Enterprise hits and misses – cybersecurity takes center stage, e-commerce rivals take hold, and the hybrid workplace heats up (again)

Lead story - As countries plan to end all COVID-19 restrictions, companies face critical choice over hybrid working

MyPOV: Just when the hybrid work debate reached a crescendo, the omicron variant put it right on the back burner.

But as Derek writes, that's about to change (again). With the UK about to end all COVID-19 restrictions, and other European countries poised to follow suit, Derek asks:

With offices still sitting empty across the world, or at the very least much sparser than they were pre-2019, will business leaders feel the urge to send their employees back in droves to their desks?

Derek's answer?

I personally don't believe the majority will, but it's also true that now is the time where organizations need to shift their focus away from a ‘COVID-19 policy' towards a business-wide, long-term future of work policy.

Will hybrid working remain? If so, what does that look like? How does your company policy reflect your technology strategy? And is a return to the office shortsighted?

As the so-called "Great Resignation" carries on, look to hybrid work policies as a recruitment differentiator:

Some organizations have already made it clear that the return to the office is a given. For instance, the financial sector has been particularly bullish, with companies like Goldman Sachs stating that work from home policies are an "aberration".  However, most have taken a more diplomatic approach.

Derek cites reports that indicate unexpected productivity gains via work-from-home employees. Add to that mix the consistently high percentage of workers who have looked for another job, and you have a potent environment to insert hybrid work policies. Derek doesn't believe workers are anti-office. They just want to see the office used for what it does best. Same for the home office:

The organizations that have put in the work to think this through properly are finding ways to bring employees together in person when it brings the highest value.

My position:

• I don't believe the health and safety issues/policies for large-scale return-to-office have been sorted (yet). But:
• It's time for organizations to bear down on their future-of-office policies - while they have time to get out of their own way think outside boxes
• Companies haven't been creative or flexible enough in combining home office, central office, and more regional/co-working/localized team meeting spaces into hybrid plans. Even creative use of off-sites has potential - see: The Off-Site Is the New Return to the Office - WSJ log in. The real competitive edge won't be pseudo-hybrid, but genuinely flexible policies that can still operate at scale.

Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my three top choices from our vendor coverage:

Jon's grab bag - We're seeing encouraging signs of e-commerce market emergence outside of Amazon. Shopify is one; Stuart looks at another success story in Etsy pursues its "big hairy audacious goal" as e-commerce marketplaces appeal to buyers and sellers alike. Finally, Derek filed another essential workplace piece in Tech Talent Charter - what’s working for companies trying to improve diversity and inclusion? Though the focus of his piece is UK data, the lessons - and resources - carry over:

Too often you see organizations saying that they're focused on D&I with huge marketing efforts (still a good thing!), but what's also needed is a systemic approach to diversity inclusion, correcting systems that have a history of repeating unconscious bias when it comes to talent acquisition and retention.

Best of the enterprise web

My top eight

• Russia will get hit hardest in cyberwar over Ukraine, expert says - the cyberwar involving Ukraine shouldn't be underestimated, and: it has wide-ranging implications for enterprise/data security as well.
• Lessons Learned from 2021 Software Supply Chain Attacks - a different angle on security vigilance: the software supply chain. The most common approach? Software dependency poisoning: "In November alone, we saw three attacks against popular npm packages (UA-Parser-JS, COA, and RC), each with millions of downloads per month."
• IRS: Selfies Now Optional, Biometric Data to Be Deleted - no surprises on this back down, but: thorny questions about the protection of personal data, and the responsibility of government to that effect remain.
• 7 solid reasons to consider AIOps - I won't stop my pushback against AIOps marketing buzzword festivals hype, but it's always good to consider the use cases. Joe McKendrick lays them out.
• Shopify’s Evolution - We've covered Etsy this week, now for Shopify. Stratechery's Ben Thompsom changes up his usual beat for a welcome deep dive, including Shopify's intriguing integrations with Facebook, and Amazon itself.
• 4 Reasons Why It is Important to Ask Your SI for Updated Staffing Models - UpperEdge strikes again, with another unapologetically practical post, and well-illustrated to boot.
• What is Developer Experience? a roundup of links and goodness - RedMonk's James Governor is in his wheelhouse, with a strong take on why developer experience matters. Great point on why the robust tooling used by the likes of Facebook and Google don't necessarily "trickle down" to the majority of development shops.
• Patients love telehealth--physicians are not so sure - McKinsey parses the reasons whey telehealth may face a post-pandemic wall of institutional resistance. Yes, quality of care is a good reason for physicians to raise concerns, but many of the reasons cited here come off as either legacy tech barriers, or bogus excuse-making resistance to change

Whiffs

It's not every day you see Gartner analysts pen satirical song lyrics about the enterprise buying process, but Hank Barnes pulled it off:

"Team gettin’ down, down, down, down, now, who’s to blame?"

"Can you pull it back in line?
Can you salvage it in time?"

Yeah, that's not a whiff. The whiff is taking the enterprise too seriously, too often, like the blockchain evangelists that yell at me on LinkedIn. Oh, and recall that Thomas Wieberneit was looking for meta use cases for the enterprise? Not sure this counts:

Then we have some welcome resistance a lazy AI narrative:

Cow, Bull, and the Meaning of AI Essays

"The content generated by The GoodAI is ghastly"

-> after all the "AI is coming for the jobs of creatives!" BS stories I've read this year, refreshing to see one that acknowledges - AI stinks at this.

Oh, and I had a really exciting addition to my social life:

I have yet to go over this with Alexa, however. I'm expecting resistance... See you next time.

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed.

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