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How Victoria University Revolutionized Its Learning Model

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Special Report: The Future of Education

Special Report Pandemic Education Trends

Persis Drell, Provost, Stanford University

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Persis S. Drell: Pioneer

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What the Pandemic’s Taught Us About Digital Transformation

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Two IT leaders share how their teams enabled fast remote work capabilities in the face of the global pandemic - and what's coming next.

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The Remote Work Genie Is Out of the Bottle. Now What?

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4 Stories of Greater China Organizations Leading Digital Transformation Through Disruption

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IT leaders from Nebraska Medicine and Cofense on how they're enabling their remote workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Tips for Enabling a Remote Workforce: &#8220;Work Is What You Do, Not Where You Go&#8221;

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Small Town. Smart City Dreams.

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University of Sharjah’s Robert Irving Reimagines IT Services in the Cloud

"A CIO must have courage - the courage to change and to help others change," says Marius Spinu, CIO of the University of Florence.

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University of Florence&#8217;s Marius Spinu Balances Classical and Disruptive Innovation

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Maurizio Davini, a CTO Reinventing a Centuries-Old Organization

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<p>The start of the pandemic sent shockwaves through Australia’s fourth-largest export sector: <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-international-education-cheap-fix#:~:text=International%20education%20earned%20Australia%20A,is%20bedevilled%20by%20policy%20uncertainty">higher education.</a></p>
<p>Overnight, students suddenly grappled with delayed graduation and disrupted education. Among those most impacted was the group of nearly 90,000 international students. Many students from China, for example, were unable to return to Australian universities after traveling home for Lunar New Year. Universities also <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/covid-19-to-cost-universities-16-billion-by-2023/">risked losing $3.1-4.8 billion in 2020 fees</a> alone.</p>
<p>To tackle these challenges, Victoria University (VU) embraced an open digital-centric approach. And the success of its transition can be attributed to their forward-looking technology strategy. With operations across more than 10 physical locations, VU delivered a modern digital experience for over 40,000 students and staff:</p>
<ul>
<li>Anytime, anywhere online engagement.</li>
<li>Replicating offline to online experiences.</li>
<li>Creating better work flexibility for staff.</li>
</ul>


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<p>Podcast: Zoran Sugarevski, Executive Director of Information Technology Services at Victoria University, discusses innovation in education technology and how he’s shaping the new student experience online.</p>

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<h2><strong>Revolutionizing the Learning Model</strong></h2>
<p>Even before the pandemic struck, VU already used data analytics and a learning approach called the “VU Block Model.” Described as a revolution in Australian education, VU Block Model keeps the traditional duration of a semester (16 weeks). But it allows students to focus on one subject at a time for four weeks, which proved to boost student performance.</p>
<p>VU’s foresight in re-imagining the university curriculum by introducing VU Block Model three years ago enabled many students to perform at the same level—and in some cases better—during the pandemic. While the <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/05/are-you-stuck-in-the-anxiety-distraction-feedback-loop">pandemic provided anxiety induced distractions</a> for many, students were able to minimize study related distractions by focusing their attention on one subject at a time while adapting to their new <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/news-events/media-releases/student-success-rolls-on-thanks-to-vu-s-block-model">virtual environment</a>.</p>
<h2><strong>The Early Bird Has the Roadmap</strong></h2>
<p>And so when it comes to VU’s overall technology strategy, VU has also embraced a progressive approach—a five-year plan which explores current and emerging technologies to create a different, personalized student experience. When the pandemic hit, VU was in its third year of the plan, which helped accelerate the transition to remote learning.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve been investing significantly over the years, especially around video conferencing, online learning and collaboration tools,” said Zoran Sugarevski, Executive Director of Information Technology Services, Victoria University. “VMware has been an instrumental partner over many years in reducing our data center footprint, as well as expanding our capacity and capabilities to use technology to better respond to situations like COVID, which has been critical.”</p>


<p>Is online learning the future of education?</p>

<h2><strong>Flexible Learning Anytime and Anywhere Online</strong></h2>
<p>One example is the emphasis on engagement platforms. Prior to the pandemic, VU built a <a href="https://www.vu.edu.au/about-vu/news-events/media-releases/victoria-university-app-wins-australia-s-coveted-good-design-award">multi award-winning mobile app</a> for students and an online engagement platform to connect students. Students are also provided a personalized set of information, whether it be due dates or upcoming assessments.</p>
<p>“Sometimes it&#8217;s difficult for students to gain access to online tools and materials. So being able to put them in a virtualized environment enabled students to migrate from on-campus to online and access all their learning materials remotely,” said Sugarevski.</p>
<p>With technology, the university also replicated connection and interaction—a treasured element of university life made even more precious for students isolated in lockdown.</p>
<p>“It&#8217;s one of the things I think every student values, which is establishing friendships on campus,” emphasized Sugarevski. “And our mobile app has been instrumental to be able to connect students who have similar interests while they&#8217;re learning from home.”</p>
<p>Other measures included ensuring that students with poor infrastructure can access tools like video conferencing.</p>
<p>“VMware solutions do not use a lot of resources to deliver service into the student&#8217;s home,” said Sugarevski. “This allows VU to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within certain areas and that we can moderate traffic and prioritize traffic back into the university.”</p>
<p>Ultimately, the goal was to produce an environment where students and teachers could create productive sessions even during lockdowns. And VU delivered.</p>
<h2><strong>A Workforce with Superpowers<a href="https://news.vmware.com/subscribe"><img loading="lazy" class="alignright wp-image-24111 size-thumbnail" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RADIUS-Digest-Square-CTA-150x150.png" alt="Get more and subscribe to the RADIUS newsletter." width="150" height="150"></a></strong></h2>
<p>Today, 95% of VU’s faculty and staff use collaboration tools and video conferencing extensively. And this revealed unexpected benefits.</p>
<p>Besides having the flexibility to work anywhere, Sugarevski said, “We&#8217;ve also seen the working hours of employees significantly improve. In the case of Melbourne, being in lockdown and needing to homeschool children had a significant impact on many in our workforce. No longer are our working hours a straightforward 8-to-5. Technology gives us the flexibility to work different hours. I think, moving forward, we will see a lot more employees working from home and adopting new solutions.”</p>
<h2><strong>Future of Education</strong></h2>
<p>VU is just one example of how barriers to technology adoption, due to reticence or culture, disappeared with the arrival and continuation of the pandemic.</p>
<p>While some on-campus teaching might resume in Australia, most classes will be delivered in digital mode. From more immersive experience to personalized, data-driven education, higher education will continue to turn towards the new hybrid model of working and learning.</p>
<p>“I think this is the opportunity for a lot of organizations, and in particular Victoria University, to leverage the likes of VMware and other suppliers. So now is the right time to further invest into those solutions, and I think the adoption rate is going to be far greater,” said Sugarevski.</p>


VMware Staff

In the wake of the pandemic, Victoria University enabled “anywhere, anytime” online learning due to its progressive technology roadmap.

Victoria University Embraces a Personalized Online Learning Approach

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Posts

As we journey through the digital era, explore how innovative museums and artists help us transcend the physical and journey into the virtual.

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Digital Makeovers Keep Museum Audiences Engaged

Digital technology helps us transcend the physical and journey into the virtual—at work and at home. During COVID-19, it took us even further. Literally into works of art.

