Digital Workplace: Not just an IT or HR project

Although there is still a need to catch up on the technical and infrastructural foundations overall, there is also an immense willingness to invest: 63 percent of companies plan to invest in modern applications and technologies for the workplace within the next one to two years.

These are the findings of the "Digital Workplace in Europe" study. For the first Europe-wide study on the subject, the market research and consulting company PAC surveyed more than 180 IT and HR managers from a wide range of industries on trends, investment plans and challenges.

Fifty-two percent of the study participants consider work environments to be very important for the success of their company, and 22 percent even attribute business-critical importance to the topic.

Accordingly, it is already a high priority on the investment agenda of 42 percent of companies. It is currently at the top of the list for six percent of respondents.

Modernizing work environments in the digital age is a complex undertaking. The focus is no longer solely on cost optimization, but also on numerous other requirements on the part of the business and the employees.

Three quarters of the participants in the study named improving user satisfaction as an important goal of workplace modernization. More than 80 percent want to use this approach to improve collaboration within the company and increase its ability to innovate.

At the same time, safety and cost control remain at the top of the agenda. In order to achieve these goals, the topic must be implemented across departments within the entire organization.

"The Digital Workplace will only be successfully implemented if it is realized as a holistic design and service concept"

says Andreas Stiehler, Principal Analyst - Digital Enterprise at PAC.

"In addition, companies should be prepared to break new ground in strategy, design, management, operations and support.

While investments are already being made heavily in the acquisition of modern workplace technologies, the implementation of the digital workplace as a holistic design and service concept is mostly still in its infancy."

Need to catch up on the basics

In fact, 63 percent of European companies are planning to invest in the modernization of workplace applications. But for many companies, the first step is to create or expand infrastructural and organizational foundations.

Accordingly, classic topics are currently high on the investment agendas: 61 percent of respondents plan to spend on improving the quality of their HR support, 60 percent will invest in unified communications and collaboration (UCC) integration, 56 percent in improving their network performance, and 55 percent in consolidating their workplace infrastructure.

At the same time, companies are showing great openness to new concepts for workplace operation, management and support. Favored topics here include the implementation of unified endpoint management solutions as well as the introduction of platforms for central, cloud-based application provisioning or the implementation of self-service and analytics-based concepts for online support.

France and Belgium are pioneers

As part of the study, PAC presents the Digital Workplace Index for the first time, which uses the study results to illustrate the differences in the status of workplace modernization by region and industry.

The average index score is 74, although the results for individual companies vary widely. According to the index, around ten percent of companies in Europe are still at a very early stage (index 80).

Companies from France and Belgium present themselves as pioneers in a regional comparison - particularly in terms of mobility support and cloud adoption. Companies from Germany are comparatively behind, but at the same time show an above-average willingness to invest - which indicates that the investment backlog is being cleared.

An analysis by industry shows that the digital workplace is not only a hot topic in many service industries, but also in the industrial sector, which is expanding its working environments to meet the requirements of Industry 4.0.