Windows 7 End of Support and Office 365 ProPlus

Extending our recent notice to customers, we are sharing with our wider audiences, Microsoft’s flag that Windows 7 will be out of support after January 14, 2020.

Because Office 365 is governed by the Modern Lifecycle Policy, customers are required to stay current as per the servicing and system requirements for the product or service.    This includes using Office 365 ProPlus on a Windows operating system that is currently in support.

Using Office 365 ProPlus on older, unsupported operating systems may cause performance and reliability issues over time.

Recommended Action

If your organisation is using Office 365 ProPlus on devices running Windows 7, Microsoft strongly recommend your organisation move those devices to Windows 10.

What is the impact?

Even though Windows 7 will no longer be supported after January 2020, Microsoft understand Office 365 customers may need more time in their migration to a supported operating system. Through January 2023, Microsoft will provide security updates for Office 365 ProPlus on Windows 7. But, importantly, during that time, as long as the device is still running Windows 7, Office 365 ProPlus won’t receive any new feature updates.

How can I prepare?

We recommend that organisations migrate to Windows 10 or a supported operating system before the end of support date on January 14, 2020 in order to continue receiving new feature updates to Office 365 ProPlus.

Note:

This information also applies to Office 365 Business which is included in business plans such as M365 Business and Office 365 Business Premium, and to desktop versions of Project and Visio.

For free and confidential initial advice on dealing with this please speak to one of our Sales team on Tel: 02380 429429 to start this conversation.

 

 

Keynote takeaways – Microsoft Future Decoded 2019

Reflecting on the output from Microsoft Future Decoded 2019 in London on 1st October has taken some time, as the talks were truly inspiring and thought provoking, on the future direction of technology and the societal impact that this will cause.   With much talk about the meaningful aggregation and dissemination of data using Azure Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, the message focused on the need to put people at the heart of the change process for AI.

Cindy Rose, CEO Microsoft

CEO of Microsoft, Sataya Nadella’s views were shared by Cindy Rose, Microsoft UK’s CEO, talking about the need for global tech providers to handle users’ data more responsibly to maintain trust going forwards.  In Rose’s speech she reflected on the need for the giants to agree a’ global ethical and empathetic framework and principles around AI design’ following the ‘Techlash’ debacle of 2018 (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google etc.).

Abhjit Akerkar, Head of AI Business Integration

In a later panel session, Abhjit Akerkar (Head of AI Business Integration) emphasised the importance of being hot on business trust and data privacy.  Knowing which stakeholders were accountable would mollify users and reassure regulators that (business) models were compliant.  Akekar also added his voice to the need to get employees involved and onboard with AI.  He said helping the workforce understand the possibilities and opportunities around AI and chatbots was key, as was aligning company culture, structure and ways of working to drive successful adoption of AI (and inform decision makers better about why algorithms made the decisions they did).

Microsoft shared some statistics from an AI study of 1,000 organisation leaders and 4,000 employees.  Companies were seen to be going from experimentation with AI (48%) to exploiting AI to solve big business challenges and create some vital commercial changes that would distinguish them resolutely from those who failed to adopt AI as part of their business model.  It was the 8% who were scaling successfully who were seeing the biggest impact change).  The UK survey, “Accelerating Competitive Advantage with AI” found that 56% of UK companies were using AI today and 11.5% of them would outperform their competitors because of this.  This was being achieved through better data science and insights, speed of platform, efficiency outputs, time savings and creating a richer customer experience.

 Darren Atkins, CTO, NHS East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust

An example quoted was NHS East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) who put nursing staff at the centre of an Azure AI development project with software developer Thoughtonomy, to create a robotic process automation workflow.   This proved hugely successful a) because the nurses were central to the process from the start so were culturally onboard through collaboration and keen adopters to use the automation workflows and b) the hospital saved 4,500 hours in admin tasks in 12 months that enabled nurses to be re-directed to patient care.

A PwC repot estimates that AI will contribute up to $15 trillion dollars to the global economy by 2030.  For the UK things look promising:

• 36% UK business leaders believe that AI is a skill that will help secure the future of the UK.
• The UK is in the top three countries worldwide for developing AI technology.
• The UK is also in third position for raising AI investment, and second for the number of AI companies based in the UK.

