This “short-term solution” approach needs to be changed and the company must have a long-term strategy to implement this remote work mode.
According to Senior vice president and general manager, Client Solutions Group, Asia Pacific, Japan and China, Dell Technologies, Jean-Guillaume Pons, hybrid work is the company’s new reality. “Enterprise leaders and managers who cannot see the remote working mode of the future need to change their mindset,” he said.
Technology is a key enabling factor for the success and sustainability of a remote working strategy. At least 50% of workers in the Asia Pacific region and Japan feel their employers have provided the technology resources needed to work remotely, according to a report by Dell Technologies’ Remote Work Readiness Index.
However, workers still face a number of technological challenges when working remotely, such as unstable remote networks, limited access to internal company resources, and the use of personal productivity tools/tools for work, which of course pose a risk of cybersecurity threats.
Investing in the right technology infrastructure for a long-term remote working strategy should be done early on. Dell Technologies identifies three critical technology investments that organizations need to make to be successful in the remote work environment.
Here are 3 technology tips for successful remote work in the future version of Dell Technologies:
1. Provide the remote work tools for workers.
Employers need to prioritize employee experience in hybrid work models by investing in quality technology resources – from laptops and monitors to complementary accessories – to enable their employees to work productively and safely.
According to the Remote Work Readiness Index study, 39% of workers in Asia Pacific and Japan (Indonesia: 42%).
Two things might happen if workers do not get the productivity tools/tools they need from the company. First, productivity drops and frustration increases because they feel they don’t have the support to be able to successfully work in a remote work environment. Second, without the right productivity tools/tools, workers will download company documents to their personal devices to perform daily tasks.
2. Set up a modern IT infrastructure for remote work modes.
Hybrid workspaces in the long term need to be designed as ready-to-use-for-anything digital workspaces. This means, whether workers are working from home or in the office, companies must be ready to support smooth collaboration and be able to manage IT resources from anywhere.
The growing popularity of hybrid workplaces is also contributing to the increasing adoption of cloud technologies. Gartner predicts global end-user spending on public cloud services will increase 26.7% in 2021, as CIOs and other IT leaders continue to prioritize cloud-based applications such as software as a service (SaaS).
For companies just starting to transition to the cloud, they could consider starting with a hybrid cloud infrastructure model – that is, infrastructure that combines public, private and edge clouds to support traditional workloads and next-generation applications.
3. Protect company data with endpoint security solutions.
One thing that companies that implement hybrid work modes must have is a strong data security and security strategy. Remote working mode allows data to be spread across multiple locations such as data centers, multiple workplaces, and hybrid and multi-cloud ecosystems.
The results of the Dell Technologies Remote Work Readiness Index study found that in Asia Pacific and Japan almost 1 in 3 (28%) workers are forced to use personal productivity tools/tools for work. The same situation is also experienced by 32% of workers in Indonesia. These conditions make large amounts of confidential data stored on personal devices or endpoints.
Meanwhile, a recent global study from Dell Technologies and Forrester Consulting revealed that 55% of companies in Asia Pacific and Japan had to put in place a number of emergency measures to maintain data security outside the company network because their employees still continue to work remotely.
With the right technology investment, companies can easily transition between working from home and in the office with minimal business operational risk. For example, Dell Technologies has implemented its Connected Workplace strategy for more than a decade. This program was originally designed to provide a flexible work environment for company employees worldwide. All this experience implementing the Connected Workplace program allowed enterprise IT teams to quickly shift 90% of Dell employees worldwide to remote working mode in just one weekend in March 2020 or in the early period of the pandemic.