Mason Advisory explores in a series of articles, the trends, challenges and opportunities emerging from Covid
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Date:
July 2020
IT execs and Leadership need to rethink their business model and architect new strategies during the next steps of the post-pandemic journey.
To view the articles, click on the links below:
Article 1 – Introduction – The Post-Covid Reality: IT’s role in driving distributed working
As we get to grips with where businesses go now, how can IT maximise its role in architecting viable post-pandemic business models? This article series explores the trends, challenges and opportunities emerging from Covid, with strategic expertise to support IT leadership and the executive during the next steps of the journey.
In the second article of our Post-Covid Reality series, we explore the issues IT faces in managing a hardware portfolio amongst a remote workforce and reflect on:
- IT’s leadership role in facilitating and maintaining productive remote working.
- How to sustain an optimised device pool to maintain end user productivity.
- Why retrospective governance and lifecycle management will be crucial to crisis recovery.
Our previous article on end user devices touched on the response of tech giants to the new global working reality. The 2020 pandemic has presented a sharp learning curve for bosses and IT leaders, with 93% of large firms turning to telework, and half of all British companies redeploying the bulk of their staff to home working (Reuters). But it has also transformed our expectations of barrier free working, creating new possibilities for the future. So, what does the software landscape promise as we move forward? Read on to explore:
- The role of Cloud capabilities in driving new working innovations.
- The challenge of marrying barrier free working with legacy systems.
- Why IT must shift its mindset and take an end-to-end view across the supply chain.
Article 4 – Security – Safeguarding the future: Tackling endpoint security in the post-Covid reality
Previously in our Post-Covid Reality series, we examined the complexities of retrospectively auditing, optimising, and governing end user devices and technology. Across these operations lies the need to ensure that endpoints are properly secured to guard against multiple threats – especially as home working becomes more prevalent. So, what are the key issues to consider? Here, we look at:
- Why the cybersecurity landscape is more business-critical than ever before.
- The multi-faceted challenge of addressing physical, virtual, and cultural security threats.
- The importance of aligning operations and leadership to future-proof against cyber risk
So far in our Post Covid Reality series, we have highlighted some of the key issues involved in equipping end users to deliver in a post-pandemic environment. Devices, technologies, and security all contribute to the capability portfolio. But none of these can be properly addressed without fit-for-purpose connectivity. Here, the strategy may need to be significantly rethought to ensure that the Covid response does not impact negatively on future efficiencies. So, let’s turn to the issue in hand and examine:
- The complexities of moving to Cloud-first models with legacy systems in the mix.
- The importance of scaling connectivity for office, home, and hybrid working.
- How Enterprise Architecture will inform the future location strategy, revisiting and updating connectivity patterns as needed.
Article 6 – End user services: Managing the future of post-Covid working
Our series of articles on the post-Covid reality has, so far, tackled the issues IT will need to address in a new culture of remote working. Joined up thinking will be important to ensure that the needs of end users (and hence customers) are met. Across hardware, software, security, connectivity, and governance, the service management model also needs reinvigorating to ensure it aligns to, and drives forward, emerging priorities and working practices. So, in this article, we explore:
- How shifting user capabilities are changing the ITSM outlook.
- Why the service management model must be streamlined to enable agility and productivity.
- How revisiting the ITSM strategy will enhance IT’s role an as enabler of the business
Article 7 – Governance – The changing face of IT governance in the post-Covid reality
We’re reaching the conclusion of our post-Covid reality series, which has explored all aspects of the IT response journey, from deploying virtual resources to restructuring end user services . Running through that journey is the issue of governance – perhaps the most crucial, yet tricky, area to address as we emerge from the pandemic and look to the future. So, in this article, we’re focusing the spotlight on:
- Why mobilising rapid remote working solutions has put governance on the back burner.
- The risks of not retrospectively addressing governance in the future roadmap.
- IT leadership’s role in moving to a new, lighter touch governance model to facilitate agility
Article 8 – Conclusion – What next for IT? Five strategic lessons for the post-Covid reality
Concluding our series of articles on the post-Covid reality, we explore five common themes that should be considered across the end user and broader IT strategy, with lessons that can be applied by IT and business leaders now to tackle challenges and embrace opportunities in the future
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