by: VMware Chief Information Officer Jason Conyard
The VMware IT End User Services mission is straightforward: to enable our colleagues to do their best work by delivering a delightful technology experience. This translates to delivering a rich experience regardless of location or device.
The challenge to accomplishing this is orchestrating adoption of the technologies that improve individual productivity, collaboration, and efficiency but have the flexibility to keep up with a rapidly changing business environment. Balancing these demands has a major impact on how we deliver our services to our colleagues. Here are five trends where I believe the fast rate of change is affecting how we deliver our services over the next year:
- Mobile workspace. Our employees are on the move–between offices, airports, home, and cars. The device they use (personal or business) to access their workspace depends on where they are. IT’s challenge is to minimize the friction points between both business and personal devices and different locations to maximize productivity and comply with security policies.
- Customized desktop imaging. Configuring new desktops and laptops is a manual and inefficient process with a lot of missed opportunities. To shorten the time between order and delivery, VMware IT is partnering with its laptop suppliers to custom image computers at the factory to a specific colleague’s requirements. All a colleague will need to do to get started is enter his or her credentials and wi-fi connection. This translates to a much faster time to productivity.
- First-contact issue resolution. Resolving technology issues on first contact, whether through phone, chat, or a face-to-face tech bar, is a primary IT productivity objective. Tech bars are the preferred option for our colleagues; more than 75% choose to visit a tech bar over opening an online ticket or calling the help desk. First-contact resolution translates to greater productivity and efficiency for both our colleagues and our support staff. Our first-contact resolution rate has increased to more than 85% this year.
- Collaboration is only going to intensify. VMware’s creative culture encourages our colleagues to find and use the right tools to do their jobs. However, this approach can result in islands of data and users, which in turn can impede collaboration. IT must be both flexible and adaptable in supporting collaboration within and between teams and find ways to build bridges between disparate systems. IT is critical to our business success
- Seamless security. Protecting corporate assets and information is a top priority. In the future, we will see security being tightly integrated into our workspaces so that it becomes almost invisible. Single Sign-On has provided a seamless experience and provided consistency across platforms. IT will constantly look for new ways to deliver a rich employee experience without sacrificing security.
Rich Colleague Experience
As End User Services looks to the future, we envision technology as a means to provide an open, collaborative, rich experience that empowers our colleagues to do their best work regardless of their location. The rate of change will be greater in the next two years than it was in the past 10 years. Our constant goal will be to find ways to foster an environment that drives innovation within the VMware community.
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