Cloud integrated networks (5G+) have the potential to be a game changer for the global economy, and society more broadly. Through the combined impact of 5G, cloud and AI, billions of sensors, devices and people can connect and communicate with each other in new ways, helping to speed up the flow of information and knowledge creation across the world. However, as significant as this is, the introduction of 6G in 2030 will truly change the way we live, work and interact. It will herald a new era of “pervasive intelligence”, where cyber-physical, and cyber-life or human systems are blended and in which unprecedented volumes of data will be generated, shared, accessed and acted upon between individual enterprises, sectors and geographies.

The impact that this new era will have cannot be understated. It will power economies, drive sector convergence, enable the distributed infrastructure behind Web 3.0 and scale and interconnect metaverses. Put simply, it will transform all aspects of life. But getting there isn’t straightforward, and we need to act now to lay the foundations that are necessary if we are to harness its power. This on its own is not the most straightforward undertaking, as is evidenced by the issues with the 5G+ rollout and adoption. The right infrastructure and business models were not in place, which led to delays and innovative potential left on the table. Let’s learn from past mistakes, course correct and ensure we’re ready for the future of pervasive intelligence.

Adopt an “ecosystem mindset”

Transformation into the pervasive intelligence era will first require the establishment of a high performance, integrated ecosystem made up of a range of partners from different industries and sectors. This is critical as pervasive intelligence will only be reached in an environment where data and information can move freely and securely. This, however, cannot happen if companies operate in silos or in isolation.

In order to achieve this, leaders must adopt an “ecosystem mindset” and start building future-proofed tech architectures with different partners that will form the backbone of the ecosystem. At the same time, they need to create the right business models and use cases to demonstrate the value of the ecosystem approach, as this will help to get all stakeholders, both internal and external, on board from the start.

The importance of cybersecurity, regulation and standards

Ensuring robust cybersecurity measures are in place will be critical to fully realising the concept of pervasive intelligence. After all, to exist in a world that has data at its core is to put your trust in the fact that it will be held securely. To ensure that it is, leaders need to introduce new, high-performance, ultra-secure cloud integrated networks. There may be reluctance to do so; it is, after all, a big undertaking to introduce new safety systems and protocols, so many may be tempted to stick with their existing processes. But doing so is a mistake – current systems are not agile, scalable limiting productivity growth and will soon be outdated and may put the ecosystem at risk. Leaders need to step out of their comfort zone to future-proof their businesses now.

Regulation will also need to evolve quickly. A network of networks will completely challenge the norms governing everything from privacy and antitrust, to tax and trade protection. New rules will be required to ensure that common standards are clearly recognised and understood, as well as met. This will be in stark contrast to the fragmented landscape that currently governs industrial operations technology environments, which has ultimately held back the roll out of emerging technologies.  

Putting employees at the centre of everything

The introduction of any new and highly disruptive technology can strike fear into employees, who may see it as a threat to their jobs and way of living. When this happens, transformation slows or even halts. So, to achieve the promise of pervasive intelligence that we aspire to, leaders need to support their colleagues and offer reassurance, demonstrating how, rather than posing a threat, future tech will in fact empower them. The impact that this approach can have is significant; recent research from EY and the University of Oxford Said Business School found that prioritising employee emotions increased the chance of a successful transformation by more than 70 per cent. It’s therefore clear that even as technology creates new and seemingly endless possibilities, people must always remain at the centre.  

Articulating a clear, bold vision of the future

Preparing for pervasive intelligence will require leaders to develop and articulate a clear, bold vision that all stakeholders can get behind. This is a complex undertaking, as it will involve collaboration with multiple partners across different sectors and industries. But it will be essential, both in clarifying the direction the business is heading and inspiring people to work towards it.

The concept of pervasive intelligence may seem like science fiction, but it’s not. It’s a reality, and it will be here soon. Businesses need to prepare now to capitalise on all the opportunities it creates.

Fuad Siddiqui is global 5G industry and emerging tech leader at EY.

Related:

Tech leader profile: business use cases for 6G — Alan Jones of Blu Wireless explains how cellular networks have evolved, and why 6G will be crucial for the metaverse.

How WiFi 7 will transform business — Exploring the benefits that the rollout of WiFi 7 is set to bring to businesses.

