Professionals across all industries struggle with disengagement, which can lead to lack of productivity and falling short of their highest potential. This is a challenge at the edge of computing’s network, where laptops and smartphones reign for remote and on-site workers alike.

Now Citrix Systems Inc. is delivering new services and integrations at the edge to help people reengage and get their jobs done. It has already pioneered app virtualization, and now it is deeply engaged with consumers to make apps simpler and more functional in an effort to boost efficiency.

“We’re working backwards from understanding the steps that people need to just get their jobs done,” said David Henshall (pictured), president and chief executive officer of Citrix Systems Inc. “The whole idea, frankly, is that people want to do great work across any industry in any discipline. You’ve got to give them the tools and the services to do that, because if not, it’s just frustrating. It’s work. And that’s what’s leading to this broad disengagement challenge that we’ve seen around the world. We think we could be part of solving that.”

Henshall spoke with Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and co-host Keith Townsend (@CTOAdvisor), principal at The CTO Advisor, during the Citrix Synergy event in Atlanta, Georgia. They discussed the transformation of Citrix, product development, and how the company problem-solves to give customers what they need (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

Martin: In the last year, since Synergy 2018, you’ve never delivered products faster. You guys are delivering across workspace, networking and analytics. This is a different Citrix. Tell us about this.

Henshall: It’s very different. In fact, we’ve transformed the whole company in a number of different dimensions to make this possible. We’ve reorganized from a number of business units into a functional team. We brought in leadership to really drive end-to-end engineering products and many functions, because the idea was moving from building individual point products to building really complete integrated solutions for our customers. The benefit of that is that it’s allowed us to go a lot faster.

They’re developing products today at a pace that’s probably two or three times what it was just a couple of years ago, and we’re doing it with higher quality, higher integration, and, overall, just an eye from working backwards from what the customers need.

Martin: One thing that can drive attrition is having a workflow that is really suboptimal.

Henshall: Absolutely. We look across all of these big challenges. There’s just not enough people with the right skills in the right locations. So there’s a global war for talent — really just trying to attract the best and the brightest. When companies find these great people, what do you do to make them productive? What do you do to make them engaged? And that’s what drives retention. So our idea here is basically remove an abstract way a lot of the complexity that is getting in the way of that engagement.

We think that there’s ways to eliminate too much app usage, too little functionality that’s being deployed, and, frankly, this context switching. We’re interrupted every two minutes with a tweet, a notification, an email, a phone call, you name it. Yet it takes the average person 20 minutes to get back to what they were doing in the first place because the human mind just isn’t wired for multitasking. People think it is, but the research shows that it’s really not. So I think we could make a huge difference by simplifying a lot of that and just making it easier for people to do great work on their terms.

Townsend: What is the future of work when it comes to Citrix as a verb today? Citrix as a verb means I can get to my applications remote. When it comes to this type of transformation, how do you view with definition of Citrix as a verb changing?

Henshell: Today, as you said, Citrix is about “How do I remote into my applications?” We’ve been doing that for 30 years now. I’d argue we do it better than anybody in the world. Next generation of the Citrix Workspace is about creating that platform for how work gets done and do it in a way that can help guide people through their day and simplify and automate a lot of those common tasks.

Hopefully, there’s an opportunity to use Citrix as the word for how “work gets done.” It’s like, “Did you take care of that yet?” “Yep. I Citrixed it.” So it just becomes very synonymous with a better way to working. Therefore, higher productivity, higher engagement, better user experience. We absolutely believe that’s possible. That’s what we’re delivering inside the Citrix Workspace.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Citrix Synergy event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Citrix Synergy 2019. Neither Citrix Systems Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE