Enterprise hits and misses - remote work versus HR compliance, humans versus service bots, and the U.S. 5G charade
- Summary:
- This week - the future of work-from-anywhere faces off against HR compliance and worker surveillance. Will (human) customer service reps make a comeback? And: a founding member of the diginomica team says "So long." Your whiffs include the 5G charade, and some very smart badgers.
Lead story - From remote work surveillance to the revenge of the customer service (human) rep - the future of work takes shape
MyPOV: In Civil liberties and compliance burdens - the underlying price of the shift to remote working that we all have to pay? Stuart examined the intrusive tech underbelly of the remote work surge.
The vast majority of employees surely favor a "work from anywhere" flex policy going forward, but as Stuart notes, the workforce management issues haven't been solved. According to a recent Topia study:
40% of HR professionals feel they don’t have the right data and insights for decision-making - and the rest of them are probably kidding themselves if they think they do! In terms of remote working, this is particularly true in relation to one basic question - if your workforce isn’t sitting at its desks in front of you, how do you know where your people are and what they’re actually doing?
The temptation to utilize some form of soul-crushing spyware employee tracking is there. But even if we get past that, there is compliance. When employees expand work-from-anywhere in the vaccine economy to potentially include coffee shops, boats, or even foreign countries it flummoxes regulations:
Each of those locations could have different implications in terms of organizations being hit by regulatory audits, fines or taxes, the latter particularly relevant if employees divide their working time between states, regions or countries.
Add security to that mix - a topic Kurt Marko has covered off frequently on these pages. Meanwhile, as Chris writes, add the revenge of the (human) customer service rep to the vaccine economy mix (Stand-by for a low-tech Baby Boom in the Vaccine Economy as customers look for human contact). With automation the prevailing trend, could there be a competitive edge in pushing back? Chris:
But the swing back to human contact may persuade some decision-makers that it, rather than robots, automation and self-service, could be a competitive differentiator... As a result, [customers] may favour companies that show them a friendly face, rather than remind them of their months of social isolation and button clicking.
I'd like to think so. Though I'll take any bot (or human) that can solve my problem - and I suspect I'm not alone (an Amazon customer service bot that quickly issues me a refund is a swell bot by me). As I was reminded by Spotify's support team, a really nice human that has no ability/authority to solve my problem isn't too awesome. Let's see the different models compete - I'm rooting for those that use automation smartly, and pay their humans well above average.
Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week
- Black History Month - quotas are pointless if you have a ‘leaky bucket’, says Workday’s Chief Diversity Officer - Madleline wraps up our Black History Month content, but the struggle goes on - and so will our coverage.
- Re-inventing retail - Walmart’s Global CTO on cloud shifts, augmented reality and turning machine learning to cost-saving good use - Walmart isn't content to rest on its retail pole position. As Stuart reports, a big tech spending spree by Walmart is coming. On the flip, a retailer that hasn't had such a spiffy time is Macy's - Stuart dissects in How Macy's plans to move on from 'could have been worse' 2020 through accelerated omni-transformation.
- The problem with 'Ethics by Design' - why this WEF report gets AI Ethics wrong, and 25 techniques for producing trustworthy AI - Neil puts an intellectual blowtorch to a flawed WEF AI report. Derek has a few AI bones of contention also: GCHQ outlines how it’s going to ensure its (secretive) use of AI is ethical.
- Intent data - the good, the bad and the work required to figure it out - ABM smartie Barb delves into the problems and potential of "intent data."
Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here's my three top choices from our vendor coverage:
- Salesforce passes the $20 billion milestone; onwards to $50 billion with a new business operating model in play - Count Salesforce amongst those who plan to use "work from anywhere" to drive growth. But, as Stuart points out, Wall Street is still grouchy about a couple matters, including Slack sticker shock.
- Workday co-CEOs predict ‘re-acceleration’ in moving finance to the cloud and greater C-suite focus on employee engagement in the Vaccine Economy - Wall Street was a tad grouchy about Workday also. Stuart again: "A solid set of numbers that didn’t deserve Wall Street’s reaction yesterday."
- Can B2B sales be automated, and can bots make sales reps more effective? Oracle CX updates spark the next generation sales debate - It was good to clash Oracle's view of B2B sales against my own - and get Rob Tarkoff of Oracle's take on why automation doesn't have to overly-mechanize a sales process.
