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Modernization is non-negotiable for financial institutions looking to compete for talent and innovate in the marketplace. While the shift to a modern workplace was well underway pre-pandemic, the sudden and widespread adoption of remote work only accelerated the trend. Now, modern workflows and technologies are necessities—not luxuries. They enable greater flexibility, efficiency, and collaboration—to name a few.
Despite the laundry list of benefits, modernization may feel daunting—especially to organizations just beginning their modernization journey. There’s simply no one-stop shop for modernizing your workplace. Still, there are a few fundamentals that can lay the groundwork for future success.
If you’re unsure of where to begin, here are three components of the modern workplace you should implement today.
Now that employees have experienced remote work during COVID-19, it’s here to stay. Even as workers begin to return to the office, they need the option to work from home and on-the-go. A hybrid work model is the new normal, but it’s only effective if your organization has the right technologies in place to provide a seamless and collaborative experience regardless of location.
The cloud is the great enabler of hybrid work, letting employees securely access the same tools and files from various locations and devices. When organizations migrate to Office 365, for example, they get OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams. With Microsoft OneDrive, users can easily store and access files from all validated devices, while also syncing offline document changes. With Microsoft SharePoint and Teams, users can easily and securely collaborate from anywhere. This level of modernization is non-negotiable in today’s world.
To take modernization to the next level, employees need tools to improve and reimagine their workflows. There are more options than ever for automation. Turning an Excel spreadsheet into a business intelligence report, for example, no longer needs to be a manual, time-consuming task. Even better, low-code tools let employees automate things themselves, as opposed to requiring a massive IT project to do the same. Employees know their workflows and challenges the best.
Holding in-house contests is a great way for organizations to get the ball rolling on automation projects. Encourage employees to look at manual tasks through a fresh lens to figure out how automation may save time and money. If possible, organizations should incentivize innovation by offering rewards to the employees who can wring the greatest ROI out of their projects.
Whether you’re migrating to Office 365 or automating workflows, you need the right governance and change management protocols in place. With Office 365, organizations need to make sure the right security policies and user permissions are configured. While this can be done on your own, it is often helpful to have a trusted partner on your modernization journey—someone who is deeply familiar with the nuts and bolts of security and compliance, and who’s successfully guided other organizations down a similar path.
Proper governance applies to automation, too. Before you dive into the deep end of the automation pool, make sure you have the right safeguards in place. While developers are well-versed in change management from a code perspective, non-technical users will need training. One way to keep your ducks in a row is to offer users standard templates. If people are all accessing similar platforms, it may be helpful to have a shared library for their automation projects as well.
If you haven’t started modernizing your workplace, you’re behind. The modern workplace you need right now is one that enables hybrid work, allows for automation, and maintains good governance throughout. By checking these three boxes, you’ll enable greater collaboration between employees and free up more time to serve customers—without sacrificing security.
If these modernization initiatives feel overwhelming, we’re happy to help. ECI has experience and industry expertise for all facets of your modernization journey. For more information on how ECI can support you, contact us today.
