Workforce Transformation Strategy: A Spotlight On ... - NQLoad

A Thought Leadership Spotlight Commissioned By Dell

Workforce Transformation Strategy: A Spotlight On Southeast Asia RESULTS FOCUSING ON SOUTH EAST ASIA (SEA) FROM THE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SERIES “WORKFORCE TRANSFORMATION,” WHICH INCLUDES THE COMPONENTS OF WORKFORCE EXPERIENCE, WORKFORCE SECURITY, AND WORKFORCE ENABLEMENT MATURITY IN AUGUST 2016

Introduction In August 2016, Dell Technologies commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate some of the key challenges, drivers, and trends that businesses are facing to ensure adoption of workforce enablement technology across Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). This study included in-depth surveys with 327 senior business and technology executives and end user computing decisionmakers in China, India, Japan, Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines), South Korea, and ANZ (Australia, New Zealand) within their organizations. To further explore the geographical variations, this spotlight focuses on the trends among 52 IT and business decision-makers in SEA, South Korea, and ANZ (Australia, New Zealand). When we narrow the focus on workforce transformation trends in Southeast Asia, our key findings as follows:

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Firms in Southeast Asia will look to balance budgetary pressures with improving customer experience for their workforce technology approach. Security is the top concern for both business and IT leaders in regards to workforce technology; in particular, endpoint devices remain vulnerable. Organizational and IT environment complexities add to PC life-cycle management challenges. Firms will look to partner with technology providers with abilities to work with leadership and cross-geo capabilities to lead the change in their PC life-cycle management approach.

October 2016

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Firms In Southeast Asia Juggle Meeting Financial Goals With Elevating Customer Experience Firms in SEA are at the crossroads between meeting financial goals and creating a niche for themselves in the new age digital economy. Since SEA comprises both mature and developing economies, firms in this region reflect the urgencies of mature economies. Enhancing the customer experience and delivering financial returns are prioritized by growing yet investor-sensitive developing economies. Our study reveals that most firms in Southeast Asia:

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Will prioritize financial returns. Seventy-one percent of the business and IT leaders across organizations in SEA will prioritize reducing costs for their organizations as the topmost priority, while 56% will prioritize growing revenues. Further, 50% of SEA respondents said that they would like to prioritize increasing profits (see Figure 1). FIGURE 1 Firms In SEA Juggle Managing Financial Returns And Improving Customer Experience “Which of the following initiatives are likely to be your organization’s top business priorities over the next 12 months?” (Please rank all on the basis of priority)

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Will constantly seek to improve the experience of their customers. Close to two-thirds of respondents (63%) indicated that their top business priority will be to improve customer experience, while 38% will prioritize improving their products and services to win, serve, and retain customers (see Figure 1). Understand that allowing device diversity will be the key to retaining talent. Nearly half of the respondents (48%) stated that better devices that improve information flow across the organization for business purposes will be helpful in retaining talent. Forty-two percent said more freedom for employees to choose their own devices would help their organizations to retain talent (see Figure 2). FIGURE 2 The Need For Improving Workforce Experience Will Drive Device Demand In SEA “Which of the following statements do you agree would help you attract and retain talent in your organization?” Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines)

Better communication and information flow across the organization

48%

More freedom of choice for devices

42%

Percentages added for rank 1, rank 2, and rank 3

More flexible working hours

Reduce costs Improve the experience of our customers

63%

Grow revenues

56%

Increase profits

50%

Improve our products/ services

Better address the needs of employees

35%

71%

38%

21%

Base: 52 IT and business decision-makers across organizations in SEA (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, August 2016

Provide a more collaborative work environment through communities and forums within the organization

33%

Simplify and/or automate business processes

29%

Stay up to date with the latest device technology

29%


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Employee Devices Remain Vulnerable Across Southeast Asia, many organizations are not updating their workforce technology, and the IT environments in which the devices reside have become much more complex. This has resulted in firms facing several critical security challenges in the region, as borne out by the respondents to our survey. Eighty-one percent of respondents are concerned about the legal liability issues arising from BYOD policies, while 75% are concerned about device policies and 73% face challenges from device malware concerns. There are several other security challenges as well:

