In a paradoxical way, giving workers more applications to aid in productivity has made them less productive. Inundated by too many apps with too many features, workers are stuck switching between various full-scale enterprise applications to get their day to day tasks accomplished.
Citrix is attempting to bring productivity back with the new, intelligent Citrix Workspace.
Citrix Workspace has existed as a cloud-only product for over a year, providing access to virtual apps, virtual desktops, and files. Citrix wants Workspace to be the single gateway for all users to access any application (Citrix App, SaaS, etc.), file (ShareFile, OneDrive), or collaboration tool. The intelligent Workspace brings a slew of additional features.
Below I will highlight what I believe are the critical new features.
- Microapps – within Workspace, the user can receive feeds from various microapps. There are a few that already exist (Concur, SAP, etc.). The microapps are APIs that are called to get specific information for the user logged onto Workspace. For example, if I am a manager and need to approve expenses via Concur, instead of logging into the enterprise Concur application, Workspace will use the Concur microapp along with single sign-on (SSO) to provide a feed for me to approve or reject the expenses. While seemingly trivial, in the end it saves time and makes users more productive by reducing the number of steps necessary to complete everyday tasks. Citrix is stating there could be upwards of 100 microapps by the end of 2019.
- Mobility – a mainstay of Citrix’ product lineup is the ability to work from wherever, whenever, on whatever devices you may have available to you. Workspace aims to improve on the ability to do so by providing, as they say, “a superior experience that enables employees to work seamlessly across the channels and devices they prefer. Through new integrations with some of the most commonly used collaboration tools … content can be delivered to employees in one constant stream.”
- Machine Learning – the folks over at Citrix are using machine learning and simplified workflows to provide users with information useful to the jobs they are supposed to be completing. By using microapps, Workspace will automatically extract prioritized and relevant actions from your applications and place them in a feed (think your favorite social media site) for you to complete. By providing a smart feed where users can directly access the tasks they are supposed to accomplish, the need to jump between applications no longer exists.
- Analytics – Workspace integrates with Citrix Analytics, which can be used to track and record suspicious user activity. Analytics can monitor typical user behavior and spot any anomalies during the session. If an anomaly is detected, Analytics can take proactive steps to reduce that user’s access. For example, if a user typically opens Excel as a virtual app but one day decides to also open their browser and start downloading data, this would be an anomaly from the user’s typical session. If another anomaly is triggered, possibly trying to access a network share the user doesn’t have access to, actions can then be taken like recording the session or logging the user off.
Citrix is stating that the intelligent Workspace will be available Q3 or Q4 of 2019.
For more information, contact your Gotham account manager to schedule a meeting to review the new features of Workspace and how it can help your users be more productive.