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That’s been fortunate for museums as regular attendance plunged during the pandemic. The top 100 art museums were shut for an extra 145 days on average, adding up to a staggering 41,000 day in total, according to <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/analysis/visitor-figures-2020-top-100-art-museums">The Art Newspaper</a>. Institutions used to long lines and large-scale patron events had to pivot quickly to reimagine visitor experiences.

Staff from <a href="https://high.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">High Museum of Art</a> in Atlanta, for example, quickly went to work generating ideas to adapt programming for online audiences.

“We moved key programs like Conversation Pieces, a 30-minute interactive focus on one work of art, and developed others like Masterworks and Mindfulness to give people a different space to deal with what we're all living right now,” said Rand Suffolk, director of The High.

New digital programming and the staff’s increasing use of social channels kept the community together. The goal, Suffolk said, was to “encourage people to engage more deeply with the work.”

While museum experiences have clearly changed, so, too, has art expression. An amazing case in point: <a href="https://vangoghexhibit.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit</a>. It recently opened in Toronto, breaking what one of its producers called “the fourth wall.”

Attendees of this exhibit are “no longer visiting an art gallery where observation of the art is the piece as it was originally conceived—on the wall,” explained Corey Ross, co-founder and producer at Lighthouse Immersive.

The art is “immersive. It's around you—360 degrees. It's projected on every part of the room, on the floor and its projected on you. And when that happens, you have a totally different experience of the art,” he said.

Ross’ co-founder and co-producer, Svetlana Dvoretsky, experiences patrons’ emotions firsthand.

“When we observe people who come to our exhibit, we see a very wide range of emotions being expressed. Some people cry. Some people dance. Some people just lay down on the floor, in the meditative state,” she said. “I think it’s very interesting…the effect this kind of art makes. It’s not like it evokes a particular emotion. It depends on the state a person is in.”

There’s something else that makes the Van Gogh Exhibit unique and that’s how visitors access the experience. Due to limited capacity and social distancing guidelines, the producers created two options for attendees: walk-in and drive-thru.

“It such a success for us that we're opening versions in Chicago and San Francisco in (2021),” Ross said. “And hopefully there'll be more cities, as well. We've managed to pivot in an interesting way without diminishing the experience."

Blakely Thomas-Aguilar

Listen to how interactive museums, like the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit, help us transcend the physical and journey into the virtual.

Listen now to learn how innovative museums and artists help us transcend the physical and journey into the virtual.

The Interactive Museum: Pop Culture Tech Podcast

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The Interactive Museum: Listen to Pop Culture Tech Podcast

Is online learning the future of education? And, if so, can it get better?

Global uncertainties linger about education in the wake of a global pandemic. Could the virtual classroom be<strong> </strong>the future of education by 2030? If so, will it ever get easier and more effective?

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As classrooms closed across the world, <a href="https://data.unicef.org/resources/remote-learning-reachability-factsheet/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nearly every country implemented some form of remote learning</a>. Suddenly, school was in session—at home.

For years, colleges and universities offered remote learning options, particularly for non-traditional students, like working adults. Students learn <em>off-campus</em> using online tools (or even broadcasts on a TV or radio station). Courses can be live and/or self-paced.

As countries loosened restrictions, many schools reopened with an expanded approach: hybrid learning. This typically means each student can choose to participate <em>either</em> in person <em>or</em> remotely—or a combination of both.

By August 2020, 69% of U.S. K-12 leaders told <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/in-person-learning-expands-student-absences-up-teachers-work-longer-survey-shows/2020/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EdWeek Research Center</a> they adopted a hybrid learning approach. And 87% of U.S. colleges and universities planned to offer a hybrid fall semester, according to the <a href="https://www.iie.org/COVID19_FullReport3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Institute of International Education’s COVID‐19 survey</a>. In fact, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/higher-education-online-change-cost-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">half</a> of the adults surveyed across 29 countries believe hybrid learning will be the standard for higher education by 2025.

Many students will continue logging into virtual classes for the foreseeable future. That’s a relief to many students, who enjoy the benefits of remote learning, like the flexibility to learn at their own pace. However, new distractions, technological barriers, and poor digital experiences make remote learning difficult for others.

As education experts quickly pointed out, remote and hybrid learning <em>aren’t</em> the same as true online learning. The former tends to be business continuity plans—a “quick, ad hoc, low-fidelity mitigation strategy,” said <a href="https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-04-02-what-students-are-doing-is-remote-learning-not-online-learning-there-s-a-difference" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Susan Grajek of Educause</a>. The latter is a more deliberate, planned, digital-first approach to student-centric education.

What education institutions accomplished, in response to the pandemic, swiftly evolved the industry by leaps and bounds. Now, there’s more work to do.

Education Falls Behind in Digital Experience

Roughly 1-in-5 adults said educational institutions deliver a better digital experience now than before the pandemic, according to a 2020 global survey led by VMware. Less than one-third of respondents said they would happily continue interacting digitally with educational institutions. Yet, education generally ranked <em>behind</em> all other industries’ digital experiences.

The global shift to remote learning abruptly moved students to a digital campus. Educators across the world scrambled to teach students in their homes. Students and teachers accessed video conferencing, online learning platforms and other online tools and content.

That was step one, though. Next, educators need to make these digital experiences:

It starts with the institution’s digital infrastructure. Virtual data centers that run on software are less rigid (and less expensive) than hardware. IT organizations with these modern data centers have much more flexibility and agility to accommodate online learning.

IT can quickly gain computing capacity in the cloud, so they can distribute and manage new devices, apps, and virtual desktops from anywhere. IT teams also have more constant visibility into a software-based infrastructure. They can use software automation to fix problems and adjust as needed. This way, digital infrastructure is always available and running at peak performance. And this is especially important for running more advanced applications and interactive, virtual lab environments.

“With optimized data algorithms, VMware vSAN [storage virtualization software] increases the performance of the university’s disk array resources by an order of magnitude, which is important in the case of such solutions as virtual desktop infrastructure. Based on them, we conduct specialized labs which often use advanced applications like CAD 3D,” says Paweł Kołodko, IT director at WSB University in Wrocław.

“In the case of classes for students, problems with configuring and maintaining traditional computers in labs took about 20% of our time. Now, with VMware technologies, everything runs like clockwork. At the start of classes, each student receives a new virtual PC with exactly the same configuration as the rest of the class.”

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/customers/vmware-20q2-wsb-university-in-wroclaw-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read the full story</a>.

Keeping Students Safe in a Digital Learning Environment

In the global Digital Frontiers survey, people revealed how assured they felt about their data security by different industries.

Compared to before the coronavirus pandemic began, which if any of the following organizations, would you say have given you the assurance you need that your date and information is secure?

They felt <em>least</em> assured by educational institutions.

Educators are also responsible not only for students’ safety. In hybrid learning environments, these responsibilities expand:

Outdated security models and ineffective tools impede the progress of digital-first learning. It also puts students and institutions at risk. So, education IT leaders are implementing more modern technologies with built-in security and modern security frameworks, like <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/unified-endpoint-management">unified endpoint management</a> and <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/zero-trust-security">zero-trust security</a>.