The post Ushering in an era of pervasive intelligence, powered by 6G appeared first on Information Age.

Government uses Elon Musk’s low-orbit Starlink satellite system to make high-speed broadband available in remote countryside

The Government has begun trialling Elon Musk’s low-orbit satellite system Starlink to deliver high-speed broadband to remote rural areas.

Enabling superfast broadband will boost growth, says the culture department, enabling anybody to start-up and run a business of any size from anywhere in the UK – from the Highlands to the Norfolk Broads and the Welsh Valleys to the Lake District.

A mountain rescue base in Snowdonia National Park, North Wales and a 12-century abbey in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park are among the first test sites.

Starlink was chosen mainly for its availability and low cost, the Government said, although it added that it had not closed the door on using other suppliers and distributors, including British satellite broadband pioneer OneWeb, in future satellite trials.

Less than one per cent of sites in Great Britain, such as mountainous areas or small islands, are too difficult to upgrade via physical cables.

The Government’s goal is to deliver gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure to 99 per cent of premises by 2030.

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are positioned around 550-1,000km above the Earth’s surface and, in contrast to larger geostationary satellites, travel along their own orbit.

The fact they are closer to Earth than previous generations of satellites makes more applications possible, including video calls and real-time collaboration, while also making activities like web browsing much smoother. The limited ground infrastructure required means they can provide additional resilience to critical networks in remote, often dangerous, environments.

LEO satellites can deliver speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, well above the speeds capable via copper cables commonly used in hard-to-reach areas today.

Digital secretary Michelle Donelan said: “High-speed broadband beamed to earth from space could be the answer to the connectivity issues suffered by people in premises stuck in the digital slow lane.

“Ensuring everyone can get a quality internet connection is crucial to our levelling up plans and these trials aim to find a solution to the prohibitively high cost of rolling out cables to far-flung locations.”

Project Gigabit

Meanwhile, the Government has signed a £108m contract with Northern Ireland-based provider Fibrus to connect up to 60,000 rural homes and business in Cumbria, as part of its £5bn Project Gigabit programme to reach the final 20 per cent of the UK without access to ultrafast broadband.

Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme

Meanwhile, the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to help businesses get help with costs of installing gigabit-capable connection in hard-to-reach areas is to be tripled in value to £4,500.

Business that are eligible for gigabit vouchers can access the scheme through a registered supplier. In turn, suppliers can put together a proposal to supply gigabit broadband in remote areas where there is demand, and apply for vouchers on their behalf.

Overall, more than 111,000 vouchers have been issued through the Government’s voucher schemes, and to date, more than 77,000 of these vouchers have been used to connect businesses to gigabit-capable broadband.

More on high-speed broadband

Brexit hampering rollout of superfast broadband, says BT – CEO of BT’s Openreach blames ‘tortuous’ Home Office process preventing skilled engineers coming over from Portugal and Spain to help government meet its target of all businesses having superfast broadband by 2025

Broadband delivered via water pipes being trialled in South Yorkshire – The UK Government is trialling deployment of full fibre broadband via water pipes located in South Yorkshire

One in six UK households can’t afford broadband — 16% of UK households have struggled to pay their broadband bills between March 2020 and January 2021, while over a quarter (28%) of participants on means-tested benefits said they have found paying such bills difficult

The post Government trials Elon Musk’s Starlink for high-speed broadband appeared first on Information Age.

Telecommunications company Tata Communications has launched a global private 5G centre of excellence in Pune, India, to help enterprises accelerate Industry 4.0 capabilities

The new global facility will be dedicated to testing and trialling industry use cases for private 5G technology, building on development experience for sectors such as automotive, healthcare and manufacturing.

With trials underway, Tata Communications will look to demonstrate prospective applications such as automated quality inspection of equipment using video and image analytics; inventory management and asset tracking; and AR/VR-based remote worker collaboration.

Today’s launch follows interoperability tests to assess compatibility of the company’s private network with different devices, and monitoring of connectivity.

Going forward, trials within the CoE will help to realise the vision of a holistic ecosystem underpinned by 5G, for unlocking new business models and revenue sources, as well as addressing emerging markets.

>See also: What does 5G mean for enterprise business?

“5G has the transformative power to be a game changer for all. We are encouraged and excited about leveraging this technology to enable the future of enterprises and economies,” said Mysore Madhusudhan, executive vice-president, collaboration and connected solutions at Tata Communications.

