Executive Summary: ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work - Services and Solutions - Archetype Report 2022
To download the report for all quadrants, click the PDF on the right or the contact now button for access.
The individual quadrant reports are available at:
ISG Provider Lens™ Future of Work - Services and Solutions - EX Explorer - Archetype Report 2022
Enhanced employee experience is the goal — scope varies
Global enterprises are accepting the hybrid working model, wherein their workforce is allowed to work from a location of their choice and asked to report to office in case of absolute need. Depending on an employee’s work profile, corporate culture and vision requirements, organizations worldwide are framing policies to distribute their workforce into remote and in-office working modes.
In addition to these trends, organizations must frame policies that consider the socio-human factors affecting the Gen Z (born in late 1990s) and Gen Alpha (born after 2010s) employees as they comprise a major section of the global workforce. These tech-savvy employees care about larger purposes along with their work life. For them, choosing an organization is not only about the pay and perks but also what the organization stands for and its impact on the larger society. Hence, factors such as inclusivity, diversity and environmental concerns are becoming increasingly important aspects in the future of work. Also, environment, social and governance (ESG) initiatives are, therefore, in the charter of global business leaders.
However, major concerns plaguing the industry now are The Great Resignation and talent shortage. Global business leaders are being pressurized to cultivate a workplace culture that supports growth, attracts talent and retains it. Continuous learning and reskilling or cross-skilling the workforce is key to achieving such a workplace.
The above factors affect the way global organizations use workplace technologies. For the last few years, enterprise IT leaders have been focusing on establishing and strengthening a technology ecosystem that enhances the end-user experience, in addition to just keeping the lights on. As digital transformation started becoming the norm even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, global workplace leaders were looking at ways to leverage technology to enhance UX. The pandemic has only accelerated this shift. Instead of focusing on traditional service level agreements (SLAs), clients are now beginning to understand and increasingly adopt experience level agreements (XLAs) when they source their workplace technology solutions and services from global technology vendors and service providers. What earlier constituted the “good-to-have” features beyond traditional technology enablement, have now become “must-and-first-have” features if they improve employee experience (EX). Enhancing EX has become the most sought-after approach as the world enters the era of new hybrid future of work.
Traditionally, workplace technology comprised end-user computing (EUC) components, such as desktop engineering, mobility management, virtual desktops along with service desk operations. Technologies that enable these components and services that support them have rapidly become table stakes in the last few years. Technology vendors, as well as managed service providers, have started focusing on enabling, enhancing and, most importantly, measuring EX with their services and solutions. Quantifying the experience with technology is a commonplace service or solution today.
However, the definition of EX is subjective. While any technology that keeps employees productive and does not break is “the” indicator of experience for solutions and service providers, multiple other factors such as employee wellbeing, empathy and employee association with their organization could also be an integral part of experience. As we consider the new Gen Z-Gen Alpha workforce entering the workplace, factors influencing diversity, inclusivity and ESG initiatives enhance EX. From a larger organization perspective, focusing on employee learning, upskilling, communication and process improvements also contribute to EX.
Workplace technology leaders are always at the forefront of expectations of high EX ratings. However, many new and modern EX aspects fall beyond the scope of traditional EUC technologies. Although many modern technologies that enable and strengthen experience in workplace are increasingly becoming commonplace, their adoption and acceptance within large global organizations vary.
In many other aspects, workplace technology may not be central but plays a key role in ensuring improved EX.
Vendors of modern workplace technology are increasingly developing software solutions to address these aspects, and managed service providers are supporting these technologies in their clients’ environments. These include largescale integration with other enterprise business functions, understanding lines of businesses and enterprise industry, and influencing EX, which is often seen as a subset of a larger organization experience.
Figure-1 shows multiple future of work managed services landscape with respect to workplace technology maturity and EX scope. Each individual service category, along with the leading service providers, is explained in the ISG Provider Lens for Future of Work Services quadrant report 2022. These reports position service providers for each of the four service categories depicted here in different geographies.
Considering enterprise focus areas for EX, priorities and the degree of their technology integration with core business, ISG has identified four different archetypes or buying behaviors with respect to workplace technology solutions and services. As illustrated in figure-2 below, these four client archetypes represent client scenarios, where decision to spend on workplace technology and managed services is influenced by clients’ definition of scope of experience and the extent of technology integration with core business functions.
EX Explorers are the clients that have just started on their XLA journey with workplace technology vendors and service providers. They implement the low-hanging fruits of XLA, wherein the workplace technology function focuses on IT operations and efficiency improvement.
Tech EX Evangelists deeply invest in enhancing UX with technology usage. These clients leverage the best out of deep technology integration to showcase business impact level. This archetype expects UX enhancements from high-level technology transformation.
The Line of Business (LoB)-EX-focused clients have workplace technologies that are deeply integrated or have them as critical elements in line of business operations. Their scope of EX is not confined to technology but expands to factors impacting the overall business.
Corporate-EX-focused clients focus on enhancing the experience of individual employees in factors not directly impacted but enabled by technology. This client archetype has low-level technology integration with their line of business and largely considers workplace as a horizontal function. Such clients plan to leverage these technologies to enhance EX as part of their corporate objectives.
This report dives deep into each of these four archetypes and identifies key workplace technology service providers most suited to address their challenges.
Access to the full report requires a subscription to ISG Research. Please contact us for subscription inquiries.