While CIOs continue to prioritize the shift to product-oriented operating models in 2021, companies still struggle to create empowered product teams throughout their organizations. One significant inhibitor is often the lack of progress and investment in DevOps.
Amazon Web Services defines DevOps as “the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high velocity.” In this setup, “development and operations teams are no longer siloed… [and] engineers work across the entire application lifecycle, from development and test to deployment and operations”.
DevOps can significantly enable product operating model transformations. It brings agile processes to life through technical enablement, turning processes into automation. Put simply, this often means automating the software development process from start (continuous integration / CI) to finish (continuous deployment or delivery / CD) while also creating empowered developers with a pulse on customer needs.
A successful DevOps transformation enables teams to react quickly to shifting market demands and reduces risk by decreasing the time it takes to get working software out the door. For example, an empowered product team that releases new features daily or hourly can iterate and innovate securely much faster than in the past, allowing for constant validation of product strategy and the ability to scale when they find something that works.
DevOps, Agile, and product operating model shifts are closely linked in successful digital companies. Through our work with some of the largest organizations in the world (both digital natives and digital immigrants), we have found that leaders who closely couple DevOps transformation efforts with Agile and product management transformations are significantly more successful in realizing their goals. Below are four tips to help you do so successfully:
In future posts, we will go into more detail about how to kickstart your DevOps transformation, from examining the key dimensions of the transformation process to exploring creative ways to fund DevOps efforts. Drop us a note if you have any questions, thoughts, or suggestions for future topics to cover!
Nearly a decade ago, Metis Strategy President Peter High coined the term “CIO-plus” to describe CIOs who were expanding beyond their core IT roles and taking on more customer-focused and strategic responsibilities. Fast forward to 2020, when a Deloitte study found that 40% of CEOs see their CIO and tech leaders as the primary partners in driving business strategy, more than all other C-suite roles combined.
CIOs already played an essential role in transforming their organizations to compete in the digital age, even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced companies to alter their strategies and operating models practically overnight. A broad shift to remote work put CIOs even more in the spotlight, giving them a more prominent seat at the table as digital acceleration took hold.
That acceleration shifted CIO priorities and changed the trends on technology leaders’ roadmaps. In conversations with nearly 100 CIOs and technology leaders in 2020 as part of our podcast, Technovation with Peter High, we observed an increased focus on collaboration tools. Technologies such as cloud, AI, and analytics remained top of mind for many executives, but conversations now focused on business and strategic implications.
Below, we take a closer look at the trends and insights behind the data and get a glimpse of what’s to come in 2021.
Digital transformation accelerates
Throughout our conversations with tech CXOs, one thing we heard consistently was that the pandemic accelerated the overall shift to digital. “We have seen a massive acceleration in trends we were already seeing,” said Ed Mclaughlin, President of Operations & Technology at Mastercard. “We felt we were about three years away from digital supremacy, [but] that actually happened this year.”
At MGM International, then-President of Commercial and Growth Atif Rafiq noted that efforts to develop a mobile check-in capability were accelerated by nine months. Meanwhile, at Domino’s, Chief Innovation Officer Dennis Maloney shared that the percentage of sales coming through digital channels rose from 65% to 75% as a result of a “massive movement [of] consumers into digital ordering platforms.”
From internal efforts like the shift to a digital workforce or adoption of best-of-breed SaaS tools to external trends such as the explosion of e-commerce and changing customer expectations, it’s clear that COVID-19 massively accelerated the digital trends that have been gaining momentum for years. Technology executives who recognize that changes they thought were several years away are here today will be the ones best positioned to help their organizations thrive.
Cloud-based collaboration tools explode
As mentioned above, cloud-based communication and collaboration tools exploded in 2020. Less than 4% of technology leaders mentioned tools like Zoom, Slack, or Microsoft Teams in 2019, but in 2020, nearly a quarter of interviewees discussed video conferencing, chat platforms, and similar capabilities. That was certainly the case at Ally Financial, which hit more than a million minutes per day on Zoom during the pandemic, according to Sathish Muthukrishnan, the company’s Chief Information, Data, and Digital Officer.
As CIOs remain focused on empowering remote workforces, we expect to see companies accelerate adoption of cloud-based capabilities while strengthening fundamentals such as security, bandwidth, redundancy, and availability. As the “new normal” slowly emerges, CIOs and digital leaders who have successfully enabled employees to turn their homes into an office will then have an opportunity to help define how technology can differentiate the in-office experience and define the vision for a hybrid work experience.
