Have we overcome the technical challenges of working from home?
The work-from-home (WFH) concept is not new to the world. It’s been around for decades and became more popular over the last 10-20 years as humanity made massive steps into the digital world. The tools we need to do our job today are portable and connected to the Internet, providing us with mobility. To be able to work from anywhere, all you need is a phone, a tablet or a PC with an internet connection and your login details. If your security team is smart, you’ll also need an MFA (multi-factor authentication) app to validate your access when logging into company systems. We can access some applications directly over the Internet as they are delivered as-a-service but some applications that are part of your corporate network, require a VPN connection (which most people only find out when on a deadline and don’t have a VPN handy!). Once connected to your corporate network, you can access anything and everything from your intranet to the top-secret projects you’re working on. Sounds familiar?
The past 6 months have thrown a few challenges our way but as we all adapt to the “new normal” our Senior Consultant, Matthew Jelley, asked his network to talk through how technology has caught, or will catch up with our new way of working.
What are the big technology challenges businesses face with the ongoing WFH scenario?
The fundamental shift in the way we work, or to be more precise, from where we work, brought on a set of challenges that very few, if any, businesses considered in their Business Continuity Plans (BCP). Whilst traditional BCPs catered for a lot of the issues that we have faced, most of these were based on short-term, geographically isolated events and not a global pandemic for an extended period. With this comes questions that have no easy answers. Three of the most common questions I’ve been asked by businesses in the last 6+ months are captured below.
How do I maintain operations? This simple question is one of the most difficult to answer. Traditionally, remote access solutions were not designed to enable 80% of the workforce to work remotely. In addition to this, large enterprises often rely on vendors and third-party providers, usually based offshore, to provide a set of critical services (e.g. customer support, service desk, infrastructure support etc.) Infrastructure and computers, like everything else, need to be serviced, maintained and replaced when it fails. The pandemic severely disrupted all of this and whilst things seem to be getting back to normal, companies that were agile and innovative and were willing to think out of the box fared better than the rest.
How do I protect customer and company data and assets? Companies that enabled employees to work remotely before the pandemic had to consider this topic extensively and then implement mechanisms that would protect customer and company data. Those that were on the path of cloud-security did better as they leveraged the scalability and elasticity provided by the cloud as well as the fact that cloud security solutions protect from the latest vulnerabilities and threats. Companies that established zero-trust networks were at the top as they have implemented the least privileges access model and aside from traditional security mechanisms, leveraged monitoring and analytics to detect threats and protect resources.
How do I maintain the productivity of the workforce? Assuming an organisation has solved all of the challenges that allows employees to access everything they need to work, the question now becomes how do they work effectively? How do we kick-off a project and do a discovery? How do we track work, design and then build a solution? How do we even hold a stand-up? Easy! Options and solutions are endless. I use Microsoft Teams for meetings, interviews and workshops. It’s been great because it allows me to chat, call, video and screen share. I have a Teams channel for every engagement that I work on, and I can easily keep track and discuss matters relevant only to the project I’m working on. We’ve also built a bot that provides answers and questions to a range of topics. Whilst this is only one of the tools I use on a day-to-day basis, companies need to know and understand the way their employees work. Marketing teams work differently from IT teams and differently again from sales teams. The challenge is to find a solution and tools that are flexible enough to work for the whole organisation.
How has access management changed since the majority of people have been WFH?
Organisations became more security-aware and conscious. Focus is placed on reviewing access to resources and establishing a regular cadence when it comes to validating access requirements. Aside from implementing or expanding regular security mechanisms like MFA, companies started looking at improving logging and monitoring to identify suspicious events and raise alerts based on user behaviour.
Do you see any major technology changes upcoming to help compliment the WFH model?
As much as COVID has brought extensive devastation to the world which saddens me, I see this pandemic as an opportunity for growth and further innovation. Many of the solutions we have seen utilised were around before the pandemic but evolved rapidly and were widely adopted as a result of it.
Some of the changes I see occurring are focused around employee enablement, ensuring that the individual doing work has the ability and flexibility to adapt the tools they use to match their preferences. As an example, solutions that enable users to install the applications they require without introducing any security risks, needing local admin privileges or assistance from the help desk are a focus for organisations. Another big area is identifying and resolving endpoint performance issues, such as slow or lagging PCs by leveraging analytics and automation. Leveraging bots to resolve questions or issues that would usually require assistance from support teams, thus freeing up resources to focus on more critical issues is also gaining steam.
How have you found project outcomes and delivery since most people have adopted the WFH model?
I’m working on a couple of projects that are now in build phase that started as an idea just a few months ago. Starting a project remotely is a challenge on its own, having the right toolset makes it a lot easier. Virtual interviews, requirement gathering workshops and meetings is another obstacle when working with people that don’t feel entirely comfortable around technology. What I’ve found to work best is to have a face-to-face kick-off with stakeholders. I use this opportunity to establish relationships and walk them through a ways-of-working model, work on determining the scope and capturing high-level requirements. I then use Microsoft Teams for meetings, requirements workshops and checkpoints and have in-person meetings as needed.
Have you and your team found yourself asking the above questions too? If you have found new applications or new ways of working that have helped you out during the pandemic, please feel free to share them with us. We’re always interested in learning something new!
If you are looking for work as a business analyst or are looking to expand your current transformation team, please contact Matthew Jelley on +612 8821 7312 or any of our Transformation & Change team on +612 8821 7300.