This creates a strong picture of optimism for business and the tech industry as whole.  However, the journey to AI remains challenging.  Only 26% of businesses surveyed said they were ready for transformation.  So many organisations are clearly still struggling to get to full cloud enablement before being in a position to accelerate their desired tech strategy on innovation and true transformation of business opportunities and competitive advantage. Interestingly, there seems to be a huge communication void around this technology between Board and workforce.  In those organisations surveyed who were intending to adopt AI, 96% of their employees had not had any discussion with their bosses about the introduction of AI, and conversely 83% of bosses had not been asked by their employees about introducing AI.  So clearly company vision is not being shared to enable a meaningful conversation to begin.

The power of communication in developing AI

Microsoft emphasised a gear shift in business development execution, asking for leaders to discuss AI more widely and ensure that AI plans were accessible to all, so that AI was democratised and offered inclusivity, as the best outcomes came from ethical integration.

Kate Rosenshine (Head of Azure Solutions Architecture)

Microsoft’s Kate Rosenshine (Head of Azure Solutions Architecture) talked of the need to foster true co-creation involving many voices, not just the technical, but those with social and business skills to create the business outcome and ‘common language’ required to enable the scaling out of AI.  AI, Rosenshine said required “the application of business, psychology and technology through a diverse set of skills and mindsets”.   Given the way most organisations function in their traditional management style, sharing such a project plan methodology would likely be a considerable challenge, but then the rewards would be greatest, and re-invent that business for the twenty-first century.

NHS East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust’s CTO, Darren Atkins in the keynote panel discussion, noted that there appears to be a common fear around the introduction of AI technology.  His recommendation for other organisations looking at transformation projects was succinct:  firstly understand what you want to do with technology, then create a roadmap for the next 12-18 months, then before investing in a solution, ensure you are working with a partner who can support your strategy.

For many organisations, technology solutions often form complex journeys of several parts, involving multiple players.  But trust, openness and inclusivity, in parallel with a strong security and compliance ethic, will offer the best language for good AI design and adoption.  So find your right partner to walk alongside your organisation and take you into this new world offered by AI.

Amicus ITS as a trusted IT Managed Service Provider welcomes all discussions on technology topics.  Call our Sales team today on 02380 429429 for a confidential chat.

 

ICO reports security failures across all sectors as fines continue to ramp up in 2019

Since May 2018 when GDPR kicked, the ICO has been progressively investigating data breaches identified to them and no-one has been spared in their enforcements.  From local Government officials illegally accessing personal data, to public bodies (including HMRC for data harvesting), to the Metropolitan Police (responding to Subject Access Requests), the NHS (for illegally accessing medical records), to regulated industries and small businesses carrying out unsolicited communications by email or telephone (affecting up to 4.5 million unsuspecting contacts).  Even in one extraordinary case, a Council employee shared unredacted data about alleged gang members profiled on a police intelligence ‘Gang Matrix’ database to other Council staff and external organisations. This ended up on social media and was then used by the gang members themselves.  Unbelievable, but sadly true.

Amicus ITS Director of Technology, Security & Governance, JP Norman commented:  “The ICO are striking a balance between the severity of a breach individually, the volume of data affected and the harm and distress caused by the breach of security and lack of protocol.   We can see from the  enforcement notices published across 2018-19, the huge variety of cases that the ICO have dealt with in the last 18 months and ultimately this illustrates data responsibility is in the hands of every individual, with fallout picked up by the organisation/company directors”.

Big headliner fines this Summer featured the £183.4m fine published to British Airways following the 2018 cyber incident where users logging in to BA’s website were diverted to a fraudulent site where their personal details, payment information and travel plans were harvested.  This represented 1.5% out of a total possible fine of 4% of global turnover.  Plus, the £99.2m fine to Marriott International hotels group for a data breach whereby 339 million guest records globally were exposed over several years following a merger and lack of due diligence and security measures being adopted.  Both organisations are seeking to defend their position. Other big names included: Equifax (£500,000), Uber (£385,000), and Yahoo! (£250,000) for cyber security failures.

Against this backdrop, the ICO Annual Report for March 2018-19 published in July 2019 recognised that 82% of personal data breaches investigated had been closed with no further action, as corrective measures to avoid a repeat had been taken or were being acted upon, which we should take as positive news as organisations learn to manage their data more responsibly.

JP Norman adds:  “All organisations face the same responsibilities around data management and data security.  At the heart of good practice is education and staff training. This can identify what is appropriate when sharing data and that if approved, it is done lawfully and safely.   Organisations, institutions and businesses of any size must have a Data Protection Officer (DPO), who may also be the Data Controller if appropriate. These representatives need ready access to policies and guidance around data security and measures to be taken in the event of any breach, which can be evidenced and practised as part of a smart Business Continuity Plan.  This can be intimidating for businesses of even medium size to get to grips with and act confidently so we often see the DPO function outsourced”.

Amicus ITS recognises the challenges organisations face and earlier this year published our new Virtual Data Protection Officer service on G-Cloud 11 for public sector customers.  Notably, this service is equally available to SMEs.  Any organisation that is unsure if it has the right security policies and security measures in place can contact Amicus ITS in confidence.  If the service is taken up, this security consultancy could not only save you £000s but also help protect against reputational damage which can be priceless.  Call our Sales team today for a free initial discussion on +44 2380 429429.

Amicus ITS’ privacy policy can be found here

Amicus ITS renews its CCS supplier status on G-Cloud 11

Amicus ITS has recently renewed its status as an Official Crown Commercial Supplier for the UK Government on the G-Cloud cloud services framework. This framework is designed for a public sector audience with a procurement process run by the CCS.

Started in 2012, G-Cloud came in response to a firm commitment to government departments and public sector bodies (including the NHS) to go digital and transform the relationship between citizen and state.  G-Cloud provides a centralised, pre-compliant and assured portal for cloud services procurement for organisations across England and Wales.  Getting onto the framework offers transparency for the buyer who can window shop all the suppliers for the best fitting services and solutions.  It also showcases Amicus ITS as a trusted SME partner to Government departments and public bodies and with the aim of hopefully saving the citizen taxpayer money in the long run through the use of this network.  G-Cloud 11 went live on 2nd July 2019.

The G-Cloud 11 framework was project managed by Marketing Manager, Lindsay Burden who commented:  “G-Cloud 11 has come about only 12 months since the release of G-Cloud 10 in July 2018.  The main change has been the addition of clauses around GDPR and cyber security, which with our ISO20000 and IS27001 accreditations proved straightforward.  As an SME supplier we had around six weeks to identify the relevant services for this market, cross check any updates on how we are delivering them and ensure our drafting exactly met requirements prior to upload of 12 unique cloud support and cloud hosting services before the 15th May deadline”.

Sales Director Les Keen added:  “The majority of our G-11 offerings in 2019 remain inhouse services which we are very proud about, but as an IT Managed Service Provider logically we cannot do everything ourselves, so where needed we will work closely with approved specialist partners from our technology partner ecosystem to ensure we continue to deliver the most relevant portfolio to meet buyer demand.  There is always an anxious wait during the standstill period as we hold our breaths to find out the results.  Happily for Amicus ITS it was 100% good news across the board for all submissions”.

Amicus ITS’ cloud services I 2019 include:

Cloud Support Services

• Service Desk as a Service
• Network Operations Centre – NOC
• Managed SQL Services
• Managed SQL Services for NHS
• Cloud Readiness Assessment Consultancy
• Public Sector Modern Workplace – Microsoft 365 (Microsoft)
• Cloud migration to Azure
• Security Operations Centre – SOC Design
• Virtual CISO
• Password Compliance & Authentication Service (Authlogics)
• Data Classification Information Security & Compliance (Netwrix)

Cloud Hosting Services

• Disaster Recovery as a Service – DraaS (with UKCloud)

Full details of all Amicus ITS G-Cloud 11 services can be found here

To discuss any services or solutions offered through G-Cloud, please call the Sales team on +44 2380 429429 

 

Microsoft rapid response to Windows patching after security scare

Users and organisations using out of support Windows Operating systems Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 2008 are being urged by Microsoft to undertake urgent patching measures, following Microsoft’s discovery of a critical remote code execution vulnerability.

The severity of its potential impact worldwide has prompted Microsoft to step in to release patches for the out of support Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.  Windows XP users will need to download the patch (Remote Code Execution CVE-2019-0708) from the Microsoft Update Catalogue.

Microsoft spokesman and Director of Incident Response, Simon Pope, speaking from their Security Response Centre advised that this exploit vulnerability was ‘wormable’.  This means that the user doesn’t have to ‘do’ anything themselves to cause the damage.  Any malware created by hackers in response to this vulnerability that links to this Microsoft code, would cause a ripple effect by cross-infecting computers through Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). RDP would facilitate the hacker’s ability to send requests enabling arbitrary code to be run, to view, change or delete data, or create new accounts with full user rights. This was the experience in 2017 when the Wannacry attack went global.

