FUTURE OF WORK
Digitisation of work spaces in post-Corona times
Thanks to Covid-19, it is high time that the organisations across India and the world take stock of things. In future, how will clients’ sales and other meetings take place? Will remote working be the new normal? Are the various workforces ready to WFH?
Remote Collaborative Platforms
Flock is a proprietary messaging and collaboration tool, founded by tech entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia in 2014. The app is available on Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS and Web. Flock allows users to configure external apps and integrations from the Flock App Store, and receive notifications and updates directly in Flock.
Flock allows users to configure external apps and integrations from the Flock App Store, and receive notifications and updates directly in Flock. The primary features of Flock are direct and channel messaging, video conferencing, screen and file sharing, and unlimited chat history.
Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Co-Founder, Zeta and Flock, said, “With the rise of COVID-19, we are witnessing a
major change in every aspect of the business. At the beginning of the pandemic, we saw the world working remotely and now after 3 months of lockdown, we have to start chalking out new plans. Interacting with colleagues, client meetings, commute to work, nothing will be the same in the near future. Remote working will has become be the new normal. With more people working from home, the need for real estate will decrease.
“As employees have been working from home to contain the spread of COVID 19, many organisations have invested heavily in workplace collaborations platforms to keep the business running smoothly. All job interviews and onboarding of new joinees is being done virtually now. The pandemic has also refocused the minds of global leaders on the fundamental value of human life, human potential and livelihoods. This is the window of opportunity to invest in our most precious asset: our human capital.”
Vinay Bhartia, India Head, Lark, said that remote collaborative platforms have brought together people from different groups to work together to achieve desired goals across sectors and verticals.
Lark is a next-generation all-in-one collaborative platform that offers:
• Seamless connectivity - On Lark, various components of the suite (Messenger, Docs, Calendar, Video Conferencing, Workplace) are deeply integrated and this allows to have some unique features like Insert a group chat in a Doc, check team members’ schedules right from a chat, launch a video call right from a calendar event. Also, Lark Workplace which includes native apps
IN FACT, MANY SMALL COMPANIES ARE ALREADY GIVING UP THEIR WORKSPACE AND PLANNING COMPLETE REMOTE WORKING TO KEEP UP WITH THE CRISIS. WHILE THE WORLD IS WORKING REMOTELY NOW, IT IS NOT UNUSUAL TO THINK THAT THE FUTURE OF WORK MIGHT BE ‘WORKING FROM HOME’ FOR AN INDEFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME
like Approval and Attendance, as well as customizable third-party integrations that allows organizations to unite internal workflows and in-house applications into one single platform. It is mobile-friendly as well - the work that is created and stored on Lark is synced in real-time across all devices
Affordability - Lark offers an enterprise-grade collaboration suite for free, with no limit on duration/ team size. When it comes to large companies that have special need for customized customer success service, Lark provides a paid enterprise version as well as value added services. • Advanced collaborative tools - Users can make the best use of the features like instant messaging, smart calendar, Lark Docs and Sheets, and online space and drive. Users get the freedom of conducting video conferencing with up to 100 people with unlimited minutes and can also Broadcast live to your teams and external users with chat mode.
• Safe and secured platform - Lark has passed most of the certified security standards in the world, including ISO 27701, ISO 27018, ISO 27001, SOC 2 and SOC 3 certifications. We are now certified to ISO 27701, the international standard for Privacy Information Management.
Slack is a proprietary business communication platform developed by Slack Technologies. Slack offers many IRCstyle features, including persistent chat rooms (channels) organized by topic, private groups, and direct messaging. Content, including files, conversations, and people, is all searchable within Slack. Users can add emoji buttons to their messages, on which other users can then click to express their reactions to messages.
Slack’s free plan allows only the 10,000 most recent messages to be viewed and searched. Slack provides mobile apps for iOS and Android besides their Web browser client and desktop clients for MacOS, Windows (versions available from company’s website and through Windows Store), and Linux. The Slack CEO didn’t reply to our mails.
We have Microsoft Teams as well.
Rajiv Sodhi, COO, Microsoft India, said that there are three things:
• Working from home - Organisations across sectors are facing a variety of issues as they grapple with the
situation. Transitioning employees to work from home in the initial days was a big challenge. We made Microsoft Teams available free of cost in early March, including for organizations that don’t have Office 365. Leading Indian companies have placed their trust in Teams, and are now using it for daily calls, meetings and collaborating virtually. We are also working with them to integrate their internal apps to Teams to make administrative processes absolutely seamless. Teams helps deliver the advanced security and compliance capabilities our customers need - with the native built-in security and management capabilities of Office 365.
Access to business applications and processes
- Businesses also need access to their applications. Sectors such as BFSI, ITeS and manufacturing had not equipped their employees to access work-related content or systems remotely. Our team has worked round the clock to help the ITeS giants deploy Azure Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) This has allowed large workforces to access internal apps, develop and even publish solutions through a desktop hosted on Azure. They are doing so using different browsers from home PCs, laptops and personal mobile devices in an absolutely secure manner. Moving to Azure WVD also did away with the need to scramble for new devices.
Microsoft is also focussing on helping pharmaceutical companies and their partners stay productive and keep medicines and critical supplies available. Intas Pharmaceuticals, a leading Ahmedabad-based drug manufacturer, uses Office 365. They have also adopted Windows Virtual Desktop, allowing critical workforce to access internal content from home and support operations securely.
Learning from home - As educational institutes across the country moved to online classes, they were looking for secure collaboration tools to ensure that learning doesn’t stop. Over the last few weeks, we have imparted training to over 4,000 educators and students across 100 schools and higher education institutions to adopt remote learning tools. The British School moved to Microsoft Teams even before the COVID-19 lockdown started to enable its teachers collaborate and interact with students for online learning. Amity University, Noida, has moved 80% of courses online to Teams in two weeks.
Uninterrupted care for patients - Microsoft has been
FOR CERTAIN DISRUPTIONS, WHERE EMPLOYEES CANNOT PHYSICALLY GET TO THEIR OFFICE, THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO WORK REMOTELY. THIS CAPABILITY NEEDS TO BE BUILT INTO THE WAY THEY WORK EVERY DAY. THIS MEANS ENSURING EMPLOYEES HAVE SECURE ACCESS TO ALL THE APPLICATIONS AND FILES THEY NEED TO BE PRODUCTIVE FROM ANYWHERE AND ANY DEVICE.” TO HELP EMPLOYEES MEET AND COLLABORATE WITH PEOPLE, HE RECOMMENDS THE NEED TO PROVIDE CONFERENCING SERVICES LIKE GOTOMEETING OR TEAMS
able to support healthcare professionals. Its engineers are spending time with doctors and management at healthcare institutes to understand their challenges and requirements. Healthcare Global Enterprises (HCG), which specializes in comprehensive cancer care, has launched a Virtual OPD on Teams for 23 centers across India to provide uninterrupted care to its patients. We are also helping Fortis Healthcare pilot a virtual consultation service powered by Teams.
Lenovo’s smart fleet
According to Rahul Agarwal, CEO & MD, Lenovo India, for customers, they are staying closely connected to support their needs. We are going out of the way to support critical customer needs in sectors like software, healthcare, BFSI, etc. by bringing in PCs on priority through chartered flights.
It has started offerings solutions like smart fleet and Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) for better WFH management by enterprises. On the consumer side, it is offering Learn from Home bundles with extended finance options. Lenovo partnered with e-vidyaloka to create SmarterEd, a free online platform that matches learners with volunteer educators in one-on-one online learning sessions. Lenovo is also offering free services to all PCs (even from other OEMs) till 31st May, to ease pressure off the PC consumers amid the extended covid19 lockdown.
Agarwal said, “We are not a remote working country culturally, which forces the management to rewire their
outlook towards employees working from home. Managers need to realize that good people work well wherever they are, as long as they have the right tools. So, my advice would be to trust your workforce and focus on output, rather than activity. The future of digital work entails two parts viz., technology infrastructure and, a digiwork-ready employee base. We are facilitating and leading the shifts in both the areas.”
• Technology infrastructure – Through our portfolio of PCs, tablets and accessories, we are enabling employees to work from anywhere. The devices are integrated with ThinkShield suite of security offerings that make remote working safe. It is also offering endto-end services related to device management, thereby enabling hassle-free management for enterprises.
• Digiwork-ready employee base - Gen Z and Millennials comprise ~60% of the workforce today, and they are mostly comfortable with digital technologies. The key aspect now is to manage employee emotions and one-on-one connect. Lenovo does daily video calls with teams and launched multiple engagement activities to keep them connected.Lenovo is offering ThinkPad laptops at all performance levels, accessories, webcams, wireless keyboards, etc.
BCP - and How?
In this section, we look at the business continuity plans across companies.
Safi Obeidullah, Field CTO (APJ), Citrix, said the plan should ideally include -
• Identifying chain of command and key stakeholders when the business continuity plan is invoked. • Clear communication strategy of how to stay in touch with anyone who needs to know what’s going on. This essentially includes employees, executives, suppliers, contractors, etc. • Processes for how key business functions will continue to be operate, including the order in which functions should be enabled to ensure high priority services are available first. • How dependent stakeholders and employees are educated on the business continuity plan so they are aware of how things would operate.
He added: “BCP is a critical process for any sized organization and provides a framework on how to deal with disruptions to the normal business operations. It gives businesses an alternative method of operating when a disruption occurs. However, being a different way of working, it needs to be maintained, alternate solutions may need to be deployed and employees need to be trained to work differently under this scenario.
Marshal Correia, VP & GM, India, South Asia at Red Hat, said:“We have learnt about remote collaboration and leadership through our open source communities over the years. We already have strong remote work culture and our IT infrastructure has been built to enable this for both associate mobility and business continuity purposes. To cope with sudden additional load, we integrated the additional capacity for VPN and singlesign on (SSO) infrastructure for users signing on from home. This included adapting to our delivery for new hire equipment, so new hires can get started right away. At Red Hat, all our associates are available for virtual engagements with customers, partners and other ecosystem players. All our events across the globe have been moved to virtual platforms.
We also realise that a remote workforce requires a different communication style and even more engaged leadership. Team leads at Red Hat have stepped up to create virtual office hours and additional (but remote) face time with their teams--not just to convey the latest information and updates, but to check in with their teams and listen to their concerns or just keep the bonds strong.
CIO Talk
CIOs are hard pressed too, in this situation. Major Gen
Amarjit Singh, CIO, Persistent Systems, said services are delivered from customer facilities, from our own facilities in our global delivery centres, from customer-controlled or customer-specified IT environments in our own facilities, or by connecting remotely to customer IT environments.
Apart from ISO 27001, Persistent is also certified against ISO 27017 and 27018. It has demonstrated abilities to operate with confidence in the cloud, while maintaining the security and privacy for our customers and corporate services. Being a global, full-stack IT services company, we already had the technology solutions, training and rehearsed business continuity plans in place to handle disruption.
Harnath Babu, CIO, KPMG, said - “For digital work, the first step is to provide the right IT infrastructure to the entire workforce to work conveniently from their homes. The next step is to create a team-based digital space environment where they can work together – irrespective of wherever they are. We are providing our workforce with cloud-based communication and collaboration technology tools that help them connect with each other virtually.
“Enabling the IT support system to work remotely is another critical step, as providing prompt assistance to the workforce for any IT-related concern is pivotal to facilitating a digital work environment.We have also taken measures that help us secure the user endpoints against phishing and ransomware attacks.
“As for the latest technologies that going to redefine workplace, Harnath Babu pointed to AI, RPA and the IoT. With social distancing being the new norm, workplaces will be about fewer employees and more space. This could mean decluttering the office space,and doing away with the collaboration workspace for employees.”
Focus on Digital Business
There will be an increasing focus on digital business as well. Manoj Kohli, Country Head, SoftBank India, SoftBank Group International said, there will be some shifts. Oil prices came down from $60 to $20 and below. There are electric vehicles. Next, how is China being addressed by the world? The world wants +1 and +2, beyond China. This will happen, with India leading the charge. The third is digital business. All towns and villages will improve further. Many start-ups and companies are using 3G/4G infrastructure. India will also benefit due to globalisation.
US, Europe, Korean suppliers will come to India as there is a huge domestic market. India also has a chance to move the unorganized economy into an organized economy.
Digitisation will be the big factor. If companies do not digitize, they will be left behind! Many will adopt new business models, online and offline. Models need to be changed, be profitable, and digitized. There should be a new performance culture. Speed, execution, decisionmaking process of a company will come into play. There will also be rebranding - inside and outside the company.
Karthik Ganapathi, VP & MD, Honeywell Connected Enterprise, India, said that Honeywell is offering its diverse set of customers from the Oil & Gas, Refining, Petrochemicals, Chemicals, Pharma, Pulp, Paper, Power and Mining & Metals industries, solutions and a suite of other Honeywell Forge offerings to ensure complete visibility of the essential manufacturing processes, work continuity, remote testing and remote delivery of critical services. The solutions also enable remote operations from anywhere, patch/anti-virus updates and system security monitoring.
He said: “Honeywell is using the power of Honeywell Forge to help building operators remotely monitor buildings and offer improved operations and occupant experiences. Honeywell recently launched the Honeywell Forge Energy Optimization - its cloud-based, closed-loop, machine learning solution that continuously studies a building’s energy consumption patterns and automatically adjusts to optimal energy saving settings.”
Every digital product Honeywell brings to the market has strong productivity improvement characteristic. This may be in form of asset productivity, process improvement, or worker productivity. Honeywell Forge drives significant productivity improvements for our customers and brings an end-to-end view on productivity by incorporating AI/ ML to create continuous learning systems and with the capability to provide close-looping of recommendations via mobility solutions.
Transformational Impact of AI/ML
According to Honeywell, the first is the transformational impact on productivity via AI/ML to solve day-to-day operational problems. Industrial companies traditionally used rules-based decision logic in manual and softwaredriven decision making. Rapid advances in AI/ML and compute power are enabling creation of learning models (algorithms that evolve/adapt based on new information) that help operators make better and more accurate decisions.
Ganapathi said: “AI/ML-based analytics solutions enable aggregating data, analysing/modelling the data, and training it to mimic real-world observed behaviours and support meaningful outcomes. For industrial solutions, it starts with a ‘historian’ that aggregates timeseries and event data. This data is fed into the analytics engine, which models the information using proprietary algorithms developed over several years, combining data science and field operator expertise. The insights are
WITH ADVANCEMENT IN AI-DRIVEN TECHNOLOGIES AND ROBOTICS, MORE WORK WILL BE DONE BY SMART MACHINES. VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS WOULD BE THERE TO RESPOND TO USER QUERIES IN REAL TIME AND PERFORM OPERATIONAL ACTIVITIES.RPA WOULD CONTINUE TO AUTOMATE REPETITIVE TASKS, DATA AGGREGATION, ANALYSIS ETC., SO TEAMS CAN SAVE TIME AND MAKE QUICKER, MORE INFORMED BUSINESS DECISIONS.CLOUD-BASED TECHNOLOGIES WILL STREAMLINE WORKFLOW, FACILITATE COLLABORATION AND INCREASE WORK EFFICIENCY. THE ORGANISATIONAL SYSTEMS WILL BE ALIGNED TO THE CLOUD FOR IMPROVED DATA SECURITY