“Early test results in our global Centre of Excellence have proved to be very positive providing an evolutionary path towards Industry 4.0 scenarios to varied industries. We believe this Centre is well poised to empower enterprises for a hyperconnected tomorrow.”

The newly launched hub in Pune adds to two further CoEs already established in Delhi and Mumbai, both of which are engaged in designing, building and demonstrating multiple Internet of Things (IoT) use cases.

IDC predicts that the private LTE/5G wireless infrastructure market will reach $8.3bn in revenue by 2026, from $1.7bn in 2021.

Related:

Why 5G is the heart of Industry 4.0 — We are in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution. Many business leaders are paying attention to energy consumption and automation, but is 5G the true driver of Industry 4.0?

A guide to working in the Pune, India tech scene — As part of our series exploring innovative tech hubs around the world, we take a look at what the tech scene in Pune, India has to offer.

The post Tata Communications launches private 5G centre of excellence appeared first on Information Age.

Kalam Meah, ISP director for TP-Link UK & Ireland Ltd., discusses the benefits that the rollout of WiFi 7 is set to bring to businesses

The new wireless WiFi 7 standard is emerging, and it’s faster and smarter. There’s no denying that advancements in wireless technology are moving quickly.

Now, not long after the release of WiFi 6, the buzz is all about WiFi 7 — or 802.11be as it’s known. The Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that the global economic value of WiFi is expected to reach $5tn by 2025.

The worldwide WiFi market is rapidly expanding, and with that comes a greater pressure on businesses to offer not only the best, but a continually evolving product for consumers.

The first WiFi standard was introduced back in 1997, and it’s come a long way since then. WiFi 7 is a successor to WiFi 6 (802.11ax) and WiFi 6E (802.11ax), which were released in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

The start of the revolution

Back in 2007, the world was a very different place. We had very basic internet, where we could do emails and we could occasionally watch a video on YouTube.

Then came along the introduction of the iPhone, which was the catalyst for a whole slew of new technologies; content provision; more advanced access technology; and an exponential increase in available bandwidth — both wired and wireless. As all these elements grew in adoption, you then had the introduction of WiFi 4, and then WiFi 5. The revolution had begun.

The last ten years have been about getting the information to people as fast as possible, and although some people now complain that we are overloaded with this information avalanche, all the elements of content provision, bearer technology and access methodology are in place.

We’re now at the stage in 2022, where we literally have the sum total of human knowledge at our fingertips.

As we come towards the end of this information revolution, we move into the interaction age. Fewer people watch terrestrial TV and radio is now a very niche area. There has been a shift in the way that people access content and information. Faster access technology with increased bandwidth gets people the content they crave more quickly.

The way people interact with each other has changed, not just on virtual social media platforms but physical interaction.

In the world of commerce, Amazon’s business model is based on the fact that you have hi-bandwidth access to an online catalogue, secure payment systems and high speed logistics all secured on and around GPS and tracking.

Another major change that has come out of the recent global lockdown is that most people’s perception of the internet became “WiFi” and the “availability of WiFi”. The speed & stability of WiFi is now one of the factors that will drive a lot of change that’s going to take place in the future.

WiFi 7 is part of that evolving technology ecosystem that will presage a further massive change.

The rollout of WiFi 7

In practice, WiFi 7 might not be rolled out for another couple of years — especially as many countries have yet to delicense the new 6GHz spectrum for public use. However, it is coming, and so it’s important to plan for this development as plans could progress quicker than we first thought.

In the same way as bigger motorways are built and traffic increases to fill them, faster, more stable WiFi will encourage more usage & users,
and to quote the popular business mantra: “If you build it…they will come….”.

WiFi 7 is a significant improvement over all the past WiFi standards. It uses the same spectrum chunks as WiFi 6/6e, and can deliver data more than twice as fast. It has a much wider bandwidth for each channel as well as a raft of other improvements.

It is thought that WiFi 7 could deliver speeds of 30 gigabits per second (Gbps) to compatible devices and that the new standard could make running cables between devices completely obsolete. It’s now not necessarily about what you can do with the data, but how you actually physically interact with it.