Data, analytics & AI drive automation
Artificial intelligence continues to dominate the mindshare of CIOs and digital leaders. It was the top tech trend mentioned on the podcast for the third year in a row. At our Metis Strategy Digital Symposium in January, when asked which emerging technology holds the most promise for companies in 2021, 60% of the executives responded with “advanced AI.”
At NetApp, CIO Bill Miller rolled out over 150 software bots to optimize workflows ranging from legal and procurement to HR, supply chain, and customer service. Meanwhile, at Intel, Global CIO Archana Deskus noted how the company is applying data, analytics, and AI to the domains of business outcome optimization, product and service design, and manufacturing optimization.
As the volume of data continues to explode, opportunities around AI, analytics, and automation will only increase. While we encourage organizations to accelerate their shift to an AI-first business model, it is important to do so while considering the strategic, ethical, and societal implications. At Mars, for example, CDO Sandeep Dadlani is looking to leverage automation not to replace workers, but to reduce menial tasks and empower associates to focus on more meaningful activities. Meanwhile, Bank of America Chief Operations and Technology Officer Cathy Bessant led the formation of the Council on the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence, in partnership with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, to explore ethical and policy issues related to AI.
Looking to the future, CIOs and digital leaders who not only understand the technical aspects of data and AI, but also the broader business and societal implications, will be best positioned to lead their organizations’ AI transformation.
We expect more companies to see results from AI initiatives in the year ahead. We are also seeing an increased focus on the underlying tools and technologies that enable these initiatives and increasing occurrences of companies developing data strategies.
Trends likely to rise in 2021
In addition to the major technology trends noted above, there are a few topics noted by CIOs that are worth mentioning, as they show signts of gaining importance in 2021:
This article is part of an ongoing series exploring the ways in which companies are can prepare for a post-pandemic world of work.
Tiffany Jenkins, Mac Connolly, and Yucca Reinecke co-authored this article
In the post-pandemic world of work, flexibility will be key. Our conversations with technology executives suggest that many companies expect to maintain a hybrid working model, in which some employees work remotely, others work primarily at the office, and many move back and forth between the two. More than 80% of executives polled during the January 2021 Metis Strategy Digital Symposium expect either a 50/50 split between remote work and the office or for most employees to work remotely beyond the end of the pandemic. And just this week, Salesforce.com said it would give employees three ways to work, even once it is safe to return to the office: flex, fully remote, and office-based.
In this article, we will explore four key dimensions leaders should consider as they evaluate the people, process, and technology changes needed to enable hybrid work for the long term, including:
A shift toward a long-term hybrid working model requires a major rethink of day-to-day operations. While many changes were made at the peak of the pandemic, including, in many cases, a massive shift to remote work, companies should now build upon the experiences and learnings to date while developing a sustainable operating model that supports these changes long into the future. That means rethinking existing ways of working, scheduling meetings, current employee practices, and the policies that govern daily operations.
An important first step is to assess which jobs will require a return to the office, which ones can be conducted fully remote, and which require a mix of both. In order to answer that question, companies may need to look at jobs from different points of view, including functional responsibilities, type of work performed, and the skills and preferences represented in certain jobs. For example, some companies are experimenting with having groups of employees return for a few days per week or bringing together certain teams on specific days when these teams are expected to engage in collaboration or discussions that benefit from co-location and in-person interactions.
For jobs that will be largely remote, leaders should think about whether those workers will be required to be located within a certain proximity of the office or other work-related physical location, if compensation changes based on employee location are warranted, and other policies that will impact future decision-making.
An operating model fit for a hybrid work environment should also anticipate the new, often more complex, ways in which colleagues will collaborate, over virtual collaboration and communication tools or even across time zones, and how that impacts productivity, employee experience, and company culture. Determining how and where teams will be expected to work together can further influence decisions around technology and real estate investments, as we will explore below.
Companies are placing renewed focus on employee experience as teams adapt to major changes in their work habits. While a shift to largely remote work during the pandemic led to increased productivity at many companies, the new setups also showed remote work’s potentially adverse effects on well-being as employees balanced the demands of work and home. Indeed, many employees’ greatest challenges stem from the physical and emotionally blurred lines between the workplace and their personal or family lives. As one of our executive partners recently said, “we no longer work from home, but we live at work”. Left unaddressed, these challenges could lead to difficulties retaining talent long term.
