Leaders Roundtable: Accelerate People First Culture to Empower Your Organisation’s Biggest Asset

No ratings yet.

Leaders Roundtable: Accelerate People First Culture to Empower Your Organisation’s Biggest Asset

The corporate challenge of managing skills shortages, employer of choice strategies, and flexible work programs have long existed.

Pandemic fast tracked the transformation of the organisation today in how they do business, engage with their customers, and deliver their products and services.

But perhaps the biggest change has been in how organisations have had evolve their employee strategies and practices. With opening up of the restrictions – the debate is raging on employee work practices, hybrid working, flexibility, wellness, great resignation quiet quitting and in some economies restructuring.

Employees are an organisation’s biggest asset. Given the changes and challenges that your employees have faced over the last two years, they have developed some strong work preferences. HR has the biggest role to play in shaping the employee experience your organisation provides – and it cannot achieve this without a close alliance with the Tech/Digital Team.

As workplaces become truly hybrid, there are significant challenges that CHROs face today:

  • Capturing the pulse of the organisation and establish the right corporate culture
  • Accelerating insight and engagement with employee considering generational differences and personal choices
  • Solving the “productivity conundrum” – allowing employees to be productive and bring their whole self to work irrespective of their location and synchronicity
  • Empowering managers to offer personalised employee experience to ensure employee retention, growth, and emotional well-being
  • Rebuilding the social capital after the uncertainties of the last two years

Join me and your industry peers for this Executive Leaders discussion on how HR teams can leverage technology to empower their biggest asset and promote their organisations as Employers of Choice.

0
CHRO Leaders Roundtable: Empowering Your Organisation’s Biggest Asset

No ratings yet.

CHRO Leaders Roundtable: Empowering Your Organisation’s Biggest Asset

The corporate challenge of managing skills shortages, employer of choice strategies, and flexible work programs have long existed.

It’s just that, like most strategic imperatives, they have been optional, even for the most competitive businesses. Every successful organisation today has gone through a transformation in how they do business, engage with their customers, and deliver their products and services. But perhaps the biggest change has been in how organisations have had evolve their employee strategies and practices.

Employees are an organisation’s biggest asset. Given the changes and challenges that your employees have faced over the last two years, they have developed some strong work preferences. HR has the biggest role to play in shaping the employee experience your organisation provides – and it cannot achieve this without a close alliance with the Tech/Digital Team

As workplaces become truly hybrid, there are significant challenges that HR faces today:

  • How to capture the pulse of the organisation and establish the right corporate culture?
  • How to make upskilling and learning interactive and relevant, considering generational differences?
  • How to solve the “productivity conundrum” – allowing employees to be most productive irrespective of the location?
  • How to empower managers to offer personalised employee experience to ensure employee retention and emotional well-being?
  • How to rebuild the social capital, after the uncertainties of the last two years?
0
Executive ThinkTank: Balancing Resilience, Innovation & Purpose

No ratings yet.

Executive ThinkTank: Balancing Resilience, Innovation & Purpose

The financial sector has the most optimistic outlook for 2022. The industry is at a watershed time where economic factors and a multitude of transformative forces challenge the status quo and the power ranking in the industry.

This is an opportunity for innovative and transformative organisations to respond to the changing market conditions.

  • Open banking is changing the way our customers engage with banks and financial solution providers with the introduction of new channels.
  • DeFi promises to bypass centralised and regulated financial systems to offer innovative and personalised financial solutions directly to the mass markets.
  • ESG is requiring financial institutions to transition to a low-carbon, and clean-technology economy driving Sustainable Finance solutions and green investment assets.

There is no shortage of additional industry forces and buzzwords that could be added to this list, impacting financial services providers in an increasingly volatile economic environment.

Organisations that win in this increasingly digital future are those that can respond quickly through business agility and effective innovation and transformation programs. Their corporate DNA enables them to act fast to meet new demands and seize market opportunities as soon as they arise while managing risk and compliance.

0
Executive ThinkTank: Being Business Ready: Leading Your Business In A Hybrid Work Environment

No ratings yet.

