Greg Bland (Counterparts Technology)
Remote working has provided a big opportunity for businesses, and this is one that Counterparts Technology sees clearly.
Looking into the prospect of a world beyond COVID-19, the Sydney-based solutions provider is looking to shift gears to building on technology solutions that were previously seen as a barrier to remote working.
This is according to client director Greg Bland, who has noticed that, particularly during these times of social distancing, the barriers are often human factors, rather than the technology itself.
“We’ve sorted out a lot of those human factors and realised the possibilities of remote work,” Bland said.
“This gives us an opportunity to go back and revisit the core foundations of remote working and build the most robust technology solutions, because remote working is here to stay.
“Our customers will need to revisit their remote working strategies to ensure they meet their customer’s requirements. I do not see this as a technical issue, but more an opportunity for users to learn, adapt and retrain their way of working.”
He added that he has seen a number of Counterparts’ clients review their requirements for traditional workplaces technologies, reducing their office space and closing offices where demand has changed.
Some of the priorities fuelling this, he said, include dealing with network connectivity and bandwidth in home settings, optimising home office setups and dealing with security, risk and compliance issues.
This does not mean Counterparts has given up its focus of consultancy, procurement and managed services with workspace technologies, data application and security.
However, the focus on remote working has required the partner to think about its offering from a different angle, with Bland calling it “an entirely different beast due to disparate systems, poor network connectivity and domestic disruptions”.
To juggle the two focal points requires a degree of flexibility, something that Bland deems to be key, in order to meet client demands.
The juggling act doesn’t stop there though, with the right balance needed to be struck between using Counterparts’ own resources and the resources of its clients on projects.
“Finding the right balance between outsources and in-source to deliver a project from a pool of resources will be key to surviving during and post-pandemic,” he added.
This is particularly noteworthy, as Bland is seeing projects starting up again, with the knock-on effect of customer spending increasing for project services.
“Short-term, we have seen an uptake in a range of software as a service or subscription based solutions to meet the immediate requirements,” he said.
“In the mid-term, we will be working with our customers on longer term requirements to ensure they align with organisational standards, and the technology is robust, scalable and secure.”
ARN Advance is a centralised editorial resource designed to help partners access forward-looking content as the Australian market attempts to reposition for growth.