With millions of users still using Windows 7 machines, Microsoft are not taking any chances and are taking the same holistic steps as in 2017 to seek to protect users whether using supported or unsupported systems.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be a killswitch for someone to discover in this vulnerability unlike with Wannacry, but prudent and expeditious action taken promptly by organisations and their inhouse IT teams, (or through the direct intervention of IT MSPs like Amicus ITS), can take the mitigation steps to limit impact.  Amicus ITS have already taken immediate steps to instigate the patching for all our customers. In addition, the RDP vulnerability can be mitigated by good access control and firewall management our Network Team are undertaking.

I would advise vulnerable organisations to update to the latest operating system (currently Windows 10), but check the following paths as part of risk mitigation consideration:

1. Upgrade to the latest or near latest operating systems – full mitigation
2. Consider migrating to the 365 / Azure platforms – server mitigation
3. Take up an advanced patching service via Amicus ITS – server and device patch assurance

Any organisations seeking advice or support can contact our Sales team in the first instance by calling +44 (0)2380 429429 or by emailing enquiries@amicusits.co.uk quoting ‘Microsoft Code Exploit 2019’

JP Norman is the Director of Technology, Security and Governance at Amicus ITS

Forrester Predictions 2019 – Amicus ITS Digests: Session#5 – Employee Experience

(L-R) Carrie Johnson, Sharyn Leaver and Sam Stern

Forrester’s Chief Research Officer Carrie Johnson asked Principal Analysts Sam Stern and Sharyn Leaver about employee experience and looked at the psychology behind work and the introduction of workplace automation.

In defining ‘employee experience’, Sam Stern said this was the “sum of their perceptions of their experiences working within an organisation, informed by how they feel about their employer and their working life for that company”.

Carrie Johnson reflected that Forrester’s predictions around large scale digital transformation for big organisations were that it would be very challenging (to avoid a workforce feeling excluded and devalued) as it involved a range of issues that had to be managed well to avoid failure, including culture.

Sam Stern commented that this would give companies a chance to look around their different departments to try to get some of the smaller things right. This included:

• Helping managers become better coaches
• Remove unneeded process or any broken rules that no longer apply
• Help employees be more productive in their daily work

Stern continued that with many companies currently experiencing generally low unemployment, employees had more options and might question whether their employers were doing enough with just smaller efforts. 2019 could mark an exodus of staff, unless the company was demonstrable in showing it cared and that staying was right for them and their future?

Sharyn Lever commented that whilst the road to transformation had to have regard for the legacy stack involved, forgetting the employee experience as part of this journey could form the biggest single cause of failure, as fundamental change was very hard for staff to accept.

Carrie Johnson observed that one fix or ‘band aid predicted for 2019’ was updating infrastructures from legacy technology. This created a natural path for the introduction of ‘Robotic Process Automation’ (RPA) to make processes more efficient.  How did that investment conflict with the investment into the employee experience to make people feel good about the work they are doing?

For Sharyn Lever, RPA was a very pragmatic investment as it was so specific, but she acknowledged it could have ‘unintended’ consequences in sending the wrong message to staff if they read into the transformation incorrectly without context and constructive guidance.

Sam Stern commented that it was imperative for companies to be explicit in messaging what RPA was not about in the workplace, otherwise people would make up their own minds – probably incorrectly.   Explaining to staff which areas of business would benefit most from the introduction of RPA would be more constructively received, if the plans were shared with employees in advance to get them on board (and offer a discussion).  “RPA is designed to take away from the human as many of the non-human tasks as possible as we ask them to do and automate them” ie. those which are boring or repetitive (as humans don’t tend to do this well as we lose interest when we’re not focused and quality drops).    Stern agreed it had to start with intentionality, not as a by-product of change, to ensure motivation and focus remained.  With the right messaging, staff have a chance to embrace change, not just be onside – and employee experience would be enhanced with recognition of their value and personal contribution.

Chief Research Officer Carrie Johnson was concerned that should we experience a downward economic trend in 2019 and investment went the route of RPA, that there could be a loss of trust for employees, as people’s instincts would naturally be to imagine their job was at risk if the focus went on technology, not the people.

Sharyn Lever commented that businesses needed to make time to re-think their core values to properly understand their identity.  Sam Stern added that if values and purpose were weighed against each other, a company had to be very clear about its values – and keep them in line of sight when making decisions. Doing this would ultimately lead to better business decisions, rather than selecting when to apply values.

In summary, both recommended steps to support navigating this tricky path included:

•  For management to keep staff focused and to manage any distractions
•  To allow employees time to get important work done either directly or in their teams.

◊  Statistically, the better employee response and higher productivity comes from employees feeling they are able to make progress on their most important work (and have distractions managed with minimum interruption of meetings/online tools interference.

• If employees can be supported to focus on the company’s core mission, this will align with the organisation’s wider strategies and lift productivity further.
• Finally, if the individual feels they are making personal progress this will be valuable in helping with staff retention and reduce the costliness and lost time of staff replacement.

Vikki Fox, HR & Client Relationship Manager

Vikki Fox, Amicus ITS HR & Customer Relationship Manager is unequivocal on the matter, “Amicus ITS is a 24×365 B2B IT Managed Service organisation and our staff are at the centre of solution delivery and customer satisfaction every day.  You have to start by focusing on your employee and think of them as a person not a commodity.  Their employee experience is pivotal to good retention, personal satisfaction and productivity”. 

“If you can lead staff with integrity, review any processes to remove those that are obsolete, whilst providing the support and training your staff need to grow personally – they will add value for you and you will have gained their trust through your performance”. 

“So when transformation and change inevitably comes (which it will with technology), you are far better prepared to talk things through and nurture their confidence by identifying the solution’s value and the employee’s fit – either as a consumer, or the expert guide for the customer”.

“Company vision can often seem distanced where it is not understood at floor level and recognised by all whatever the role.  Ensuring that everyone can identify with your organisation’s core values puts you on that path to a shared vision and sense of pride by association”.

“HR have a big responsibility for employee experience throughout the employee lifecycle, we are selling the opportunity, business, culture and environment from the interview and this experience must continue throughout the individual’s employment. My aim is to lead with integrity and ensure that as a team we understand and work within our company values”.

 

Forrester Predictions 2019 – Amicus ITS Digests: Session#4 AI and Automation

(L-R) Forrester CMO Victor Milligan with Principal Analysts Michele Goetz and
JP Gownder

In the fourth of our sequence of digests on Forrester’s 2019 findings and forecasts looking ahead in 2019, Principal Analysts Michele Goetz and JP Gownder were in the hot seat for the AI and automation session with #Forrester CMO Chair, Victor Milligan.

Asked about the current status of AI and Automation, Michele Goetz observed that AI was becoming more interesting to companies.  Activity remains principally on pilots and Proof of Concepts, with the main focus on what analytics can offer.   But it was the automation aspects that were identified as having the most traction because of the opportunity for business benefit outcomes.

JP Gownder added that business values were starting to be seen in ‘Robotic Process Automation’ (RPA), whereby repetitive tasks get automated, freeing up people to spend time on more strategic tasks.  Through automation he said, businesses can identify the seeds of opportunity in AI with connections starting to be made and APIs connected and the starting steps of value to the change in process.

Victor Milligan asked how businesses were addressing the issue of (high) risk and (high) reward with AI (where machines replace people) but what were the ‘consequences’.

To evaluate this, Michele Goetz recommended that if an organisation broke down its ‘business processes’ and ‘automated processes’, you could get a ‘horizon view’ of business activities, business behaviours and customer behaviours.   Then, through Machine Learning providing pattern analysis, organisations would be able to spot the ‘digital twin’ in order to make simulations that could support strategic decisions about a company’s AI road map.  This would enable organisations to:

• Determine where they wanted to go
• Redesign their processes
• Create new products as required
• Create new experiences and engagement with customers

By committing to AI, organisations would be positioned to change the way they operate, to better manage the day-to-day and oversee outputs.  Then if things went awry, managers could act quickly and de-risk any aspects, whilst still looking ahead at new opportunities by virtue of having deep operational knowledge and how customers engage, plus a holistic view of the business.

Victor Milligan wanted to know what AI could improve in business today, against what it will create for a business net new?  Michelle Goetz felt there was great opportunity for the new opportunities arising from AI.  However, most organisations are still getting to grips with the basics.  To get to this next stage, organisations would need to review some key aspects and remove old and inefficient processes. This approach includes:

• How we look at data
• Changes in how we approach and utilise analytics and algorithms
• How we see and understand our businesses

In looking at the changes on how employees work (or not) JP Gownder advised that with RPA, for legacy systems that are disconnected – automation can be a game changer. In retail shops (eg. Wallmart), robotic scanners were now deployed to look for product/shelving or price errors, so clear example in retail where robotics were driving value and adding efficiencies. Elsewhere physical robots are starting to be seen in factories working alongside humans.

