Windows 11: Can modern tools preserve company culture in the hybrid world?

IT leaders endorse hybrid work, but digital can’t replicate the in-person environment - yet

We’re never going back to the office full-time, and modern tech systems should reflect and support that.

That was the conclusion of IT leaders from large end-user organisations attending a dining club hosted by Microsoft, Computacenter and Computing last month.

New staff "expect hybrid working," said one delegate from a media company. Another, in law enforcement, pointed out that the productivity gains during Covid had disproven "the taboo of working from home."

Everyone at the event, where senior leaders came together to discuss hybrid working and Microsoft's new Windows 11 operating system, felt that hybrid was the future of work - but they also acknowledged the new challenges it had brought.

"Probably number one is the support model," said an attendee from the finance sector. "We were totally geared to people being in the office, and now we have had to flip that in terms of serving people at home."

They also pointed to broadband issues, which another delegate picked up on in the name of resilience.

"You have a real risk with resilience. We have had a couple of outages over the last couple of years; the VPN drops and every person that is working externally piles into the office… They really have that pinch point of where just a network drop will cause an organisation to fall flat."

One attendee said they had found the older generation more comfortable with remote working - as they normally have more space at home - but another really had to work for senior leadership buy-in.

You have to "get into their in-trays and convince them it is the right thing to do," he said.

Can modern tools save company culture?

On top of support and resilience, data protection and cybersecurity came out as important challenges to address - to nobody's surprise. But one other element led the conversation around the table: maintaining company culture in the age of hybrid work.

With many teams only in the office two or three days a week, attendees lamented the loss of "accidental conversations" for strengthening the non-business aspect of relationships.

Although these were IT professionals, the people who should be most comfortable with conversations over video, they agreed there was a whole level of information in-person that was hard to get over Teams or Zoom.

But while conferencing apps might not yet be ready to facilitate a social life, one attendee from a large consulting firm said technology certainly had a role to play.

"This is one area where the tooling that I see is really useful…I am huge fan of Viva Insights. I basically do not use my inbox unless Insights is on and it will say, ‘This is somebody in your team. You have not met with them for a couple of weeks. Do you want to book in half an hour to catch up with them?' It learns that really well. It will say, ‘This is somebody you usually respond to in five minutes and you have missed an email from them a couple of days ago'…

"That is where I hope we will see more in terms of remote or hybrid presence. ‘This person is meeting with you. They have done it in Teams. You are both actually in the office, do you want to meet in person?'… That is the kind of stuff that will really help this hybrid/home/office experience, for me."

Windows 11: The challenges and opportunities

All of the delegates were trialling Windows 11, seeing it as an OS that had been built for modern work - specifically, hybrid. Interest is particularly high because the experience is so different to what has come before.

"It looks like it is going to fit with the cloud stack that we are after as well as the look and feel, which I think some of comes into play," said one attendee. "It is more of a modern approach."

Adopting modern architecture is a strong pull factor towards Windows 11: an opportunity to rebuild and move towards a more global operating model.

Despite the interest in a new OS, delegates also acknowledged that Windows 11 would bring its own challenges in terms of both hardware - upgrading the physical IT estate at scale - and software. App compatibility was a significant shared concern.

"The feature set and the zero touch and the other elements are driving [adoption] for us, more so than security… [but upgrading] is a question of how brave we are with the app compatibility issue," said a digital head from the consultancy sector.

A leader from the transport industry said:

"For us, one of the big things is applications and application management… We have lots of old applications, some of which where the company has gone out of business or no longer supports the application. They just will not be upgraded; it is not possible. They run on XP or they run on worse than XP…

"That aspect of application management is something that we have not cracked yet. If we go to Windows 365 and so on, that probably will not be for everybody, but how do we manage our applications that cannot be updated?"

Attendees also highlighted pushback from internal teams - service management was named as a culprit several times - as a challenge.

Windows 11: Can modern tools preserve company culture in the hybrid world?

IT leaders endorse hybrid work, but digital can’t replicate the in-person environment - yet

We’re never going back to the office full-time, and modern tech systems should reflect and support that.

The practicalities of a new OS

The discussion turned towards the practicalities of rolling out a new operating system across a fleet of (mostly remote) devices and at scale.

Think about the outcomes you are trying to drive, was the advice of Computacenter's Ashley Richardson (Chief Technologist - Workplace):

"We are encouraging customers on two things… [First,] there is understanding and mapping out the roadmap of where you want to go, and how we can help you on that journey. [Second,] there is also allowing you the opportunity to look at what the end state should be in order to start to get the best out of those different areas."

Many delegates' preferred end state could be defined as ‘More productive and secure remote working with minimal disruption.' To that end, most were trialling Windows 11 with the technical team first - but not all.

"The approach we are hoping to take initially is the new hardware will go out with Windows 11," said one attendee. "The approach we would like to take is new hardware, a new provisioning method and a new OS…

"We will not do all of [the Technology team], because it would not be good for all of Technology to be walking around with new Surface laptops before the rest of the business…. However, we will try and hit target groups and at least try and start spreading Windows 11 throughout the organisation…

"We are really focused more on the go forwards than the retrospective upgrades at the moment, given the age of our hardware."

Another IT leader, from the finance sector, also went against the common approach of rolling out to the tech team first:

"Our approach normally is to pilot with technology - but then everybody else looks at you and says, ‘They have new laptops.'"

Windows 11: An OS for the modern age

Microsoft developed Windows 11 with hybrid working in mind, literally building and shipping it in the middle of the Covid pandemic - so hybrid "was very much top of mind for the engineering teams," said Mark Linton, VP Portfolio, Solutions & Marketing at Microsoft.

A few feature-level examples include a universal mute button that works across all video conferencing systems; improved video call capabilities; locally stored docking profiles for hot desking; and making TPM 2.0 a minimum requirement to boost security.

"That is mainly because firmware attacks are on the rise, as are identity attacks," said Linton.

Linton acknowledged that making TPM 2.0 mandatory has been a blocker for firms with large fleets of ineligible, aged devices. That's why Microsoft and channel partners like Computacenter are working on this migration challenge.

"If budgets are tight and you cannot even get started, I am putting some of our investments into the [proof of concept] motion, to least get you there so you can start with different populations," he said.

"You want to have it tested before you get going, but if the IT costs of getting that hardware in is too much to get started then it blocks us as well, so we are making investments there."

As IT leaders at the event said, hybrid work is here to stay - and so is Windows 11. But approaches to introducing the new OS, while similar on the surface, are extremely varied between organisations. Ultimately, the success of a Windows 11 rollout will depend on careful planning and effective communication across the business.

Are you considering a migration to Windows 11? Contact Computacenter by email or call 01707 631000 to find out how a workplace assessment or Proof of Concept can support your journey.