/unlocking-promise-digital-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlocking the promise of a digital workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
By: Gamal Emara, Country\nManager, UAE at Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The business landscape has evolved significantly over the past decade. Driven by the need to remain agile, competitive and productive, organizations are adopting more technologies than ever before as they continue their individual journeys towards digital transformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These disruptive technologies are not only revolutionising the ways\nthat modern businesses operate, but also enhancing employee experiences, and \u2013\ncrucially \u2013 increasing their expectations at the same time. For employees, the digital\nworkplace stands for an innovative and agile new way of working, a concept\nunderpinned by greater convenience and better networking between devices and\ncolleagues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with such a promise, the demand for a frictionless employee\njourney only looks set to surge. Not only will Generation Z, or Gen-Mobile,\nmake up almost half of the business world by 2020, but they will also play an\nundeniable part in transforming the ecosystem as a whole. True digital natives,\nthey will settle for no less than the best of the best technologies. They want\nto work and access information in a way that suits them. Put simply \u2013 they want\nIT to be transparent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, against this backdrop of employee expectations and an increasingly\ncompetitive business landscape, what can organisations do to truly unlock the\npromise of a digital workplace? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Automation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to\nensure that the basic requirements, such as easier management and maintenance\nof the wireless network, rapid integration of new users and devices, and a resilient\nWi-Fi connection, are met. For IT staff, this translates into removing barriers\nto mobile working and creating a mobile first digital environment where\nemployees can work effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, it is important to remember that a digital environment is not just defined by the tools a company provides \u2013 it\u2019s also about the working climate they create and how they enhance the employee experience by making it at seamless as possible. And that means considering everything from personalised lighting settings, how they pay for their coffee and workplace ergonomics, to fully automated conference rooms, preventive device maintenance and automated<\/a> energy savings. This frictionless experience should be delivered both on and offsite \u2013 a remote employee must be able to work as if he were on-site, while registered visitors should be able to connect easily to the guest Wi-Fi as soon as they enter the building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to facilitate\nthis vast level of change, traditional approaches to networking are no longer\nenough. Instead, IT decision-makers need to deploy mobile first architecture\nthat can support autonomous networking. Rather than relying on manual\nintervention, an autonomous approach gives IT staff the ability to stay ahead\nof performance issues, deliver insights into possible causes, and recommend\nconfiguration changes that optimize the network before they impact users of the\nbusiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visibility<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While all these new\ndevices and services sound brilliant in practice, in reality it can be\ndifficult to keep track of them on the network \u2013 particularly when\norganisations find themselves reactively scrambling to get a handle on the\nsituation. A common issue is that of Shadow IT, where well-intentioned\nemployees bring their own IT to work, thus creating security issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viessmann is one of\nthe world\u2019s leading providers of holistic energy and climate solutions \u2013 you\nmay even have one of its central heating boilers keeping you warm this winter! Viessmann\ncame to us in search of a new network to support the digitisation of its\ninternal processes in a way that was secure, efficient, and transparent. In\norder to facilitate a move to flexible desks and the introduction of IoT\ntechnologies into its manufacturing process, it wanted to provide Wi-Fi\nconnectivity in every corner of the organisation. When you consider that it has\nover 12,000 employees, 23 production companies in 12 companies and sales\ncompanies and representatives in 74 countries worldwide \u2013 you can begin to\nimagine how things might quickly get out of control\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to support\nthe surge of devices connecting to the network, Viessmann needed a flexible\nmanagement system that would enable it to see and control network access for\nall devices, both now and in the future. Using our Aruba ClearPass solution,\nwhich has an integrated, context-based policy engine to help identify devices,\nand combining it with AirWave to manage network administrator rights, the\norganisation now has total control over the devices connecting to the network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before flooding the\nworkplace with devices, network visibility must be a key consideration \u2013 and\nthat means building network access controls and network management into your\ndigital workplace plans from the earliest stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst all these\ntechnologies can help organisations shift towards a digital workplace, they are\nonly part of the puzzle. To truly realise the benefits of a digital\nenvironment, organisations need to encourage employees to unlock its potential\n\u2013 and that means getting away from their desks and collaborating more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this might\nhappen over time organically, this type of large-scale culture change will need\nhelp from the organisation. Businesses must ensure they are educating employees\naround how to connect, communicate and collaborate within these new environments\n\u2013 equipping them to use them correctly and to their fullest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from driving\ngreater job satisfaction creating this technology-culture connection will also\nbenefit employee creativity. The right technology builds a culture of\ninnovation. When employees are tethered to a desk, or they lack the tools to\ncollaborate and spark creativity, you end up with a maze of silos: a \u201cculture\nof me.\u201d But when the technology starts to dissolve those boundaries and inspire\npeople to be more open, imaginative and sharing, there’s a fundamental culture\nshift towards new ways of thinking. In the long term, that boost to innovation\nwill be reflected in corporate performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than ever, the\nworkplace is evolving into an environment that allows users to interact with\ncontent and tools easily, quickly and efficiently. Companies that miss this\ndevelopment risk alienating their employees, losing talent and ultimately\nreducing productivity. An intelligent, digital work environment will promote\nemployee creativity, collaboration, speed and freedom through reliable and\npersonalised services. So, what are you waiting for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These disruptive technologies are not only revolutionising the ways that modern businesses operate, but also enhancing employee experiences, and \u2013 crucially \u2013 increasing their expectations at the same time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9619],"tags":[525,769,576,310,77,770,768],"contributor":[],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-automation","tag-digital_environment","tag-digital_transformation","tag-education","tag-technology","tag-visibility","tag-workplace"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gamal-Emara-Country-Manager-UAE-at-Aruba-a-Hewlett-Packard-Enterprise-company-use-e1583661700784.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"News Desk","author_link":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/author\/rabab\/"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techxmedia.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}