In the traditional enterprise architecture, IT departments are far removed from employees and often even viewed as a secluded area of the business. Sure, IT would come help you relatively quickly if your computer wasn’t working or an application kept crashing, but for the most part, the IT employees kept to themselves, working hard to keep the network up and running and ready to put out the occasional fire when called upon.

The term “digital transformation” has emerged as a veritable buzzword over the past few years, with more and more companies leveraging new technologies to fundamentally shift how they do business and how their employees accomplish daily tasks. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), by 2022, enterprises will spend almost $2 trillion annually on digital transformation agendas.

We’ve talked to a lot of people about their company’s digital employee experience the past few years – from C-suite executives and board members looking to make sure they’re doing what they can to make work lives better and retain staff, to the actual CIOs and IT managers tasked with changing and improving their employees’ workplace experience. We’ve even heard from employees on the front lines every day about what works and what doesn’t at their companies.

In order for employees to get their jobs done in today’s world, they are relying on IT departments to deliver and support more complex and diverse technologies than ever before. It seems like every employee has their own preferred workflow that is supported by a specific data set, program, app or device, and IT is expected to understand and support them all.