Initially, it will be gamers who will adopt high performance WiFi 7, as the demand for immersive gaming and streaming grows, and you’ll have “immersive technology” becoming dominant with associated additional hardware technology, such as glasses, visors, gloves, and potentially even whole interactive body suits to interact with the data.

Education and healthcare

Technological advancements will galvanise business and social applications as well as in education and telemedicine.

There is going to be a revolution in healthcare, allowing the ability to interact with the data in such a way as to get better diagnosis and better insights of patient care, delivering better patient outcomes.

This area is something that’s going to be revolutionised, not necessarily just with WiFi 7, but as one of the key building blocks.

There will also be advancement in medical education. For instance, as you start to interact with the data, you will be able to have 3D human bodies, enabling students to have a better understanding of human anatomy.

The industry has to keep abreast of the changes that have taken place to understand where the technology is going. They need to know what young people are doing.

These are astounding developments, and just as you in 2010 would not have recognised what 2022 would be like, you will not recognise what’s going to happen by 2030 and beyond.

The technology landscape will have moved on dramatically, and WiFi 7 is an important building block within this movement to give better, more focused content.

The world has changed, and it’s changed because of technology.

Written by Kalam Meah, ISP director for TP-Link UK & Ireland Ltd.

Related:

Information Age guide to how 5G will affect your business — What does 5G mean for your business? This Information Age guide to 5G looks at which sectors will be disrupted, what low latency means for those businesses, how 5G will be used by enterprise-level organisations and how it will propel AI.

A decade of IoT: 10 years forward and 10 years back — Paul McCreadie, partner at private equity firm ECI Partners, discusses how the IoT market and investor interest has evolved over the last 10 years.

The post How WiFi 7 will transform business appeared first on Information Age.

5G will help edge computing grow

Analysts believe that the arrival of 5G will result in a time when edge computing is essential rather than optional. The 5G network’s speed should be 10 times faster than what the 4G network allows. That improvement opens possibilities for far-away sensors to instantly give updates about the connected devices. That increase in real-time processing will require new equipment with enhanced capabilities.

This will also raise the demand for edge computing since that method processes data at the borders of a network rather than transferring the data a significant distance first. A report from Allied Market Research sees the global edge computing market growing exponentially over the next few years, citing the emerging 5G network as a major factor presenting growth opportunities for the sector’s major players.

Edge networks will become more specialised and complex

5G networks are also set to become more complicated than they are now. Investments to make that happen are already underway, thereby increasing the relevance of edge networks in the world’s future. Some say the edge networks will largely depend on device functionality, with the networks’ characteristics matched to the gadgets that need them.

An autonomous car would need extremely speedy edge networks, primarily because characteristics in a car’s environment could change by the second. Processing data at the edge on the 5G network allows saving power and infrastructure. But, the location of the edge device depends on the application.

How 5G introduces new security vulnerabilities

With 5G set to drive a new era of IoT adoption, enterprises need to think about the possibility of new security vulnerabilities

Business leaders must be mindful that there are still a lot of specifics to work out regarding the 5G network and edge computing. Thus, it’s too early to know for sure about the specific ways that edge networks will get more complicated, but evidence suggests it’ll happen soon and be device-specific.

Moreover, because the edge networks will depend on the devices that use them, variations will exist concerning whether network operators would own them, buy or lease them through service models or rely on established cloud providers to help.

Iain Gillott, the president and founder of research company iGR, took part in a panel discussion at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). During it, he confirmed that network ownership would change per application, as well as latency and the location of the edge network. This trend is now showing signs of emerging in the market.

Edge networks will help increase 5G performance on a per-user basis

Beamforming technology allows a signal to position itself in the direction of the device that receives it. This advantage gives stronger, faster signals. Deutsche Telekom, for example, is working with edge computing to investigate the impact of user-tracing beamforming antennas with 5G infrastructure.

In this case, software electronically directs the 5G signal towards a user’s handset to increase efficiency and signal quality. The accompanying edge computing platform is a fully virtualised, end-to-end solution that supports using this kind of 5G beamforming technology for the first time in a live environment. On a broader scale, this Deutsche Telekom facility wants to center on specific use cases and encourage app developers to investigate the benefits of 5G.

Many people don’t think about what’s happening in the background to help them enjoy consistent connectivity. This is a prime example of how edge networks could lead to better device performance without users even realising it.

