Zero trust has been a buzzword in the modern workplace for a while. It is a design pattern and methodology which assumes a system or information has been compromised, therefore all access to it must be verified every time. Like many methods, the intention is well-founded and is proven to remove business risk. But can it impact efficiency in the workplace of the future?

Implementing a zero trust design can be associated with complex and costly tools, expensive monitoring, and limited scope. Worse than that, it can reduce user productivity and disenfranchise employees, partners and customers. If people can’t do their jobs or work with you without endless sign-ins, management approval or simply friction, the user experiences for all involved will be negatively impacted.

Secure and trusted access doesn’t have to be that way. The workplace of the future has a seamless way to verify access, for example with facial recognition and social integration. It brings the user-centric experience people are used to in our personal lives to the enterprise.

Integrating Zero Trust to Help – Not Hinder – Workplace of the Future.

848 led the delivery of a multi-national digital collaboration and prototyping workbench for a leading aerospace engineering firm. A zero trust model was applied to meet the strictest governance and regulatory compliance to preserve the sensitivity of prototypes in development. We utilised the latest Microsoft Azure Identity Management coupled with Azure security and end-point management tools to provide a secure single sign-on experience.

The future workplace embraces the fact that the people with the most insight into how to do a job better are often the people doing the job today. It enables users to solve these problems themselves – no more multi-year, multi-million IT projects which move forward but stop short of delivering real value. Put the tools in the hands of those that know best and give them the time to get creative. This is “citizen development” at its best.

How We Enabled Smarter Working and Citizen Development.

848 supported a major cinema chain on its journey to better working in the future workplace through citizen development. We provided training, a core Microsoft Power Platform environment and some basic guidelines to allow users across Europe to automate HR processes, streamline complex joiner, mover and leaver workflows, and replace an aging customer engagement platform to mention but a few.

In the future workplace, cybersecurity and information security is a business responsibility not a technology one. In the workplace of the future, prioritising security and applying good governance doesn’t mean jumping through hoops for your workforce.

The people in your business create and process your data, so they need to be able to access and assess it. We give them that ability. Bringing people closer to the information they create and helping them understand who is consuming it, makes data and process owners genuinely accountable for the safety and security of personal and business information.

Enhancing Data Protection and Management in the Future Workplace.

848 helped a major telecommunications organisation classify sensitive information across their organisation. We applied policies to help them identify in real-time where sensitive information was being shared, automated and controlled for information security. This ensured data was safeguarded even outside the boundary of the organisation without any user intervention.

We introduced a democratised access process, leveraging the latest capabilities in Microsoft Identity Governance to delegate the approval of who should access which applications and what data to business owners using their own business context. This flipped the traditional system and role model that was typically enforced by IT.