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Endpoint security is vulnerable. Employee devices for firms across industries in SEA are not secure. Close to half of the respondents (44%) said that organization wide breaches originate from employee devices, while 25% said that security breaches in the past 12 months have resulted from lost or stolen employee-owned assets, including smartphones, laptops, and flash drives. Further, 27% of survey respondents noted that their organizations have been prone to breaches due to internal incidents (see Figure 3). Firms will look to improve on their user authentication vulnerabilities. Three-quarters (75%) of respondents said that they either agree or strongly agree that user authentication for their devices remains vulnerable. Firms will look to resolve this critical concern by improving their organization’s existing workforce technology (see Figure 3). Newer PC hardware will significantly improve the security landscape within the organizations. Firms in SEA face several other security challenges. Fifty-eight percent of respondents indicated a high security risk due to the mixing of several operating systems in the IT environment, while 48% are concerned about security vulnerabilities due to the mixing of mobile devices and PCs in the environment. It is important to note that 75% of survey respondents said that replacing older PC hardware with newer PC hardware will significantly improve the security landscape for organizations in SEA (see Figure 4).

FIGURE 3 Current Workforce Technology Is Not Secure “Which of the following security breaches occurred in the organization over the past 12 months?” (Select all that apply) Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) Origination of security breach from an employee’s device

44%

Internal incident within our organization

27%

Lost/stolen asset (e.g., smartphone, tablet, laptop, external hard drive, USB flash drive, etc.)

25%

Internal incident within a business partner’s/third-party supplier’s organization No incident occurred External attack targeting a business partner/thirdparty supplier External attack targeting our organization

23%

15%

12%

8%


With A Diverse Set Of Challenges, Firms In SEA Will Look To Change Their Approach To PC Life-Cycle Management Firms in SEA are managing the shareholders’ mandate of improving returns and improving the customer experience with their products and services. But they are facing several security challenges with the IT platform, mainly arising from the endpoint devices. A significant 37% of respondents consider improving the employee experience as a path toward meeting business priorities in the next 12 months. Workforce technology is one of the most important tools to deliver an enhanced workforce experience and increase

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FIGURE 4 Newer PC Hardware Can Solve Many Of The Security Challenges That Firms Face In SEA

FIGURE 5 Employee Preferences Will Drive Workforce Technology Demand In SEA

“How strongly do you agree with the following security statements?”

“Which of the following are driving the demand of new device technology in your organization?”

(Grouped for “agree “and “strongly agree”)

(Choose your top three)

Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines)

Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines)

User authentication for devices remains vulnerable

Encrypted communication between devices is vital Files created with Windows 7 hould not be shared directly with Windows 10 PCs Mixing PCs with mobile devices in the same environment adds complexity to the security profile

75%

Better application compatibility

58%

52%

52%

54% 38%

Better security

31%

Easier to support

31%

Easier manageability such as patching and application deployment

31%

Better reliability

29%

Lower total cost of ownership

29%

48%



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productivity, if mapped accurately to employees’ unique requirements. As expected, 58% of the survey respondents in SEA said that a better user experience is the prime driving force behind new devices, while 54% said that one of the key device demand drivers is employee preference (see Figure 5). There are several critical challenges faced by organizations across SEA in managing the overall PC life cycle:

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58%

Preferred by employees (e.g., faster, more battery life)

Newer PC hardware is significantly more secure than older PC hardware Mixing different generations of operating systems in the same environment adds significant security risk

Better user experience

75%

Complexity arising from managing several vendors is a critical challenge. More than half (53%) of the business and IT leaders who responded to our survey said that managing a large number of vendors is a top concern for them while managing their PC life cycle (see Figure 6).