Edge networks will help new 5G technologies flourish — securely

The 5G network will undoubtedly pave the way for the introduction of new technologies — including those not even conceived yet. John Maddison is an executive at Fortinet. In a March 2019 interview, Maddison discussed how he believed a lot of the new 5G technologies would be Internet of Things (IoT)-oriented since those devices need low latency to function properly.

He mentioned how security would get deployed differently, and edge networks will play a fundamental role in that. Maddison clarified that as the potential attack surface gets larger, the security risks go up, then mentioned what 5G would necessitate security-wise: “The security then needs to be deployed in a different way. And whether it’s deployed in the car itself, in the application, the IoT devices — it’ll be security deployed in the edge compute.”

Why 5G is the heart of Industry 4.0

We are in the middle of the fourth industrial revolution. While many business leaders are paying attention to energy consumption and automation, is 5G the true driver of Industry 4.0?

Maddison continued: “And edge compute has to be much more efficient than centralised data centres, so you’ll see custom silicon for edge compute deployed to provide security. You’ll see security deployed as virtualised systems in the core networks, and you’ll see connectivity deployed at the internet gateway. You’ll see a much more distributed model of security versus the current model today where it assumes everything goes through a secure gateway; that’s just not going to be true.”

Edge network devices must receive tighter security monitoring

One of the things that cyber security experts often bring up about edge networks is that they can cause security headaches due to the increased number of devices on the network that are gathering data. For example, an edge device deployed in a remote location may not have people checking it regularly for security vulnerabilities or keeping its software updated.

As mentioned in the section directly above, edge networks will play important roles in 5G security. But, many of the benefits they deliver could get overshadowed if the companies using them don’t take extra precautions to maintain edge network security.

5G and IoT – how to deal with data expansion as you scale

Patrick Callaghan, strategic business advisor, DataStax, explains how 5G and IoT increases demand for distributed data

Many device manufacturers are already thinking ahead and integrating better cyber security into their gadgets. Doing that could help the 5G network and edge devices benefit each other without causing security threats.

Fascinating changes ahead

This overview shows that edge networks are essential for helping the 5G network reach its full potential and meet everyone’s already-high expectations for it.

Moving forward, the people who use edge networks for their 5G technologies must take care to minimise any risks, such as those related to security.

Related:

Europe vs Asia vs US: who reigns supreme in IoT security?

The continuing rise of mobile edge computing, 5G and IoT security, hot topics for 2019

Data intelligence — is edge analytics the saviour of IoT?

Edge computing: The movement redefining cloud technology

Accessing the benefits of edge computing — a must for industry 4.0

The post How edge computing will benefit from 5G technology appeared first on Information Age.

How Microsoft Teams is helping small businesses stay nimble

Moving an idea quickly from conception to execution before the competition has always been critical to staying ahead of the curve – especially in the innovation-led small business landscape.

But delivering at speed is no longer a guarantee of business success. The unpredictable nature of the past few years, plus the current high inflation and slowing growth environment – has highlighted that it is equally important to be able to pivot at pace.

So how can you ensure your culture, teams and tech are as agile as they need to be to meet constantly changing demands? Here are our top tips for harnessing the power of technology to stay nimble and maximise new opportunities – from concept to rollout – when they come along.

Facilitate easy, instinctive conversations

The best ideas come out of flowing, natural conversations, so make sure you’re giving your teams the communications channels that enable them to have these throughout the day. For the price of a single coffee (£3), you can equip each of your team with Teams Essentials and give them access to unlimited chat, Teams meetings and video calls – all of which offer more instantaneous communication for creative decision-making than stop-start email ping pong.

Enable hybrid collaboration

There’s an energy and creativity that comes from seeing your teammates in person and bouncing ideas around together. But now, more often than not, work colleagues can be sitting in multiple locations at any one time.

Ensure your teams can easily come together whenever the need for creativity strikes. With Teams meetings your team can all see each other, work on docs together, share instant virtual reactions to ideas and even create breakout rooms to hold mini brainstorms within a wider meeting.

Keep up the pace

Once you’ve got an idea you’re happy with, make sure you can roll it out as quickly as possible – before your competition does. Connecting your teams with shared files that are always available will help keep ideas and progress flowing.

With Microsoft 365 for Business, you can get 1 TB (terabyte) of cloud storage, enabling shared live docs to be accessed across all devices. Combined with Teams, it makes it easy for your team to work together in real time or in their own time to sustain project momentum.

Facilitate each of your team to find their ‘groove’

As any Olympic team knows, peak team agility is reached when you enable individuals to work in their own optimum way. Some of your team might be morning people; others might be evening people. But that doesn’t have to slow the pace.

With live docs always available through Teams, your team can work synchronously or asynchronously on projects to collectively drive a project forward. They can even share recordings and transcripts of Teams meetings so that everyone is fully up to date on a project’s status even if they’re unable to attend.

Every second counts

When you’re working flat out on a project, every second really does count. By choosing a tech solution that brings everything together in one place you can cut down on time-intensive app and platform swapping.

It might seem like a minimal consideration, but think how long it takes to come out of one account to access another and then multiply that out over several times a day. Over the course of a year, platform swapping can amount to days’ worth of lost creative time. But on the flip side, if you make that time up by using a single seamless solution, it could be what gives you that all-important competitive edge.

Collaborate with confidence

There’s no point in doing innovative work on a sector-leading project if your system is in danger of being hacked and your ideas stolen. Prevent the risk of a security breach from phishing or ransomware which can derail progress by protecting yourself with robust security that works across your systems.

Microsoft Defender offers sector leading ‘press and play’ security, with 24/7 human and AI analysis of trillions of signals and automatic checking of URLs, files and attachments in real time, to disable threats before they take effect.

Choose a platform that scales with you

When you’re a business that is growing fast it’s key to choose a platform that can flex to meet your changing needs so you can maximise opportunities as they present themselves.

Clifton Coffee Roasters is a case in point. Their in-person coffee masterclasses were once a cornerstone of their business but dried up overnight during lockdown. Fast-forward a couple of years and what could have broken their business has made them thanks to their ability to pivot and thrive.

Today, they have supplemented their in-person masterclasses with Teams-based masterclasses that reach geographically far wider, larger audiences, thanks to the ability to host everything from one-to-one meetings to interactive webinars using Teams.

In fact, using Teams, Clifton Coffee Roasters have been able to reach 20 to 30 times more customers than they could in person, which has in turn given them a strong enough customer base to launch a thriving coffee subscription business – unimaginable just two years ago. Clear evidence of the positive gains you reap from being agile.

Be nimble, but stay true to your roots

While being able to change course to respond to new needs and challenges is important, staying true to your core mission is equally vital.

Priority Bicycles in New York offer a great example of how to adapt authentically. When restrictions prevented them from offering their famous in-shop expertise, they pivoted to offer hugely popular bookable one-to-one slots with their bike experts via Teams.

This approach enabled them to reach new global audiences and to expand into offering virtual cycle repair and support services, all while staying true to their ethos of creating close customer relationships by offering valued expertise.

Entrepreneur in Focus: Tiffany St James, co-founder of Curate42

Tiffany St James, digital strategist and co-founder of Curate42, a consultancy helping businesses redefine work, learning and play, has been using Microsoft Teams specifically to help clients work more effectively in hybrid working environments.

“The working environment has undergone massive changes in recent years and it’s critical to business delivery today to take advantage of the facilities that great tools like Teams offer – to enable your people to work together more efficiently, elegantly and in tune with their new working rhythms.

“By working with Microsoft Teams we’ve been able to break down more traditional siloed working boundaries and engage clients’ teams in integrated working practices.

“With many clients we’ve been able to better implement a sprint methodology and agile working structure, that includes everyone in and out of the office joining a quick morning stand-up call, and different blended teams coming together for creative workshops using Teams.

“It’s important to understand and utilise the tools you have available at your fingertips, and ideally have them built into a single, streamlined system. With around 80 per cent of employees work time spent on collaboration, you really need that time to be used as effectively as possible.”

Teams Essentials also supports the kind of customer collaboration Tiffany mentions, thanks to private group chats and full integration with Gmail, as well as other third-party email and calendar solutions. This makes client diary planning and scheduling fast, seamless and easy.

There is no doubt that the years ahead hold many challenges. But every challenge comes with a new opportunity if you’re in a position to respond with creativity and agility. So why not start looking at how you can embrace agility across your business to turbo change your future?

If you’d like to know more about how technology can help you improve agility, communications, collaboration and creativity in a modern small business environment visit aka.MS/HybridSMB for more help and guidance.

Related:

Six ways to boost your small company’s culture with technology — Getting the most from Microsoft Teams to help build a common purpose and connection within your business.

Five ways to boost SMB cyber defence so you can focus on growth — Want to boost your cyber security? Check out these five ways to strengthen your defences against attacks.

The post Agility – the new rocket fuel for today’s SMBs appeared first on Information Age.

Getting the most from Microsoft Teams to help build a common purpose and connection within your business

It’s perhaps the ultimate paradox of running a small business today. Awareness of the value of culture and social connection to company life and business success has never been higher. Yet, in the new era of flexible working, nurturing a common culture can prove tricky. Building a shared understanding of what your organisation stands for and ‘how things are done around here’ is tougher than ever, because ‘around here’ can now be anywhere.

So how can you create that all-important unique feel that sets your company apart and that provides its glue? That helps you attract and retain diverse talent, aligns your teams and keeps everyone invested in driving your business forward?

Building a strong culture is a complex and organic process, but technology can help. As Microsoft announces the launch of Teams Essentials for UK small businesses, we explore six ways you can use the platform to help build strong cultural foundations in the flexible workplace.

1. Make communication natural

Put a kettle in any office and it becomes an instant draw for connection and collaboration. That’s because it stimulates natural conversation, which is when we’re at our most relaxed and creative. Things get done over coffee.

So help your teams emulate that productive communications experience wherever they are. For the price of a single coffee (£3) you can get a month’s subscription to Teams Essentials for each of your team giving them unlimited chat, Teams meetings and video calls.

While email tennis can be impersonal, chat and short Teams meetings offer warmer, more natural communications experiences and enable collaborative decision-making that everyone feels involved in – vital in any strong culture.

2. Design seamless experiences

Martine Haas, director of the Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies was recently quoted in Harvard Business Review as saying:

“Hybrid working risks creating a ‘dominant class’ of those who feel like they’re central to the organisation and strongly committed to it and an ‘underclass’ of those who feel peripheral and disconnected.”

(Harvard Business Review, Feb 15 2022)

Two-tier working experiences are divisive. So creating seamless experiences in which everyone feels equally included has to be a priority in establishing a strong company culture.

When setting up meetings, ensure everyone’s experience is equally engaging whether they’re in the office, at their kitchen table or in a café. Using Teams, everyone can participate via video or instant chat and give virtual reactions to increase involvement without interrupting flow. Breakout rooms can facilitate smaller group discussions and create an even greater sense of social connection and inclusion.

3. Prioritise inclusivity

When creating seamless experiences across different locations, try to also ensure you’re creating accessible experiences that make your culture an inclusive one. Teams Essentials makes this easier than you might think. For instance when running a live event you can select the Captions option to translate content into up to six languages and you can provide transcripts and recordings of meetings for those who want to digest information at their own pace.

Before sharing a Word doc, PowerPoint or email, you can also click on the Accessibility Checker button (that drops down from the Review tab), to take recommended actions and make your content more accessible to all. Discover more accessibility tips on the Microsoft website.

Ben Whitter, founder and CEO of HEX, a global thought-leader in human and employee experience, believes that technology is imperative to create a truly inclusive workspace:

“Creating spaces and places, whether digital or in-person, that enable our best work is a primary concern of all businesses now.

“From our research at HEX, we’ve found that it is indeed possible to create a company where people feel like they belong, and increasingly, technology is working seamlessly in the background and the foreground to bring that connection to life alongside leaders who role model what a brand and business represents in the world.”

4. Communicate what great culture means to you

Think about the world’s strongest brands and most have passionate leaders who talk freely about their company’s values. When leaders take the time to articulate the culture they are looking to build and emulate the behaviours they want to see, they create valuable clarity – a common goal to strive for and a common understanding of how to get there.

Running regular Teams training and team building sessions can help establish a strong culture. By using Cameo in PowerPoint you can insert your video feed directly into your presentation to communicate your vision with more expression as you present. And with shared files always available through Teams Essentials, you and your team can continue to exchange ideas on how to build your culture together.

5. Build a positive culture by encouraging healthy habits

Hybrid working, when executed poorly, could risk being associated with an ‘always-on’ approach that over time creates resentment and erodes company culture. But it needn’t be that way.

