As more enterprises adopt a 'hybrid work by design' model, we'll witness the rapid evolution of traditional offices and digital workspaces, plus a new and compelling approach to executive leadership that will drive innovation and productivity -- fueling exponential digital business growth.
IDC has completed a worldwide market study that contextualizes their 'Future of Work' predictions for 2021. The ongoing transformation of the environment for typical office-based knowledge workers has been one of the hottest topics of discussion among CEOs and their leadership team.
With the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacting every aspect of office work, there is growing interest in developing a holistic strategy that focuses on business technology upgrades, and the culture of organizations, to deliver an enhanced experience that will result in a sustained competitive advantage.
Global 'Future of Work' Market Development
"Every aspect of 'Future of Work' is undergoing a dramatic shift, including digital transformation (DX) strategies, talent management approach, workspace redesigning and the very nature of how, when and where the work is being done," said Deepan Pathy, research manager at IDC.
The global pandemic has been a catalyst for the majority of organizations to rethink their strategic, financial, and technological decisions to transform work and be better prepared for 'the new normal' -- whatever that looks like, going forward.
This shift will increasingly demand continuous efforts from executive leaders and their organizations to adapt to business technology advancements, changing employee and customer requirements, and the overall enterprise environment.
Critical for the enterprise C-suite -- especially across multinational organizations that will move to a 'Hybrid Working Model' -- is a cohesive action plan that provides employees with the same secure access to essential software applications, regardless of how, when and where they choose to work.
That said, what many organizations have done thus far is focus on merely 'getting by' -- awaiting an eventual return to the office, in the hope that some semblance of their prior 'status quo' can be regained.
"This is clearly going to take longer than anticipated and is likely to repeat in the future, and so many of these predictions indicate what technologies will support increased enterprise agility in the future," said Simon Piff, vice president at IDC Asia-Pacific.
Some of the key IDC 'Future of Work' predictions that will impact the business technology ecosystem, including traditional IT vendors and IT professional services companies, are:
Outlook for Hybrid Working Applications Growth
IDC has completed a worldwide market study that contextualizes their 'Future of Work' predictions for 2021. The ongoing transformation of the environment for typical office-based knowledge workers has been one of the hottest topics of discussion among CEOs and their leadership team.
With the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacting every aspect of office work, there is growing interest in developing a holistic strategy that focuses on business technology upgrades, and the culture of organizations, to deliver an enhanced experience that will result in a sustained competitive advantage.
Global 'Future of Work' Market Development
"Every aspect of 'Future of Work' is undergoing a dramatic shift, including digital transformation (DX) strategies, talent management approach, workspace redesigning and the very nature of how, when and where the work is being done," said Deepan Pathy, research manager at IDC.
The global pandemic has been a catalyst for the majority of organizations to rethink their strategic, financial, and technological decisions to transform work and be better prepared for 'the new normal' -- whatever that looks like, going forward.
This shift will increasingly demand continuous efforts from executive leaders and their organizations to adapt to business technology advancements, changing employee and customer requirements, and the overall enterprise environment.
Critical for the enterprise C-suite -- especially across multinational organizations that will move to a 'Hybrid Working Model' -- is a cohesive action plan that provides employees with the same secure access to essential software applications, regardless of how, when and where they choose to work.
That said, what many organizations have done thus far is focus on merely 'getting by' -- awaiting an eventual return to the office, in the hope that some semblance of their prior 'status quo' can be regained.
"This is clearly going to take longer than anticipated and is likely to repeat in the future, and so many of these predictions indicate what technologies will support increased enterprise agility in the future," said Simon Piff, vice president at IDC Asia-Pacific.
Some of the key IDC 'Future of Work' predictions that will impact the business technology ecosystem, including traditional IT vendors and IT professional services companies, are:
- By 2022, 35 percent of repetitive work tasks in large enterprises will be automated and/or augmented by using 'digital co-workers' -- powered by artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and intelligent process automation (IPA) -- furthering human and machine collaboration.
- By 2024, 40 percent of the A1000 will augment human staff with 'digital co-workers' (powered by AI, robotics, and IPA) to navigate and manage large ecosystems to perform complex cross-business interactions.
- By 2022, 25 percent of A2000 firms will deploy technologies imbued with data manipulation and visualization capabilities, driving collaborative productivity via conference calls for a hybrid workforce.
- By 2022, an additional $1 Billion will be spent on desktop and workspace 'as a service' by the A2000, as 75 percent of them incorporate employee’s home network and workspace as part of the extended enterprise environment.
Outlook for Hybrid Working Applications Growth
The global COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated some forward-looking organizations' transition to an agile work environment that provides workers with secure access to corporate online resources anytime and anywhere. That includes both enterprise data center applications and cloud SaaS apps.
I believe that the pandemic highlighted the need to rapidly adapt and respond to unforeseen disruptions to the Global Networked Economy. It has become clear that future digital business growth depends upon the responsiveness, scalability, and resiliency of software application delivery solutions.
As the more progressive organizations accelerate digital transformation initiatives, they'll discover that many of their legacy business processes are obsolete. With the shift to design thinking methodologies and modern online business models, more CIOs and CTOs will seek secure ways to support an increasingly diverse, distributed and dynamic workforce.