FRANKFURT, Germany, Nov. 18, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Most German companies rose to the challenge when forced to quickly implement work-from-home programs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, smoothly sourcing devices, providing collaboration tools and enabling bandwidth, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for Germany found most companies skillfully managed the technology and infrastructure transformation required to extend remote work to thousands of employees. The challenge was especially steep for German enterprises because the country had been slow to accept remote work due to security concerns, union objections and cultural issues.
“The number of people working from home in Germany had not grown much for many years. COVID-19 changed all that,” said Andrea Spiegelhoff, partner, ISG DACH. “Companies had to move fast, and most met the challenge with great success.”
As organizations cut corners in their rapid response to the pandemic, they did face concerns about security and change management, the report says. The identity and access platforms they used are not all designed for employee authentication from home, and there also have been concerns that workers may lose touch with the organization. Enterprises are now looking to service providers for experience-level agreements that can measure success based on employees’ experiences.
Company efforts to ensure home employees are healthy, productive and safe have turned digital workplace consulting providers into important partners, ISG says. The transition has also made managed workplace solutions critical tools for scaling virtual meeting capacity, securing home connections and other needs. Help desk services have taken on a central role in providing better employee experiences at home, and analytics is helping to deliver this, according to the study.
Enterprises are increasingly adopting managed mobility services, as well as unified endpoint solutions, to give employees a seamless experience across fixed and mobile devices, the report says. They are looking for mobile integration with back-end systems such as CRM and ERP to help make workers even more productive, as well as endpoint security features to tackle threats and vulnerabilities.
The pandemic has also driven up deployment of unified communications and collaboration, with cloud-based solutions particularly gaining ground, ISG says. At first, companies scrambled to scale up collaboration and meeting capacity for their new remote workforces. Now security and the end-user experience are becoming major areas of focus.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for Germany evaluates the capabilities of 67 providers across five quadrants: Digital Workplace Consulting Services, Managed Workplace Services, Managed Mobility Services, Unified Endpoint Management Solutions and Unified Communication and Collaboration Solutions.
The report names Atos as a leader in four quadrants and Cancom, Capgemini and Computacenter as leaders in three quadrants. It names Accenture, Deutsche Telekom, DXC Technology, Fujitsu, IBM and Microsoft as Leaders in two quadrants. Alcatel-Lucent, AppSphere, Baramundi, Bechtle, Cisco, Damovo, HCL, Ivanti, Matrix42, NTT Data, TeamViewer, VMware, Vodafone and Wipro each are named as leaders in one quadrant.
In addition, Bechtle, Deutsche Telekom and Okta are named as Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition.
The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for Germany is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.
About ISG Provider Lens™ Research
The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe and Latin America, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.
A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.
Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.