Enabling People Connect in Remote Workplaces

Aforeserve organised a CIO Round Table to have a debate and discourse around the topic of Enabling People Connect in Remote Workplaces. The session generated intriguing insights thanks to an experienced panel in Atul Govil,-Chief Transformation Officer India Glycols , Sourav Das – CIO Essel Mining , Sutanu Ganguly- Heat IT Infra & Security, Prism Johnson Group and Rajeev Asija, CEO Aforeserve.

Here’s a synopsis of the key discussions.

• CIOs are sensitive to the human psychology of Work from Anywhere. Todays IT team members serve employees with deep empathy, agility and responsiveness , supporting them at work , in the context of the current environment. The CIOs of tomorrow will put people first, technology second while they architect transformation for their organisations.

• CIOs are facilitating swift adoption of digital. In organisations with young demography, the adoption has been fast. Even in traditional industries, with older demography - not just core operations , people requirements like onboarding or internships have been aligned with an e-process. What looked to be a gradual change, has been catapulted as an essential priority for the CIOs. It seems that CIOs put this digital initiatives in pilots over the last few years. And hence have been prompt enough to roll out full steam in a fast and furious mode.

• Cybersecurity is the highest priority of CIOs considering vulnerability at the edge. With most work happening from homes , and with an yet-to-be-standardised device policy , the risk of cyber attack is higher than ever. And recurring global incidents of threats, attacks and breaches are costing companies money, customers and goodwill. CIOs are unanimous in shifting their investment priority for detection and prevention of cyberattacks to the top of the list.

• CIOs acknowledge that while budgets will be constrained, there's opportunity to cut unnecessary cost, measure return on every asset deployed, and reimagine transformation.

• What’s essentially essential in today’s context like cloud, automation or security is getting the due investment, faster than before.

• CIOs strongly feel that there's an emerging role for IT support providers, augmenting device support with managing multiple secure and productive remote workplaces delivering near-real work experience. This calls for a shift in strategy, structure and capabilities of IT Service Providers. Now is the time to differentiate, add compelling value and up the relationship strength with existing clients, as well as be a first choice for new prospects who have turned seriously digital !

We thank our three guest CIO panelists for their generous participation. We also promise to keep the debate on through our series of virtual round tables.