Victor Milligan questioned what pragmatic aspects people should think about doing or avoiding.  Goetz reflected that people should think big and re-imagine their approach to business, production and what the experience looks like through a customer’s eyes – and stop testing algorithms.

JP Gownder believed that there were opportunities at both ends of the business spectrum, not just driving costs down.  He advocated that part of the solution lies in cleaning up shared IT operations to use automation – and secondly to make new money solving customer problems.

The traditional role of operations and the new role of digital were not consistently hand-in-hand today, but Gownder said would need to blend together to create commercial success.  Using automation technology could bring about greater clarity through rationalisation, but also be a means to drive profit ultimately for businesses.

Amicus ITS Sales Director, Les Keen

Amicus ITS Sales Director Les Keen commented:  “The evolution of cloud technology with AI and automation is putting B2B and B2C organisations at a crossroads, both developmentally in tech terms as well as the commercial opportunities on the horizon in the longer term”.

“Whatever the industry, the key to realising the benefits of AI and automation will be for organisations to review their business processes against existing infrastructure to understand their direct needs and priorities. Modernisation is key throughout, however looking at the processes that should be targeted to create the greatest improvements and efficiencies is a starting point”.  

“I would agree with Michele Goetz that introduction of AI has to start with a clear business plan to direct the vision, strategy and drivers required (technical or human resource).   Re-imagining an organisation would be a highly invigorating exercise for all companies as it would free you up from thinking about how you have done things before.   AI and automation are still largely in their infancy, but will mark a leap in the way a lot of organisations can and will operate and interact with people in the future”.

“Having a sensitivity and regard for humans in the workplace must be a focus to ensure the humans do the intelligent and creative work to distinguish from the repetitive and mundane. Mapping this journey successfully is also greatly about the messaging within an organisation to ensure everyone understands what the advantages will bring for them, as much as any business benefit”.

“For the public sector in the UK, despite a Cloud First Government directive, budgets are increasingly under pressure to maintain legacy IT estates, so ‘re-imagining’ could remain just a dream for many. However, in the short term it may well be that the greatest initial changes we see are in the clinical environment, rather than with core business IT”.

What are your thoughts on AI in the workplace? Do you consider it a threat or an advance that’s overdue? Leave your comment here

 

 

Forrester Predictions 2019 – Amicus ITS Digests: Session#3 – Digital Transformation

In the third of our sequence of digests on Forrester’s findings and forecasts for 2019, we look at digital transformation and how it will be different this year to last for many companies with Allen Bonde, VP Research Director at  #Forrester.

Allan Bonde’s first observation was that 2018 had shown that many firms’ experience of attempting large scale ‘big bang’ transformation had been problematic with a number failing in their endeavours.

This, Bonde felt, was frequently because people’s focus needed to shift from transformation efforts to innovation efforts to improve everyday processes. He illustrated this quoting the anecdote of a Chief Digital Officer who’d hidden his digital road map away and instead was looking to go out into the field to talk to others business leaders and gather grass route support for change strategy, taking small incremental steps towards improvement to make his transformation achievable.

Allen Bonde felt that in 2019 transformation focus would be on pragmatic efforts, creating efficiencies and taking big transformation and making it small.   Operational improvements would become higher priorities as companies ‘tuned up their digital experience stock’.

To execute this, Bonde said we needed to build up our cultural reinforcements as we accepted constant change. This meant re-evaluating strategy to put the right people in the right roles.   This would mean shifting customers to:

• Lower cost digital channels
• Launching digital products
• Turning data assets into new products
• Driving automation in everyday tasks faced employees and customers

Allen Bonde acknowledged this would be uncomfortable for a lot of people, currently modelling their business case on a B2C basis.  Instead though, Bonde felt that the B2B route would be the main profit driver, as digital leaders should look at the macro economic picture and decide upon their investments based on which tools would result in ‘payback’.

Forrester anticipate 25% of organisations will decelerate their digital spend either through an assumption they had done enough, or that they were worried about the economy – and will end up losing market share.

The winners would be the 15% of top companies who are customer-obsessed, who will look to invest more, build the right processes and modern architecture to be ‘fit’ and back this up with the right product managers and digital leaders to roll out the next phase of ‘pragmatic transformation’ using the right processes to achieve this.

