Digital integration for hybrid: what type of company are you?

As companies everywhere grapple with fast-evolving working practices, there is growing recognition that the implementation of hybrid working models must go hand in hand with digital transformation to meet employee demand for flexibility.

Technology systems must be integrated to unlock a data-led ecosystem of services that can improve business efficiencies and workplace experiences. But organisations are at different stages on their journey to digital integration and hybrid working– and many overlook cloud-based access control and security, which can be the key to making the whole ecosystem work.

A new report by proptech company Brivo in partnership with WORKTECH Academy, entitled ‘Integrated Control’, enables companies to plot where they are on their journey to digital transformation and hybrid working. It presents a ‘framework for hybrid integration’ which allows enterprise firms to analyse their journey in more detail and illustrates the steps needed to move forward.

The four typologies described in the framework show how connected a company’s approach and commitment to hybrid working is with its level of digital transformation and integration. Companies keen to make hybrid work but without investment in new digital support infrastructure face some serious challenges, as do firms who are committing to digital transformation but want to deny employees flexibility.

Four typologies

According to the Brivo report, the four typologies for companies on their transformation journeys are:

Bystanders: These companies are watching and waiting, they have neither jumped into hybrid work nor invested in new technology. Instead, they are waiting it out until they know for sure what the best strategy is. But will this certainty ever come?

Wanderers: These companies that have enthusiastically embraced hybrid working, but in doing so they have left themselves exposed to security threats as they have not invested in digital infrastructure.

Returners: This group is investing heavily in digital transformation but have not implemented hybrid working as part of a deliberate corporate strategy to bring everyone back to the office.

Integrators: These organizations are the trailblazers – they are determined to develop the digital infrastructure to support the adoption of hybrid working in order to address changing employee expectations.

The report makes the case that if companies are going to create a successful hybrid working environment, then this move must go hand in hand with the right digital systems and infrastructure. And if the aim is to create a positive workplace experience that has embedded flexibility for employees, then investment in integrated digital systems should start with cloud-based security and access control.

Read the full report from Brivo, ‘Integrated Control: Access and Security  in the Age of Hybrid Working’, here.