Set up the digital workspace: Four types of workspaces and employees

When you’re helping an organisation towards a new digital workspace, it’s important to compile an inventory of their needs. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each and every time. By using a few standard perspectives, like the type of employee and workspace, you can easily decide how to set up the digital workspace. In this article we give you several perspectives based on three types of employees and four types of workspaces you could use. Still have questions about the ideal setup for your organisation? Ask us for advice, we’re happy to help.

Four types of workspaces

1.  Managed personal devices
   This is the most flexible workspace. With this, the employee has a managed device which is secured by the IT department/partner; Microsoft Intune is usually used for this. Also, the digital workspace Workspace 365 is used to provide employees with safe access to applications with one single login, to make documents available everywhere through a simple and consistent interface and at the same time also to provide insight into their data and information, through a role-based workspace.

2.  Managed shared devices
   When multiple employees use the same tablet or computer, we recommend using profiles on the (Windows) device. By using them, you enable employees to sync all their documents and to use the local Office applications. Through the use of Microsoft Intune, you can also secure these devices and clear them from a distance, to protect the data if the device is lost. With Workspace 365, these employees have access to their digital workspace from their own devices (phone/tablet/laptop). This way they can also get access to their social intranet, information and applications from other devices.

3.  Unmanaged personal devices (BYOD)
   If the people in your organisation are bringing their own devices (BYOD), security measures have to be taken. Preferably you’d like to manage the devices, but if this is not possible, you’re obligated to secure the data as well as possible. That is why in Workspace 365 we give you the possibility to block synchronisation of your files from the workspace, to block certain applications outside of the company network, or a browser type or even certain device types. For this reason we recommed using Windows profiles to organise authentication, so they’re centrally manageable from Azure.

4.  Unmanaged shared devices (Note: GDPR)
   We strongly discourage this last option. At some organisations there’s a computer with one single user profile, on which every employee logs in to open applications or documents. Before they would use these devices to log in to a remote desktop, however now you also see people using it with Office 365 or Workspace 365. The risk you’re taking with this is that you can’t see who is using the computer and also who is editing files or causing a data breach – which makes you not compliant with GDPR.

Note: If you have a shared device, make sure that everyone has their own profile. Besides this, you can make sure with Workspace 365 that people can only use the online Office applications, so that they only reach their files in this manner, without installing, downloading or synchronising anything.

Three types of employees

1.  Kiosk
   This employee usually uses the workspace as an extension of their work. They generally start one single application or use the workspace to get insight into salary slips, news from the organisation or to participate in the social intranet. Most times these employees use a completely cloud based workspace (Workspace 365 portal). These are people who barely use IT, like nurses, chauffeurs, store staff, construction workers and other people with task oriented functions. Since these employees don’t like to carry out installations or updates, it’s a good idea to offer them a completely online workspace, so that you can manage everything for them and they can reach everything centrally from one location.

2.  Information employee
   This type of employee can’t work without IT. The employee uses different applications to search data and uses it to complete tasks. Think accountmanagers who use CRM to search for and process information, or internal staff submitting quotations. For this type of employee it’s important to get role-based access to applications, information and files. They like to work together, which makes it necessary to easily share information and documents. Some employees still have to use Windows applications on a Remote Desktop or need to have access to the file server, because it’s linked to an application or too complex to migrate to the cloud just yet. With this group of employees, it’s crucial to take stock of the use of local Office applications and if they need a Remote Desktop or fileserver.

3.  Managers
   As a manager you need to get insight into data. For this reason the workspace integrates, besides news sources, also data from applications through Power BI. This way, a financial director gets a workspace with the latest information on revenue, while a commercial director can view the progress of all account managers. In addition, they can easily add applications or information to a group, so that they are instantly available to the right employees.

Conclusion: How do you use this information?

A proper inventarisation makes it easier to set up the digital workspace the right way and to manage expectations. Decide, based on the points above, how the digital workspace needs to be set up per department, function or employee. Also read our article on the adoption of digital workspaces to make sure you’re properly prepared and know what the impact is of transitioning to a digital workspace.

Do you have any doubts and are you not sure about the best workspace type for a customer, feel free to contact us so that we can help you with this via: https://support.workspace365.net/