Ben Davis, Snr Account Manager

Senior Account Manager for Amicus ITS, Ben Davis added:  “These observations by #Forrester echo with Amicus ITS’ thinking.  In the last two and half years we have been supporting our customer base in their journeys to digital transformation.  Our Consultancy efforts primarily focus on understanding our customers, their business outcomes, priorities, IT environment, challenges and budgetary constraints.  For the public sector, our customers are also challenged by other wider mandates including UK Gov’s Cloud First strategy.   For the health sector, the desire to achieve the digital transformation, create improvements and efficiencies is there in full.   However, there are so many legacy applications and keeping the lights on is as great a struggle as any desire to fulfil ‘transformation’”. 

“In the NHS, they are operating in a highly politically charged environment where targets and patient service must come first.  For instance, we see a resistance in Office 365 adoption because of the high ongoing revenue costs.  What this sometimes fails to take into account, is that in subsequent years, NHS organisations would stand to make significant productivity gains and efficiencies, making the operating costs far lower.  Those productivity gains and efficiencies are sometimes intangible.  For instance, a business may struggle to pin a value on the implementation of Microsoft Teams for collaboration, or say, Microsoft Forms (a powerful and easy tool for customer service questionnaires and surveys)”.

“Healthcare organisations are simultaneously looking to implement clinical advances which utilise the best of modern technology, but unless they are freed to be able to take the steps towards digital transformation, they will ultimately always face an uphill struggle.  Minister of Health, Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP said in September 2018 that he wanted to accelerate a vision of a greater technology-driven NHS.   This necessarily has to be more than a five year political plan which ensures it is not just full integration of technology across primary and secondary healthcare, but the binding in of health and social care with wider agencies to provide a full patient-centric service and efficient NHS”. 

“The road to digital transformation is not a rapid journey for any organisation.  The business change has to be carefully thought through and engaged with by all stakeholders to have a chance of success”.

If you are interested in discussing your digital transformation plans or any challenges you are facing in confidence, please contact our Sales team on +44 2380 429429.

Forrester Predictions 2019 – Amicus ITS Digests: Session#2 Customer Experience

Customer Experience or ‘CX’ is the interaction between the organisation and the customer over the duration of their relationship. It is made up of three parts:

• The customer’s journey
• The brand touchpoints the customer engages with and
• The environments the customer experiences (including the digital environment) during their experience

A good customer experience means that the individual’s experience throughout all touchpoints matches their expectations.

In this Forrester session chaired by CMO Victor Milligan with VP Principal Analyst James L McQuivey (middle of picture) and VP Research Director Harley Manning (right of picture), they talk about creating the best experience for customers in 2019 to get ahead of the competition.

James L McQuivey (seen above) talked about how consumers are changing their behaviours and consumption patterns towards brands as well as how they choose to interact – so it’s hard for companies to keep up.  However, he added, to differentiate ourselves in the market, we perhaps need to rethink our approach?  Instead of dreading more changed consumer habits that we have to keep up with, that organisations (like Amicus ITS as a service provider), could view a customer’s changing behaviours as a fresh opportunity for conversation and to explore how we could help differently and deliver things better?   This was set against a backdrop of consumers having massively increased their power through use of digital tools today and they demand more now – but they are also showing a willingness to be open to new experiences and new relationships with product and service providers.

Perhaps reassuringly, Harley Manning (pictured above) pointed out that the majority of companies are stagnating and have not been successful in creating change.  He observed that a good company will recognise that customer experience is important and something they have to do to be competitive.  But a great, ‘leading’ company will take advantage to expand opportunities because they’ve already taken time to try different forms of engagement and have the ‘permission’ to go further in 2019 using yet more channels.

Asked by Victor Milligan if this marked a strategic opportunity for companies, Harley Manning agreed, adding that for Boards, there was a ‘hygiene factor’ to note, as product and service companies could not afford to do poorly because this created a ‘reason’ for the customer to leave.  James L McQuivey added that therefore the invitation to seek to try something anew at that point was lost.   Harley Manning commented that the game changer for businesses would be those companies which recognised they may not have the best product, but could offer the best ‘experience’, as being the ones most likely to succeed going forwards.

James L McQuivey added that consumers have access to more digital tools today, but choosing between opportunities (read companies), required an ‘emotional connection’ to elevate the product/service. Harley Manning believed that the companies who were already delivering a substantially good customer experience, may not actually be racing to be the best, but remain happy with a holding position. Looking beyond to 2020, the panel believed that price wars were definitely not the answer, merely a race to the bottom, with those that failed to innovate not being able to catch up.

