How to make your “modern workplace” an asset?

Jeremy Wikler Senior Manager, Technology Change and Adoption, PwC Switzerland 06/12/22

As many companies migrate their organisations to the cloud, and become increasingly reliant on technology, the aim is to achieve the ultimate “modern workplace”.

But despite heavy investment in these solutions, the promised benefits just haven’t manifested yet. How come, and what can you do to realise those benefits?

The example of cloud technology

In the past, the idea of cloud technology was seen as exclusive to the tech industry, but over the years, most of the daily business tools, such as e-mails, document management and collaboration tools have migrated onto the cloud.

With numerous advantages for a business, it’s no surprise that companies are making the move and switching over to the new cloud solutions such as Microsoft’s M365. Besides the more obvious business benefits, the latest driver for this move is the idea of “modern workplace”.

The idea is simple - businesses get new technology to enable:

More flexible and innovative ways of working

Increased collaboration opportunities

Shorter work processes (and in return increase efficiency)

What’s stopping you from taking full advantage of these benefits?

With the cloud solutions’ tools for productivity, communication, and collaboration, creating and leveraging this ‘modern workplace’ seems easy. However, it’s a bigger challenge than most would initially expect. Companies can successfully implement cloud solutions and still not see the benefits of this “modern workplace”. And then other areas of concern start to arise, such as adoption (the way that people are using the solution on a daily basis).

As companies struggle with realising these “modern workplace” benefits they start asking many questions, of which one being: “Are these benefits really there?”. The answer is yes! While realising these benefits is not an easy and ‘quick win’ scenario, these benefits are there and if you follow the correct approach, your cloud solutions can become one of your biggest assets. To make them an asset, however, you need to start rethinking your IT approach and fit it to the cloud solutions you just implemented.

How can Connected Efficiency Studio help?

Rethinking your ‘IT’ approach

It’s human nature to be inclined to stick to the “tried and true” approach when it comes to technology. But as technologies and ways of working start to shift, we also need to start rethinking our approach to implementing these technologies. Not only is technology moving at a faster pace, but your people, its biggest user, also need to be approached differently.

One of the biggest changes in the approach to technology is the change in need of training and upskilling your people. Whereas a simple ‘one and done’ approach was the right approach in the past, this doesn’t hold anymore. We see the cloud as a journey of continuous change, and you need to make sure that you take your people on this journey – this former “IT Project” has now become a project of people, training, and change.

Summary

In our next article we will be looking at the most common pitfalls and misconceptions around successful cloud implementation and adoption. For now, we ask you to think about these questions:

Is your organisation getting most out of its tech investment?
Has your organisation changed its ways of working after implementing any of the cloud solutions?
Are your people getting the support and training they need to properly use the cloud solutions?
Are your people ‘feeling’ the positive effects of the new solutions?

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Contact us

Jeremy Wikler

Senior Manager, Technology Change and Adoption, PwC Switzerland

Tel: +41 58 792 46 41