IT teams in 2020 certainly have their work cut out for them. Meeting the new demands of workforce technology was already a complex and time-consuming remit for any technology team. 

During 2020, organisations relied on their IT teams' ability to deploy, manage, and secure workforce technology for their survival. At the same time, many of these IT teams are being forced to achieve these outcomes with outdated device management systems and processes. 

If organisations want to shift their focus to recovery and leverage their IT resources for doing so, they need to find opportunities to free up IT personnel from the daily drudgery of device management. Thankfully, streamlined device management solutions that leverage automation are providing timely solutions. 

Smart technology — less than smart management 

At this point on your journey to a cloud-based workforce, your devices may be modern but your device management workflows may not be. We know many organisations are still relying on legacy management processes that require manual updates to their software and browsers. They’re also spending significant time managing app access policies, requiring several scripts. 

At this stage, IT teams really need to be thinking about modernising, including automating updates, browser management, and identity management. They should be transitioning to continuous automated systems, so teams have the freedom to focus on business projects with more strategic value. 

We see IT teams falling into the trap of delaying updates to align with their slower internal testing practices. Unfortunately, this leads to users working on a browser or operating system (OS) that isn’t anywhere near the latest version. As IT gets significantly behind on these updates, workers lose their productivity fixing avoidable issues. We know 78 per cent of employees report the most important capability in their work device is the ability to quickly fix these issues. 

By implementing automated updates, IT teams can eliminate the need for manual patching, while keeping employees current and on the right browser and OS. Most importantly, automated updates provide much faster protection for new known vulnerabilities, often within 24 hours. 

According to Forrester research, the most important capabilities in a workforce device management solution for IT teams are: 

  • 75 per cent: reliability 
  • 71 per cent: easy or automatic security and software updates 
  • 71 per cent: processing speed. 

In a distributed workforce, your device management processes can’t be an anchor weighing down your IT teams’ resources and capabilities every day. Streamlined device management means deploying secure devices that can be managed and updated with the latest applications, browsers, and OS through smart automated processes. 

Datacom is proud to be partnering with Google to bring their Chrome Enterprise suite of Chrome OS, Chrome browser, and Chrome devices to IT teams who need secure and streamlined solutions for their distributed workforce. Through the connected capabilities within this suite, and Datacom’s integration and security expertise, we can help you connect your new distributed workforce without unnecessary complexity. Contact us today to learn how you can get up and running with Chrome Enterprise. 

Related industries
Professional services
Related solutions
Cloud services Digital process automation