New research conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Citrix Systems, shows that many organizations are accelerating their digital transformation efforts to accommodate the more flexible ways of working that employees will demand even after the pandemic subsides.
Over three-quarters of more than 3,700 IT leaders in seven countries surveyed believe a majority of workers will be reluctant to return to the office as it was. And 62 percent say they are expediting their move to the cloud as a result.
Over two-thirds of the IT decision makers polled by Censuswide (69 percent) say that it has been surprisingly easy for the majority of their employees to work from home, and 71 percent say that the technology they have put in place has enabled them to collaborate just as effectively as they can face-to-face. In light of this, they are revving up their digital engines and implementing solutions to support remote work as an ongoing strategy:
- 62 percent of IT leaders say their departments are considering downsizing physical IT infrastructure and transitioning to a Cloud model;
- 42 percent anticipate introducing digital workspace platforms;
- 44 percent are looking to public cloud services to facilitate long-term remote working.
Many business continuity plans lacked work from home strategies
The road to widespread remote work has not been easy. Almost half (48 percent) of the IT leaders who participated in the survey say their organizations did not have a business continuity plan based on the vast majority of employees working from home, and 61 percent found it challenging to make the switch.
In addition, the fast and widespread adoption of remote work has opened a new set of concerns and challenges with which organizations must deal:
- 70 percent of IT leaders are worried about information security as a result of employees working-from-home;
- 54 percent say there’s been a spike in employees installing unsanctioned software;
- 23 percent say that unscheduled virtual personal network (VPN) shutdowns have been a key problem for their department over the last few weeks.
About the study
The study was based on interviews conducted in April/May 2020 with 3,770 IT decision makers within medium and large organizations from the following seven markets: USA, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands.
More details (PDF).
