LESS OFFICE MORE WORK

Microsoft is setting itself up for the next computing age

Microsoft South Africa has a bit of a hardware problem. According to Microsoft Global’s quarter three 2018 earnings, the tech behemoth has transformed “Surface” – the company’s bespoke hardware arm – into a billion-dollar business. Hololens workplace of the future a is empowering Toyota to make its vision for the have distribution licenses reality. Our regional MS headquarters doesn’t company going to assist for both those device families, yet. So how is this That’s the easy part. the local economy in becoming globally competitive? and German foodOne of South Africa’s biggest industries is grain, an optical sorting system processing manufacturer Buhler AG developed The technology is called Lumovision to improve food security practices. and more precise grainrooted in Microsoft Azure and creates a faster cent of contaminated and sorting solution that eliminates 85 to 90 per when using conventional toxic grain, compared to the half efficiency achieved sorting machines. Saxo Bank, from Standard Bank and Old Mutual Wealth global partner rapidly adopting Denmark, are two of many financial services companies institutions utilising AI – and of the more than 80 per cent of financial Saxo Bank to offer its Micosoft’s Azure platform. This move has allowed in 170 countries. banking services to banking and brokerage clients Systems where Similar technology partnerships exist Eagle Investment company built a Azure helped the $21 trillion-strong asset management to equip investment cloud-based data management platform on Azure managers with future-facing tools. Jaguar Land Office 365 can count the multinational car manufacturer clients. The iconic brand Rover among its more than 150 million business and Office allows the directly employs over 43 000 across 130 countries, for all employees. flexibility for creativity and secure cross collaboration 365 is Coca-cola. Another company harnessing the power of Microsoft and entrepreneurs Microsoft has all the tools, but business leaders . And that’s precisely need to be educated to use the technology effectively to solve right now . the problem Microsoft South Africa is trying

“When you combine that with the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the requirements of our young people, we feel that we are in a position to make a contribution around this new topic.” The Schwabian (Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum) second machine age to which Hoosen is referring more or less lumps together the emerging technology breakthroughs in AI, robotics, the Internet of Things, quantum computing and nanotechnology into a collection of industries that will define the next age of human development. Those technologies are currently transforming production and management systems in a way that is sometimes difficult to keep regulatory pace with. In foundation-phase education, the aim is to familiarise children with technology and get them to engage with more complex tasks through fun interactions. Minecraft: Education Edition is one of the key strategies for Microsoft at this level. “We want to lift the level of digital literacy across the entire youth population. One of the ways we want to achieve that will be through Thint’imillion, which we recently announced in partnership with the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG).” This online mass-learning system seeks to transfer useful digital skills in the Microsoft Office suite. According to a recent Industrial Development Corporation study, Office is the third most required skill for job seekers as evidenced in the 14,6-million job listings that were analysed for the study. “According to the latest Stats SA quarterly labour force survey, approximately 30 per cent of South African youth aged 15–24 are not employed or enrolled in an education or training system,” explains Hoosen. Thint’imillion is delivered as part of the GPG Tshepo 1 Million youth skills-empowerment plan. The initiative was designed to break down the barriers that young people encounter when looking for work opportunities, and feeds directly into a network of public-works programmes, micro-enterprise opportunities and formal jobs. To be eligible, candidates must be unemployed Gauteng residents aged 18– 34, with at least a Grade 10 formal education and no more than 12 months’ work experience. Content delivery is done on the Project Sangam cloud- based digital training and employment platform, and accessed via an Android-only smartphone app as well as an interactive web portal. Data costs can be offset by accessing the forthcoming dedicated Tshepo 1 Million free Wi-fi network, which is going to piggyback on the Gauteng Broadband Network. It’s a very considered, if ambitious, kind of approach to solving one of South Africa’s most pressing concerns that extends out far beyond the immediate skillsdelivery mechanism. “Through this partnership, we will be able to better empower the workforce of the future – a workforce that is diverse, boasting a youth culture that utilises their digital skills to create a thriving city of entrepreneurs and highly skilled workers.” Hoosen’s of fice is based at the Microsoft South Africa campus in Sandton’s leafy suburb of Bryanston. Multi-million rand homes and prestigious pr ivate schools characterise this hive of Johannesburg elites and the lavish on-site canteen menu further serves to cement the

“WE HAVE A YOUTH CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA,” SAYS MICROSOFT SA MANAGING DIRECTOR ZOAIB HOOSEN.

