As we embark on another year, anticipation builds for the technological landscape that will unfold in 2024. With the surge of tech advances in AI, cyber resilience, industry cloud platforms, and more, organizations today find themselves amidst a whirlwind of transformative possibilities. But perhaps one of the most important of all will be the search for ways to continue to prosper while driving maximum productivity and delivering great customer service. Simultaneously, the advent of remote and hybrid work models, championing flexibility and productivity, has become a prevailing norm.
However, such transformation is not without its challenges, with an upswing in cybersecurity risks while managing a widely dispersed workforce. Against this backdrop, IT teams grapple with their topmost objectives – fortifying IT infrastructure, consolidating multiple vendor solutions, offering quick technical support and enhanced user experience. All this to reduce the overall IT burden and cut costs amid the continued uncertain economic climate.
CIOAXIS partnered with GoTo to organise a four-cities roundtable in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune, to facilitate in-depth discussions on the common challenges associated with remote desktop support, what IT teams are prioritising against prevailing trends and how remote support is likely to evolve in 2024 and beyond. These thought exchange sessions brought together around 80+ senior IT Managers, IT Help Desk Leaders, and IT Service and Support heads/managers from across IT Services, Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI), Manufacturing, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Pharmaceutical and Healthcare.
The sessions were moderated by the following renowned CXOs and thought leaders of India:
- Kapil Mehrotra, Group CTO, Dhanuka Agritech Ltd., in New Delhi on September 14, 2023.
- Meheriar Patel, Group CIO, Jeena & Co., in Mumbai on October 12, 2023.
- Ashish Shekhar, Group CIO & Digital Transformation Leader, Makson Group of Companies, in Hyderabad on October 19, 2023.
- Sourabh Tiwari, Chief Digital & Information Officer, Forbes Marshall, in Pune on November 03, 2023.
Here are some of the actionable insights and compelling takeaways gleaned from these discussions.
Significance of Remote Support tool
During the discussions, we conducted a survey to understand the key priorities for IT leaders, what are current IT trends they are tapping into, and the significance of remote support tools in their respective domains.
- Companies with more than one office referenced “Remote Support Tool” as a lifeline due to their effectiveness in ensuring connectivity in the current hybrid mode of working.
- Some called out the need for a fully secure tool with better monitoring and recording capabilities.
- IT leaders also highlighted the need for a purpose-built remote support tool with UX capabilities for ease of adoption.
- Faster resolution of L1 issues along with managing agreed Ticket Service Level Agreement (SLA), with focus on reducing the primary catalyst.
- CTOs also mentioned adherence to compliance being a primary consideration when making purchasing decisions.
We delved into the intricacies of supporting a dispersed workforce, exploring crucial priorities, identifying IT trends, and exchanged best practices in IT management and support strategies for the benefit of a geographically distributed workforce.
These results underscore the pivotal role of “Remote Support Tools” for organizations with multiple offices, serving as a lifeline in ensuring seamless connectivity amid the prevalent hybrid or remote work model. The demand for a fully secure tool with robust monitoring and recording capabilities and the need for purpose-built remote support tools, equipped with user-friendly capabilities for streamlined adoption, emerged as crucial. It also highlights the importance of compliance, particularly in global organizations, where considerations such as Business Continuity Planning (BCP), security, SLA adherence, and adherence with global policies and regulations take precedence in the decision-making process.
Furthermore, IT leaders highlighted the crucial considerations when evaluating remote support solutions. The discourse focused on including security and compliance capabilities, ease of use, multi-platform support, unattended access, and the cost factor to do more with less. Insightful perspectives from various experts and professionals extended to the role of technology leaders as enablers of employee productivity in organizations. Lastly, CTOs shared valuable insights into the key projects and milestones shaping their organizational landscape.
These thought exchange roundtables helped bring likeminded industry professionals together to discuss and debate key issues faced by their business or industry as a whole and provided a much-needed forum for peer-to-peer exchange in order to tap into best practices in relation to remote desktop support.
These insights underscore the collaborative nature of addressing IT challenges for remote and hybrid workforces, emphasizing that businesses are not navigating these issues alone.
Author: Sumitha Sunil,
Account Director – Large Enterprise,
GoTo