Section 1: Challenges to Change

Speaking with IT professionals, it was obvious that there are multiple challenges to leading effective change within organisations. There was a clear consensus across participants that solving these challenges help streamline workflows and create an agile environment with a more productive workforce.

UPDATING EMPLOYEE PRACTICES

Resoundingly, our roundtable attendees were clear on the need for training. Despite investments made to address new ways of working, many organisations are struggling with uptake and effective use of new processes, primarily due to outdated practices. It’s imperative that IT teams’ work done at the back end isn’t stalled, ignored, or “hacked” by employees at the front end who are not using technologies correctly or safely due to a lack of training.

Tony Roberts, Bursar IT at Sedbergh School, explained the need to bolster staff training while working remotely, outlining the need to ensure staff are more aware of cybersecurity and data security. According to him:

“those are the main issues. We’re never going back to normal, whatever that is, there’s going to be a mixture in the way we work, so depending on the needs of the business, you need to adapt”.

It was agreed that training needs to be an on-going process rather than a one-time situation to reduce complacency and ensure employees are up to speed with the latest developments. The IT professionals also highlighted that training should accommodate the way we currently work. James Holmes, IT Director at Smurfit Kappa, outlined that “in the past, everybody would want to go to an off-site course, it was a day out. Now we host online courses made up of 20-minute segments; people are a lot more accepting of that now.”

Customer Focus

CHALLENGE:

Ricoh and Microsoft help UK distribution business improve customer service, productivity. The Ricoh IT infrastructure management solution - which took just three months - was a complete desktop environment replacement from PCs and servers, to software, data and application infrastructure.

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“Ricoh put together a team to help manage change and the whole transition process from procurement and pilot to implementation, deployment, communication and training.”

Mark Marshall, Infrastructure Services Group, Senior Analyst, Menzies Distribution

THE MYTH OF THE SILVER BULLET

One of the biggest challenges IT teams are encountering is the idea that there is one solution. The pandemic demonstrated that with multiple problems, there are multiple solutions, and what works for one business or issue won’t necessarily work for the next. This means that tech investment doesn’t always mean that technology is compatible with new ways of working and that businesses must be careful and selective in their investments.

One clear area where the myth of the silver bullet was most harmful was in supporting hybrid meetings, with Smurfit Kappa’s James Holmes saying: “We have got video conferencing systems and platforms like that, but I don't think personally that the technology has caught up with the new ways of working, communication and interaction that our people will want and need.”

Further Insights:

Identifying the role of technology in digital transformation and knowing which technologies are right for your business

STAYING SECURE

Perhaps one of the biggest challenges that the pandemic has amplified has been the exposure of security and data vulnerabilities.

According to Tony Roberts from Sedbergh School:

“We need more investment in cybersecurity and data protection. Cybersecurity is the biggest risk we’re facing, and the threat is increasing all the time. Businesses have got to make sure they don’t become victims. So as much investment in security as possible will be key.” Tony explained that a secure network at home should be the first point of call for employees and that organisations must recognise where their weakest links are and strengthen them.

Customer Focus
St Bede’s School

“Given the current climate and the number of schools being attacked, I think Ricoh’s RansomCare solution is extremely important for St Bede’s School. Because now we have a defence against something that seems to be a growing threat.”

Samuel Alexander-Omoh, IT Manager, St Bede’s School

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Further Insights:

Learn more about the technology required to implement hybrid working

A big part of keeping businesses interests and assets safe is through the secure sharing of data. With more and more people working in multiple environments, centralised data can make working from home harder. This has seen exponential growth in cloud investment, but our attendees asserted that it was once again vital that the right technologies were being invested in, and the necessary training was to accompany it.

As James Holmes from Smurfit Kappa put it, “we’re now looking at our team strategy for things like OneDrive. Examining how individuals and teams use the software for interactions such as saving departmental folders and sharing data. We have conflicting priorities across teams, so we need a reorganisation of how we work and must learn to be more efficient with the technology we use.”