organisation’s position in the neighbourhood. You’d expect the MD’S office to be dominated by a stereotypical monolithic desk carved out of expensive wood, perhaps with a smaller huddle desk standing in one of the corners. We were definitely expecting at least a leather couch when planning out the visuals. Instead, we were greeted by a boardroom set-up and a small laptop stationed on one of the table corners. The executives here all hot desk. “I think the big shift we’ll see in the workplace will come after we infuse artificial intelligence into our productivity solutions. Suddenly, when you’re putting together a presentation, with those artificial-intelligence features now being available in Powerpoint, the artefacts will help you to achieve amazing results,” says Hoosen of his vision for the office of the immediate future. “There’s also the natural user interface,” he continues. “We’re moving way more into gestures and voice and touch in the way that we are engaging. Those are the two waves that you will see. One of the big challenges of the 4IR will be around scaling. When you think about all the cloud-enabling technologies and the advancement in computing power, the next wave will be in quantum computing, because Moore’s Law is starting to max out on us.” Fusing AI and people in the workplace is a good counterapproach to the current wave of fear-mongering happening around automation. Hoosen’s words also reiterate those of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who believes AI will augment human capabilities to a point where it will empower disabled workers to participate more fully. This should, in theory, unlock new solutions and initiatives because of fresh access to considerations that have gone unexplored. The real-time translations Microsoft has already started rolling out for Skype serve as a glimpse of this more inclusive future workplace. A cloud-based Babel fish powered by quantum computing will remove any and all communication barriers that exist among multilingual teams and encourage unprecedented levels of collaboration. Cooperation in the workplace is being fostered at foundation phase, such as when classrooms are tasked with reconstructing a historical scene as a project in Minecraft. Microsoft really struck gold when it purchased the intellectual property in a $2,5-billion deal at the end of 2014. A massively successful gaming franchise could, at the time, not be imagined as a very powerful education tool, but as the company proved with the launch of Minecraft: Education Edition in 2016, the benefits of a virtual reality is that children can learn digital skills alongside practical experimentation in a controlled environment. “It ( Minecraft) allows us to build fans because the franchise is well established among the youth. The next consideration will be how we bring gaming into learning.” Microsoft has also taken a considerable lead in future-facing hardware solutions. Through a certain lens, 2-in-1 hybrid computing devices can be considered an intermediate product category while the rest of the world figures out, first, what exactly the next dominant interface is going to be, and second, what the tools look like to best let you engage with that interface. You cannot deny the company’s courage in promoting new ideas around productivity hardware, though.

We all sniggered a bit when Windows started optimising for touch input. Granted, the split personality of Windows 8’s Metro a and desktop environment was big challenge to navigate. Now long-term personal computing rival Apple is being pressured into embracing touchscreens in the next iteration of Mac OS. And Apple’s response? Popularise the ipad as the computer of the future. But these two companies can gladly go toe-to-toe on high-end devices while Google pushes out Chrome OS into the classroom. Unfortunately, it does seem as though that ship has already sailed, but consumer data shows a massive abandonment of the platform when users enter the workplace. When the kids start making real money, they buy the best laptops and mobile computing devices they can afford. Invariably, that comes with an Apple logo on the back or Windows inside. “The core component of AR (augmented reality) is AI. Hololens’ environments work best when it starts to interpret my movements and anticipate what I want to do next. This is a great example of the kind of tools people will be using in the future,” says Hoosen. “It’s going to be a mixed-reality environment that gives a user multiple layers of interaction and doesn’t limit them in time or space.” Hoosen lets slip the grand vision for hardware: a multidevice, multi-sensory world. It’s a refreshing change in approach from the implied migration – to a single device that can port between modes – that many of the leading hardware makers are ushering consumers towards. Frankly, it’s a much more democratic approach where users can buy tools that more closely match their budget and lifestyle. There were shades of

this thinking evident in the illfated 2000s Windows Mobile experiment. The idea of having a cohesive operating system that could run just as well on lowend hardware as it does on flagship-grade devices. An interoperability across devices that maintains consistent userinterface elements, allowing users to only learn one visual language and more effectively transfer digital skills from the street to the office. Four years ago, I proclaimed Microsoft the worldwide leader in productivity software. This came after a terrible experience with an off-brand office suite and a lecture from my wife to rather invest in quality products. Office 365 breathed new life into my workflow and I am only now really utilising the added benefits, such as a terabyte of cloud storage space, to greater enhance my daily productivity experience. I covet a Surface laptop and a Surface Studio, and credit the latter for the resurgence in appeal of the desktop computer. Microsoft are on a good wicket right now, but they need to sort out the hardware problem in this market, at the very least.

Microsoft South Africa doesn’t hold the rights to the Surface product line in our country yet. But they are working on it