The pandemic has challenged everyone; CTOs in particular. Your users may be working from home, but their expectations haven’t changed. Those same traders, portfolio managers, and business operators want on-demand IT to just get things done.

Users need technology support when they need it, and that need is no longer confined to regular office hours. You’re in the position of ensuring IT is available 24/7 while reducing costs for that added service. You’re juggling systems access, cost benefits, re-evaluating cybersecurity practices and governance, and ensuring that users have reliable options for working remotely.

 

Make It Work

As users migrated to a work-from-home (WFH) model, CTOs had to make a seamless jump from in-office to remote workspaces while ensuring everyone was still happy with their technology. Most CTOs did a good job, but there were areas where you had to patch things together to make it work. Navigating logging in via VPN or Citrix was just the beginning.

Pre-COVID, working from home was the exception for most users and they didn’t have permanent workspaces at the ready 24/7 where they could just sit and work for a few minutes in the evenings or on weekends, so they weren’t logging in to work. Post-COVID, as people moved their offices home, routines and behavior changed: schedules aren’t consistent, and people are working at random times. These changes mean the load on IT has had to evolve as well.

Users who never needed to log in to verify something on a Saturday or Sunday do so now because they can. When they run into a problem or need help during off-hours, they quickly find that the white-glove, on-demand service they saw in the office isn’t available because your IT team doesn’t work 24/7.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that you still have to address user experience when it comes to productivity. This is where you may struggle because you have limited resources, and you can’t expect those resources to work 15-18 hours. You can’t service your users on a 24/7 basis.

Agio helps you manage IT issues continuously for a frictionless experience. We augment your existing team (if you have one) and provide the proactive support and coverage you need to meet the overall service expectation your users have for the IT department—even after hours, on weekends, or if someone on your team gets sick. That’s one less headache for you.

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Make It Better

Now that daily work has found a rhythm off-site, you can step back to look at every angle (internal and external) of your IT service. What could have gone better? What technologies and dependencies does your firm have that you need to plan around so you have an Option B in case of service interruption that impacts productivity and the overall business and how it operates?

Looking back, were you able to scale when users needed it? Have you measured user experience? How do you know if your end users are unhappy? What do you do if they are?

You know it better than anyone: data is everything. A lack of complaints doesn’t mean users are happy. Agio’s End-User Services measure experiences through a quantifiable framework and case studies.

cyber lock

Make It Safe

Your role as CTO is already kind of a hybrid, and the current pandemic situation has pushed that hybrid further. You have to think like a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), even if you have one in-house (and if you don’t, you are the CISO). You must have a sense of where security gaps are and how to remediate those gaps through corrective action plans.

As CTO, what’s your primary concern? Robust endpoint protection. Information security in operations is critical, but as you hastily moved to a WFH model, some things fell through the cracks.

Now that you’ve had some time to adjust, what are your safeguards? What guardrails are in place to ensure the confidential data relevant to the company doesn’t get leaked? More than ever, CTOs are required to provide increased transparency—how you’re ensuring integrated security, and how you’re monitoring it.

Do you have the answers to these questions?

  • What are you doing to ensure that confidential data is being protected and maintained within the corporate network?
  • If there’s a misuse or violation, how are you alerted?
  • Have you put controls in place using data loss prevention (DLP)?
  • Have you done a configuration review of your VPN and Citrix to ensure people can’t copy or save data to their local devices?
  • Are you deliberately reviewing login measures on cadence (daily, weekly, monthly)?
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Having those practices in place isn’t the only thing yielding a secure environment—it’s monitoring and looking at the data from those technologies to see if you need to take action to address the gaps.

It’s a lot, and Agio is here to help. Our Managed Detection & Response (MDR) services continuously monitor what’s happening within your environment to identify and respond to bad actors or gaps in security. Our Vendor Risk program ensures security and compliance by regularly diagnosing and managing the risks inherent to working with third parties. And our Cyber Governance program is a technical testing program that provides pen tests, risk assessment, and continuous validation on the policies and configurations that should be in place. Did you give a user access to an external system on a temporary basis, but didn’t close the loop? We’ll find it and fix it.

 

Make It Adaptive

Over time, users’ dependency on the office will continue to diminish. How will you ensure IT service is available on-call and precious data is secure?

Our Desktop as a Service (DaaS) transforms workloads and leverages the cloud instead of the user’s local laptop or desktop. During normal operations, disasters, or pandemics, when the question is, “Where do I work from?” Agio’s DaaS lets you answer, “Anywhere” because users can work from anywhere—home, the office, another country, or wherever they are. And, with DaaS, you can put controls in place that protect information from leaking.

cloud security

Conclusion

Not only did your workload increase significantly when COVID-19 hit and forced everyone to work remotely, so did expectations.

When you partner with Agio, we become a natural extension of your team to supply proactive, predictive remote support for your end-user community. Our services are consistent around the clock; you don’t have to rely on one or two key employees trying to keep up with new demands and workloads. We provide the solutions and coverage you need to meet the overall service expectation your users have for the IT department.

If you’re ready to have a conversation about increasing productivity, easing your burden, and saving money, give us a call. We’re here for you.

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