In March of 2020 the world changed forever. We went from a typical 9-to-5 work existence to a "whatever the alternative was" at the time. Overnight, businesses had to adapt to a world in lock-down. In an unprecedented shift in both technology and business culture organizations transitioned to a remote workforce in a timeframe never before seen in any of our lifetimes. IT service providers scrambled to help their customers make the change and "keep the lights on". In retrospect, the entire community did an amazing job of implementing remote computing technology and procuring equipment required to support the environment. Between March of 2020 and April of 2020, for instance, daily users of Microsoft Teams rose from  44 million to 75 million. During that same month, Zoom's daily user rate went from 200 Million to 300 million. All of this in 30 days.

We have recently passed the one-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic. With the distribution of vaccines, things are just beginning to return to a sense of normalcy. But the "old norm" will never return. The pandemic only accelerated a trend that was already in play. Millennials (I know they hate being called that)  were already bucking the concept of the traditional 9 to 5 office. While the executive team was struggling with remote work policies and fretting about how they could possibly trust their workers to remain productive if they weren't in the office (trust me, I was on one of those executive teams), the younger folks were ready to go manage their own time efficiently. Fortunately, most organizations had at least a rudimentary remote work strategy in place when the pandemic hit. They had to immediately scale that infrastructure to support the whole organization. For the most part, organizations have been able to survive and get the job done using the systems they rapidly put in place.

But those systems are certainly not optimized for the future hybrid workforce. The same way that the restaurant industry erected temporary outdoor tents and installed heaters to  accommodate outdoor dining over the last year, there is no expectation that those structures will meet the needs of their clients moving forward. Restaurant goers will no longer want to enjoy a dinner wearing their winter coat with a brazier hissing behind them. Likewise, the remote work infrastructure that was put in place to survive 2020 is not going to support the needs of 2022 and after.

It is now widely accepted that many companies that are conducive to remote work will adopt a hybrid work environment. One in which employees would work some days in the office and some from home. Recently, PwC survey revealed that 55% of workers surveyed wanted to work three days per week remotely and only two in the office. Conversely, 68% of the executives surveyed thought that employees should be in the office at least three days per week. Regardless of the ultimate mix of in-office vs. remote work, both groups cite advantages of the hybrid workforce. Workers see the advantages of flexible schedules and work-life balance. Executives see the potential to reduce real estate costs and attract and retain talent.

As companies prepare to bring employees back into the office, they have an opportunity to build an infrastructure that provides the experience workers are looking for and maintain or even improve the company culture. 

As companies rushed to implement their remote strategy there was not a lot of thought put into how best to use some of the tools other than pure survival. Although there has been a huge increase in the number of Microsoft 365 and Teams licenses sold and deployed in the past year, many organizations are simply using Teams as an alternative to Zoom. They are not using the collaboration capabilities inherent in the entire Microsoft 365 suite. Now is the time to invest the effort and energy into developing the collaboration foundation.

Likewise, workers are not going to want to sit in front of their Zoom screens at their desk in the office in order to have a group meeting with a combination of in-office and remote workers. The return of the conference room meeting is inevitable. But the experience needs to be seamless for both in-office and home/remote users. The implementation of "<insert your product name here> rooms" is going to be big business.

Finally, the network itself is going need to be flexible, yet secure. In order to realize the savings in real estate expenses, organization are going to need to reduce overall space. In other words, all employees cannot be in the building at the same time. The use of shared spaces and desks is going to require employees to be able to set up anywhere. PC connections (wired or wireless) need to be dynamic and yet secure. Phones will need to follow the worker between the office and home. And finally, the home networks of remote users will need to be scrutinized. During the pandemic, organizations were willing to accept the risk of a home network connected to the corporate network in return for maintaining productivity. Once Covid is behind us and remote work becomes optional, there will be much more attention paid to the remote environments connected to the corporate network.

The next few months will reveal a lot about what the "new normal" will look like. For Technology Service providers this creates a huge new opportunity to help their clients make that transition. This time, however, it can be done in methodical and organized fashion.