By Matt Brodsky
In the wake of COVID-19, countless businesses, teams, and communities around the world have shifted to remote and work-from-home environments. In some cases, employees had only a few days to adjust to their new, virtual working platforms. Many have come to rely more heavily on their IT administrators, which includes an entire technological ecosystem from frontline support staff to executive management.
As the pandemic causes major disruptions to the architectures of many companies, these IT administrators are stepping in and redesigning processes that impact entire businesses on the fly. Whether providing educational tutorials over the phone or physically handing off hardware and equipment, these essential workers have become vital links in keeping networks connected and employees “plugged in” and companies afloat. In times like these, receiving the right kind of technical support can mean the difference between having a productive day versus having a frustrating one.
But this surge in demand for technical support has placed an unforeseen burden on many IT admins, as they scramble to help their end-users become part of the virtual workforce. I was curious to discover how IT organizations were performing during the pandemic, so we implemented a survey that asked respondents about what tools, resources, and trainings they had deployed to keep people engaged and what pain points were emerging within the Microsoft 365 platform.
How did we get here?
Seemingly overnight, we watched businesses, universities, and organizations transition from in-person workplaces to virtual environments. The speed of that switch may have helped flatten the COVID-19 curve, but it also had severe consequences: Without the proper infrastructures in place, many companies could not survive. Some employees were furloughed or laid off due to a lack of technology to take home. Yet those who were lucky enough to stay employed didn’t have it easy. Much of the workforce experienced headaches and frustrations as they adjusted to these new working and learning realities with sometimes foreign or unfamiliar tools.
To that point, one of the biggest issues IT administrators faced involved educating customers on how to use remote software and best practices around usage. Because the majority of the workforce had never been expected to work remotely, at least to the extent that is currently required, they were not trained or shown how to access these tools. With no physical offices, classrooms, or face-to-face interactions, customers experienced a steep learning curve.
While the majority of IT admin customers surveyed were encouraged to work remotely by their employers, they still encountered difficulties. They reported issues like understanding the difference between using local devices versus remote devices; how to log into VPNs; and how to increase their IT capacity essentially overnight. Some reported not having the proper equipment or devices to do their job. One respondent noted how they worked off two monitors in their office but were now adjusting to a single laptop. Slow internet performance was also reported, as people adjusted to the capacity of their in-home WiFi.
IT admin customers also expressed the psychological impacts of working remotely. Some reported a hard time adjusting to the isolation of virtual culture, which usually means less social contact and interaction with other people. Which is to say, water cooler discussions and happy hours with family members don’t have the same appeal.
Some key takeaways
As the environments where people work become less traditional, and teams become more complex and diverse, the future workforce will become more reliant upon platforms and tools that can be used from anywhere, at any time.
As discovered in this survey, one upside to the transition to an all-virtual workforce has been a real-life illustration of how to handle an increase in traffic on Microsoft 365 platforms. Administrators noted how they had rapidly deployed various Microsoft services like Teams chat, Teams meetings, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
Some IT admins, however, noted that it was hard for some users to change from their preferred collaboration tools and remote meeting services, like Zoom. Other IT admins pointed out that Teams lacked critical features and usability preferences that would allow them to assist customers in more effective and efficient ways.
Half of the survey respondents reported that they face new challenges providing the proper support to their end-users. This seemed in large part due to inadequate technology, and a learning curve that comes with needing to ramp up many new offices at once. Luckily, the other half of the respondents expressed that despite these major changes, they were still able to provide the support needed.
They say not all superheroes wear capes, and that rings especially true when it comes to this pandemic. But in this case, the superheroes might be wearing headsets.
Has your team or organization shifted to remote work? Have you relied more heavily on IT administrators to help with common issues? Tweet us your thoughts @MicrosoftRI or like us on Facebook and join the conversation.
Matt Brodsky was born in the Soviet Union, but moved to the United States as a toddler and was raised in the Bay Area. He moved to Seattle in 2010 for graduate school at the University of Washington where he received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience. His focus was studying serotonin receptors and the motivation for drug-taking and took a postdoc at Seattle Children’s Research Institute researching the brain circuitry underlying the motivation to exercise. In 2017, Matt joined CIR, where he researches commercial IT administration of Microsoft’s cloud-based solutions and how migrating to the cloud has changed organizational structures.