Citrix announces back-to-office solution

As governments around the world ease their lockdowns, businesses must decide how, when and if to return their employees to offices. Citrix, a global digital workspace leader, is leveraging its decades of experience in delivering flexible work solutions to help organisations across industries do it.

The company has announced the availability of a new back-to-office solution built on Citrix Workspace, that it says its customers and partners can use to transition employees back to offices, enhance their experience and wellbeing, and enable them to efficiently adapt to the new world of work. 

“Most companies are realising that back to the office will not mean back to normal,” says Tim Minahan, executive vice president of business strategy at Citrix. “Citrix has been powering flexible and secure work models for more than 400,000 global organisations within our digital workspace for more than three decades, and we are uniquely positioned to help them adapt and get back to business while putting the safety and wellbeing of their employees first.”

Historically, the office was the place where collaboration and innovation happened. Outside meeting spaces, colleagues held casual conversations in hallways, cafeterias and gyms. But protocols designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus have changed this. Physical office spaces must now be configured to allow for social distancing. Employee schedules have to be revised to reduce the number of people in buildings at one time. Employees are required to be screened before they enter the premises. And visitors may not be allowed. 

Says Jeffrey Dean, director of global security and risk services at Citrix. “There is no blueprint for safely returning employees to the office, but with the right technology and insights, companies can create a path to drive their business forward.”

Citrix says Workspace allows companies to provide a consistent work experience that allows employees to perform at their best while addressing safety and health in the office environment. Leveraging new back-to-office microapp capabilities within the workspace, organisations can manage vital tasks associated with re-opening offices across HR, legal, facilities, and IT, such as:

• Conducting employee readiness surveys
• Identifying and managing the moments that matter most to employees upon returning to the workplace, such as where they will sit or how team and customer meetings will be handled
• Executing safety protocols
• Performing health screenings and self-certifications
• Managing occupancy to ensure social distancing
• Location mapping and contact tracing 
• Designing communications strategies

COVID 19 has set businesses sailing in unchartered waters. “As organisations focus on sustainable business practices, teams need to work, collaborate and lead in a highly distributed environment while increasing employee engagement,” says Shannon Kalvar, research manager for IT service management and client virtualisation for IDC.  “The most reliable path forward will be engaging in the difficult discussions to find a path forward that both bolsters preparedness and accepts uncertainty to create a different relationship with partners, employees, and clients alike.”

To this end, Citrix has also launched a back-to-office resource centre where companies can access technology demonstrations alongside templates and best practice processes, including those used by Citrix.

“People can’t do their best work if they don’t feel safe, and competitive advantage will go to organisations that recognise this and leverage technology to create environments in which employees are protected and can thrive,” says Dean. “We at Citrix have worked closely with medical experts, public safety and community officials to build a toolkit and guidelines to bring our own employees back to the office safely, and we are happy to share these with our customers and the market at large to help them do the same.”