For example, Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) manages tens of thousands of different mobile devices and applications across hundreds of schools all from a single, cloud-based platform. From this control center, IT proactively spots malicious activities and can remotely act on security incidents.

“We’ve had a cloud-first strategy for quite some time, so we’re consuming a lot of software-as-a-service (SaaS), which gives us great visibility into our traffic, so we can notice any anomalies,” said Paul Saltmarsh, senior IT officer at BCE. “We have a highly distributed environment—147 sites over a fairly large geographical area—so the ability to remotely wipe or disable the device at any moment in time has been a cornerstone of us being comfortable with distributed learning.”

With confidence in its security posture, BCE gives students the freedom to take their devices home, so they can develop their digital skills and “always-on” learning mindsets.

“By providing greater visibility over all devices and applications, VMware Workspace ONE has also given BCE a more confident security stance in its operations. “If any device is stolen or compromised, we can remotely wipe the device on Workspace ONE, ensuring compliance with data protection laws,” said Saltmarsh.

“This level of visibility and security also allows us to engage in meaningful conversations about usage and security of data with our students. We can get them to think about how they use their devices and how they can safeguard themselves—teaching them valuable best practices that they can employ as they progress into the workforce.”

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/customers/vmw-brisbane-catholic-education-en-casestudy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read the full story</a>.

Another enduring challenge to online learning is equity. As education digitized over the years, students don’t have equal access to devices, apps, and internet connectivity. Widespread remote learning revealed even greater disparities in the online learning gap.

“We’ve learned about some of the opportunities that online learning can offer, but we’ve also learned how online learning can magnify inequities among our students,” said <a href="https://news.vmware.com/technologies/persis-drell-pioneer">Persis S. Drell</a>, provost at Stanford University. “I worry a lot about the roughly 20% of our students who have more resource-constrained backgrounds.”

Perhaps paradoxically, technology can close the digital learning gap, leaders believe. “I have personally witnessed in Africa what a force for good technology can be,” said <a href="https://www.news.vmware.com/rosa-whitaker-luminaries/">Rosa </a><a href="https://news.vmware.com/esg/rosa-whitaker-luminaries">Whitaker</a>, an African trade and investment expert. “While much remains to be done across Africa, technology is helping to close the education, economic and healthcare gaps.”

Case Study: Three Critical Strategies for a Digital Learning Environment

To achieve the benefits of remote learning, schools and colleges must ensure equitable access to devices, applications, and internet connectivity. Many students need devices, headsets, and access to low-cost or free broadband support, LTE hotspots, or devices with integrated LTE connectivity.

To support these deployments, in addition to UEM and access management platforms, institutional IT departments might consider tools like SD-WAN and telecom expense management.

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/customers/index/fullpage.html?path=/content/web-apps-redesign/customer-stories/2020/vmw-retail-giant-simplifies-networks-to-keep-stores-always-connected">Read the full story</a>.

Other components of a digital learning environment strategy can include providing access to high-powered applications and workstations via VDI and remote support.

Even in a hybrid learning model, every student deserves a high-quality digital education. It’s not just about convenience or access. It’s also critical to developing in-demand digital skills among students for the future of work and leadership. This extends to non-traditional students and the general public, as well. In fact, almost one-third of adults believe educational institutions are responsible for developing digital literacy, which is the ability to access and consume a variety of online services.

Case Study: Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering

Considered one of India’s leading engineering and management colleges, it was imperative for Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering to have the resources needed to prepare students for the future of work. The college saw a need to modernize its IT environment and leverage the benefits of virtualization.

<a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/customers/vmware-pimpri-chinchwad-college-of-engineering-success-story.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read the full story.</a>

During social distancing and shelter-in-place mandates, many teachers and staff members struggle to keep up with the change of format and pace.

Many teachers weren’t trained and felt uncomfortable with the new tools and processes. And this uncertainty caused significant emotional strain. According to <a href="https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/educator-morale-school-job-applicants-declining-survey-shows/2020/11" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EdWeek Research Center’s October 2020 survey</a>, “84% of [U.S. K-12] teachers and administrators say teacher morale is lower now than it was prior to the pandemic.”

Technology isn’t a challenge for only K-12 teachers. Right after accessibility, “faculty readiness for online learning” is the top technology concern for colleges and universities, too, according to a <a href="https://cloud.vmware.com/community/2020/09/09/colleges-breaking-barriers-distance-education/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recent report</a>.

“Getting the faculty to feel comfortable teaching when the student is not in front of them has been a huge challenge,” said <a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/industry-solutions/2020/12/09/five-ways-to-accelerate-digital-first-learning-in-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-ways-to-accelerate-digital-first-learning-in-education" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mike Atkins</a>, infrastructure architect at the University of Notre Dame.

Education IT organizations can tremendously lower the technology burden on teachers and staff. To support ‘uninterrupted learning, National Taipei University in Taiwan built an online learning platform and successfully deployed 100 new virtual desktops. Now, the educator can teach as they did in physical classrooms, including roll call, group discussions, and more.

Virtual desktops also enable teachers to manage course progress and students’ learning status. With the help of software tools, teaching is now enriched and efficient, helping maintain consistent quality and positive experiences.

Innovating Faster to the Future of Education

It is an exciting time to be in the education IT industry—or to be a student, teacher, faculty member or parent. Education has never been closer to truly personalizing learning, breaking ground on entirely new learning models. Ultimate, digital experiences help prepare students for the careers of the future.

The modern technologies mentioned above provide the digital foundation for education IT leaders to:

“There is little doubt that the traditional, in-person-only educational model worldwide is changing,” said <a href="https://blogs.vmware.com/industry-solutions/2020/12/09/five-ways-to-accelerate-digital-first-learning-in-education/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-ways-to-accelerate-digital-first-learning-in-education" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Herb Thompson</a>, a VMware expert on the digital education industry. “And institutions must become future-ready to accommodate change today and what’s coming tomorrow.”

Jecoby Carter

Is online learning technology the future of education? If so, can it get better?

Global uncertainties linger about education in the wake of a global pandemic. Could the virtual classroom be the future of education by 2030? If so, will it ever get easier and more effective?

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Special Report: The Future of Education | Online Learning Technology

Persis Drell, of Stanford University, reflects on online learning and telemedicine, as well as a renewed faith in science. Watch her interview with VMware.