(Amicus ITS Sales Director, Les Keen)

For Amicus ITS, in our B2B market as an IT Managed Service Provider, the key takeaway is that successful customer experience is not a given in any industry, it comes through hard work, regular engagement at all levels by our teams with our customers to gain the right and  relevant insights from our customers that we can use internally to help us try do better each day.

Not everything works perfectly first time, but what I say to my team and our wider company is that success is a journey.  You have to keep working at it and refining the detail – and this is especially true of the digital age.   Finding the right digital tools to match not only our organisation’s needs but also the tools that we think will delight our customers, has been a journey Amicus ITS has been undertaking through 2018 with our Ami baby chat bot – and the choices we make to take us to the next stage in 2019 could be moderate or substantial game changers for the business in the longer term.  So whether through data insights, AI chatbots or  machine learning, we are with Forrester in that 2019 is the perfect time to revitalize, re-energise and lead the way with a vision for freshness and vitality.

We’d welcome your thoughts too if you would like to add a comment.

 

 

Forrester Predictions 2019 – Amicus ITS Digests: Session#1 the CIO and CMO

Last Wednesday saw the gathering of some of the brightest executive brains at Forrester, sharing their technology predictions for 2019 plus offering wary cautions against us taking the foot off the brake on the road to transformation.  In a sequence of fast-paced topical sessions targeted at both businesses and customers, Amicus ITS will be sharing these high level digests with you in mini break-out blogs this week.

Our Forrester co-chairs for 2019 were Carrie Johnson, Chief Research Officer and Victor Milligan, Chief Marketing Officer.  They started off by taking a look back at the last two years of business globally and summarised that some of the goals of businesses in the last two years technologically had been very bold but not always successful.  Forrester’s view for 2019 was that 2019 is the year that ‘transformation goes pragmatic’.

CIO and CMO
In the first session with VP Research Directors Matthew Guarani and Keith Johnston, the Forrester duo looked at how transformation could be ‘translated’ in practical terms to yield the best results from these two perspectives.

Matthew Guarini (middle of picture) commented that whilst transformation presented a great opportunity for business, many organisations are still not prepared to take full advantage of it.  He suggested that focusing on the essential elements in 2019 was primary – and choosing the right time to do innovation was key.

The challenge facing the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) according to Keith Johnston  (seen on right of picture) was that technology had been massively commoditised in the last two years without much differentiation as digital media matures and finds its place . For him, finding a balance was key to making decisions (ie not technology for technologies sake).  With the customer experience largely flattened in 2018 (across the big brands), Johnston felt companies needed to go back to basics to ‘foundation build’ on their core values and brand in 2019 to deliver improvements after the big ‘growth and go’ directive in 2018.

Chair and Chief Research Officer Carrie Johnson asked about the risk of disenfranchisement from fellow Board exec members if the recommendation appeared to be asking companies to look backwards instead of consolidating on the big changes in the last 12-18 months?

Matthew Guarini agreed it carried a risk but pointed out the need for balance to be struck, employing the right focus and reasoning – and yes, with push back if needed.  This, he said should be accompanied by a parallel action plan (ie. so as not to have all eggs in one basket).   It needed correct development and focus to create momentum and give the marketing the best chance.    Keith Johnston added that any transformation takes time and metrics are often used in increasingly tight periods to evaluate hard results. This makes it hard for the CIO to get everything moving at speed to fulfill the demand.

Matthew Guarini added that the Operations side remained fundamental to achieving all these goals.  However, it was the change leaders and true business partners who could make the real difference – and this would be channelled by the Head of Sales.   The CMO role was ideally positioned to use the right technologies to drive the commercial directives where incremental value had been identified.  Using Marketing’s abilities of communication this should deliver the collaboration at C-Level in 2019 to ensure messaging was fully shared and taken on board throughout the organisation – which reflected what the customer needed.

Both felt that the technology disrupters would continue apace globally, challenging business assumptions and business models.  This was a good thing though and we should not be distrustful, as these creative business thinkers would continue to bring new technology, talent and ideas to the marketplace.

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Whilst much of this is targeted at the big brands, retailers and B2C markets, from our B2B perspective these are still resonant takeaways.  It binds together good forward thinking and the need for pragmatism and planning.

For Amicus ITS, 2019 is about continuing to drive our business forwards, keeping our eyes on the horizon seeking out new technologies that we believe could create transformative opportunities for our customer base.

The difference between an MSP doing this versus a reseller is that we have the whole customer’s IT estate in front of us.   This makes us their trusted partner and safe pair of hands to offer guidance and deliver the right transformation programme that offers least risks on their journey.