Embracing “Work-from-Home” Amindst the Pandemic and Beyond
Focusing on a New Digital Direction
Covid-19 has expedited the long-awaited adoption of the “work-from-home” business model. Although experts were expecting remote working to eventually become the norm someday; no one could have predicted that 2020 will be that year. The global epidemic caught businesses off-guard regardless of how far along they were in their cloud transformation journey. Even companies that had already invested in cloud technologies, and allowed flexible working to some extent, could not have been prepared to have the entire staff work from home. However, they were in a better position to adapt to the unpredictable business environment. But, there are so many others that are still having a hard time coming to terms with the new normal.
At this point, nearly all companies have deployed work-from-home solutions at a pace more rapid than they could’ve anticipated. However, what’s working now in the short term may not be viable for prolonged remote working.
The Pros, Cons, and Challenges of Working from Home
Remote working may have gone mainstream as an emergency measure to ensure work continuity and safety during Covid-19, but it will be naive to think that work environments will ever revert back to being what they once were. The new norm will be flexible work environments even after the crisis subsides. For employees, this means saving the time and expense of commuting, and being able to work in their preferred environments; for employers, work-from-home can also save significant costs.
Once Covid-19 abates, businesses may no longer be interested in renting expensive office spaces and paying additional costs that come with it. While businesses can access a more diverse talent pool, workers will have access to better opportunities without ever having to relocate. This will also have an impact on the global economy as revenue will flow from major cities to remote areas as well. All these benefits will trigger an increased spending on digital transformation.
On the other hand, keeping employees happy, engaged and motivated can be a little tricky when most of them are working from home. Companies are focusing on improving collaboration, enabling instant communication, and simplifying and automating routine tasks to improve employee productivity and engagement. They are coming up with team-bonding activities and rewards for participation to make sure that everyone feels included. For now, everyone is slowly getting comfortable with the new norms. However, deploying work-from-home solutions, especially at the speed we’ve seen earlier this year, comes with its own technical challenges as well. One can safely assume that security took the hind seat while companies, large and small, pushed their IT teams to ensure work continuity amidst the worst stage of this crisis.
Citrix Technologies Simplify “Work-from-home”
With remote working comes the challenge of managing and securing virtually countless endpoints. Implementing multi-factor authentication, limiting access to critical apps and data, and disabling inactive connections and virtual channels are all important for a holistic approach towards devising a security policy. Citrix Workspace is widely used for unified and secure application and data access from any device, anywhere.
Citrix Workspace Micro-apps combines notification streams and delivers direct actions to reduce one-off interactions with multiple apps. Additionally, Citrix Workspace integrates with Office365, G-suite, SAP, Salesforce and many common apps to ensure ease-of-use and a secure, unified access. This also improves work productivity and increases employee engagement as remote employees have all the apps and data resources they need at their fingertips. Not having to perform multiple sign-ins and continually switch between various apps results in less distractions and more productivity. Citrix Digital Workspace also focuses on automating mundane, routine tasks with the help of a virtual assistant.
In today’s digital workplaces, which are here to stay, it only makes sense to work smarter instead of harder. With Citrix technologies, employees can keep working securely, safely and smartly from the comfort of their own homes even after the chaos is over and Covid-19 abates.
