Category: remote working

Business, Customer Experience, Customer Focus, remote working, working from home

AI. Pinch punch it’s the first of July

I was thinking about the new month on Friday and always have a race to be the first to say “pinch punch”, especially with my cousin, and I begin to start dreaming about this in context of the current Coronavirus crisis and here’s the result. I hope you like it.

Update .. Added video here https://bit.ly/Trust-Pinch-punch

Pinch punch it’s the 1st of may
The days are flying by, dissolving away

Covid-19 has kept us locked down
And sadly for many they’re wearing a frown

The frustrations are plenty, reaching out for response
Call volumes are soaring, cant meet their wants.

Staff are furloughed, unable to work
They’re being sent home but not to shirk

The questions keep coming, but nobody is there
Automation could help but it’s relatively rare.

Businesses struggling with too few staff
The calls go unanswered, are they having a laugh

Wait times growing lengthy running to hours
We just need something processed to feel empowered

First choice is the smartphone to connect and reach out
But it’s hard to feel valued when you mess us about.

Your site says no contact, you’re all in turmoil
You’re not on your own, we are all going to boil

Nobody is winning, we are all coming last
We need you to help us and please do it fast

Instead of a human perhaps use AI
To automate process with a robotic guy

And when it’s all over, we would embrace IT
Mundane to the robot for access and speed,
And human to human, as its best, we’d accede

Business, productivity, remote working, working from home

Workspace not Workplace | Workspace updates

Workspace not Workplace | Workspace updates. The whole concept of Work is changing – there are many reasons why this is happening, but changing attitudes to work coupled with agile working policies underpinned by technology innovation are probably a few of the key factors.

Business, partnership, productivity, remote working

Unified Comms Nirvana

UC is a philosophy and a culture underpinned by technology. It’s about communications and collaboration which are people centred rather than technology lead. UC is a journey towards a better personal and customer centred environment, that is not about just a technology refresh or buying new. As there is no universally accepted definition, this presents a challenge of common understanding in discussion, which can be overcome by simply investing a small amount of time to work back from a future vision to a current position. In doing this, the language can be neutralised as a potential barrier to common understanding. One of the key challenges beyond the definition is that of “baggage”. What I mean by this is that we are all a product of our experiences and whilst in many or most cases this can be a real asset, in the world I am discussing here, I see it as a potential pinch point. My rationale here is that telephony in particular has worked in a certain way for many years and in particular PBX functionality has been somewhat staid, and most people still use telephony in the same way they always have:

Scene 1
* Phone rings
* Answer phone (if you’re lucky)
* Conversation and perhaps transfer or enquiry
* Terminate call

Scene 2
* Pick up handset dial number speak and disconnect

Now when you start to shift your thinking – the whole communications experience can become enriched and the process cycles reduced. In the above examples, there are often additional actions that will take place after the call, such as an email will be sent to support the call, or to confirm the conversation or a document is shared via email. With a UC solution such as Microsoft Lync, the experience could look more like this:

Scene 3
* Lync client alerts to inbound call
* Click to answer and talk on your headset – hands free
* Caller shares a document with you and a focused conversation takes place
* You decide to bring in a third party who works for a different organisation, but because you federate your presence status you can see (using the rich presence capability) that they are free so you can simply “drag tham” into the conference.
* The call continues and you need to leave the office you transfer via a mouse click to your mobile device and continue the call * Whilst in the call, you send an IM message from your mobile to your colleague to ask a question not for general consumption, and get a response in seconds
*Call terminates and the project is advanced.

Scene 4:
* You want to convene an ad-hoc conference call so you click on meet me and add the participants from your lync client.
* Meeting commences as colleagues join you record the call and share the recording for others as reference point to agreements and actions and whilst on the call schedule the follow up.
* Call ends and project is progressed

This is a paradigm shift in the way we think about communications and collaboration and has to be experienced to be really appreciated but for sure it is a move in the right direction. Why not check it out – you will be glad you did…

Business, productivity, remote working

Reduce your email traffic? Yes please.

It’s all got a bit out of hand now hasn’t it? Email started off so well too. Immediate communications from your desktop rather than the lengthy process of “word-processing” a document, printing it, fetching it, walking to the fax machine….. You remember that – right? Then the traffic began to build, and build, and build. Where do all off the emails come from. Conversation being held via email, copying “all” followed swiftly by a “copy all” WILL YOU STOP COPYING EVERYONE ON YOUR RESPONSES.
So is it any wonder that the introduction of a tool that’s”fit for purpose” is gaining high rates of adoption. Microsoft lync’s instant messaging does exactly what it says on the tin, removing the need for protracted email conversations AND because presence status shows availability and out of office message before contact is attempted, unnecessary traffic is avoided. In addition to which this capability can, through federation, function beyond corporate boundaries with clients, suppliers and partners within your chosen ecosystem.
The user experience is best in class, and you don’t even have to be at your desk to access it. Lync sets you free to work from wherever you can access a data connection….. Which also reduces your call charges.

Why wouldn’t you want to consider lync?

Business, remote working, working from home

Is your web traffic secure at a hotspot? Don’t know – BBC watchdog does!

It’s not so easy to sit comfortably over a coffee while reading emails or browsing websites in places like Starbucks since Watchdog pointed out how easy it is for fraudsters to hack into your laptop. The convenience of these wifi hotspots has become such a normal part of our everyday lives that it’s hard to give up, so it’s tempting to trust the computer firewall and lapse into a false sense of security again. Read more at BBC web site and http://www.geid.co.uk