RESEARCH & STRATEGY / 2026ROHALL / FIELD NOTES NO. 01

The next chapter of DEXOps.

The technology is getting better at seeing friction. The real opportunity is helping organisations decide what to do about it, who owns the improvement, and whether employees actually benefit.

Explore the opportunity map
THE INDEPENDENT POINT OF VIEW

Monitoring is the beginning.
Ownership is the work.

Across the DEX market, suppliers are advancing endpoint analytics, experience scoring, AI-assisted support, workflow automation and cross-platform visibility. Those are valuable capabilities. But an insight does not turn into a better working day by itself.

A sustainable DEX programme needs an accountable owner, agreement between IT and the business, a way to hear employees, a sensible change plan and measures tied to what the organisation is trying to achieve.

Rohall's role: connect the signal to the people, decisions and delivery required to change the outcome — without assuming a particular tool is the answer.

These observations are Rohall's independent synthesis of public vendor materials, not endorsements, customer engagements undertaken by Rohall or a claim of partnership.

WHERE WE SEE THE NEXT OPPORTUNITY

Seven problems worth solving.

Each opportunity links to one or more of our eight provisional solution areas and their specific use cases. Scope and deliverables are agreed against the customer's actual challenges.

01 / SERVICE OPERATIONS

Stop incidents before they become tickets.

Find recurring friction, qualify safe self-healing opportunities and measure whether automation genuinely removes demand instead of simply moving it.

  • Repeat incident patterns and cost of support
  • Human-reviewed automation, rollback and governance
  • Self-service and assisted support experience
02 / WORKPLACE JOURNEYS

Measure work, not just devices.

Trace a critical task across applications, identity, connectivity and endpoint performance. A green device score can still hide a broken employee experience.

  • Role-based workflows and business criticality
  • Microsoft Teams, SaaS, network and app dependencies
  • Cross-supplier root cause and intervention owners
03 / EMPLOYEE VOICE

Listen, communicate, verify.

Combine technical evidence with what employees report, what they understand and whether they have adopted the change. Close the feedback loop instead of running another survey.

  • Consent-aware feedback and sentiment
  • Targeted internal communications and champions
  • Reach, comprehension, adoption and follow-up
04 / ESTATE ECONOMICS

Prove what needs replacing — and what doesn't.

Use actual performance and usage evidence to inform device refreshes, application consolidation, M&A integration and sustainable investment decisions.

  • Healthy older devices versus genuinely constrained ones
  • Unused software, overlapping licences and hardware
  • Cost, lifecycle, sustainability and employee impact
05 / FRONTLINE & VIRTUAL

Take DEX beyond the office laptop.

Include clinical and frontline workflows, shared equipment, virtual desktops and remote work — where performance has a direct effect on service delivery.

  • Shared devices and mobile workstations
  • Citrix, VDI, AVD and Windows 365 user journeys
  • Location, network and application dependencies
06 / CHANGE OWNERSHIP

Make DEX a programme that survives its launch.

Give executives, HR, internal comms, engineering and support a shared definition of success, practical responsibilities and a cadence for action.

  • Executive sponsorship and business case
  • Service owners, escalation routes and decisions
  • Skills transfer, adoption and operational handover
07 / INVESTMENT & VALUE

Show the business the difference.

Start with a transparent baseline and track avoided disruption, time recovered, employee experience and business outcomes. Where the data isn't available, state assumptions rather than presenting an invented ROI figure.

  • Time lost, incident costs and productivity opportunities
  • Return on investment and employee value (ROI / ROE)
  • Benefits ownership, confidence levels and periodic validation
EVIDENCE FROM THE MARKET

What public case studies suggest.

These examples demonstrate types of opportunity. Results below were published by the respective vendors; they have not been independently audited by Rohall, and are not results from Rohall engagements.

NEXTHINK / PROACTIVE SUPPORT5,000estimated hours saved in 30 days

Burns & McDonnell described measurable support improvements through proactive automation and AI-assisted help.

Read vendor case study ↗
CONTROLUP / WORKPLACE OPERATIONS40+support hours saved per month

Huws Gray reported efficiency gains managing a mixed Citrix, Windows and AVD environment following acquisitions.

Read vendor case study ↗
RIVERBED / DEVICE LIFECYCLE42%of older devices avoided replacement

Kent Community Health used experience evidence to challenge a device-refresh assumption across an ageing estate.

Read vendor case study ↗

Any financial or productivity case must be recalculated for the customer's environment, scale, assumptions and actual measured outcomes.

WHAT AN ENGAGEMENT CAN LOOK LIKE

A plan people can actually own.

These are illustrative phases, not fixed deadlines. The right starting point depends on organisational maturity, data availability and the urgency of the problem.

Browse Impact Blueprints ↗
  1. 01 / DISCOVERAgree the outcome.

    Identify who is affected, capture the baseline, agree commercial and employee measures, and name the decision owner.

  2. 02 / PROVETest the intervention.

    Select a high-value improvement, validate technical evidence and employee feedback, and document risks and dependencies.

  3. 03 / SCALEEmbed a repeatable way of working.

    Give teams the operating model, governance, communication plan and measures that make the benefits sustainable.

FURTHER READING

The vendor sourcebook.

We follow the major DEX players to understand product direction, customer challenges and new approaches. The intention is to learn from published evidence while creating our own independent methodology.

Nexthink

Research and resources ↗Customer stories ↗

ControlUp

Resources ↗Case studies ↗

TeamViewer DEX

DEX use cases ↗

Remote support, experience monitoring and digital workplace actions.

Riverbed / Aternity

Document repository ↗Customer stories ↗
THE ROHALL APPROACH

Start with the business problem.
Finish with proof of impact.

Rohall is independent of any specific vendor's sales or renewal targets. The work is shaped around your people, technology and outcomes — not a preferred product story.

Talk directly with Robin ↗