We’ve talked about the broader subject of hybrid working but what does this look like from a technology perspective and what can this do to an organisation?
From a team member perspective, the ability to access data, information and applications, from any chosen device, from any location and create the outputs needed within the role is paramount. Persistence and consistency of experience when working with said data/information/application is crucial.
The ultimate answer here is virtual desktop infrastructure and/or virtualised/contained applications.
What’s the impact of implementing a VDI architecture for the technology office?
- You’ll need a platform to start with…you’ll either build one or subscribe to one
- You’ll need to understand and standardise the desktop image
- Applications will need to be rationalised and either virtualised in-house or subscribed to for streaming into the image
- Policies will need to be curated to manage configuration, data, privileges, etc.
- You’ll need to educate people of the change – of where processing and data occurs now, and the possible limitations (either due to technology or policy)
- You may need to educate your technical team on the management of the platform – or outsource the management
- Your technical team may have a reduced call volume due to increase stability at the desktop – this frees them up to innovate on other projects and initiatives
- Device replacement could be outsourced and highly automated
- Bring Your Own Device could be a real option – either during asset swap or long term – this brings its own challenges that need to be thought through – the demarcation of supportability
- You’ll have tighter control on application sprawl – no longer supporting a myriad of versions means improved issue triage and resolution
- Given the standardisation – knowledge bases can be established to answer frequently asked questions (FAQ)
- Knowledge bases can drive automated chat messenger-style support capabilities
- Automation in the support function can free up time to learn skills to manage and be proactive rather than focus on repetitive tasks and reactive support
- You’ll no longer need to invest in specialised hardware for the team member – processing, graphics and memory requirements can be delivered from the data centre – this means the hardware sits in the data centre and can be shared across the team (think 24/7 operations using rendering hardware in CAD/CAM use cases)
- You can scale up/down the desktops you have at-will – engage a temporary workforce without the effort traditionally required to prepare devices; pay for only what you need and use
- Your licences for operating systems and applications will be far better understood and depending on the solution can be controlled directly from the management consoles (adding/removing/allocating as needed) – also keeping costs under control
- Looking at the way applications and systems work too when being virtualised allows you to then tease apart the component level architecture and understand if the application can benefit from micro-services often available from the major cloud vendors
- Take a traditional 3 tier application and size each component maximising the spend on resources
- Isolate components of that 3 tier stack into specific services that can be made more resilient, improve their security posture, or increase performance
- Plug-in to third party systems that enhance your existing application and given new insights and outputs to those managing data and information
This all adds up to some very exciting digital transformation and really allows the business to understand how technology enables the operations of providing service and products to a customer. No longer is the technology office a drain but a valued asset across every aspect of the business.
Technology isn’t perfect, there’s pro’s and cons and we need to be honest about that as implementors – we can do that with a good project and change management. What we need to focus on it enabling people to make decisions in a far more informed and precise way than ever before – so providing flexible ways of accessing data and applications is key – our challenge is keeping it all together
The role of the technology office has changed, have you changed the way you serve the business?