Persis Drell on Education, Medicine and Science in 2020 | VMware Radius

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<p><div id="attachment_22243" style="width: 410px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22243" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22243 size-full" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="400" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg 400w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg?resize=150,150 150w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Maribel-Lopez.jpg?resize=300,300 300w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" /><p id="caption-attachment-22243" class="wp-caption-text">Maribel Lopez, technology industry analyst and strategic advisor, <a href="https://www.lopezresearch.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lopez Research</a></p></div></p>
<p>At the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations quickly deployed technologies to enable basic <a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/tips-enabling-remote-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remote work</a>. But some things just broke when people couldn’t sort out issues face-to-face, says Maribel Lopez, technology industry analyst and strategic advisor at Lopez Research. And that’s forcing leaders to completely rethink how they use enterprise technology.</p>
<p>To meet new and rapidly shifting needs, companies are working to adapt and accelerate digital experience delivery. “Even if they were digital, it’s a <em>new</em> digital,” says Lopez. “So out of this very tragic event, there will be some positive outcomes.”</p>
<h2>How Industries Drive Future-Ready Transformation</h2>
<p>Purely physical processes were obvious targets for change as companies pivoted early in the pandemic to respond to digital-only engagement. A few examples include SaaS-based web conferencing apps and cloud-based e-commerce websites.</p>
<p>Despite the digitization of some key processes, Lopez says, “Now business leaders are being reminded that many processes are still physical and must become digital if their companies are going to thrive.”</p>
<p>Fixing those gaps serves as a catalyst for organizations across industries to take a closer look at what <a href="https://news.vmware.com/digital-transformation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital transformation</a> has taken place and what still needs to be done to future ready businesses. Here are a few examples.<strong> </strong></p>
<h3>Healthcare</h3>
<p>Modernization of the healthcare system has been underway for years. Due to the pandemic, however, providers rushed to enable non-essential staff to work from home. They also built pop-up hospitals so essential doctors and nurses could better care for patients.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, healthcare organizations are launching app-based consumer solutions, such as telehealth services, to ensure the continued health of patients and vulnerable populations.</p>
<h3>Retail</h3>
<p>Out of necessity, the retail industry shifted its focus to help shoppers get the products they need as quickly as possible—online, at curbsides, and in stores. To completely transform, though, requires a better understanding of the end-to-end customer experience, for example, why loyal consumers add to shopping carts but never complete a transaction, and the building of modern apps with associate-friendly workflows such as real-time inventory checking.</p>
<h3>Financial services</h3>
<p>In an industry built on relationships, in-branch banking and in-office advisor experiences once dominated. Personal engagement and regulatory requirements created a culture of heavily controlled IT. Now, financial services teams are looking for ways to stay in compliance, while supporting distributed advisors and clients from anywhere.</p>
<h3>Education</h3>
<p>The pandemic forced colleges, universities, and primary and secondary schools across the world to move learning online. This proved the distance learning model can work, but it will need to be further examined and modified to prioritize equity for all.</p>
<h2>The <em>New</em> Digital: The App Experience as the Customer Experience</h2>
<p><div id="attachment_22203" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/businesscontinues"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22203" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-22203 size-medium" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/VMware-Truth-About-Transformation-r6v1-Intro_16x9-300x169.gif" alt="" width="300" height="169"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22203" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/businesscontinues">Dive deeper into a new global survey that reveals the &#8220;Truth About Digital Transformation.&#8221;</a></p></div></p>
<p>While we know now that digital transformation isn’t failing, per say, have organizations fully embraced the idea that the app experience is the customer experience?</p>
<p>Lopez isn’t so sure. “I think the app experience was always supposed to be part of the customer experience. What happened was the rest of our experience was so broken that in most cases, we couldn’t do cross-channel well.”</p>
<p><strong>She cites two examples:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>When ordering products via the web is faster than navigating 10-plus clicks on a smartphone, why would people use an app?</li>
<li>When changing airline reservations is faster through the app, why would people pick up the phone?</li>
</ul>
<p>True digital transformation means delivering the same one-or-two click experience across every channel—web, mobile devices, tablets and more. Lopez believes, “Teams now have to focus on pervasive experience. No matter where you are, you have a similar feeling that you can get the same things done no matter the device.”</p>
<p>Traditionally, developers have been unable to give people everything they can get in a PC experience because so many processes are highly customized,” she says.</p>
<p>Enterprises must step back and examine the parts of each process to find the pieces delivering the value. For example, do customers come to a business for its highly customized supply chain process or its product? Chances are it’s the product, she says. This should be a signal for the organization to reduce some customization in favor of providing more consistent cross-channel experiences.</p>
<h2>The Power of Design Thinking</h2>
<p>The way to uncover an app’s essence is to take complicated applications through a <a href="https://news.vmware.com/nologies/design-thinking-julie-stanford">design thinking process</a>. This ensures teams distill each app to its core value with the optimal workflow—whether that’s enabling dynamic pricing or expense report approvals.</p>
<p>A workflow is an action. And when you see organizations with really good workflows, you’re looking at very good business processes. Under the surface, those workflows touch multiple apps to fully complete a process. Think about service technicians with iPads, for example. They can tap into one app and seamlessly launch three or four different workflows. According to Lopez, this capability “becomes very interesting and very powerful.”</p>
<p>“I see teams redesigning this way now and a big move toward the concept of human-centered design. For example, in automotive companies this is now pervasive thinking, which is really important,” she says.</p>
<p>In short context, connection through integration and cross-channel consistency will make modern apps more impactful and useful. Only then can the app experience truly be the customer experience.</p>
<h2>The Third Dimension: Infrastructure Implications</h2>
<p>Enabling connected workflows in and across apps will require more than development skill sets. “It’s going to take a rethink of infrastructure and security, too,” says Lopez.</p>
<p>When the pandemic hit, nearly all organizations were doing some form of a <a href="https://news.vmware.com/c/cloud/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cloud strategy</a>. “Everybody was looking at public, private and hybrid cloud. Everybody was thinking about or already building a multi-cloud strategy,” she says. Multi-cloud involves having parts of infrastructure on-premises and parts in the cloud.</p>
<p>The biggest challenge facing teams was adding and migrating workloads between cloud options. Now that work is different, Lopez believes we’ve entered into “the third dimension, which is some portion of always-distributed workers—but not always the same group of them.”</p>
<p><div id="attachment_22220" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.comcustomer-app-experience-business-success/"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22220" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-22220" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Modern-App-Customer-Experience_VMware-RADIUS-2-300x158.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="158"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22220" class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://news.vmware.comcustomer-app-experience-business-success/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Related Story: The Connection Between the App Experience &#038; Customer Experience</a></p></div></p>
<p>Productivity is paramount in all cases, so the infrastructure has to change. Teams can no longer optimize computing resources for work across a single building or campus. Instead, they must consider how to scale resources and end-user access at different periods of time and locations using clouds with virtual desktops (VDI), as an example.</p>
<p>In this new world, IT will have to reimagine what infrastructure gets served from where and how security can be maintained but done differently—without burdening workforces. IT has to consider where workloads live (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google or another cloud platform) and how to take previously locked down workloads to other places. Enterprises need a clear multi-cloud strategy and understanding about how to integrate points that previously weren’t considered part of the corporate enterprise, Lopez says.</p>
<p>As a result of this shared experience, Lopez believes the whole concept of infrastructure and how it’s managed will be more diverse. “Less centralized, but still very directed just not all in the same way,” she says. For example, enabling employees to have access to everything they need will be important. Yet, resources are likely to be delivered a certain way when someone is in the office and a different way when working from home.</p>
<p>Technical support structures must change, too. Without human-to-human interactions, how do employees and customers get queries answered and challenges solved when there is no one to call? This is where chatbots come in, says Lopez. She cites a recent example where chatbot technology enabled the automated distribution of information without going through redundant questions. This streamlined interaction made the person-to-person engagement, once it did happen, more effective.</p>


<h2>The Best Human-First Enterprise Tech Platforms…Wait for It…Aren’t Even Built Yet</h2>
<p>Although teams are trying, Lopez hasn’t seen an ideal human-first technology platform for the enterprise. “They aren’t built yet. But we’re getting closer with some human-first mobile apps and aligned IT and business leaders willing to take on the bigger issue, which is the process,” she says.</p>
<p>It’s possible now to deliver faster, easier access to data and apps in technologies like the <a href="https://news.vmware.com/c/digital-workspace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital workspace</a>. But if the experience with individual apps is still poor, people will be frustrated. Part of the challenge, says Lopez, is terminology, which is often too technical and not human-centric. The other is the end-to-end process.</p>
<p>Technology will need to get simpler and self-service has to become the norm, not the exception. Yet, teams can’t use automation as a crutch to avoid rethinking broken processes, says Lopez. Apps and devices must be so easy that anyone can troubleshoot them. It’s going to be impossible with flex remote working schedules to scale effective tech support at work. And it’ll be even harder for industries like retail to help non-tech savvy customers to navigate grocery shopping online, she says.</p>
<p>Emerging technologies like chatbots and <a href="https://news.vmware.com/artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">artificial intelligence</a> can help, she says. But the key to success is on her wish list: better conversational and natural language interfaces.</p>
<h2>Embracing Future-Ready Business</h2>
<p>Despite the debate, digital transformation efforts are succeeding. But it can be even more successful when businesses embrace a <em>new</em> digital. Yet, how they get there will depend on their willingness to envision customer and employee experiences differently. Ultimately, successful future-ready businesses will find the connections and redefine the workflows that matter. And only through this reimagining will app experiences truly become the customer experience.</p>
<p><iframe loading="lazy" title="The Debate About Digital Transformation" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v_5_v3YV4xY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>


<p>A new global survey reveals that organizations rapidly shifted their digital transformation priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

At the start of the pandemic, some things worked and others just broke. And that’s forcing leaders to rethink digital transformation.

What the Pandemic Teaches Us About Digital Transformation

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<p>Employers across the globe are uncertain about when and how they’ll welcome employees back to the office. But one thing is abundantly clear: Remote work is here to stay.</p>
<p>To adhere to social-distancing guidelines, many business leaders plan to keep a portion of their workforce remote. In fact, “nearly 3-in-4 CFOs plan to shift at least 5 percent of previously onsite employees to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19,” according to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2">a recent Gartner survey</a>.* And IT is in the hot seat for enabling this new workforce reality.</p>
<p>To help us explore how IT teams navigate this “new normal,” <a href="https://gateway.on24.com/wcc/gateway/elitesimplermedia/1611636/?partnerref=radius" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">we sat down with technology leaders</a> (virtually, of course) from Pittsburgh Technical College and World Wide Technology.</p>


<p>Hear from two innovative IT leaders as they share their powerful experiences during The Future of Employee Experience Summit.</p>

<h2>IT Teams Shine In Initial Response</h2>
<p>World Wide Technology (WWT) is a technology solution provider with more than 6,000 global employees. Before the pandemic hit, the company estimates that under a quarter of employees worked from a remote site. That figure jumped to more than 90 percent in the last few months.</p>
<p>Fortunately for WWT, its IT team made pre-pandemic <a href="https://news.vmware.com/c/digital-workspace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">digital workspace</a> investments.</p>
<p>“I feel like we’ve spent a lot of time over the years preparing for this kind of moment without really knowing we were preparing for <em>this kind of moment</em>,” says Joey Toms, manager of IT end-user services at WWT. “Having a digital workspace platform and robust <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-desktop-infrastructure-vdi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">VDI environment</a> already in place meant that, fortunately, we didn’t have to hurry up and burn the midnight oil for 12 days straight just to ramp up and be ready.”</p>
<p>Using an app catalog and virtual desktop environment, WWT employees access critical business apps from any device and any location. “The only thing that changed was the morning commute,” says Toms.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh Technical College (PTC) also made a smooth transition to a remote work and learning environment thanks to previous tech investments.</p>
<p>“Our campus infrastructure is about 95 percent virtualized. Not just our servers, which are probably closer to 98 percent virtualized, but our workstations, as well,” explains Jon Buhagiar, supervisor of network operations at PTC. “So, when we had to make the switch to working remote, the only difference to the worker was that they were not working at their desk anymore. They still had the same software and same standardized desktop image. Basically, the only difference was they were in a different place.”</p>
<p>That’s not to say the transition was without technical challenges.</p>
<p>PTC’s campus, for example, is located in rural Pennsylvania. Many staff and students live in communities without access to high-speed internet. To accommodate these connection challenges, PTC shipped hotspots so users could access their virtual learning environment and stay productive.</p>


<p>In this slideshow, 13 IT leaders talk about supporting their organizations' business continuity plans during the global disruption.</p>

<h2>Technology Helps Provide a Human-Touch</h2>
<p>Another unique challenge for PTC’s IT team was keeping the college’s unique cultural and academic spirit alive.</p>
<p>As CIO Bill Showers explains, “We’re a single campus, and so our culture has always been very much centered around an open-door policy. It&#8217;s very common for folks to just drop by your office for an unscheduled chat. Our biggest challenge here has been navigating how to keep that family atmosphere and tight, single-campus culture and transfer it online.”</p>


<p>Expert Laurel Farrer tackles the urgent challenges leaders face now that billions of workers are suddenly required to work from home.</p>

<p>Collaboration tools helped the team both cultivate in-person connections and open the eyes of its staff to technology’s possibilities.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;re seeing all sorts of folks eager to try new alternatives and moving to collaboration apps and video chats to connect. These are colleagues who I would have never pegged for that, and they have been very progressive. I think this is going to raise the bar for us technology-wise moving forward,” says Showers.</p>
<p>The PTC team also had to find creative solutions to enable professors to remotely teach highly-technical subjects that traditionally call for hands-on instruction.</p>
<p>Buhagiar shares, “We teach programmable logic controllers, or PLC, in the electronics program and you need a physical PLC when you&#8217;re doing that. One of the ways we overcame that challenges was to use an emulator to simulate the experience in a virtual environment. While the students cannot touch and feel the actual device, they can see and experience the intended learning outcome.”</p>
<h2>Reimagining IT Support in the &#8220;New Normal&#8221;</h2>
<p>In light of the pandemic, getting users remote access to apps and resources was the top priority a few months ago. Today, IT teams continue innovating to address other challenges associated with keeping a business or organization running.</p>
<p>Toms shares that one of his team’s biggest challenges at WWT is getting physical hardware and devices to new hires. These employees joined the team during the lockdown and are located in countries that have experienced supply chain disruption.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve been very fortunate to utilize VDI to allow new employees in these situations to use whatever device they have at home while we work on getting them their company-issued device,” he explains. “Since they are accessing our data center and company network from a secure VDI instance, we can get new hires up and running quickly on a personal device without being concerned from a security standpoint.”</p>
<p>WWT uses this approach when an employee’s device is broken and requires an IT person to physically repair it.</p>
<p>“People working from home with their kids just seems to equate to more accidents,” jokes Toms.</p>
<p>When a device needs repair, employees use a personal device to access the apps they need through WWT’s digital workspace platform. Then, an IT team member fixes the work-issued device and ships it back to them.<strong> </strong></p>


<p>Two IT leaders share how they're enabling their remote workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>

