Remote Work Culture Gave Nordics Head Start in Digital Workplace Capability Before COVID-19

ISG Provider Lens™ report finds slower growth in work-from-home programs in region where remote work was already widespread, reducing need for rapid large-scale implementations

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Nov. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The COVID-19 pandemic brought far less change to work life in the Nordic region than in other parts of the world, thanks to a traditionally high number of employees already working remotely, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for the Nordics found that less extreme lockdown measures, as well as the fact that remote work is already commonplace in most sectors of the region’s economy, led to a slower increase in the number of employees working at home. Exceptions to this trend included the public sector and industries that require more workers on site. While companies in the Nordics did expand their at-home workforces, most in the region did not have to mount the kind of sudden, broad-based transition required in countries such as the U.S., the U.K. or Germany.

“Digital workplace adoption was more advanced in the Nordics even before the pandemic, empowering a large remote workforce,” said Jan Erik Aase, director and global leader, ISG Provider Lens Research. “The same capabilities that providers have helped to build in Nordic enterprises are now facilitating effective responses in other regions.”

An increasingly important element of remote-work implementations is digital workplace consulting services, which focus on digital transformation and how an enterprise can best enable workers’ productivity, security and health at home, the report says. Providers that include this element of the transition are best equipped to build trust with their enterprise customers and best prepared to respond to a crisis.

The overall growth of remote work has shifted the focus of managed workplace services from office improvements to needs such as scaling up virtual collaboration capacity and supplying employees with devices and secure home connections, according to ISG. Help desk services also need to evolve to better serve workers at home, and analytics tools are coming into play for this purpose.

Managed mobility services are critical in regions with large remote workforces seeking smooth collaboration on both fixed and mobile devices. Increasingly, this means mobility platforms integrated with enterprise back-end systems such as CRM and ERP, generating strong enterprise demand for effective security solutions, the report says. Companies that manage many remote workers also look to unified endpoint solutions, mostly from specialist vendors, that span fixed and mobile platforms.

Unified collaboration and communication solutions make up another key part of the digital workplace toolkit. Aside from the scalability that was so urgently needed in regions outside the Nordics, security and the user experience are also major areas of focus for providers, according to ISG. Cloud-based platforms are gaining in importance in this sector.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for the Nordics evaluates the capabilities of 57 providers across five quadrants: Digital Workplace Consulting Services, Managed Workplace Services, Managed Mobility Services, Unified Communication and Collaboration Solutions, and Unified Endpoint Management Solutions.

The report names Accenture, Atos, Capgemini, Fujitsu, IBM and TCS as leaders in three quadrants and Microsoft and TietoEVRY as leaders in two quadrants. Avaya, Cisco, Citrix, Cognizant, Damovo, Ericsson, Google, HCL, Ivanti, Telia, VMware and Wipro each is named a leader in one quadrant. In addition, Matrix42, Smarp, TechMahindra and TietoEVRY are named as Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

A customized version of the report is available from TietoEVRY.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace of the Future – Services & Solutions report for the Nordics is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe and Latin America, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.