To that end, it is increasingly critical to invest in an employee experience that balances productivity and employee well-being. Fortunately, most organizations have realized that well-being, productivity, employee satisfaction, and retention are more closely intertwined than they were pre-pandemic and should be addressed in unison. Doing so can lead to higher engagement, and ultimately better business outcomes. A Gallup Study found that engaged employees are 21% more productive, 22% more profitable and score 10% better on customer ratings than unengaged employees. Companies that consider all these factors are more likely to retain talent and, in some cases, may become a more attractive employer now and during the gradual return to the ‘next normal.’
A key driver of employee engagement efforts is providing employees with the tools and support they need to do their jobs successfully no matter where they work. These can range from technology such as laptops, collaboration tools and video-conferencing applications to perks that support health and wellness, from gym reimbursements to subsidized childcare and access to therapy and mental health support.
Several organizations have also begun to experiment with virtual and digital tools that attempt to replicate the social interactions that typically occur in a physical workplace, such as virtual “water coolers.” While not intended to produce concrete outcomes, these social interactions have shown to lead to greater team cohesion, trust among team members, and generally higher levels of employee motivation. However, it is also important for leaders to help employees know when to log off or when it may be best to disconnect from more rounds of video conferences. Leaders should continuously solicit feedback and measure outcomes of these efforts on productivity and perception of well-being.
Putting people first by ensuring that they have the support they need, communicating early and often, and creating new opportunities for learning stands to boost both engagement and productivity no matter what comes next. As Verizon CIO Shankar Arumugavelu said in a recent interview about the company’s pandemic response: “We all have business resilience plans. At the end of the day, what stood out [at Verizon] is the human resilience. That really made the difference here.” As the company develops its post-pandemic plans, the company is taking the opportunity to rethink how things are done for the betterment of customers, employees, shareholders and society.
Several of the organizations we work with have addressed the new realities of virtual work by making it easier – and in some cases even explicitly welcome – to have family members join certain meetings, for example, or by otherwise supporting employees who are exposed to the logistical challenges of co-managing professional and personal lives.
As noted above, enabling a successful hybrid workforce means ensuring employees have access to the technology and tools needed to carry out day-to-day operations. In our conversations with IT teams, we have found that reliable and secure video conferencing, instant messaging, whiteboarding and visualization tools that can be accessed in and out of the office have often been deemed essential.
Rather than attempting to fully replicate the workplace in the remote environment, companies should first assess the digital tools and capabilities that have best supported a remote-first workforce. Firms can then assess how those tools may enable collaboration in an in-office and hybrid working environment and think through the process changes that may be required to do so. Many IT teams we have spoken with have adopted new interactive whiteboarding tools, for example, and companies have invested in the training needed to ensure teams are well positioned to use them.
Of course, simply implementing the needed tools will not lead to greater collaboration. Leaders also must be intentional about driving adoption. Slack or similar communication tools will not improve effectiveness if only a few people use it. Conversely, with deliberate and widespread adoption, the use of real-time communication tools can address the fundamental need for accessibility.
At a recent Metis Strategy Digital Symposium, Comcast CIO Rick Rioboli noted that the pandemic has created an opportunity to completely rethink the physical office. The company now is approaching its offices “not as what we go back to, but rather as what [our offices] can do for us.” Similar conversations are happening across industries as leaders consider how best to use physical office space once it is safe for employees to return.
Often, those conversations include thinking about how to weave digital capabilities that currently serve remote employees across the physical office environment and how to reconfigure existing space to maximize the potential for productive collaboration in a post-pandemic, hybrid world. A workplace intelligence report by global technology leader NTT Ltd. found that 31% of companies are implementing additional creative thinking spaces, while 30% will provide more meeting places and 27% will reduce individual desk space.
Turning the office into a digitally enabled, collaboration-first environment will be critical to enabling a hybrid workforce. As companies seek to create a safe, collaborative, and efficient space for their employees, we have observed a few common practices:
In addition to layering digital tools onto the digital space, there are some design changes that can benefit hybrid employees as well. Among them:
As companies begin to formulate and test hybrid operating models, continued investment and careful strategic planning are necessary to maintain effectiveness and resilience. While reports of increased productivity are reassuring, the next question to ask is how to make that productivity is sustainable over the long term. By adapting your operating model, investing in employee experience, empowering employees with needed tools and technologies, and rethinking the purpose of physical spaces, companies will set themselves up to tackle the changes brought on by a new world of work.
