Unveiling Kyndryl’s vision: A global perspective on digital workplace services and the future of experience management

In an exclusive interview with Ivan Dopple, Global Practice Leader, Digital Workplace at Kyndryl, we explore the cutting-edge initiatives and strategic insights that define Kyndryl’s digital workplace services. From prioritising Experience Level Agreements (XLAs) to leveraging advanced technologies like automation and artificial intelligence, Ivan shares how Kyndryl is redefining employee and customer experiences globally.

Give us a brief overview of Kyndryl’s digital workplace services practice and the products, services, and capabilities you offer in this space.
Kyndryl is a leading provider in digital workplace services and focuses its offerings on driving business value through enhanced employee and customer experience.

We prioritise Experience Level Agreements (XLAs) through co-creation to ensure our services correlate with our customer’s business objectives. Our XLAs focus on measuring success through the quality of user experience, ensuring that our services align with the real-world needs and expectations of users.

We are a Consultant-led organisation, which means we have experts capable of providing support, advisory, and implementation of anything that is needed in the employee’s digital workspace. Our team features thousands of experts specialising in digital workplace services who support an array of solutions, including collaboration, virtual desktops, mobile workplace solutions, virtual agents, experience management, service desks, help desks, cloud contact centers, and the automation of business processes for users.

We have established a robust ecosystem with significant partnerships with industry giants like Microsoft, ServiceNow, Google, AWS, Five9, Riverbed, LakeSide, Nexthink and others. These partnerships enable us to deliver comprehensive and advanced solutions to our clients.

Our services extend globally, serving customers in over 50 countries with more than 650 digital workplace services contracts. This wide reach demonstrates our ability to cater to both global and local needs effectively.

We heavily invest in automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and generative AI capabilities, particularly around tools like Copilot. These technologies play a crucial role in enhancing efficiency, reducing response times, and providing more personalised user experiences.

In summary, Kyndryl’s Digital Workplace Services practice is dedicated to delivering superior employee and customer experiences through a combination of advanced technology, expert skills, strategic partnerships, and a commitment to innovation and excellence in service delivery.

How is Kyndryl experience management as a service different from traditional managed services offerings? How does this service integrate with other services offered by Kyndryl to its customers?

Kyndryl’s new Experience Management services leverage a human-centric design team from Kyndryl Vital, with the know-how and expertise of Kyndryl Consult and integrated AIOps and automation of Kyndryl Bridge to provide customers with a seamless approach to envisioning, designing, adopting, managing and continuously optimising their technology environments. To make this real, consider a service that isn’t designed around static requirements, but rather one that continuously evolves with a customer’s changing needs through a set of metrics and telemetry aligned to business needs.

Kyndryl Experience Management as a Service distinguishes itself from traditional managed services offerings through three key aspects. First and foremost, it prioritises the end-user experience over the technical performance of digital workplace components. This service not only assesses and enhances the quality of the digital workplace experience in terms of availability, reliability, usability, security, and satisfaction but also offers personalised and contextualised support and guidance tailored to individual employee preferences, roles, and behaviors.

Secondly, it employs data-driven insights, automation, and artificial intelligence to proactively and continuously optimise the digital workplace experience. By collecting and analysing data from diverse sources, including devices, applications, networks, and user feedback, it identifies and resolves issues, predicts and prevents problems, and recommends and implements improvements. Automation and artificial intelligence are also utilised to streamline and simplify the delivery and management of digital workplace services, covering aspects such as provisioning, configuration, patching, backup, recovery, and security.

Lastly, the service integrates and orchestrates digital workplace services throughout the entire technology stack, extending from the device to the cloud. This ensures a unified point of accountability and governance for digital workplace services, irrespective of the underlying infrastructure, platform, or application. Moreover, it facilitates seamless and secure integration and collaboration within the digital workplace ecosystem, fostering connectivity among internal and external partners, vendors, and customers.

What are the key benefits of using Kyndryl experience management as a service?
Kyndryl Experience Management as a Service delivers numerous benefits for organisations. It enhances employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention by providing a digital workplace that meets and exceeds their expectations. The service also boosts productivity, performance, and innovation by enabling efficient work from any location and on any device.

Moreover, organisations can achieve cost reduction, risk mitigation, and simplicity by streamlining digital workplace services and optimising resource utilisation. The service promotes agility and scalability, allowing swift adaptation to changing business and user demands. Finally, it provides a competitive edge by leveraging cutting-edge technologies, processes, and practices to create a digital workplace that drives business value and differentiation.

Can you provide some specific examples of how experience management as a service has helped customers improve their employee experience and productivity?
Kyndryl Experience Management as a Service has proven impactful in enhancing employee experiences and productivity for various clients. A global chemical company saw a 60% reduction in device failures and a 10% increase in device life, particularly benefiting essential roles like R&D, finance and better job safety for contractors. In the marketing data and analytics sector, Kyndryl mitigated supply chain issues for an organisation, leading to a 34% improvement in positive device experiences and a 14% reduction in frustrating experiences. Additionally, for a medical technology company, Kyndryl streamlined onboarding from days to hours, significantly boosting new employee productivity and time to value.

What is Kyndryl’s roadmap for the future of experience management as a service? Which industries do you aim to serve with this offering?

Kyndryl is dedicated to the ongoing innovation and evolution of its Experience Management as a Service, ensuring it aligns with the current and future needs of customers and their employees. Key initiatives in progress include enhancing the personalisation and contextualisation of digital workplace experience management. This involves leveraging generative AI and machine learning to understand user preferences, roles, and behaviors, providing tailored support and guidance. Additionally, efforts are focused on broadening the scope of Experience Management by linking integrating it with infrastructure services and adding capabilities for forecasting and recommending actions to achieve business outcomes. The introduction of Complete Enterprise Observability automates the assessment of business impact related to technology beyond the digital workplace, optimising IT investments for customers by correlating Employee Experience (EX) to Customer Experience (CX).

How can organisations effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of Kyndryl experience management as a Service?

To measure the value of Experience Management as a Service, customers can take strategic steps. First, defining objectives aligned with business outcomes is crucial. Next, establishing Experience Level Agreements (XLAs) and Performance Indicators (XPIs) across dimensions like availability, reliability, usability, security, and satisfaction is essential. Collecting data from various sources supports measurement and comparing service costs to efficiency gains and improved satisfaction offers a tangible metric. Analyzing the service’s impact on business outcomes, such as productivity and customer satisfaction, provides a comprehensive understanding of its value. These steps enable customers to quantify and showcase the benefits of Experience Management as a Service.