<h2>The Remote Work Genie Is Out of the Bottle</h2>
<p>While this transition isn’t without challenges, these IT leaders still find a few silver linings when looking forward to their organizations’ futures.</p>
<p>For one, Toms expects employees to be much more open to modern collaboration tools that were previously resisted.</p>
<p>“We&#8217;ve seen our video collaboration minutes explode, increasing by over 50 percent. Our internal team chat tool use has exploded as well,” explains Toms. “I like to think we&#8217;re going to come back to the office to a much more technically-astute user base. That’s my optimism,” Toms says.</p>
<p>Showers agrees that in addition to users adopting new technologies, this experience changes the way many students and teachers feel about distance learning.</p>
<p>“I think the genie is out of the bottle. You&#8217;re going to see both employees and employers demanding support for remote work moving forward,” he predicts.</p>
<p>Watch the full conversation between PTC and WWT’s IT leaders.<strong> </strong><strong> </strong></p>


<p>Dive deeper into how PTC and WWT's innovative IT teams quickly enabled their newly remote workforces.</p>

<p><em>*Gartner Press Release, Gartner CFO Survey Reveals 74% Intend to Shift Some Employees to Remote Work Permanently, April 3, 2020, </em><a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2"><em>https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2</em></a></p>
<p><strong> </strong></p>


Angela Leaf

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The Remote Work Genie Is Out of the Bottle. Now What? - VMware News and Stories

<p><div id="attachment_22071" style="width: 224px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://news.vmware.com/-author/bernard-kwok-vmware-china/"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-22071" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-22071" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Bernard-Kwok_VMware-214x300.jpg" alt="Bernard Kwok_VMware" width="214" height="300"></a><p id="caption-attachment-22071" class="wp-caption-text">By Bernard Kwok, President, Greater China, VMware</p></div></p>
<p>We are living and working through an extraordinary time. We’re all feeling the impact of this pandemic in one way or another. For countless businesses across all industries, the disruption has been severe. And there is a very human element to this, too. If a business cannot continue to operate, there are serious consequences that go far beyond the bottom line.</p>
<p>In the Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) region, many organizations have been forced to shift their mindset to think about their business continuity plans and remote work best practices and capabilities. It has been empowering to see organizations—particularly those that did not previously consider the need for remote work—identify creative ways to protect their workforce. At the same time, they’re delivering on their customer promises during a time when their services may be more important than ever.</p>
<p>Here are a few examples I’ve heard from APJ businesses in the past few months.</p>
<h2>1. Diagnosing Patients in Guangzhou From Afar</h2>
<p>The healthcare industry has undoubtedly been the most disrupted industry during this period. As hospitals focused on treating infections, it became critical that non-frontline staff were able to continue to treat other priority patients. People may typically think of medical staff needing to be available to physically see patients, even in one of the most human-to-human industries in the world. But technology has enabled some aspects of roles to be delivered remotely.</p>
<p>The Guangzhou Overseas Chinese Hospital and Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center protected non-frontline staff by setting up its 300-member medical imaging team to work remotely. By making all X-ray, CT and MRI images available on a <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-desktops" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual desktop</a> through the cloud, 300 doctors accessed this vital service at all hours from any location. This meant that productivity during this crucial time was unaffected.</p>
<h2>2. Keeping Enterprises’ Finances Afloat</h2>
<p>Periods of unexpected circumstances lead to unforeseen financial difficulties for many businesses. During this time, access to finance and transformation support is critical, particularly for underserved small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) borrowers.</p>
<p>My team recently worked with Chailease International Finance Co., Ltd., a professional financial leasing company. They provide systematic and comprehensive financial services for SMEs.</p>
<p>We helped Chailease International to rapidly scale their <a href="https://www.vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-desktop-infrastructure-vdi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">virtual desktop infrastructure</a> (VDI) to support 60 percent of the remote working needs of its employees. In only one week, they implemented about 600 virtual desktops. By making secure virtual desktops available to staff online, employees worked from home with exactly the same technology experience as the office. Because of this swift response, Chailease International customers experienced no drops in service.</p>
<h2>3. A New Meaning to Taking a Call from Home</h2>
<p>A traditional call center setup involves many people seated in close proximity for long stretches of time. To remain operational and protect the health of its employees, the largest call center of a leading Chinese telecom operator in the region spun up a virtual call center. This quick action empowered approximately 20,000 employees to work remotely with only a simple internet connection—all with no downtime for customer inquiries.</p>
<p>Once installed, the telecom company realized that it could offer this virtual call center solution to its business customers, who were also looking for best-practice remote working solutions.</p>
<h2>4. Studying at Home</h2>
<p>With social distancing and “shelter in place” mandates, many schools and colleges shifted to online learning platforms. Digital education platforms empower teachers and students with excellent remote experiences. Administrative staff also benefit from capabilities like digital document signing and verification processes, ensuring unexpected situations like class suspensions don’t negatively impact operations.</p>
<p>To support &#8220;uninterrupted learning,&#8221; National Taipei University in Taiwan built an online learning platform and successfully deployed 100 new virtual desktops. Now, the educator can teach as they did in physical classrooms, including rollcall, group discussions and more. In addition, virtual desktops also enable teachers to manage course progress and students’ learning status. With the help of software tools, teaching is now enriched and efficient, helping maintain consistent quality and positive experiences.</p>
<h2>Leading through Disruption</h2>
<p>The pandemic has already changed the future of work. Companies are really thinking about their digital transformation strategies and how teams collaborate and serve customers. They’re also finding smarter ways of getting business done.</p>


As China returns to work in the wake of COVID-19, we take a look at how organizations safeguard employees with remote work best practices.

Remote Work Best Practices Out of Greater China | VMware Radius

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<p>When a significant work disruption—be it a natural disaster, security breach or global pandemic—strikes, effective business leaders quickly pivot from “business as usual” to a new reality. It forces teams to hone in on top priorities and innovate new ways of working together to achieve them.</p>
<p>This is especially true today, as many companies now suddenly have a fully remote workforce. For businesses enabling a remote-first experience, the good news is that investments will continue paying off long after business disruption fades.</p>
<h2>The Value of Digital Employee Experience</h2>
<p>Today, we’re seeing just how important it is to be able to provide employees with a positive digital experience as they work outside of the office. However, providing a great digital experience, which includes enabling remote work, has long been on the minds of IT and HR leaders at companies competing to attract and retain the best talent.</p>
<p>Mark Zigadlo, vice president of technology and security services at Cofense, explains:</p>
<blockquote class="center">
<p>When I started to build a remote-first strategy for our company, I wasn’t thinking about a global pandemic.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>&#8220;I was really just thinking about being able to hire the right talent in the right places and provide a similar experience to somebody who might be based in Japan as somebody that&#8217;s based in our corporate offices.”</p>
<p>One digital employee experience that Zigadlo and his team aimed to improve was employee onboarding. After nearly doubling its workforce in a year by onboarding approximately 250 staff, Cofense saved its IT team hundreds of hours in configuration time alone, ultimately speeding up the time it took to get new employees up and running.</p>
<h2>A Necessity for Today, An Investment for Tomorrow</h2>
<p>The key to enabling a remote-first culture is providing employees with everything they need at their fingertips. This requires an investment in digital workspace technology that makes the experience of accessing apps from anywhere on any device intuitive and frictionless.</p>
<p>Brian Lancaster, CIO of Nebraska Medicine, says, “Several years ago, our IT team adopted the strategy of ‘anywhere, anytime, technology transforms.’ And last year, we achieved a key milestone where we enabled basically everyone across our different businesses to be able to teach, learn, conduct research and provide care via online channels.”</p>
<p>Nebraska Medicine operates a healthcare network that covers metro Omaha and extends across the region. It also has a research and education organization, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC).</p>
<p>In the wake of COVID-19, Nebraska Medicine professors and students now log into their digital workspace to access apps to run all classes, including labs, in a virtual environment. And for Nebraska Medical Center, all employees who do not need to go into the hospital are asked to work from home, accessing required apps and resources from their digital workspace.</p>
<p>“The investment we made in our digital workspace strategy is certainly helping us maintain continuity and deliver better care in these extraordinary times,” says Lancaster.</p>
<p>Investing in a remote-first culture will continue to benefit both employees and employers once individuals return to the office.</p>
<p>“When this is all over, there are going to be some companies that, for whatever reason, whether it be regulatory or some other reason, can&#8217;t necessarily support full time work-from-home policies,” says Zigadlo. “But that doesn&#8217;t mean adopting a remote-first culture isn&#8217;t useful. Adopting this mentality can help IT staff feel more confident supporting employees that work across geographically dispersed offices, for instance.”</p>


