Everybody has priorities.

Maybe that’s among the reasons The Wizard of Oz remains popular, more than 60 years after its initial release; every character had a clear priority. Dorothy wanted to escape from a boring life with Auntie Em and Uncle Henry (though she later realized that there was no place like home). The Wicked Witch of the West wanted the Munchkins to reveal who killed her sister with a house. Glinda the Good Witch wanted the Wicked Witch’s oppression to end, as did her friends, the Munchkins. The Tin Man wanted a heart; the Scarecrow wanted a brain; and the Cowardly Lion wanted courage. Poor Dorothy was left to figure it all out.

In our IT world, prioritizing priorities takes center stage too.

That’s why Citrix regularly conducts research among influencers, such as CIOs, networking directors and IT leaders to determine what they really want. We recently conducted a Workspace Buyer study to gain insight into what drives digital transformation and adoption of digital workspaces.

The top priority in The Wizard of Oz was to find a means to get Dorothy home, safe and secure, to the protective arms of her aunt and uncle. In the IT world, it’s exactly the same: at the end of the day, IT leaders want to feel secure.

Beyond that all-important need for security, Dorothy realized that if she was going to make the journey to the Emerald City to seek passage home, there were other priorities to address, too. The heart, a little courage, and a brain were critically important to the three new people in her life in their quest to do great things.

IT leaders face a similar reality. While security is clearly top of mind, the second priority in the business landscape centers around people. The Citrix Workspace study confirmed that for network directors, IT directors and CIOs, productivity is next in line.

Digital workspaces are synonymous with achieving greater productivity.

For the audiences polled in the study, productivity is the second priority (behind security and compliance) in driving investment in IT transformation.

Here are some specifics:

    • More than 50% of the target buyers of Citrix Workspaces saw operational efficiency as the highest benefit they would get from a digital workspace.
    • While security always comes first, organizations are attempting to address end-user productivity simultaneously when possible (or at least not decrease it).
    • When asked the question, “What are the drivers of transformation at your organization,” 49% of Citrix customers responded with employee productivity.
    • Improving content collaboration was voted second only to security and compliance in current IT projects for 2018.
    • Increasing operational efficiency was seen as the biggest benefit that a digital workspace delivered to the IT team.
    • In addition to having flexibility over where workloads run, IT leaders want users to have flexibility over where they can work.
    • Both IT personnel and end users see increased operational efficiency as a benefit delivered by unified workspaces. More than 62% noted this.
    • The end-user experience was often recognized as the top driver in IT transformations.

After reviewing that list, here’s what we know:

  • Productivity is second only to security.
  • Productivity spans users and IT.
  • Survey respondents call productivity by different names depending upon their point of reference: operational efficiency, end user experience, simplification, unified contextual access to all apps and content, improved content collaboration, and employee productivity.

Got a diverse cast of characters? Get Citrix Workspace.

In any company, there is a diverse cast of characters to arm and empower to do great things — employees with various job functions and device requirements, groups with staff working in remote locations, individuals with unique work styles, and the list goes on. We at Citrix already knew just how important digital workspaces can be in consistently driving great outcomes, but a survey such as this one validates our mission and our direction. It reaffirms the high degree of importance corporate leaders place on digital transformation and secure digital workspaces in driving productivity across the enterprise.

At Citrix, we live in the land of digital transformation every single day.

There’s no place like home.

Learn about the Citrix Workspace.

Follow Kathy Holoman on Twitter.