Winning the race for an effective digital workplace
During the past few weeks, home office and virtual meetings have become the new way of working. Many companies face new challenges and need to reorganize their work strategy in order to continue their business. Such big changes require a great deal of adaptability. Given the current COVID-19 pandemic, the main topic of Focus India 2020 – enhance adaptability – has gained more importance. As a dynamic and global professional services company, our platinum partner Accenture leads their clients through this time of change by supporting them with their strategical, digital, and technological knowhow. In an inspirational interview, Katrin Schneider, technology consultant at Accenture, told us how she copes with the current situation and supports Accenture’s clients in enhancing their adaptability.
Katrin Schneider who is a former Focus India project team member has been working for Accenture for nearly three years now. Katrin is specialized in service management and makes sure that everything runs smoothly and compliantly between Accenture and the clients. In her job, networking and verbal communication is of major importance. Being connected with her clients and communicating with them verbally has become even more fundamental during the past few weeks in order to show solidarity and to build trust.
“Sometimes we forget how important verbal communication is. A call is often more supporting and efficient than writing emails back and forth.”
– Katrin Schneider, Consultant
Working remotely and remaining connected
To adapt to the current situation, Accenture has taken measures and ensured that all employees can work from home safely. Since Accenture’s work is synonymous with digital solutions, all international teams have fully integrated digital tools as part of their daily project activities. Accenture has adapted quickly and smoothly to the current situation. As Katrin is engaged in international projects she is already used to working remotely from different locations. To remain connected with her peers, Katrin attends virtual coffee breaks that have been introduced by Accenture Switzerland.
Enabling clients securely
To enable all of Accenture’s clients to have access to the right equipment and tools, Katrin and her team facilitated the effective use of essential digital instruments. Nevertheless, having the right tools is not enough, as one also needs to understand the appliance. Thus, training the clients on how to use all the digital collaboration tools has become even more important. Moreover, the demand for digital support and technology advice has risen as many internal IT departments are used to capacity. Hence, the teams often provide IT support alongside conducting their daily business. Overall, a number one priority is to ensure that all connections are end-to-end secure. Security is always of major importance, not only during challenging times like these.
Katrin attending a Design Thinking workshop
“The first step is to protect your employees and enable them to work remotely from home.”
– Katrin Schneider, Consultant
Practical guide
To generally support businesses and guide them through the time of change, Accenture has published a practical guide on their website with the most important measures to take for businesses. Katrin highlights how it is crucial to provide enough support so that all employees can develop the required skills and learn how to use the digital collaboration tools effectively. The next important step is to serve the customer’s core needs and guarantee that all business processes are still working seamlessly and at best, develop new processes. The adaption to a more digital workspace is not just a short-term measure. It is also an opportunity to increase a company’s productivity in the long run.
Along with supporting companies in enhancing adaptability, Accenture also helped certain countries to transform their health systems into a more remote network. Various hospitals can now exchange health data in one platform and save valuable time and resources. Focus India is honoured to call such a dynamic and innovative company as their platinum partner.
– Written by Cornelia Spillmann