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Endpoint security is a critical challenge for organizations across SEA. The growing sophistication of threats has made old workforce technology vulnerable. Fifty-three percent of survey respondents said that the frequency of security PC breaches is a top concern for firms across SEA (see Figure 6). While the firms look to improve the security landscape, they wish to do so while managing the PC life-cycle cost challenges (see Figure 7). Firms in SEA will look to partner technology providers to manage PC lifecycles better. Thirty-eight percent of the IT leaders responding to our survey said that their major challenge while managing the PC life cycle is the complexity of the organization. This is also the top concern across industries for SEA firms. Further, 29% of IT leaders said that employees’ use of their own devices adds to the IT

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landscape complexity and enhances the PC life-cycle management challenges (see Figure 7). In order to overcome these critical challenges and deliver the capability and experience required by their employees to get the job done, firms in SEA will look to partner with technology providers for holistic PC life-cycle management solutions. Several key attributes of a technology partner will be critical for this partnership — 50% said the most important attribute is the ability to work effectively with business and IT leadership, while others said they look for building a clear migration path (33%) and the ability for cross-geo support (38%).

(Select all that apply) (Respondents = IT decision-makers) Large number of vendor relationships to manage

53%

Frequency of security breaches

53%

Increasing PC device diversity

35%

Lack of 24x7 coverage to support global operations

30%

Inability to support remote workforce with PC support

23%

Our devices require a lot of personalization/customization for each employee

23%

Increasing budget pressures Increasing cost of managing PC life cycle

“Which of the following challenges are you currently experiencing regarding PC life-cycle management in your organization?” (Select all that apply) (Respondents = IT decision-makers) Increasing cost of managing PC life cycle

67%

56%

47%

Increasing PC device diversity

“Which of the following challenges are you currently experiencing regarding PC life-cycle management in your organization?”

37%

Organizational Complexity Is The Biggest PC Life-Cycle Challenge

Large number of vendor relationships to manage

FIGURE 6 Security And A Large Number Of Vendor Relationships Are The Key PC Life-Cycle Challenges In SEA

Difficulty in providing ongoing support (i.e., frequency of help desk calls, maintenance, refurbishment, and/or replacement of PCs)

FIGURE 7

19%

16%

Base: 43 IT decision-makers across organizations in SEA (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, August 2016

Inability to support remote workforce with PC support

30%

Lack of 24x7 coverage to support global operations

30%

Our devices require a lot of personalization/customization for each employee

30%

Base: 43 IT decision-makers across organizations in SEA (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, August 2016

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Key Recommendations For an effective workforce transformation, companies in SEA must:

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Make employee productivity your top priority. Cost, risk, and IT efficiency will always be important because they’re easy to see and understand, but if you want to help your company improve customer experience and grow revenue, you must shift your focus toward fostering employee productivity. Choose the most secure device hardware. In general, security measures that operate at the hardware level have the least impact on employee productivity because they’re usually transparent to the user while offering superior protection compared with software-only solutions. For example, the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) in commercial-grade PC hardware offers strong encryption to ensure the integrity of the system with no negative impact to the user. Many commercial PCs also offer biometric features that save people time by eliminating the need to type in a password to log in. Shift support responsibilities outside your company – and consider fewer vendors. There's no way your staff can keep up with all of the variations in technology in a world of bring-your-own-technology (BYOT), so you have to redraw the boundaries of what you do. This means I&O will depend on groups outside of its organization to troubleshoot and fix problems. "Virtualize" certain processes to take advantage of outside resources to help you support your users when technology breaks. Look to external providers for help in managing the complex PC lifecycles in what is quickly becoming a multi-device world. And with the management of multiple vendors causing headaches for businesses in South East Asia, look towards fewer, rather than more vendors for your PC lifecycle management support.

Appendix A: Methodology In this study, Forrester conducted computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) of 327 IT and business decision-makers across organizations in China, India, Japan, SEA (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) (52 IT and business leaders), South Korea, and ANZ (Australia, New Zealand) to evaluate key business trends, growth inhibitors, and innovative solutions for workplace security. Survey participants included decision-makers and business leaders in business or IT roles. The study began in July 2016 and was completed in August 2016.