Exit 2020, enter 2021 : the 'new normal' will change our lives significantly

Finally, that horrible year of 2020 has come to an end. Never have we experienced such uncertain times, as the previous year. It will still take us all a couple of months in 2021 to get to a more normal state again, but at least, it looks like there is light at the end of the tunnel.

‘Normal’ will be relative though, I believe that the ‘new normal’ will have a significant impact on our lives moving forward. Not everything will be easy, but I am convinced a lot of good things are happening also. We should not be afraid of change, but embrace it. It will change our lives for the better!

Digitalization of payments

In just a couple of months, all businesses across Belgium, have been forced to make arrangements to accept electronic payments. I literally haven’t paid more than 5 times in cash since April 2020. Without the Corona situation in 2020, this would have taken a couple of more years to be achieved.

Work is no longer a place

2020 has also had a significant impact on the way people think about ‘their workplace’. I think we can talk about the era before Covid-19 and the era since. Previously, for a lot of businesses, working at the office was the norm and working remotely the exception. During lockdown periods, where people were obliged to work remotely, a lot of companies have experienced that it is perfectly possible to do so, for diverse types of workforces. I am absolutely convinced that the ‘new normal’ will provide a turnaround where a lot of sectors will promote remote work for their employees as the new norm.  

In the first place, this requires that companies trust their employees to work from another location than the office. My opinion is very clear about this, if you don’t trust your employees, why did you hire them in the first place? We are providing IT consultancy services to our customers, and I have given my team always full flexibility and trust to decide from where they would work, already long before Corona was around. The only criterium that matters is that the customer they are working for, has to be OK about it and the quality we are known for, must always be delivered. I strongly believe that, by trusting your people, you empower them. 

Secondly, it is important that the facilities to provide remote work to workforces would be set up structurally and safely. People should be able to work efficiently from any location, accessing  any app on any device, with seamless connectivity, and instrinsic security to make sure that the confidential data is as safe on the device as in the datacenter. VMware technologies are providing the digital foundation that treats remote work not as the exception, but as the rule : https://www.vmware.com/future-ready-workforce.html

A part from boosting productivity, imagine also the positive impact this will all have on reduction of traffic and air pollution, and the opportunity to provide a better work-life balance. Bonus points!

In March 2020, VMware themselves have turned their entire workforce of 33.000 into home office workers, in just one weekend, and they have generated great results doing so. Moving forward, VMware is rethinking the future of work and will allow its workforce to continue to work partly or fully remote, permanently. A great example of ‘drinking your own champagne’ and ‘leading the way’ :   https://www.vmware.com/company/news/updates/2020/envisioning-future-of-work.html

Build and extend your digital foundation NOW

Periods of uncertainty are often a trigger to put investments or project decisions on hold. That doesn’t have to be the case, though! A lot of deployments can actually be done remotely. As from March 2020, we have converted all our consultancy assignments to remote work. We have been able to continue to help our customers with projects with all kind of VMware technologies : not only the design and deployment of digital workspaces, but also automation projects with creation of workflows and integration with container environments, design and deployment of software defined networking, updates and upgrades of environments, assessments and health checks … you name it. 

We can help you avoid that your projects get delayed any more, by doing them remotely for you. 

In May 2020, I already wrote a more extensive blog about this : https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/corona-chaos-empower-your-people-get-ready-new-normal-tom-vallons/

We can help you

Indeed, the ITQ Dream Team is passionate about VMware technologies and we can help you with all of the above. Get in touch now!

Remote workspaces : https://itq.eu/remote-workspace-2/

Remote deployments : https://itq.eu/remote-deployment-2/

SDDC and cloud combine the best of both worlds : https://itq.eu/hybrid-cloud-combine-best-both-worlds/

Tom Vallons, Managing Director for ITQ Consultancy in Belgium and Luxemburg