Executive ThinkTank: Being Business Ready: Leading Your Business In A Hybrid Work Environment

The last couple of years have demonstrated the resilience across people and businesses to rapidly evolve in order to meet the headwinds.

It has changed the face of talent and we have seen remote work can actually improve productivity, create a better work-life balance, and bring a host of other benefits. However, there are also significant challenges. This has created a paradox for employers: employees want more flexible remote work options with full access to corporate resources, but they also want more in-person collaboration and interaction.

The ongoing Ecosystm Voice of the Employee study finds that:

  • Today, 68% work either entirely from home or in a hybrid set-up
  • 47% consider spending time with family a key benefit of remote work; and yet the same proportion of employees is challenged by distractions when working from home
  • Nearly 40% of employees want to conduct in-person brainstorming and planning sessions; while 43% are comfortable with audio and videoconferencing sessions.

As more companies start to return to the office, the need for a hybrid approach is the logical solution. It offers flexibility, but also a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent.

Senior Leaders from Kyndryl and Microsoft will discuss how to create a seamless hybrid workplace. Topics will include:

  • How can organisations measure and improve employee experience across hybrid work environments?
  • Putting user experience at the core of your business by simplifying and integrating platforms and applications
  • Using a data-driven approach to simplify business processes and workflows
  • Preventing issues before they occur by using AI and self-healing technology
0
Executive ThinkTank: Being Business Ready: Leading Your Business In A Hybrid Work Environment

No ratings yet.

Executive ThinkTank: Being Business Ready: Leading Your Business In A Hybrid Work Environment

The last couple of years have demonstrated the resilience across people and businesses to rapidly evolve in order to meet the headwinds.

It has changed the face of talent and we have seen remote work can actually improve productivity, create a better work-life balance, and bring a host of other benefits. However, there are also significant challenges. This has created a paradox for employers: employees want more flexible remote work options with full access to corporate resources, but they also want more in-person collaboration and interaction.

The ongoing Ecosystm Voice of the Employee study finds that:

  • Today, 68% work either entirely from home or in a hybrid set-up
  • 47% consider spending time with family a key benefit of remote work; and yet the same proportion of employees is challenged by distractions when working from home
  • Nearly 40% of employees want to conduct in-person brainstorming and planning sessions; while 43% are comfortable with audio and videoconferencing sessions.

As more companies start to return to the office, the need for a hybrid approach is the logical solution. It offers flexibility, but also a competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent.

Senior Leaders from Kyndryl and Microsoft will discuss how to create a seamless hybrid workplace. Topics will include:

  • How can organisations measure and improve employee experience across hybrid work environments?
  • Putting user experience at the core of your business by simplifying and integrating platforms and applications
  • Using a data-driven approach to simplify business processes and workflows
  • Preventing issues before they occur by using AI and self-healing technology
0
Ecosystm Snapshot: Kyndryl Taps AWS to Broaden their Cloud Platform Capabilities

5/5 (1)

5/5 (1)

Last week, Kyndryl became a Premier Global Alliance Partner for AWS. This follows other recent similar partnerships for Kyndryl with Google and Microsoft. This now gives Kyndryl premier or similar partner status at the big three hyperscalers.

The Partnership

This new partnership was essential for Kyndryl to provide legitimacy to their independent reputation and their global presence. And in many respects, it is a partnership that AWS needs as much as Kyndryl does. As one of the largest global managed services providers, Kyndryl manages a huge amount of infrastructure and thousands of applications. Today, most of these applications sit outside public cloud environments, but at some stage in the future, many of these applications will move to the public cloud. AWS has positioned itself to benefit from this transition – as Kyndryl will be advising clients on which cloud environment best suits their needs, and in many cases Kyndryl will also be running the application migration and managing the application when it resides in the cloud. To that end, the further investment in developing an accelerator for VMware Cloud on AWS will also help to differentiate Kyndryl on AWS. With a high proportion of Kyndryl customers running VMware, this capability will help VMware users to migrate these workloads to the cloud and run core businesses services on AWS.

