There is a new cultural mindset shift that is sweeping the enterprise. The enablement of a remote workforce in adjusting to the “New Normal” we face in these modern times. The inevitability of leaving “on-premises” solutions is here and replaced with the need to embrace modern, cloud technology to better benefit the company. Although some have proved resistant to this change in the past, this new approach to business solutions is proving to be vital for companies to thrive in today’s enterprise.
Gig Werks has been delivering Microsoft Solutions for 20 years and from very early on, embraced the cloud. As we’ve helped clients move to the cloud, there has always been a certain level of resistance. However, with the current situation we are all in with Covid-19, the cloud and a remote workforce is the new normal, it forced enterprises to deal with cloud-based collaboration. Everything from automation, bots, and workflow, the need to work remotely in the cloud has been amplified. Of course, different institutions have different priorities which can lead to being more resistant to this change, but it was an inevitable one. What we want to do is show you how to embrace this inevitability and deliver the tools your teams need to get their jobs done.
On a recent podcast, Joe Giegerich, CEO of Gig Werks, was joined by Omar Stewart and Christian Holslin, both Enterprise Solution Architects with over a decade’s worth of experience & expertise working with Microsoft Technology and the cloud. They discussed the need for enterprises to adjust to the new normal of a remote workforce, which has always been inevitable, and the modern tooling available with the Microsoft Cloud to embrace this new normal. In other words, “The Inevitable is now” – Joe Giegerich.
Naturally, there are questions around this. According to Joe Giegerich, some of them are “How are you going to enable your remote workforce? What platforms should you use? What was the reluctance and how is it being addressed?” Not embracing and accepting change is “ignoring the sheer economy” – Giegerich. “From economics of scale as it relates to infrastructure, the overwhelming efficiencies, this has been marching forward, the final push has been Covid. This sudden shift has also shown other benefits, less commuting time, less expense in gasoline and the benefits to the environment” To put it bluntly, leveraging and connecting in the cloud is simply cheaper than keeping on-premises infrastructure. For some companies still on-premises during this time, they need someone to travel all the way to said office to turn on a server. It’s not practical. There are so many benefits you get from working in the cloud, the removed added expense of maintaining on-premise servers and the ability to more easily connect numerous cloud applications to drive business solutions. Holslin even stated that many people would prefer to work from home even after this pandemic is over simply because it frees up more time in their day. It results in less commute and less overall expenses for the individual, not to mention less people driving to work benefits the environment tenfold.
Thanks to the cloud, programs that once took weeks to deploy and configure (e.g., SharePoint) can now be done a few hours with wizard driven deployment tools. The Modern SharePoint Experience is very user friendly, and all around easy to use. It makes it super easy to connect to the rest of Microsoft 365 to give your team the tools and solutions they need to get their job done. “There are so many different levels to how the development and the power apps has evolved.” – Stewart. These days, it is less about building a system and more about building a solution.
The ability to create a uniform, universal experience (think chatbots) in the cloud is tremendously beneficial to the user. Microsoft has been at the forefront of embracing this change, all of the development that is happening in Microsoft is becoming more opensource. Stewart said, “It really speaks to what they’re trying to do as a platform, enabling people to take their solutions and push them to the cloud in a reliable way.” And throughout it, they remain having a fully consistent user experience that they can grow in scale.
“What is the future of the organization beyond MVP?” -Holslin. One of the most important and vital things about having a cloud infrastructure at your disposal is that it gives every piece of data a home, with an easily accessible user experience. You don’t have to worry “how do I set it up on this website?” “can they reach it from there?” “is it going to work or run?” “how can I manage it?” Everything is in one, cohesive place for easy and efficient access from the get-go.
Giegerich makes a compelling comparison to the theatre. “Theatre is the narrative, the story you’re trying to tell. If you spend all the money on the stage and the drapes, if you spend all your time trying to figure out how to get that cast together, it becomes a lost opportunity to tell a better story. Modern tooling allows you to focus on the business case narrative.” Essentially, if you spend all of your money on your infrastructure, all of your time on figuring out how to bring platforms under one roof at the same time, you miss the opportunity to create a better, more coherent solution. With the cloud, the stage is already set.
Holslin gave an example of a real world need for embracing this new normal. Once Covid-19 hit, almost overnight Zooms market rose. People everywhere bought a zoom account to stay in touch with friends and family while doing the same thing of staying indoors and social distancing. “As soon as advancing the mission of your friendships became impossible, everyone instantaneously jumped onto technology to solve that problem. The cloud tooling for businesses to do that is readily available and accessible with products like Microsoft Teams.” – Holslin. The very podcast this blog references was recorded on Surface computers and cameras and not in person.
The main fear and resistance to the adoption of the cloud is employee productivity and how they will be governed. Many look at it as unmanageable instead of finding ways to embrace instead of understanding that modern tooling is quite the opposite. But, with the cloud, everything you could possibly want to know about user data is at your fingertips. But what about tracking? Yes, there is tracking, there is tracking literally everywhere. The purpose of the cloud is to give you the tools to advance your company’s mission and enable your staff and your company from anywhere.
So, why do you want to enable the remote workforce? Simple, you have to. This is a cultural and mindset shift, Giegerich explains. It goes from a “do it myself” mentality to taking that same mindset and going instead “how can I do it in a way that would better benefit the company in the most efficient way?”
Resistant or not this change in mindset is vital to survive in modern times. Throughout the podcast, Joe Giegerich, Omar Stewart and Christian Holslin stressed the importance of this, and how this change was always inevitable.
For an in-depth look at all the tools available in the Microsoft Cloud and how they can work together to deliver a clear business solution, check out our previous blog and demonstration on the Modern SharePoint Experience: https://www.gig-werks.com/the-inevitable-is-now-adjusting-to-the-new-normal-in-the-enterprise-with-the-microsoft-cloud/
Learn About All of Gig Werks Microsoft 365 Expertse at:
https://www.gig-werks.com/microsoft-365/
