Asking the question “what’s next” throws up a lot of subsequent, more difficult questions for business and IT leaders. The major ones being:

  • Do we need to reevaluate our 2021 digital workplace strategies (and if so, how)?
  • What type of infrastructure and leadership is required to support the anywhere employee (digitally, physically, and emotionally) going forward?
  • How can IT departments evolve to support the future of work?

These are big dilemmas that affect us all and need to be addressed now to prepare for the coming year and beyond. It’s why our next WFA Enterprise Conference is being held in November 2020.
Here, we discuss the big challenges that got us asking the question “what’s next?”.

1. How can we keep up with the pace of change?

We started the first half of 2020 with 46 million leaving the office and a global lockdown. By the time the summer conference came around in July, some of us were back in the office or preempting a phased return soon as the global fight against coronavirus seemed to be going in our favor.
Fast forward only two months and the US has suffered 200,000 deaths, the UK is on the brink of a second wave and office workers are once again being told to work from home, and the global economy is taking a worrying hit.
The chances are, by the time the conference comes around the world will have changed yet again. For better or for worse, we cannot say. What we do know though is that 2020 has made change the only constant and it’s not too soon for business leaders to start preparing for a rapidly evolving business landscape.

2. What’s in store for the digital workplace?

With coronavirus continuing to show depressingly strong endurance, many just don’t see offices reopening at full capacity anytime soon. Mental health concerns play a key part, with over half of employees feeling anxious over health and safety in the workplace.
There’s also the fact that many workers don’t want to return to offices, having found a good balance in their work-home lives this year. A Perceptyx survey shows that only 4% want to return to their office full time after the pandemic.
That means, whether we like it or not, working from anywhere is here to stay. For the short term at least, your workforce will remain heavily distributed.
Business leaders are starting to think about:

  • The human impact of not being in a physical space with your colleagues and how that affects employees and management
  • How digital experiences impact engagement for both remote and office workers
  • The impact of WFA on digital transformation initiatives in 2021 and beyond

This fall’s WFA Enterprise Conference features two tracks, one of those being the top considerations for business and IT leaders. We’ll be discussing everything from the human implications of remote working, making the business case for WFA and how digital transformation projects will need to be reshaped to fit the future of work.

3. How will IT departments need to adapt?

Many organizations are formulating their IT strategies for 2021 while confronting the threat of diminishing budgets. Gartner believes tech spending will have dropped by 8% in 2020 and the danger is this could continue into 2021.
Yet, legacy infrastructures won’t cut it in the future world of work, making digital transformation strategies business critical. This conundrum leaves IT leaders in a precarious situation when the message they are receiving is “do more with less”.
Prioritization is key. Track 2 of the conference will focus on areas of the IT infrastructure that have the greatest impact on employees:

  1. Endpoint management and security
  2. ITSM
  3. Digital experience monitoring

We’ll have IT leaders sharing their IT strategies for 2021, analysts sharing their predictions for the future of work and IT, and a host of deep tech sessions that dive into what you need in your infrastructure to support the Work From Anywhere Enterprise.

Be part of the conversation

Join us on 17 and 18 November at the WFA Enterprise Conference and be part of the IT community working together to battle the most pressing challenge impacting businesses today. Don’t miss out!