A few more vendor picks, without the quotables:
- SAP talks about the next big things in automotive, energy utilities, oil and gas - a conversation with Christian Klein - Den
- DataStax launches serverless Database-as-a-Service - Derek
- Cherwell advocates for IT as an advisor - not a servant - to the business - Derek
- Plex acquires Kors Engineering - does this bring us closer to the factory of the future? - Brian
Jon's grab bag - Madeline filed a compelling piece on workplace accessibility (Assistive technology at work - Bosma eyes up job opportunities for the blind and visually-impaired). Cath looked into a vitally important tech play in Techfugees - using technology and innovation to better support displaced people.
If you're like me, you have no interest in adding another app. But Phil can't wait for the PC version of this one. Find out why in mmhmm founder Phil Libin on the future of video meetings. Stuart dumped another bucket of analytical vinegar on Facebook - and felt better afterwards - in Poor, misunderstood Facebook! Apologist-in-Chief Nick Clegg wants a word about the week's events Down Under.
Finally, Den penned his own diginomica exit in So long and thanks for all the fish. Yep, Den made the certifiably insane/incredibly wise decision to move on from diginomica - and retire. Sorry dude, but this is your last strikethrough for a while. You've got dogs to walk, model tanks to paint, and train journeys to plan with your main squeeze. Now get to it. We'll keep the content flowing - and that patented BS meter fully charged.
Best of the enterprise web
My top six picks
- Securing Machine Identities Needs To Be A Top Cybersecurity Goal In 2021 - Louis "zero trust" Columbus is back with another enterprise security wake-up call.
- My Take: How We Screwed Up Sales And Operations Planning - When Lora Cecere blogs, I never have to worry about her holding back. Can't say that about all enterprise bloggers.
- Pandemic Lessons For Supply Chain Leaders - Looks like Lora has enterprise-blogger-of-the-week just about sewn up, eh? If you want to hear our first-ever interview, I just issued the audio from my show with Lora, Supply chain upheavals and modernization - what have we really learned?
- SAP RISE: The Good, the Missing, and the GSIs - Josh Greenbaum with a notable/impassioned piece on RISE that raises all the right questions. Also see my blog comments - and Greenbaum's responses - for important clarifications on RISE's contractual requirements, and the role of SIs.
- What place should COVID-19 vaccine passports have in society? - This is a UK-based report, but vaccine passports promise to be one of the most controversial digital initiatives of 2021, so we'd best get cracking on this debate.
- Big Questions for the Ethical Use of AI – I wouldn't call this piece groundbreaking, but calling out "ethics washing" as an attempt to avoid excessive government regulation is both timely and pointed.
Whiffs
I don't know why people are so worked up that this doctor appeared at a (virtual) court appointment in scrubs while operating on a patient. It's a beast to reschedule a court date - and he's likely good enough at plastic surgery for a bit of multi-tasking. Meantime, the 5G circus keeps on circusing:
Verizon support says you should turn off 5G to save your phone’s battery https://t.co/gJb1rm3kwP
" But Verizon is obviously being cautious so as not to actually tell its customers to “turn off 5G"
-> the US 5G telecomm charade continues
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) February 28, 2021
Now, I've been a believer that "emotional support robots" are going to be a thing. But I'll admit: I didn't picture it like this:
Did Panasonic Create a Farting Cat Robot? https://t.co/pHsTWIzoBh
-> no for the cat part. :) Glad we cleared that up.
Although it has a tail, it is “as if someone flipped a bowl over, gave it some animated eyes, a wagging tail, and then wrapped it in an old sock.” pic.twitter.com/3dxUSPEzxL
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) February 27, 2021
This tweet was inspired by a real podcast I was listening to, which became a cautionary tale:
"What is your north star?"
-> If I ever ask that question please take my podcast away from me
— Jon Reed (@jonerp) March 1, 2021
Finally, I don't believe I ever posted this, but it's an epic self-whiff, and deserves its day:
Yep, I wrote that last summer. I evidently thought badgers were set to play an instrumental role in IoT and worker safety... Well, we can't always be right.
If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does.
Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.