TRENDING
“
TO GO FROM
20,000 TO
140,000 REMOTE
WORKERS IN
10 DAYS WAS
SOMETHING
WE HAD NEVER
DEALT WITH, AND
IT REQUIRED A
GREAT DEAL OF
CO-ORDINATION
AND TEAMING
ACROSS THE
COMPANY.
be better prepared for the next unexpected
event. For most, that will mean making
additional investments.
The survey highlighted the critical role
of modernized network technologies in
supporting CIOs and their organizations
through the current crisis. It’s a theme that
we’ve been sharing at Cisco for years.
Jacqui Guichelaar,
Senior Vice
President and Chief
Information Officer
at Cisco
study reported that 78% feel the pandemic
has had a severe or major impact on their
organizations. Beyond that, some interesting
insights emerged:
• Our survey respondents listed the top
stress drivers as security, VPN bandwidth,
loss of productivity and tech outages.
• The increase in stress from security alone
rose by 14% since the pandemic began,
and half said that their security fears
were connected to the sharp increase in
remote work.
• Another half said that the move to
remote work represented a major cultural
shift for their organizations.
Navigating the new normal –
and looking beyond it
These numbers reveal the extent to
which we’re all realizing what the new
normal looks like and the importance of
Digital Transformation in navigating it
with less stress. Many of us are already
adjusting our future plans accordingly, to
And recent events have only confirmed
the key pillars of Digital Transformation –
rebuilding your infrastructure, reimagining
your apps, securing your data and
empowering your teams – as never before.
Collaboration tools, of course, have been
essential through this crisis. Our survey
respondents highlighted the importance of
regular team meetings using video (86%);
unified communication tools that enable
faster innovation and iteration (79%) and
one-on-one meetings using video (78%).
An interesting call out, using video was
shown as enabling CIOs to support their
own teams’ mental health through the
crisis. At Cisco, we’ve done a lot of virtual
coffee chats, happy hours, group fitness
sessions and more. And though it doesn’t
24 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com