Building the Gen-Z Friendly Network

Microsoft 365, formerly Office 365, formerly Business Productivity Online Suite (remember that?), has been around for over 12 years. Originally, the online version of the standard desktop apps and an online version of Exchange, MS365 has grown into a much more robust platform offering virtually all of the capability of the traditional on-premises networking experience.

 Organizations are slowly adopting various facets of the MS365 platform, but many have yet to fully embrace the promise of a completely serverless, cloud-based architecture. There can be many reasons for this. Some may be using third party applications that are not adaptable to the cloud. Others may be waiting for their on-prem infrastructure to fully depreciate. Still others may be uncertain of how the architecture will change their office culture.

 Regardless of the reason, the post pandemic world may change the conversation as more and more employees will be working remotely on a permanent basis. While the systems in place prior to the pandemic may have been adapted for remote work quickly to accommodate the immediate need, it is unlikely that they are designed optimally for the long term.

 Now take into account your next wave of new employees. For years we have been talking about the fact that Millennials are reshaping the way we work. However, believe it or not the next generation (Gen-Z, Netgen, Zoomers, whatever you want to call them) is already entering the workforce. This is the first generation that truly knows nothing about a world without Internet. Fundamental to their experience is the ability to simply pick up a device and have access to everything they need to communicate and "get stuff done". The mobile device is virtually another appendage to this generation. The concept of having to load up a VPN and authenticate to some service before they can even begin to work is quite foreign. Ironically, recent studies have shown that Gen-Z is more enthusiastic than their Millennial counterparts about getting into the office following the pandemic (42% or Gen-Z compared to 26% of Millennials in one study). This is likely due to the fact they are in the process of starting their first jobs. They are looking for a personal connection with co-workers to establish new relationships. However, this will not change the fact that we are living in an increasingly mobile world. The new network infrastructure model will need to accommodate both remote and in-office experience seamlessly.

 Most Gen-Zers will be coming on board with experience in either GoogleDocs or Office 365 already. They will be used to collaborating over one of these platforms, Slack, or some other application. They'll even have experience in some cloud-based ERP systems from their experiences in school. Their tolerance with legacy applications and environments will be limited. They may view your organization as stagnant and boring in comparison with others that have adopted the technologies they have grown up with.

 However, you have an existing workforce that you need to be sensitive to as well. Whereas the millennials in your organization will be equally familiar with the newer technologies, older Gen-Xers and remaining Boomers (yes, I am a Boomer so I can say that) may have trouble adjusting to the new way of doing business.

 Whether it is Microsoft Office/SharePoint/OneDrive or GoogleDocs and Gdrive, there is a bit of a culture shift necessary. File sharing is similar but with subtle differences. Those long-reliant on email as a communication tool may find the collaboration platforms to be difficult to get used to. Also, for network administrators maintaining structure and security to the corporate data, a whole new way of establishing permissions must be understood.

 Regardless, this is a shift most companies should be making in the next few years. MSPs will be instrumental in helping their clients make this shift. Here are a few key points in working with your clients in in making this change:

• Start at the top. Get executive or owner buy-in. Make sure they are engaged and actively using the technology as it is rolled out.

• Work with your customers to identify legacy applications that can be replaced by SaaS-based alternatives. An IaaS based cloud server may be required in some cases.

• Focus on the overall experience, not the technology. Emphasize the ability to work from anywhere seamlessly. The office is wherever your device is.

• Incorporate end user education into the program. Make sure that they are properly trained on the new technologies. Make sure that network administrators are properly trained. This includes administrators at the MSP as well as the client.

• Roll out the applications in phases. Perhaps the cloud-based email and file library technologies can be deployed first followed by the collaboration tools.

As the world returns to normal let's not just get back to business-as-usual, let's get to business-as-new-and-unusual.