Digital Workplace Delivery Platforms

The KuppingerCole Market Compass on Workplace Delivery Platforms examines a fast-growing segment focused on giving end users a “single pane of glass” experience to access applications, data, and services across hybrid IT environments. Interest accelerated before and during the pandemic as organizations pursued flexibility, stronger productivity, and easier security for remote and BYOD work. These platforms can shield endpoints by virtualizing apps and desktops and enforcing security controls from the application layer down the stack, but value depends on strong compliance and secure access design.

A central market driver is the fragmented modern workplace: employees often juggle multiple apps, passwords, and interfaces, which harms efficiency and satisfaction. Research cited indicates employees may need four or more applications to complete one business process, spend 25% of time searching for information, and managers spend more than 50% of time on routine tasks. In response, Workplace Delivery solutions emphasize SSO, global search, modern UX/“workplace experience” design, and embedded Zero Trust controls. As the market matures, product differentiation is expected to come from search quality, accessibility, and deeper integration with security portfolios, including a shift from VPN reliance toward Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA), plus broader adoption of MFA, analytics, AI assistants, and eventually reliable voice-activated search (e.g., Alexa, Google Voice, Siri).

The report evaluates several vendors, noting variability in access management, IT service management, and security capabilities. VMware Workspace ONE is featured for broad capabilities and maturity; Citrix Workspace for secure virtualization-driven delivery and strong controls for home-working risks; eXo Platform for innovation via open-source flexibility and employee engagement features; and Powell 365 for ease of use in Microsoft-centric environments. The report excludes consultancy “white-label” digital workplace delivery services.

• The Market Compass Workplace Delivery Platforms focuses on solutions that provide a single-pane interface for accessing applications, data, and services.
• Workplace Delivery Platforms can be delivered to existing PCs and to remote devices including smartphones.
• The average employee needs to navigate four or more applications to execute a single business process.
• Employees spend 25% of their time searching for information.
• Managers spend more than 50% of their time executing routine tasks.
• Companies in the top 25% of employee experience achieve double the customer satisfaction average.
• Companies in the top 25% of employee experience achieve twice the innovation score measured by percent of revenues from new products and services.
• Companies in the top 25% of employee experience achieve 25% greater profitability compared to competitors.
• Citrix is described as having annual revenues of around 3 billion USD.
• Claromentis is described as having around 70% of its customers in North America.

• “Simplifying access and user experience at the endpoint or front end is a relatively easy win that can deliver value through deployment of a Workplace Delivery platform.”
• “The terms Digital Workplace, Digital Workspace and Collaboration Platforms are often interchangeably used to describe similar technology, deployments, and policies.”
• “Information overload has made finding documents and files a chore and poor search and directory tools will be punished by the market – and IT directors will be blamed for poor productivity caused by search and access failings.”
• “As the market develops, we should see VPN access to remote tools and applications start to diminish and be replaced by Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) controls.”
• “Workplace solutions will eventually include reliable voice activated search and other functions that home users have already got used to with technologies such as Alexa, Google Voice and Siri from Apple.”
• “Increasingly, IT and HR are working together to provide the kind of digital environment that employees desire.”
• “Despite being around since the 1990s, Workplace Delivery platform technology is far from maturity and the market is still growing (and will grow faster in the next five years), and no single vendor dominates the market.”
• “An absolute essential. If users cannot access all applications, they need to complete daily tasks then the Workplace Delivery solution will have failed to be a complete solution.”
• “What sets eXo apart from others in the space is its roots in employee engagement with features designed to drive rewards and recognition for good employees.”
• “Keylogging and screen capture can also be prevented – the level of control combined with ease of use and AI powered alerts to suspicious activity should make this an admin’s favourite Workplace Delivery platform.”