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Digital Workplace is the most critical service to the business since it influences the consumers experience directly or indirectly through the performance and availability of the device or application and also via optimal performance of the user who is the using the device and application.

There are platforms and products emerging dedicatedly to serve the Digital Workplace function which is directly mapping to the business functions. For example, platforms such as Tango is dedicated to serve Telecom Expense Management which is a very important service in Digital Workplace. Its availability and performance is very critical to mobile users such as salesforce who are very important personas in a supply chain value stream. Thus this demands a dedicated product owner to ensure its performance and availability and also drive efficiency continuously.

We can quote similar examples such as print services, OT device management, IC device management etc. Their efficiency and delivery of business values is a very important KRA for the Digital Workplace team and hence the birth of the Service assurance and fusion teams.

Understanding this, Businesses have started to recognize Digital Workplace as one of the key pillars which can not only handle exceptions and failure demands from users but also deliver business imperatives & enhance user experience and contribute to the business’s focus on environment through its sustainability principles.

Cost is still important. We either need to provide cost savings directly or increase cashflow by defining a solution that considers circular economy as one of its important value to deliver.

This drives us to define a solution that balances between user experience and imperative business values which is modular & scalable and present options to business and users through a catalog on how they want to consume individual services. We need to ensure that there is some fungibility in the way we present the service so that it can be interchanged as per the need of the business or the user.

For example, Device management solution should be able to manage devices either through a machine driven approach or a human driven approach. The imaging of devices in a site should be done either through machine (Autopilot, Task Sequences) or should have the ability to be staged. It depends on how the business wants to consume these services in the individual site which is actually dictated by the network & apps at the site.

An efficient and optimal Digital Workplace is one of the raw material that needs to be fed into the business machine that results into profitability of the business and also creates strategic market positioning which is a different product as well as the most important business imperative.

In this scenario, Digital Workplace will become more business centric and its consumption will be more modular and fungible.

Then, does this make Digital Workplace more as a commodity? Yes, It will become and will be consumed as a commodity by businesses and users and our responsibility as architects would be elevated to be market facing, business focused & User affiliated.