A new era for IT: Productivity enablement
Ernst Kolmeijer
Product Director, Platform
Digital transformation dominates the conversation around productivity enablement, but we are overlooking the unsung heroes: the IT teams responsible for executing the transformation. As an IT professional, you’re integrating technologies, scaling networks, and keeping the entire organization online. While AI, automation, and cloud tools get the credit, the reality is that IT and productivity go hand in hand.
But here’s the catch: You’re constantly expected to do more with less, manage increasingly complex networks, and deliver seamless experiences—all while troubleshooting issues and putting out fires. It’s time to reframe the narrative: IT is the driving force behind productivity.
And it’s time you got the tools to make your job easier.
The true role of IT in digital transformation
You know better than anyone: digital transformation isn’t just about adopting the latest tech. It’s about making that tech work reliably, at scale, and without disruption. While AI and automation steal the spotlight, you’re the one ensuring everything aligns with business goals and runs smoothly.
I always think of IT as the engine of a well-oiled machine. You’re tasked with keeping networks fast, secure, and adaptable—all while supporting new tools and managing legacy systems. If your network isn’t up to the challenge, transformation efforts grind to a halt.
Forward-thinking organizations acknowledge that their transformation efforts need to be balanced and supported by IT and network transformations too. This was evidenced in the Expereo-commissioned IDC InfoBrief, Enterprise Horizons 2024: Technology Leaders’ Priorities on their Digital Business Journey.
Out of the top transformation technologies 650 enterprise technology leaders were prioritizing, network transformation featured heavily:
- AI/ML – 42%
- Security/Cybersecurity – 37%
- Cloud or multi-cloud networking/connectivity – 35%
- Software defined networking (e.g., SD-WAN, SD-LAN, SASE) – 30%
This is because your transformation initiatives are only as good as the network that supports them. A robust, adaptable network infrastructure is vital to delivering the benefits of transformation. Without it, latency, outages, and inefficiencies can cripple productivity gains.
Why is network transformation vital to productivity?
The network is the critical lifeline that connects everything—users to applications, data to decision-makers, and businesses to customers.
The relationship between network transformation, IT and productivity is twofold:
- Supporting digital initiatives
Network transformation involves updating legacy systems, adopting agile solutions like SD-WAN and SASE. These upgrades and optimizations ensure businesses have the flexibility and reliability to meet evolving demands.
Additionally, advanced networking solutions, such as SD-WAN, empower IT teams to manage bandwidth dynamically, ensuring resources are allocated where they’re needed most. This adaptability translates into tangible productivity gains for the entire enterprise.
- Keeping the business online
When networks are optimized, employees spend less time troubleshooting connectivity issues and more time focused on meaningful tasks. They have uninterrupted access to critical applications, fostering collaboration and reducing delays.
But transforming the network isn’t the end of the story for IT teams and leaders. You still need to ensure full network visibility so you can manage and further optimize the network properly.
Network visibility and increased business productivity
The link between network visibility, IT and productivity cannot be overstated. Without visibility, IT teams operate in the dark, unable to diagnose problems or optimize performance effectively. You’re flying blind, troubleshooting issues by guesswork, and reacting to problems only after they disrupt the business. This lack of insight often leads to:
- Inefficiencies that eat up your resources.
- Longer downtimes that hurt your reputation.
- Lost productivity that IT gets blamed for, even when the network is the culprit.
Network visibility tools provide IT teams with the information they need to act quickly and strategically. Real-time monitoring, analytics, and reporting empower them to identify bottlenecks, allocate resources, and ensure the network is operating at peak performance.
In my experience, ensuring site availability to drive the best possible application performance is the key aim for IT when driving productivity improvements.
From engagements with our Fortune 500 global enterprise customers, I have learnt that hybrid work and ongoing cloud migrations are making the lives of IT departments far more difficult than they should be as cloud environments can introduce complexity and network darkspace. Another example I see a lot is when a lack of visibility for critical sites, like a factory, leads to a loss of productivity. Imagine that the cost of network downtime includes the cost of lost productivity on revenue streams, missed production targets, and delayed deliveries. The ripple effect can be immense, impacting not just your bottom line but also customer satisfaction and trust.
Greater visibility doesn’t just help IT—it benefits the entire business. Leaders gain the insights they need to make smarter, data-driven decisions, employees experience fewer disruptions that can derail productivity, and customers enjoy seamless, uninterrupted interactions. But visibility alone isn’t enough. By integrating AI and event-driven architecture (EDA), platforms can go beyond simply showing what’s happening to proactively responding to events as they occur. This combination of real-time visibility and intelligent responsiveness gives IT teams the confidence and control they need to support enterprise digital transformation.
The result? A productivity boost at every level.
Enhance business productivity with expereoOne
As we’ve seen, IT and productivity go hand in hand, but you need tools that make your job easier, not harder with comprehensive network visibility and control.
expereoOne offers precisely that. Our intelligent Internet platform provides enterprise-wide network visibility across every product, site, and user. With expereoOne, IT teams can:
- Monitor performance in real-time to spot and fix issues before they escalate.
- Optimize resources dynamically to ensure bandwidth goes where it’s needed most.
- Simplify network management with a single-pane-of-glass interface—no more juggling dashboards.
- Pro-active incident management to have incidents resolved before you even notice
By enabling IT teams to make informed decisions quickly and effectively, expereoOne lets you take control of your network and transform from a reactive troubleshooter to a proactive strategist. It saves time, reduces headaches, and positions IT as the powerhouse of productivity.
See how network visibility can elevate your productivity to new heights
You’re the backbone of digital transformation. And as businesses continue to transform and with strategic network management and complete visibility, IT can step into a new role as productivity enablers.
But you need the right tools to manage, optimize, and elevate your network. With expereoOne, you get the visibility and control to keep your business running smoothly, productive, and successful.
Start your journey today with expereoOne by requesting a demo or get in touch to discuss your connectivity needs.