Why every business should
aspire to a ‘modern
workplace’ - and how
to build one

Cast your mind back to 2019. In those halcyon days, business leaders were focused on growth. Think productivity, efficiency, time to market, globalisation. Then Covid-19 hit. Overnight, lofty ambitions were cast aside in favour of one thing: how to survive and thrive during a global pandemic.

Those who have emerged relatively unscathed from the past 18 months’ events share a common trait. Digital resilience. These businesses have demonstrated an ability to withstand any unexpected disruptions that come their way. They have quickly set themselves up with new ways of working to keep moving forward.  

Today, these new ways of working are becoming the norm. Here, we explore how modern work is influencing the future of technology and explore three key considerations as you move into this new future.

The trends shaping the modern work environment

Today, knowledge workers can just as easily work from home, the office or anywhere with a reliable internet connection. They can switch seamless between apps, accessing the tools they need to collaborate and create. And there’s no looking back.

A hybrid future

Beyond the pandemic, 74% of employees plan to telecommute more following the lifting of restrictions,^[i] while 70% believe that the ability to continue telecommuting will factor into their next job choice.^[ii]

And, by 2023, 75% of ASX companies^[iii] and 66% of NZX companies^[iv] will be committed to a hybrid by design work model.

Accelerated adoption of cloud

Even before Covid-19 struck, Australian and New Zealand businesses were embracing cloud for its cost-efficiency and scale. Now, even more organisations are jumping on board as they realise the crucial role that cloud plays in supporting modern ways of working.

By 2025, public cloud will grow to $22.7 billion (up from $9.9 billion in 2020),^[v] and over half of Australian and New Zealand organisations’ IT systems will be in the cloud by 2022.^[vi]

The trimming of technical debt

Throughout 2020, organisations made a number of decisions under duress. To survive, they had to deploy new digital solutions fast. Rapid migrations to cloud were common, as were overnight implementations of tools like Microsoft Teams and PowerApps.

In their haste, though, a good deal of technical debt accumulated – throughout 2022, 70% of CIOs in Australia^[vii] and 50% of CIOs in New Zealand[viii]  will be dealing with it.

Heightened focus on cybersecurity

As the rules of work changed, corporate networks branched out into people’s homes and onto personal devices almost overnight. Hackers had a field day. Cyberattacks skyrocketed, particularly those targeting end users.

No wonder cybersecurity is the top strategic priority for Australian and New Zealand organisations over the next 12 to 24 months.^[ix] And no surprise that the global zero trust market is expected to reach US$38.6 billion by 2024.^[x]

3 moves you can make to embrace modern work

As the trends above clearly demonstrate, today’s modern work environment is here to stay. And the more prepared you are to embrace it, the better placed you are to enhance the employee experience and achieve the digital resilience today’s businesses need.

At Empired, we focus on three key areas when helping businesses design and implement a secure modern work strategy.

1. Enabling your people

Your people are your greatest asset. To help them do their best work in a hybrid environment, they need secure access to productivity and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Office 365. They need great meeting room experiences. They need the ability to collaborate across functional teams. And you need the ability to manage it all, from anywhere.

Learn more about how we can help you enable your people.

2. Migrating, modernising and optimising on cloud

Not only do your employees need cloud for an optimum work experience, but moving to cloud gives you the agility and scalability you need to respond to whatever comes next. It starts with selecting the right cloud migration strategy. Once in the cloud, it’s about getting the most from it, from a performance, cost, governance and security standpoint.

Empired recently helped complete a 400-server migration to Microsoft Azure, complete with third-part backup and firewall solutions in Azure, and the set-up of Windows Virtual Desktop to support students through Covid-19.

Learn more about how we can help you get more value from cloud.

3. Securing your business

As we move into a modern work future, security remains paramount. You need to secure every part of your business. At a minimum, you need foundational tools in place – think, Azure AD, Microsoft Defender for Identity, and Microsoft Endpoint Manager, to name a few. The forward-thinking businesses out there are proactively investing in more sophisticated security tools and strategies – such as privileged identity management, password-less authentication and advanced monitoring – to protect against whatever comes next.

As an example, we recently supported one of Australia’s largest mining companies on their quest to uplift their security credentials. What started out as a proof of concept resulted in 6,000 users being migrated from Microsoft 365 E3 to E5, and the highly agile deployment of a security program over 18 months– including the deployment of advanced solutions like Sentinel, MCAS, AADP and Defender.

Learn more about how we can help secure your business.

Our mission is to deliver tomorrow’s advantage, today, in every engagement and across everything we do. To find out more about how we can help you implement the tools and technologies built for the future of work, please get in touch. 

^[i] Deloitte, 2021, Tech Trends 2021
^[ii] McKinsey, 2020, A dual cybersecurity mindset for the next normal
^[iii] IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2021 Predictions — Australia Implications, Doc #AP45878220, Jan 2021
^[iv] IDC New Zealand State of the Digital Nation, 2021: Forging Ahead for Digital Resiliency, Doc # AP47748422, Aug 2021
^[v] IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2021 Predictions — Australia Implications, Doc #AP45878220, Jan 2021; and IDC New Zealand State of the Digital Nation, 2021: Forging Ahead for Digital Resiliency, Doc # AP47748422, Aug 2021
^[vi] IT Brief, 2021, Cloud Radar 2021
^[vii] IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2021 Predictions — Australia Implications, Doc #AP45878220, Jan 2021
^[viii] IDC New Zealand State of the Digital Nation, 2021: Forging Ahead for Digital Resiliency, Doc # AP47748422, Aug 2021
^[ix] IDC New Zealand State of the Digital Nation, 2021: Forging Ahead for Digital Resiliency, Doc # AP47748422, Aug 2021; and IDC New Zealand State of the Digital Nation, 2021: Forging Ahead for Digital Resiliency, Doc # AP47748422, Aug 2021
^[x] Intrado, 2019, The zero-trust security market