What separates the companies that have succeeded for decades from those that have faded? Successful companies built nimbleness into their DNA.
As established firms face tougher competition from digital natives and an ever-increasing pace of change, fostering that nimbleness is critical. To do so, companies must modernize practices related to people, process, technology, ecosystems, and strategy. This conference will highlight the stories of companies who have done all of the above best, including Capital One, FedEx, Novant Health, and The Washington Post.
The full agenda is below. If you are a technology executive interested in attending, please email steven.norton@metisstrategy.com. We look forward to welcoming you!
Noon – 12:15
Welcome: Getting to Nimble
Metis Strategy President Peter High will share introductory remarks and outline the concept of nimbleness as it relates to digital transformation.
Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
12:15 – 12:30
The Importance of Adaptability featuring General Stanley McChrystal
Drawing on his experience as a general in the United States Army and leader of the Joint Special Operations Command, Gen. McChrystal will discuss how a common purpose, trust, and individual empowerment can help organizations break down traditional silos and move with the speed and agility of their most nimble competitors.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, retired four-star general, US Army, and leader of Joint Special Operations Command
12:30 – 12:50
People: The Key to Success
Talented and motivated people are crucial to any successful transformation effort. This panel will explore how two leading companies have driven foundational change in IT by rethinking roles, recruiting strategies, and retention efforts.
Rob Alexander, Chief Information Officer, Capital One
Kimberly Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, Fannie Mae
Moderated by Peter High, Metis Strategy
12:50 – 1:05
Entrepreneur Spotlight: The Future of Authentication
This conversation will explore the ways in which companies are moving beyond passwords and re-thinking identity and access management in the post-pandemic world.
Rakesh Loonkar, co-Founder and President, Transmit Security
1:05 – 1:25
Process: An Opportunity to Define your Company’s Future
For many companies, processes are inadequately mapped out and have not been updated to reflect changing times. In this session, we will discuss how process modernization efforts can engage a diverse array of contributors across organizations and literally define the future of work.
Shamim Mohammad, Chief Information and Technology Officer, CarMax
Melanie Kalmar, CIO and Chief Digital Officer, Dow
1:25 – 1:40
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Overcoming Increasingly Nimble Adversaries
As companies grow nimbler, so do the actors who may wish to exploit them. In this entrepreneur spotlight, George will discuss his career in the cybersecurity industry and explore the biggest cybersecurity threats facing enterprises today.
George Kurtz, President, CEO, and co-Founder, CrowdStrike
1:40 – 2:00
Strategy: Harnessing Strategic Alignment to Drive Growth
Without a clear strategy, the advances made by cultivating your people, process, technology, and ecosystem will be difficult to realize. In this session, we will explore how technology leaders can drive strategic alignment across the enterprise.
Shailesh Prakash, CIO and Chief Product Officer, The Washington Post Company
Chintan Mehta, CIO and Head of Digital Technology and Innovation, Wells Fargo
2:00 – 2:20
Technology: Building the Foundation for a Nimble Enterprise
Sprawling technical debt and outdated legacy systems often signal a company that hasn’t built nimbleness into its DNA. This conversation will focus on leaders who addressed technical debt head-on and embraced new technologies and platforms that deliver speed and flexibility.
Rob Carter, Chief Information Officer, FedEx
Steve Randich, Chief Information Officer, FINRA
2:20 – 2:35
Entrepreneur Spotlight: The Rise of Zero Trust
In this discussion, Jay will discuss the rise of Zero Trust architecture and share his perspective on the changing security landscape as we prepare for a world of cloud, IoT, and 5G.
Jay Chaudhry, CEO, Chairman, and Founder, Zscaler
2:35 – 2:55
Ecosystems: Sources of Insight and Innovation
The network you cultivate has the power to shape both the direction of your organization and your evolution as a leader. This panel will explore best practices for cultivating strong and lasting relationships with peers, customers, recruiters, venture capitalists, and other partners.
Angela Yochem, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer, Novant Health
George Llado, CIO, Alexion Pharmaceuticals
2:55 – 3:00
Closing Remarks
Peter High, Metis Strategy
On January 26 at Noon EST, global technology executives, entrepreneurs, investors, and CEOs will gather virtually to discuss topics that are top-of-mind for CIOs in 2021. Our conversations will explore how firms can maintain digital momentum and develop innovative cultures amid a new world of work, scale their data and analytics efforts to deliver meaningful business growth, and create a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable technology industry.
