As businesses look past the chaos of 2020, they see a radically different workplace compared to the one that existed just last year. The safe, secure centralized office has been replaced by dispersed workers in remote locations. With remote employees happier and productive than their centralized co-workers, the experts are saying there is no going back.

“It feels like we’ve jumped two years ahead in innovation, and from an organization standpoint, accept that, embrace it, capture it,” said Chip McCullough (pictured, right), executive director of partner ecosystems and alliances at Accenture PLC. “But at the same time make sure you are applying your principles of security to it.”

McCullough, Harold Sinnott (pictured, center), workplace futurist and influencer, and Herbert Lohninger (pictured, left), digital workplace expert and chief information officer of the University of Salzburg, spoke with Rebecca Knight, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, as part of an expert reaction panel duringWorkplace Next. They discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward a hybrid part-centralized, part-dispersed workplace and how businesses can adapt to embrace the trend. (* Disclosure below.)

Clear communication and consistent security top priority

The concept of a dispersed workforce connected by technology was “going to come in the future, but the future was very far away,” Sinnott said.

Then came COVID. Propelled by “emergency mode,” companies were forced to adopt digital workplace tools and adapt fast, implementing “maybe one day” ideas with little warning. It was like working under a hurricane, according to Sinnott.

“Everybody wants to work together. Everybody wants to push to make things happen. Everybody wants to work in a very collaborative mode,” he said.

Accenture worked with the United Kingdom’s National Health Service to onboard 1.2 million new Microsoft Teams users in seven days, according to McCullough. And the example is just one of many fast and furious transitions that occurred as lockdown restrictions went into effect.

Now, as the dust settles, organizations are focused on capturing the “amazing innovation” and taking it forward, McCullough explained. Accenture had an advantage in that the company had already adopted Aruba Networks Inc. solutions for managing a remote, flexible workplace. This enabled the company to “take all the rules and the capabilities and the functionality and security that you had in that nice controlled office environment and roll it out to the workers wherever they may be sitting now,” McCullough said.

The importance of retaining consistent security protocols was a point on which all panelists agreed.

“We not only look at the enablement, but we also make sure we’re securing that to our principles and standards going forward,” McCullough stated.

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

Photo: SiliconANGLE