<p>Read the full Cofense case study to learn more about how automation helped make Cofense’s onboarding process more personal.</p>

<h2>Building A Remote-First Culture Goes Beyond Technology</h2>
<p>Technology is only part of a successful remote work equation. After all, it doesn’t matter what technology you have if employees don’t trust it or don’t have a good experience using it.</p>
<p>“If you look at our users—clinicians and professors—they’re not using the technology because they want to,” shares Lancaster. “In fact, if you do a quick search on ‘physician burnout,’ accessing electronic medical records and technology usage are high on the list of culprits. For us, educating our users about the benefits, addressing concerns regarding privacy and ease of use, and articulating a process for a smooth rollout were just as important, if not more so, than the technology.”</p>
<p>Lancaster describes a 6-9 month period  when he and his chief information security officer went office-to-office to address questions related to the technology his IT team would use to enable remote work and bring-your-own-device programs. This part of the roll-out (communication, assurance and support) required an investment of time, but it’s time Lancaster feels was more than well spent.</p>
<p>“How we used to enable remote access was a horrible user experience and was always in the top five IT helpdesk escalations,” Lancaster says. “Our improved process only takes a couple clicks to get users working remotely, providing them with an experience similar to what they are used to with online banking. Once employees began having this improved experience under the new method, we started seeing a shift from concern to people telling their peers to do it, because it was easier and better.”</p>


<p>Learn more about how Nebraska Medicine is driving better patient outcomes with its strategic vision for cloud, security and mobility in this case study.</p>

<h2>Helping Employees Adjust to a New Normal</h2>
<p>As more employees work from their homes—perhaps for the first time in their careers—IT teams play a critical role in helping employees adjust to this new normal.</p>
<p>At Nebraska Medicine, Lancaster and his team stood up several online resources to help professors adjust to teaching classes to medical students in a virtual environment.</p>
<p>“In addition to making sure professors knew where they can find tips related to installing and using the technology, we added resources on how to run an effective online meeting, strategies for adapting curriculum to a virtual environment and how to run a virtual lab. We’re leveraging best practices from across our organization to create a digital knowledge base to help staff adjust to their new working realities,” Lancaster says.<strong> </strong></p>


<p>Watch this webinar to learn how to quickly set up a remote workforce for success. </p>

<h2>A Workforce Forever Changed</h2>
<p>While the timeline for when people will start heading back to the office is unclear, many agree that this experience forever changed the way employees and companies view remote work.</p>
<p>Lancaster says, “I believe very strongly that work is what you do, not where you go. And I think we should continue to have spaces that facilitate that. It could be private spaces like a home office, or it could be community spaces for collaboration, where needed. The point is providing employees with the freedom to choose.”</p>
<p>Lancaster and Zigadlo shared additional insights on how, when and why to invest in a remote first culture during The Future of Employee Summit, presented by VMware and CMSWire. <a href="https://exsummit.vmware.com?src=RADIUS" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Watch it here.</a></p>


"Work is what you do, not where you go." How leaders from Nebraska Medicine and Cofense are enabling a remote workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tips for Enabling a Remote Workforce, According to the Experts

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Learn how the city of Tyler, Texas, has its eye on being the smart city of the future–all while empowering its citizens and neighboring towns to leverage technology as a force for good.

Smart transit system. Intelligent, connected infrastructure. Citizen-centric, next-gen applications. No, we’re not talking about Dubai, New York City or London. We’re talking about the rose capital of the United States: the small town of Tyler, Texas.

Tyler began its digital transformation journey about 10 years ago. But its leaders believed Tyler’s citizens deserved more than the digital status quo. They believed technology innovation had the power to improve lives and bring their community closer together.

The Boston Consulting Group expects spending on IoT by governments to increase from $5 billion in 2015 to $12 billion in 2020.

IoT has the potential to transform public sector operations at municipal, regional and national levels. These public entities can leverage the power of connected things to meet the needs of a population that is increasingly reliant on digital services and interactivity.

The applications are almost limitless: street lighting that responds to pedestrian traffic levels; smart garbage cans that prompt rubbish collection when it is needed; parking space alert services; and interactive information services for tourists, pushed to their smartphones, among many others.

<strong>Tyler, Texas, is on the bleeding edge of smart city innovation and adoption:</strong>

Future-Ready Schools for a Future-Ready Workforce

Tyler Independent School District (ISD) prepares K-12 students for the future of work by incorporating technology into the learning experience very early. Students use the newest digital tools inside and outside the classroom, thanks to the ISD’s virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). This mobile technology enhances education and prepares students for real-world careers.

Community means more than a town. Community is about fostering relationships–and helping neighbors in need. To help its neighbors realize the value of digital transformation, the city of Tyler reaches out a helping hand.

“We’re partnering with some of our neighboring cities to provide them with IT services. Being the larger city in the area, we have the size and staff to be able to utilize these private cloud technologies,” says Jeremy English, Tyler’s IT infrastructure manager. “We’re bringing the big-city technology to all the small towns in the area.”

Digital Transformation in the Heart of Texas

Learn more about Tyler's powerful digital transformation story. <a href="https://www.vmware.com/company/customers.html#customer=/content/web-apps/customers/C/City_of_Tyler" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Read the case study</a>

Tyler, Texas, has its eye on being the smart city of the future, while empowering citizens and neighbors to use tech as a force for good.

Big things are happening in the rose capital of America.

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A Smart City in the Little Texas Town of Tyler | VMware

<p>“There’s been a big shift in higher education,” says Robert Irving, director of IT at the <a href="http://www.sharjah.ac.ae/en/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">University of Sharjah</a> in the United Arab Emirates. “Students used to compete for a limited number of spaces in universities. Today, it’s the universities that compete to enroll the students. We’re competing for students in the same way commercial organizations compete for customers.”</p>
<p>In light of this, the University of Sharjah has put IT innovation at the forefront of its strategy, creating an immersive technology experience that will enrich the lives of students and employees.</p>
<p><div id="attachment_20127" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-20127" loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-20127" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah.png" alt="Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah.png 1200w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=300,157 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=768,402 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Emerging_Technology_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=1024,536 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><p id="caption-attachment-20127" class="wp-caption-text">VMware’s Agents of Change initiative celebrates technology leaders who challenge the status quo. By harnessing the power of digital transformation, they create unlimited possibilities for their businesses. Here’s the next technology leader in the Agents of Change series: Robert Irving, Director of IT at the University of Sharjah.</p></div></p>
<h1>Moving to the Cloud</h1>
<p>It wasn’t always like this. When Irving joined the University less than two years ago, some of the IT systems hadn’t kept pace with the University’s growth. His team was equipped to put out fires, maintain the status quo and not much else. This left little room to keep up with an industry where student satisfaction is a key factor in determining competitiveness.</p>
<p>After taking stock of the key challenges, Irving set to work reorganizing how the University of Sharjah delivered IT services, from top to bottom. Moving to the cloud was an obvious first step. “Adopting the cloud allowed us to turn around the technology architecture of the university very quickly,” he says.</p>
<p>This made the college more agile and freed up resources to launch new services. It’s also opened the door for a seamless mobile experience, which is key to appealing to an audience of which 85 percent claim <a href="https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/12/students-find-university-apps-helpful-want-more-personalization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">centralized mobile apps ease the transition to college</a>.</p>
<p>Wearable technology also caught the attention of Irving. “We’re seeing high levels of adoption of wearable by students and staff. I’m interested in how we can harness their data-collecting functionality and integrate them into the learning environment and our administration systems. That way, we could prompt students for delivering assignments or let them know that they&#8217;re close to a learning resource that could be of use to them. Wearables could even help students understand when’s the best time for them to study, based on sleep habits, anxiety levels and so forth.”</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-20128" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah.png" alt="Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah.png 1200w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=300,157 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=768,402 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Champion_for_Innovation_University_of_Sharjah.png?resize=1024,536 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></p>
<h1>Setting the Course for Change</h1>
<p>Reflecting on his time at the University, Irving is proud that once the course for change had been set: “The team showed an amazing willingness to adapt and come on board with the new changes. This can be especially challenging when someone new comes in to lead a department. If you are a true champion for innovation, your team will follow you.”</p>
<p>His tip for other IT leaders: stakeholder management. “Have strong engagement with those who will be most affected. Help them understand the reasons for the change, and the opportunities it will bring. Then they will be ready to embrace what you’re trying to accomplish.”</p>
<p>Irving prioritized this relationship in his evaluation of the challenges that the university was facing, and it paid dividends. “I took the time to meet with staff, students, faculty and heard from them what was causing them difficulties in their day-to-day lives. And then we&#8217;ve worked through the process of prioritizing those tasks so we can then get on with the work to address those issues.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlOaRcDZR34" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hear more from Robert Irving</a> about the University of Sharjah’s digital transformation.</p>


<p>This article is the latest in the Agents of Change series, a look at how technology leaders challenge the status quo to discover new possibilities for their organizations.</p>

Director of IT Robert Irving shares how the delivery of IT services in the cloud set the course for digital transformation at the University of Sharjah.

University of Sharjah Reimagines IT Services in the Cloud | VMware Radius

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<p>Like other industries, higher education undergoes disruption, broadening and adding complexity to the chief information officer (CIO) role. As learning transforms, university CIOs face pressure to balance strained budgets and evolving government policies with new student demands and rapidly advancing technologies.</p>
<p>But this doesn’t discourage Marius Spinu, CIO at the <a href="https://www.unifi.it/changelang-eng.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Florence</a>, a world-class center of learning and research. On the contrary, Spinu thrives in the dynamic and challenging environment.</p>
<p>“The exciting part of working at a university is that things are constantly evolving,” says Spinu. “The university brings together in one place people from different cultures, nationalities, ages and areas of expertise to share their ideas and expertise. This is how real innovation starts.”</p>
<p><div id="attachment_19344" style="width: 1290px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-19344" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-19344 size-full" src="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS.jpg" alt="University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS" width="1280" height="675" srcset="https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS.jpg 1280w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS.jpg?resize=300,158 300w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS.jpg?resize=768,405 768w, https://news-editor.vmware.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/University_of_Florence_CIO_RADIUS.jpg?resize=1024,540 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" /><p id="caption-attachment-19344" class="wp-caption-text">VMware’s Agents of Change initiative celebrates technology leaders who challenge the status quo. By harnessing the power of digital transformation, they create unlimited possibilities for their businesses. Here’s the next technology leader in the Agents of Change series: Marius Spinu, CIO at the University of Florence.</p></div></p>
<h1>Classical vs. Disruptive Innovation in Higher Education</h1>
<p>He approaches IT innovation in higher education in two ways: classical innovation and disruptive innovation. The former helps the University of Florence operate faster and smarter. The latter helps the University’s offerings stay ahead of the curve. By making the distinction, Spinu ensures his IT organization drives both.</p>
<p>“Classical innovation is about efficiency and automation, making sure our processes are optimised and streamlined,” he explains. “Disruptive innovation is about completely reshaping learning. For example, using technology for personalized learning, tailored to each individual student’s learning needs so all students can succeed.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Hear more from Spinu in this video on how he’s accelerating digital innovation in the University of Florence.</em></p>
</p>
<p><center><iframe loading="lazy" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MPs2nhqAdtY" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></center><br />
One disruptive innovation Spinu hopes to make a reality is the nirvana of personalized learning in the University. First, he laid the <a href="https://www.vmware.com/content/microsites/possible/stories/digitalfoundation.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">digital foundation</a> for initiatives of this kind with classical innovations to the IT infrastructure.</p>
<p>The University’s <a href="https://www.vmware.com/solutions/software-defined-datacenter.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">software-defined data center</a> provides pervasive, end-to-end connectivity to apps and data from wherever its 1,800 lecturers and research staff and 51,000 enrolled students are. IT’s infrastructure also includes <a href="https://www.vmware.com/it-priorities/empower-digital-workspace.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secure digital workspaces</a> that support the growth of mobile learning and international student enrollment.</p>
<h1>Driving Forces of Innovation in Higher Education</h1>
<p>Spinu rejects the idea that higher education can afford to move at a slower pace than the private sector. New generations of incoming students expect sophisticated, seamless digital experiences.</p>
<p>“We have a more demanding group of stakeholders than most,” he says. “We have a completely new student body every five years. Students have extremely high expectations in terms of technology, mobility and applications. They don’t care for complexity; they just want technology to work from them. We have to comply with their vision.”</p>
<p>Meanwhile, governments increasingly push the public sector to digitally transform and meet its citizens’ digital expectations. As the CIO of an Italian university, Spinu must support the Agenda Digitale Italiana (Italian Digital Agenda), which sets out to develop a digital economy in Italy in line with the European Digital Agenda.</p>
<p>“It’s all about accelerating the shift to digital within the University, and ensuring its done in a compliant way,” he says. “It adds another layer of complexity but also interest to my role.”</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>This article is the latest in the </em><em><u><a href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change">Agents of Change</a></u></em><em> series, a look at how technology leaders challenge the status quo to discover new possibilities for their organizations.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong><em><u><a href="https://news.vmware.com/agents-of-change">Learn from other Agents of Change.</a></u></em></strong></p>


Education