Please see the agenda below. To learn more or request an invitation, please email steven.norton@metisstrategy.com. We look forward to seeing you there!
Noon ET
Welcome and introductions
12:10 pm – 12:30 p.m. ET
Rethinking Employee Experience for a New World of Work
As companies continue to move toward “hybrid” working models that blend in-office and distributed work, they are simultaneously re-examining what it means to deliver an outstanding employee experience. This discussion will explore how technology leaders are enabling employees to do their best work no matter their physical location.
Rick Rioboli, CIO, Comcast
Richard Cox, CIO, Cox Enterprises
12:30 pm – 12:50 p.m. ET
Digital Customer Experience and Innovation
The global pandemic is widely recognized as a digital accelerator and a major factor shaping the future of work. The combination of novel digital capabilities and innovative ways to collaborate will shape employee and customer experiences for the foreseeable future. In this panel discussion, CIOs from Stanley Black & Decker and Verizon will share how they have turned pandemic-induced challenges into opportunities to make lasting improvements that benefit employees and customers alike.
Shankar Arumugavelu, Global CIO, Verizon
Rhonda Gass, VP and Chief Information Officer, Stanley Black & Decker
Moderated by Alex Kraus, Vice President and East Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
12:50 p.m. – 1:05 p.m. ET
Entrepreneur Spotlight: Ashok Reddy, Digital.ai
In this fireside chat, Ashok will discuss his journey from firms such as Broadcom, CA Technologies, IBM and Honeywell to his current role at Digital.ai. He’ll also share thoughts on how connecting software development and delivery to strategic business outcomes can help companies achieve their digital transformation goals.
Ashok Reddy, CEO, Digital.ai
1:05 p.m. – 1:25 p.m. ET
Creating a Diverse and Equitable Workforce
Diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts rose to the top of many CIO agendas in 2020. In this panel, we will discuss strategies for developing diverse talent pipelines, creating inclusive and equitable organizations, and becoming an agent for positive organizational change. We will also discuss TechPACT, an initiative that aims to increase underrepresented communities in technology and “create a world where anyone with a passion for technology will have the opportunity to succeed.”
Janet Sherlock, CIO, Ralph Lauren
Earl Newsome, Americas CIO, Linde
Moderated by Steven Norton, Co-Head of Research, Media, and Executive Networks, Metis Strategy
1:25 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. ET
How Data and AI are Transforming Health Care
After a year of massive change in the health care space, leaders will discuss how advanced analytics and other technologies will enable greater transformation in the year ahead.
Ramkumar Rayapureddy, Global CIO, Viatris
Mark Hill, Chief Digital Information Officer, CSL Behring
Moderated by Michael Bertha, Managing Director and Central Office Lead, Metis Strategy
1:45 p.m. – 2:05 p.m. ET
Behind the Scenes: Data-Driven Operations
We’ve all heard the saying that “data is the new oil,” but what does that mean in practice? This panel will explore how technology executives are embedding data and analytics across their organizations to enable a culture of innovation, unlock new efficiencies, and deliver differentiated products and services.
Shaleen Devgun, CIO, Schneider National
Atif Rafiq, President of Customers, Commercial & Growth, MGM Resorts International
Moderated by Chris Davis, Vice President and West Coast Office Lead, Metis Strategy
2:05 p.m. – 2:25 p.m.
Technology and Innovation in Financial Services
Megan Crespi of Comerica and Catherine Zhou of HSBC discuss the technology trends shaping the finance industry in the year ahead.
Megan Crespi, Chief Operations & Technology Officer, Comerica Bank
Catherine Zhou, Global Head of Venture, Digital Innovation and Partnerships, HSBC
2:25 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.
Security in Unprecedented Times
Peter and Shawn will discuss the implications of the SolarWinds attack on large companies, as well as the threats and trends that are shaping today’s cybersecurity landscape.
Shawn Henry, President, CrowdStrike Services and CSO, former FBI Executive Assistant Director
2:40 p.m. – 2:55 p.m. ET
Fireside chat with Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Daniela will share her thoughts on the evolution of AI in the enterprise and shine a light on some of the latest research coming out of MIT, including an initiative to build self-driving cars and enable mobility on demand.
