HPE has revealed more details about the poor state of many companies’ digital transformation efforts years after they were first ordered to send employees to work from home.
Despite the continued popularity of hybrid working - and the clear preference of workers for the new routine - fewer than half (43%) of the 2,100 IT leaders surveyed from 21 countries believe that their network enables staff to work from anywhere.
The study found three-quarters of respondents see digitization as a fundamental aspect of productivity, and the acquisition and retention of talent, but many companies are simply missing the mark.
Employees are struggling
Just one-third (34%) of the participants believe that their company offers seamless network connectivity across the board, with 29% claiming that their business is prepared for a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) ecosystem whereby workers would be able to access their work remotely from their own, private hardware.
HPE Aruba Networking CMO Sylvia Hooks explained that despite the prevalence and demand for flexible working, and the fact that virtually everybody requires access to their company’s network to get work done, businesses are failing to understand how to improve.
This comes amidst global concern that home-workers are becoming less productive, as has been seen with the number of companies asking their workers to return to the office. This HPE study, along with numerous others, suggests that the failure to supply the right tools to workers could be to blame.
The onus, according to the firm’s VP for Portfolio Solutions Marketing, Larry Lunetta, is on IT workers: “IT leaders need to reframe network discussions and start talking in terms of business outcomes versus technical specs.”
Getting crucial IT infrastructure into C-suite discussions is key to future investment, which is said to improve not only IT efficiency, but operational efficiency and cybersecurity, too.
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