As I reflect back on these last four months working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, images of virtual calls, pajamas, dogs barking and toddlers barging into video calls all come to mind, with life and work seemingly blending into one.

The days of in person meetings, team events, hand shakes and grabbing coffee in the break room to catch up seem like a fading memory. It begs the question, when will those days return and, when we do go back to the office, what will the new office experience look like? How will employee wellness be maintained? Will employees be able to keep up the same level of productivity? We know it will no longer be the same. Companies already had to face a tremendous challenge of enabling entire workforces to work remotely in an instant. But now they have a potentially even more daunting challenge ahead to address these questions on how and when to bring employees back to the office.

I’m happy to say that Citrix and HPE Pointnext are collaborating to address these challenges so that together, not only can we enable remote work, but now we can also power the return to work.

We have already announced the availability of business continuity services with Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops and Greenlake VDIaaS to help companies establish remote work capabilities. In addition, HPE Pointnext Services announced support for integrated digital workspaces using the microapp and integrated workfeed capabilities of Citrix Workspace.

Taking this to the next level, Citrix and HPE Pointnext have announced that we are joining forces to combine the HPE Intelligent Workplace and Citrix Workspace to assist organizations to more productively and confidently return employees back to the office.

How are we doing this?

HPE Pointnext and Citrix will bring together the HPE Intelligent Workplace with Citrix Workspace, two complementary technology offerings that bridge the physical workplace and the digital workspace. By bringing these technologies together, we can address critical needs of employee wellness, smart social distancing, PPE access and office sanitization to help bring employees back to the office. More specifically, HPE will build microapps for Citrix Workspace calling for:

  • Completion of health agreements stating no symptoms of COVID-19 prior to arriving at office
  • Access maps and occupancy information for different parts of a building
  • Confirmation that shared spaces in building have been cleaned
  • Locating personal protective equipment and sanitization stations
  • Reserve conference rooms and hot desks

These initial Back to Office HPE microapp offerings for Citrix Workspace can be extended to meet the needs of our customers with custom use cases that can include touchless offices and integration with video analytics platforms to provide a set of rich data and analytics to employees and facilities.

Citrix has a long and trusted 20+ year partnership history with HPE, innovating and building joint solutions for our customers. Now, more than ever, we are ready to help our customers enter this next frontier of secure remote work and productive return to work together.

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