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Mar 01 2023
Digital Workspace

Modern Workspace Management's Flexibility and Agility

State and local agencies can support employees through workflow mapping and lifecycle management in designated personas.

State and local governments have become much smarter in the past decade, often allocating work resources to employees depending on their needs. To achieve this, agencies may develop personas based on an employee’s place in the organization. IT officials may develop different personas for leadership, HR and contractors, for example.

Once those personas are built, agencies can fill in the procurement chain, security precautions, automation tools and other requirements for the job. Filling in these requirements plants the seeds for what we call modern workspace management.

Adoption of modern workspace management accelerated over the past three years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eager to support employees wherever they work, agencies augmented their networking and data center capabilities to allow employees to work from home with access to the same types of resources they would have in the office. Much like videoconferencing became ubiquitous from 2020 onward, modern workspace management is also everywhere. It’s part of the workflow and part of how government conducts business.

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State and Local Agencies Can Opt for Device as a Service

CDW Digital Velocity Services work hand in hand with government agencies to build hybrid infrastructure and digital experiences to aid in setting up modern workspace management. Agencies may choose to integrate IT services through an application such as se, and they might support modern workspace management through Device as a Service.

With Device as a Service, IT officials can give employees what they need with preconfigured devices ranging from PCs to smartphones. Through centralized management of those devices, IT admins ensure that appropriate software and services are available based on the user’s persona, and officials update those components to keep them running efficiently and to patch security vulnerabilities.

Agencies that opt for Device as a Service gain the benefits of lifecycle management. Service providers can set up and deliver devices, and dispose of assets when it’s time to upgrade. With strong manufacturer relationships, service providers can add tremendous value to their base offerings. Solutions such as Lakeside or Nexthink support end-user management.

Thus, modern workspace management enables asset management, inventory management, lifecycle management and security operations. Again, automation tools such as ServiceNow can help agencies order and manage these services.

DIVE DEEPER: Best practices for returning government devices.

Desktop as a Service Simplifies Lifecycle Management

Governments are most effective when procurement anticipates future requirements. Procurement officials want IT assets to be useful for as long as possible, and anticipating end of life for devices by tracking when things are going out of date allows them to refresh their inventory.

Managed service providers who support modern workspace management can relieve officials of this burden through lifecycle management. They can update applications that require upgrades or go off-market, and they can manage the security of those solutions.

Even without Device as a Service, agencies can gain the efficiencies of centralized application management by choosing Desktop as a Service, supporting employees through virtual desktop infrastructure via a cloud service provider. Desktop as a Service ensures a consistent user experience for government employees, who can always count on access to uniform capabilities and applications from wherever they are working.

LEARN MORE: How modern workspace management improves efficiency.

Desktop as a Service also ensures security and compliance by centralizing security management across the government enterprise. Data is never downloaded onto a local device but rather made available in the cloud through the VDI interface. Desktop as a Service also pairs handily with Disaster Recovery as a Service because centralized uniform environments are easily backed up and restored when necessary.

Some government operations may be slow to transform, but adopting the tools of modern workspace management, such as Device as a Service or Desktop as a Service, can result in more nimble operations. Instead of large upfront capital expenditures, agencies can turn to cloud services for smaller, regular operational expenditures. OPEX spending empowers agencies to dial up or dial down resources as they need them rather than building out monolithic, static programs with CAPEX spending.

In this way, agencies can ensure every government employee receives the exact resources they require based on their role in the organization, according to their persona.

This article is part of StateTech’s CITizen blog series. Please join the discussion on Twitter by using the #StateLocalIT hashtag.

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