What is Digital Workplace?

Digital Workplace implies a virtual equivalent to the physical workplace, through more personalized customer interactions and a multi-device, collaborative employee environment. The Digital Workplace requires strong planning and management due to its fundamental role in people’s productivity, engagement and working health. Definition of Digital Workplace The term “Digital Workplace” dates back to 2009 when Paul Miller, CEO, and founder of Digital Workplace Group (DWG), used the term in his lexicon. It meant an understanding that exploration into how technology would affect both the workplace and the nature of work would be necessary. A few years later, Miller s book The Digital Workplace: How technology is liberating work was published, which focused on the evolution of the workplace and how work happens. In his book, Miller cited three defining elements of all Digital Workplaces: digital presence, governance, and speed and efficiency. In 2012 Deloitte spoke on similar lines and defined it as one that “… encompasses all the technologies people use to get work done in today’s workplace–both the ones in operation and the ones yet to be implemented. It ranges from your HR applications and core business applications to e-mail, instant messaging and enterprise social media tools and virtual meeting tools.” Gartner’s definition of the Digital Workplace came out in 2014 and they defined it as “an ongoing, deliberate approach to delivering a more consumer-like computing environment that is better able to facilitate innovative and flexible working practices.” As we probe deeper into the subject matter, we find that all three definitions point to one thing: improved efficiency and workforce mobility through the intelligent use of people, processes, and technology. To put it in a simpler way, we may say that the Digital Workplace encompasses the following:

• Putting people first – the impact on employees is what makes the Digital Workplace important
• Technology layer – advances in technology are driving changes in the Digital Workplace
• Management and Design – proactively developing a Digital Workplace means addressing it as a whole and 360-degree co-ordination between technology, process, and people

  The Digital Workplace provides an organization with five services or capabilities:

1. Communication and employee engagement
2. Collaboration
3. Finding and sharing of information and knowledge
4. Business applications (process-specific tools and employee self-service)
5. Agile working – the ability to be productive any time and place

To work well, these needs must be supported by five management activities:

1. Strategic planning
2. Governance and operational management
3. Proactive support for adoption
4. High-quality user experience
5. Robust, secure, and flexible technology

  Email, intranets, and web conferencing are the principal components of the Digital Workplace. Also, what matters is the employer’s emphasis on bringing together the resources from an employee’s point of view. Traditional business systems like SAP, PeopleSoft, databases, and CRM are all part of the non-physical workplace. But these are mostly accepted part of the fabric of most businesses; however, they are part of what should be considered within a Digital Workplace strategy, at least from an alignment point of view.  

Benefits of Digital Workplace

• The Digital Workplace will bring about increased interaction, higher employee engagement, better digital employee experience, and improves efficiency.
• The Digital Workplace will ensure employee empowerment through advanced tools and technologies, leading to better performance at work, increased interaction, and opening up existing silos. Booking meeting rooms, juggling various calendars, distributing agendas and handouts–all will happen without friction.
• The Digital Workplace will improve enterprise mobility by collecting data. It will make use of collected data to deliver measurable results and actionable insights.

  Closing thoughts: In the coming years, the Digital Workplace will continue to evolve. With the exponential growth of mobile and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), the physical workplace will see a transformation too. Current technologies will be exchanged for new ones, and new technology will be adopted internally. Though creating an effective Digital Workplace may prove a bit challenging for some organizations, the long-term benefits will please them all. Businesses adapting to the changing environment will be better positioned in areas of innovation, productivity, and collaboration. Also, well-executed Digital Workplaces will help organizations attract the right employees to remain competitive in an almost exclusively digital world.   Have questions? Get in touch! We would love to hear from you.

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