The digital journey from office to home

From big IT majors and real estate players in metros to co-working set-ups and cozy WFH desks in small towns – everyone has seen the massive shift that affected their lives during the pandemic. As we dust off the shockwaves and tactics that kept everyone afloat in the lockdown, we need to ask a big question now. What happens to the workplace as we move forward? Would the pendulum swing back? Shall we freeze the new modes with something tech-savvy and agile?

One thing for sure is that the world is not going back to earlier ways of work. The young talent, especially, is not so open to previous modes of work.

— Harnath Babu, CIO, KPMG India

The organisation has to be intelligent, especially in the life sciences industry, where patients are increasingly taking control of their health approaches.

— Umesh Mehta, EVP & Global - CIO, Jubilant Life Sciences

Well, when the office shifts from an expensive real estate or a big town headquarter to a second-tier city street, a lot happens as a domino effect. The near 100% shift to work-from-home has also created a massive push to move everything on the cloud and the need for new digital approaches and data-driven business innovations. Moderator Anil Chopra, Sr. VP, Research and Consulting, CMR, got some levels deeper into this paradigm with a multi-faceted panel at the DQ Digital Leadership Conclave, discussing cloud, WFH, intelligent enterprise, and reshaping the business.

Getting flexi

Harnath Babu, CIO, KPMG India, explained how the WFH aspect is transpiring with the redefining of offices and telecommuting. “One thing for sure is that the world is not going back to earlier ways of work. The young talent, especially, is not so open to previous modes of work. We are looking at how to rewire policies to new needs and habits. Interestingly, BYOD trends and SASE-related evolutions were there in some shape or form but they are progressing at a new speed now. Earlier, humans were the most fragile elements and if they failed, initiatives tended to flop. Now, there is so much awareness of AI, ML, IoT, and digital tools in the new world. This world is completely hybrid and automated.”

A key point that the discussion touched well upon was the area of creating hybrid cloud business models. Kapil Mahajan, Group CIO, Safexpress, talked about several challenges related to scalability, vendors, availability, and outsourcing. “Getting a unified view across many applications is tough. There are also multiple points of failure. We need to have a lot of tools in place, especially from the open-source stack. Portability and loosely coupled APIs are also emerging as significant aspects. We are always weighing the costs with the ease of running a cloud. But the business outcomes outweigh these challenges. Technology is also advancing a lot and many tools are coming up to address these issues.”

Would enterprises find hybrid clouds challenging in terms of governance and redundancy management? Yes, he said but iterated that a number of tools and approaches are emerging to take care of such challenges.

CFO is changing from the custodian of transactions to enabler of transformations. Now, CFOs will unlock new value points.

— Bimal Khandelwal, CFO, STT GDC India

Going agile

No matter what format and what tools would come into play for the workplace of the new decade, one thing is for sure – agility would become a hygiene factor of sorts. Umesh Mehta, EVP & Global-CIO, Jubilant Life Sciences, expanded on the need for intelligence and agility in the new enterprise. “Personalisation and patient-centric models are shaping up. The organisation has to be intelligent, especially in the life sciences industry, where patients are increasingly taking control of their health approaches. Big data is also driving health networks with therapeutic outcomes at lower costs and with new ecosystems. We are serving customers with more holistic approaches and collaborations. I also see life sciences companies starting to collaborate more closely with quality suppliers for enriching customer needs.”

Getting a unified view across many applications is tough. There are also multiple points of failures. We need to have a lot of tools in place, especially from the open source stack.

— Kapil Mahajan, Group CIO, Safexpress

Incidentally, finance leaders are also shaping business transformation and digital acceleration in 2021 and beyond. Bimal Khandelwal, CFO, STT GDC India, shared his perspective for an era where resilience is not a choice but a staple during the pandemic. Did it increase the costs of IT initiatives in the long run? His perspective is based on three fundamental points. “They need to be derived from the new workplace shift is that of digital upskilling. We need to develop capabilities and motivation for the new ways of working. We need to accelerate the adoption of cloud technologies with the right choice. CFO is changing from the custodian of transactions to enabler of transformations. Now, CFOs will unlock new value points. Digital is the future, we used to say to convince the C-Suite, but the pandemic has made that expression redundant.”

A lot of adjacent areas like the WFH model, the network essentials of a smart and dynamic organisation, and the evolving cloud environment need to be addressed here when we think of how to get ready for the workplace ahead.

Overall, the new world looks more intelligent and more hybrid than it ever was – or it ever could be – if not for the imperatives seen in the last two years. Not only our offices but also our work approach has changed. As the office shrinks and the workplace expands, let us see where we go next.

By Pratima Harigunani

pratimah@cybermedia.co.in