The Future

Beyond the typical partnership activities, Kyndryl will build out its own internal infrastructure in the cloud, leveraging AWS as its preferred cloud provider. This experience will mean that Kyndryl “drinks its own champagne” – many other managed services providers have not yet taken the majority of their infrastructure to the cloud, so this experience will help to set Kyndryl apart from their competitors, along with providing deep learning and best practices.

By the end of 2022, Kyndryl expects to have trained more than 10,000 professionals on AWS. Assuming the company hits these targets, they will be one of AWS’s largest partners. However, experience trumps training, and their relatively recent entry into the broader cloud ecosystem space (after coming out from under IBM’s wing at the end of 2021) means they have some way to go to have the depth and breadth of experience that other Premier Alliance Partners have today.

Ecosystm Opinion

In my recent interactions with Kyndryl, what sets them apart is the fact that they are completely customer-focused. They start with a client problem and find the best solution for that problem. Yes – some of the “best solutions” will be partner specific (such as SAP on Azure, VMware on AWS), but they aren’t pushing every customer down a specific path. They are not just an AWS partner – where every solution to every problem starts and ends with AWS. The importance of this new partnership is it expands the capabilities of Kyndryl and hence expands the possibilities and opportunities for Kyndryl clients to benefit from the best solutions in the market – regardless of whether they are on-premises or in one of the big three hyperscalers.

Cloud Insights
0
The Future of Sustainability: Tech Providers and Corporates Strengthening the Cause

5/5 (1)

5/5 (1)

COP26 has firmly put environmental consciousness as a leading global priority. While we have made progress in the last 30 odd years since climate change began to be considered as a reality, a lot needs to be done.

No longer is it enough for only governments to lead on green initiatives. Now is the time for non-profit organisations, investors, businesses – corporate and SMEs – and consumers to come together to ensure we leave a safer planet for our children. 

February saw examples of how technology providers and large corporates are delivering on their environmental consciousness and implementing meaningful change.

Here are some announcements that show how tech providers and corporates are strengthening the Sustainability cause:

Read on to find more.

The-Future-of-Sustainability-1
The-Future-of-Sustainability-2
The-Future-of-Sustainability-3
The-Future-of-Sustainability-4
The-Future-of-Sustainability-5
The-Future-of-Sustainability-6
The-Future-of-Sustainability-7
The-Future-of-Sustainability-8
previous arrowprevious arrow
next arrownext arrow
The-Future-of-Sustainability-1
The-Future-of-Sustainability-2
The-Future-of-Sustainability-3
The-Future-of-Sustainability-4
The-Future-of-Sustainability-5
The-Future-of-Sustainability-6
The-Future-of-Sustainability-7
The-Future-of-Sustainability-8
previous arrow
next arrow
Shadow

Click here to download a copy of The Future of Sustainability as a PDF.

Industries-of-the-future-CTA
0
Ecosystm Snapshot: Kyndryl and Nokia Forge a Private 5G Partnership

5/5 (3)

5/5 (3)

Since officially separating from IBM in November last year, Kyndryl has been busy cementing some heavyweight partnerships. The alliances with Microsoft, Google, and VMware demonstrate its intention to build hybrid cloud solutions with whoever it needs to, rather than favouring the Big Blue or Red Hat. The SAP tie-up hints at a future of migrating ERP workloads to the cloud and even an eye on moving up the application stack. Last week Kyndryl announced it is working with Nokia to provide private 5G and LTE networks to enable Industry 4.0 solutions. The first customer reference for the partnership is Dow, deploying both real-world and proof-of-concept applications for worker safety and collaboration and asset tracking.

The Partnership

Kyndryl has a competitive networking services unit, particularly in partnership with Cisco. Its focus has been on SD-WAN, campus networks, and network management as part of broader cloud services deals. This 5G partnership with Nokia is its first serious effort to work with one of the major carrier-grade vendors using cellular technology. It creates an opportunity for Kyndryl to position itself as a provider of services that underpin IoT and edge applications, rather than only cloud, which has until now been its main strength.

Prior to the Kyndryl announcement, Nokia was already developing private 5G solutions under the moniker Digital Automation Cloud (DAC). A key customer is Volkswagen, using the network to connect robots and wireless assembly tools. Over-the-air vehicle updates are also tested over the private network. Volkswagen operates in a dedicated 3.7-3.8 GHz band, which was allocated by the Federal Network Agency in Germany. This illustrates a third option for accessing spectrum, which will become an important consideration in private 5G rollouts.

