Digital Workplace, for a VUCA world


THE DIGITAL WORKPLACE a major asset for business resilience
. All in one to be ready for a VUCA world!

Accelerating the implementation of your digital workplace is a sustainability issue to maintain an activity adapted to the unstable context of 2020.


Launched more than 10 years ago, the transformation of the D.S.I, the IT Services Department into the Digital Transformation Department, or of the Digital Transformation must now demonstrate its ability to deploy Cloud services in a secure, stable and sustainable manner. They are the armed wing of decision-makers in this strategic management.

D.S.I., IT Services or Digital Transformation through their ability to generate triangular applications between customers, employees and businesses will activate one of the ten levers of resilience identified by Gartner in a conference for decision-makers facing the @ Covid-19 crisis.

For this, the modernization of Information Systems (IS), undertaken to deal with this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous VUCA world will not only have to:

  • integrate the professions into their decision-making organization;
  • integrate customers into their operational decisions;
  • facilitate / Configure employee access to their workspace
  • provide cloud services in a secure, sustainable and stable manner
  • Integrate AI, artificial intelligence
  • maintain the overall performance of the corporate network

But Information Systems, S.I, must also take into account remote work in a systematic and non-ad hoc manner.

Making remote work sustainable, by creating links, by reducing employee stress has become a differentiating criterion in this V.U.C.A * world, and thus adds to the first 6 elements mentioned above.

Why implement a digital workplace?

The modernization of Information Systems (IS) must take into account 8 major challenges to integrate a workspace, mobile and operational.

  1. integrate the professions into their decision-making organization;
  2. integrate customers into their operational decisions
  3. facilitate / configure employee access to their workspace
  4. provide cloud services in a secure, sustainable and stable manner
  5. Integrate AI, artificial intelligence
  6. maintain the overall performance of the corporate network
  7. create link
  8. reduce stress

How to implement a Digital workplace – the mobile solution?


To embark a digital workplace everywhere, the company must first authorize the use of SSO- Single Sign On or single authentication of all of its business application tools. This simplifies the security policy and makes the uses of the digital workplace possible.

Then the strategic management defines the use of this workspace. It will be segmented into as many routes as possible as there are groups of users.

Key questions to ask yourself for a functional Digital Workplace

The digital workplace should allow access to collaborative tools such as C.R.M- Customer Relationship Management and B.I- Business Intelligence, whatever the profession and location of the person who connects.

The digital workplace will therefore develop 2 functional bricks: collaborative and communication. The collaborative brick is different depending on each business path and defined through the communication brick, the rights are delegated to employees to implement unified communication between internal and external communication.

The digital workplace for the collaborative brick will have to answer 4 questions

Points 1 to 4 are the basis of the collaborative brick

1- How do I identify myself? Authentication (SSO) to professional terminals and definition of the use of a private telephone with front line workers access code

2-What suite of tools am I using based on my background? Cloud office (office 365, google suite, opensource …), …

3- How do I access the documents? Did I develop a Digital Asset Management to access cold information accessible in disconnected mode in trains, (example one drive microsoft allows to synchronize the repository locally, or Asset Digital management which also manages images and multi-media content)

4- How do my employees, my members, my clients, my partners work? collaboration tool that allows you to work with colleagues, teams, partners (Teams, slacks, zooms, etc.); or specific tools: tasks management (trello, planner, iObeya); Self-service tools; HR and e-learning which addresses the learner’s journey; business application …

The digital workplace, for the communication brick, will have to answer 3 additional questions

Points 5 to 7 are the basis of the communication brick

5- What communication tools do I want to make dynamic? such as aligning employees with the vision of the company. Top down values, but also bottom up with feedback from the field of good practices, feedback… What information about my competitors, about my image on the networks, and the analyzes of competitors I want to aggregate, capture.

6- Do I want to share content? part of the shareable content for 1 click on social networks and develop an employee advocacy policy,

7- How is access to the directory – People directory? with in particular the management of the arrival and departure of employees, groups to which each one belongs, with location, languages, etc. allowing the application to use this information and to push suitable content.

Warning : internal and external communication tends to unify with the use of social networks, collaborative chats … It is therefore important to manage your employer-employee communication to establish your e-reputation.

The quality of the Digital workplace will then be an asset for the employer brand by establishing a simple and effective connection for remote work, where the creation of links will be valued and an actor in stress reduction.

In other words, what is a virtual working place ?

What is means by Digital workplace ?

A digital workplace is the name given to the virtual, modern version of today’s traditional workplaces. The Digital Workplace experience provides personalized, role-based services, as well as the data, applications and collaboration tools needed for employees to work from anywhere, on any device, at any time.

Visual management

Virtual obeya

What are the digital workplace tools?

Digital workplace tools are software applications and technology platforms that aim to improve the quality of work life, making it easier and more efficient.
The digital workforce is a key component of digital transformation strategies. It involves an evolving team of robotic and automated solutions that combine artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA).

In other words,

The virtual workspace is a space in which the collaborator can connect as in the office.

They can work efficiently at home, in a coworking space or in any place of their choice as long as they have wifi or secure internet access.

And of course, in the office. This is an important flexibility asset for the performance of companies.

*VUCA- Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous, the VUCA world comes from military vocabulary to express the situations encountered in theater of operations. It is now integrated by decision-makers into their strategic management.


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Author: Dominique popiolek-Ollé, Transmutation leader, Agile Executive Coach, Founder of In Imago, management consulting and disruptive transformation.