The modern workplace is changing in a number of different ways. One of those changes is where employees work and how they use technology. In the past, most users would access one device, usually a computer with a box under the desk connected to a server in the same building. Today’s workplace is completely different.
Employees can work from the office, from a different office, from home, or from just about any other location. They will use different devices depending on location or the task at hand. From a technology infrastructure, application management, and desktop delivery point of view, this new and evolving way of working and interacting with technology adds massive amounts of complexity, challenges, and, potentially, costs.
Looking at application management specifically, how do you consolidate technologies and reduce complexity while improving the user experience?
User Expectations
An important first step is to set your priorities in terms of user experience and DEX (digital employee experience). DEX is more important than ever for a range of business reasons, from talent recruitment and retention to productivity and competitiveness. What role does DEX play in application management?
Users increasingly want to be able to switch seamlessly between devices – laptop to desktop to virtual desktop to mobile device, etc. When doing so, they expect the user experience on each device to be the same, with a familiar desktop and icons for all the apps they use appearing where they expect them to appear.
Are you delivering (and can you deliver) that type of experience to users in your organisation?
With the right application management strategy, you can deliver on user expectations at the same time as reducing application management complexity.
This applies however you currently manage applications in your organisation.
The Complexity Challenges of Traditional Application Management Approaches
Without a modern, structured, and planned approach to application management, challenges will persist and increase in frequency.
This applies in almost all situations, including if you currently favour the tried, tested, and trusted MSI application format delivered through SCCM. For many technology professionals responsible for application management, MSI is the path of least resistance. They might even try other options from time to time, including both stateful and stateless VDIs, but the underlying approach is MSI applications delivered through SCCM.
While this approach has been reliable for many years, it is increasingly becoming a headache as technologies modernise and increasingly leave the MSI packaging format behind.
Being open to new methods of application management and delivery can bring benefits, but it can also make processes even more complicated. It is easy to end up in a situation where you have some MSI applications in addition to manual applications, apps on a file share, web apps, and other application format options for different use cases. There could also be different delivery methods including SCCM, AppV, and other types of products.
Even switching to an impressive product like Intune doesn’t solve the challenges of too much complexity and too many technologies if you don’t have the right application management strategy.
Strategy Combined with Automation is the Solution
David Butler-McAllister, Access IT Automation’s Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, outlined the solution to these challenges in a recent Liquidware podcast on The Art of Applications.
Describing Access IT Automation’s flagship product Access Capture, David said: “We can help package, we can help create the deployment objects, we can test to make sure things are okay before QA testing and delivery out into production. We automate the different parts that need manual work because there’s such a mixture of technologies out there.
“It goes back to application strategy, especially if you are moving to Windows 365 or AVD – or any other type of desktop-as-a-service platform. You really need to consider and rethink your app strategy so you can consolidate all the different technologies to get onto one and move forward.”
Application management doesn’t have to be complex, and it doesn’t have to involve a wide range of technologies. This applies to any size or type of organisation, including the largest corporations. The solution is to create an application management strategy based on modern technologies and then use automation tools to maximise process efficiency.
