How To Build A

Digital Workplace
As A Platform,
Not Just A Concept
Suresh Sambandam
CEO, Kissflow
Many of us working as tech leaders today started our careers when digital
office tools were just being introduced. Applications that were accessible to
the common office worker with no programming knowledge – like Lotus 1-2-3
and WordStar – were rare but exciting.

In just a few decades, our entire office experience has changed. We went from
having barely any digital tools to witnessing a total digital takeover. Nearly
every action tied to work must now be done with a laptop or mobile device. All
day long, everything we do falls under this digital roof.

This shift has significantly expanded the responsibility of the CIO. In the
early days, the CIO only needed to worry about a few proprietary tools used
by sophisticated users. As a modern CIO, you must be more familiar with
employee engagement than mainframe architecture because every person
in your company engages with your digital assets. It’s up to you to lead your
company through the uncharted territory of a completely digitized workplace.

What challenges do you need to overcome as you move forward? Here is a

basic roadmap to handling obstacles and asking the right questions as you find
the ideal framework for your organization.

*This article was originally published in Forbes on Oct 7, 2019

The March Toward Digital
Doesn’t Stop
We’ve come a long way since the 1990s, when Microsoft bundled applications
into MS Office, the first standard set of digital tools that office workers
required. Since then, we’ve seen the evolution of applications like Outlook,
which integrated email, calendar, task management and instant messaging,
and G Suite, Google’s cloud-based productivity bundle that has become a
clear competitor to MS Office, as well as my company’s digital workspace and
various other collaboration and organization tools.

In 2019, the specific digital tools your company uses may vary slightly
from those of your competitors, but the key functions will be similar – from
document and database management to email and video conferencing. Yet
despite all of the bundled and increasingly integrated tools already in use,
organizations continue to add to the list of software applications they adopt.

They often have dozens of applications in addition to their core tools, including
project management, case management, process management, collaboration
software and products specialized for departments like HR, marketing,
procurement, sales and finance. Many of these tools overlap in functions and
features, and it’s hard to know where your core data lives.

Two Models Of A Digital Workplace

Recently, the term digital workplace has emerged to describe the phenomenon
office workers spending most of their time using digital tools. But there are two
very different ways technology leaders define a digital workplace:

• The first is as a concept. This means that whatever digital tools an

organization uses are all combined under the same umbrella term. When
another app is added, the digital workplace grows.

• The second is as a platform. This is a single environment where employees

go to do work, whether that entails planning the marketing campaign,
tracking bugs or onboarding new employees.

*This article was originally published in Forbes on Oct 7, 2019

Don’t Settle For A Digital Idea
Seeing the digital workplace only as a concept is not a sustainable path. IT
departments will have to keep adding apps, rebuilding the user hierarchy and
managing sign-in credentials, payments, training and vendors. Internal teams will
grow even more confused about where their work and data are supposed to be.

Instead, a successful digital workplace is an actual platform. The platform you

create for your company should promote three main goals: collaboration,
coordination of work and control over processes.

Platforms that stray from these objectives or use a distracting communication

system as the front end of the platform will not lead to more productive teams.
When communication forms the core of a digital workplace, whether through
an email client or messaging app, employees have to go elsewhere to do their
actual work. And while word processing and spreadsheets have always been
fundamental to the modern workplace, we have not brought in common tools like
project and process management as core tools available to every office worker.

Find The Right Fit

As you evaluate digital workplaces, ask yourself the following questions to
make sure you are meeting your organizational needs:

• Is it time to move from a best-of-breed approach to a common suite that

brings core business functions together seamlessly?
• What is the cost advantage of abandoning single-function apps and
adopting a complete digital workplace?
• How easily will the digital workplace integrate with your other core tools?
• Do you currently have an operational system of record as the authority for
what happens in the office?
• How much fatigue, data and productivity is lost to “tab-switching”?

There’s no turning back from the new reality of work: digital owns
nearly the entire employee experience. It’s time to abandon a Wild West
strategy and start laying out boundaries and best practices to build an
infrastructure that can thrive in a digital environment.

*This article was originally published in Forbes on Oct 7, 2019