Private 5G Use Cases

Private 5G has several benefits such as low latency, long-range, support for many users per access point, and provision for devices that are mobile due to handover. It is unlikely that it will completely replace other technologies, like wireless LAN, but it is very compelling for certain use cases.

Private 5G is useful on large sites, like mines, ports, farms, and warehouses where connected machines are moving about or some devices – like perimeter security cameras – are just out of reach. Utilities, like power, gas, and water, with infrastructure that needs to be monitored over long distances, will also start looking at it as a part of their predictive maintenance and resiliency systems. Low latency will become increasingly important as we see more and more customer-facing digital services delivered on-site and autonomous robots in the production environment.

Another major benefit of private 5G compared to operating on public service is that data can remain within the organisation’s own network for as long as possible, providing more security and control.

Private 5G Gaining Popularity

There has been a lot of activity over the last year in this space, with the hyperscalers, telecom providers and network equipment vendors developing private 5G offerings.

Last year, the AWS Private 5G was announced, a managed service that includes core network hardware, small-cell radio units, SIM cards, servers, and software. The service operates over a shared spectrum, like the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the US, where the initial preview will be available. CBRS is considered a lightly licenced band. This builds on AWS’s private multi-access edge compute (MEC) solution, released in conjunction with Verizon to integrate AWS Outposts with private 5G operating in licenced spectrum. A customer reference highlighted was low latency, high throughput analysis of video feeds from manufacturing robots at Corning.

Similarly, Microsoft launched a private MEC offering last year, a cloud and software stack designed for operators, systems integrators, and ISVs to deploy private 5G solutions. The system is built up of components from Azure and its acquisition of Metaswitch. AT&T is an early partner bringing a solution to the market built on Microsoft’s technology and the operator’s licenced spectrum. Microsoft highlighted use cases such as asset tracking in logistics, factory operations in manufacturing, and experiments with AI-infused video analytics to improve worker safety.

The Future

Organisations are likely to begin testing private 5G this year for Industry 4.0 applications, either at single sites in the case of factories or in select geographic areas for Utilities. Early applications will mostly focus on simple connectivity for mobile machines or remote equipment. In the longer term, however, the benefits of private 5G will become more apparent as AI applications, such as video analysis and autonomous machines become more prevalent. This will require the full ecosystem of players, including telecom providers, network vendors, cloud hyperscalers, systems integrators, and IoT providers.

Emerging Technology
0
Where is Healthcare Tech Headed?

5/5 (1)

5/5 (1)

In the Ecosystm Predicts: The Top 5 Healthcare Trends in 2022 we have said that 2022 will be the year when we start seeing the second-order impacts of the pandemic and we will see healthcare providers address these impacts. This means an increase in tech adoption and a greater (and in some cases, renewed) interest in tech providers to focus on the Healthcare industry.

Last month, we saw announcements of Francisco Partners acquiring the healthcare data and analytics assets from the IBM Watson Health business unit. This was neither unexpected nor an isolated news – it follows a series of significant Healthcare tech news from last year.

Here are some announcements from 2021 that I feel give us an indication of where the Healthcare tech market is headed. 

  • Oracle’s acquisition of Cerner
  • Microsoft’s continued focus on Healthcare with the Nuance acquisition
  • The acquisition of athenahealth by private equity firms
  • Examples of the focus on mental health such as the creation of Headspace Health
  • The interest of consumer apps in Healthcare as witnessed by Peloton’s corporate wellness programme.

Read on to find out more about these announcements. And let me know what you think is the most interesting Healthcare tech announcement in the last year.

Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-1
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-2
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-3
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-4
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-5
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-6
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-7
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-8
previous arrowprevious arrow
next arrownext arrow
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-1
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-2
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-3
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-4
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-5
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-6
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-7
Where-is-Healthcare-Tech-Headed-8
previous arrow
next arrow
Shadow

Download “Where is Healthcare Tech Headed?” slides as a PDF.

Industries-of-the-future-CTA
0