Daniela Rus, director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Moderated by Peter High, President, Metis Strategy
Mac Connolly, Tiffany Jenkins, Nick Reasner, Yucca Reinecke, and Matthew Schmidt contributed to this article.
The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a wave of digital acceleration, drove a rapid shift to remote work, and underscored the critical nature of business continuity and resilience. As companies continue marching toward a new version of normal, technology leaders find themselves balancing a mandate to drive digital transformation efforts forward while enabling teams to thrive in a new world of work.
In the coming weeks, Metis Strategy will share its perspectives on five areas where CIOs are focused in the new year. Building on conversations with hundreds of technology executives in recent months, this series will highlight strategies and tactics to help organizations win during times of uncertainty and emerge from the crisis stronger than before.
COVID-19 will go down in history as a great digital catalyst. More than 70% of attendees at the Metis Strategy Digital Symposium noted that their digital transformation efforts accelerated as a result of the pandemic, with 42% noting a significant acceleration. Crisis response generated a boost in productivity and innovation at many firms as they experimented with new business models and transitioned to remote work forces. As we look to the year ahead, companies are figuring out how to sustain those efforts while navigating an uncertain economic landscape and adapting to new ways of working. This article will explore examples of pandemic-driven digital acceleration and discuss the ways in which firms that maintain investment in digital capabilities can emerge from the crisis in a position of strength.
In recent months, firms have expressed growing demand for a strategy that guides management and structure of data at enterprise scale. At Metis Strategy’s October conference, 25% of attendees said they were implementing a version of their data strategy, while 64% noted they were developing a strategy. Many executives we speak with say they are working to move beyond traditional descriptive analytics and toward predictive or cognitive capabilities that can further optimize decision making and automate business processes.
Getting to that stage requires a holistic view that ties data to business strategy, and requires a number of changes that impact people, processes, and technologies inside an organization. This article will explore how to assess your company’s data maturity and readiness to manage data and metadata at scale, and share critical first steps to crafting an effective data strategy.
Many companies have long been on a journey to the cloud, but the pandemic has sped up the process significantly. A major driver of cloud adoption is increased agility, which allows firms to pivot and respond quickly in the face of tremendous change, a critical asset as firms navigate the pandemic and improve their competitive positioning. Indeed, some companies now are embracing a cloud-first mentality to better compete with cloud-native firms. Research firm IDC also identified the shift to the cloud as the number one technology trend for 2021, noting that by the end of 2021, “80% of enterprises will put a mechanism in place to shift to cloud-centric infrastructure and applications twice as fast as before the pandemic.”
Yet for all the benefits cloud can provide, the journey is not a simple one and it continues to grow in complexity. This article will explore the primary benefits and key risks posed by cloud and discuss best practices for driving enterprise adoption.
Read the article.
Prior to the pandemic, the phrase “hybrid workforce” usually referred to companies with a handful of fully-remote employees and a somewhat flexible work from home policy. Now that roughly 40% of the working population has been working remotely full time, however, that definition has changed. Even after a vaccine is released and widely distributed, the world of work will not look the same as it did in February 2020. A Gartner survey finds that 82% of company leaders will allow their workforce to work remotely at least some of the time as employees return to the workplace, with 47% reporting that they would let employees work remotely full-time. Furthermore, employees say they want more flexibility in the post-pandemic working world.
This article will discuss specific steps companies can take to create outstanding employee experiences and sustain employee engagement in a new world of work. It will also explore the new tools and technologies that will enable teams to collaborate effectively in a hybrid environment and share key considerations for CIOs implementing these technologies across their organizations.
Cybersecurity has always been a priority for technology leaders, but increasingly sophisticated hackers and a broad shift to remote work has introduced security concerns on a much larger scale. On a recent episode of the Technovation podcast, Lenovo CISO and Motorola Mobile Business Group CIO Jason Ruger said the pandemic has spurred a 3X increase in cyberattacks against the company. As recently as a few weeks ago, news emerged of a monthslong cyberattack that hit a number of U.S. federal agencies and some of the world’s largest businesses, prompting greater scrutiny of software supply chains as organizations race to determine the extent of the fallout.
In this piece,we will address the new cybersecurity concerns that leaders have been forced to confront as more employees work from home and the security landscape becomes more complex. We will also provide a framework that allows leaders to assess their overall cybersecurity maturity and chart a path forward.