Prioritise wellbeing by using technology to positively reinforce work-life balance and create the type of caring culture that is highly prized today.

Encourage healthy working habits by scheduling in ‘no meeting’ slots in Outlook so people can enjoy valued focus time. You can also use Outlook to set shorter default meeting times to encourage breaks.

And use the flexibility that technology enables to help people prioritise what matters to them. Working together synchronously might be important when you’re nearing a deadline, but at other times – with your files always live and available on Teams – you can work asynchronously and still be productive. By enabling the runner in your team to get out in the morning before the heat of the day, or a parent to do their work late so they can make the most of play time, you show people you care about their whole selves – not just their work selves. And that counts for everything in creating a culture people feel aligned to.

Ben Whitter thinks the road to improvement should be taken step by step:

“A strong company culture is delivered one experience at a time. From the big moments to the smaller ones, culture forms over the long-term and serves as a powerful unifying force for the entire business. It propels companies forward and accelerates their progress.

“It’s why we often see small businesses having major impact – it’s no accident, they have managed to co-create a company that people are proud of through consistent and human-centred actions.”

6. Prioritise connection

Remote working can feel…remote. So finally, prioritise connection in your organisation. Although we’re all about Teams, don’t just use Teams for meetings! Look for other potential touchpoints – work anniversaries, project milestones, feel-good Fridays – when you can come together and celebrate what you’ve collectively achieved so that everyone feels seen, heard, valued and connected to your mission – and to each other.

David Cummings, author of Think Outside the Inbox, calls corporate culture: “the only sustainable competitive advantage that is completely within the control of the entrepreneur.” So why not grab that control today and start reaping the rewards, for your people and for your bottom line?

If you’d like to know more about how technology can help you enhance your communications, culture and security visit aka.MS/HybridSMB for more help and advice.

Related:

Five ways to boost SMB cyber defence so you can focus on growth — Want to boost your cyber security? Check out these five ways to strengthen your defences against attacks.

It’s time the UK’s small businesses got the seamless communications and collaboration tools they need — Why seamless collaboration is crucial for UK small businesses and what tools can help.

The post Six ways to boost your small company’s culture with technology appeared first on Information Age.

The premise of Industry 4.0 is all about the marriage of physical and digital technologies. With Industry 4.0, manufacturers can use connected systems to gain critical insights about their operations. These insights can be used to improve operational efficiency. The global Industry 4.0 market is projected to reach $337.1bn by 2028, such is the surging potential that the space still holds for business.

A subset of Industry 4.0 is smart manufacturing, defined by The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as systems that are “fully-integrated, collaborative manufacturing systems that respond in real time to meet changing demands and conditions in the factory, in the supply network, and in customer needs.”

With the next generation of the industrial revolution being triggered by the combination of emerging technology, the impact that 5G has on Industry 4.0 will be unique. As a trend itself, 5G won’t redesign the production line but it will enable new operating models. With network characteristics that are essential for manufacturing, 5G will offer manufacturers the chance to build smart factories that can take advantage of the emerging tech that’s changing the industry.

How do you connect systems?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an integral part of the connected economy. Many manufacturers are already using IoT solutions to track assets in their factories, consolidating their control rooms and increasing their analytics functionality through the installation of predictive maintenance systems.

Of course, without the ability to connect these devices, Industry 4.0 will, naturally, languish. While low power wide area networks (LPWAN) are sufficient for some connected devices such as smart meters that only transmit very small quantities of data, in manufacturing the opposite is true of IoT deployment, where numerous data-intensive machines are often used within close proximity.

5G and IoT – how to deal with data expansion as you scale

Patrick Callaghan, strategic business advisor, DataStax, explains how 5G and IoT increases demand for distributed data

This is why 5G connectivity is key to Industry 4.0. In a market reliant on data-intensive machine applications, such as manufacturing, the higher speeds and low latency of 5G is required for effective use of automatic robots, wearables and VR headsets, shaping the future of smart factories. And while some connected devices utilised 4G networks using unlicensed spectrum, 5G allow this to take place on an unprecedented scale.

Real-time communications

The other big thing about 5G in relation to Industry 4.0 is how 5G improves network latency. According to Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions, “this provides the ability for applications, devices and entities to communicate in near real time, if not absolute real-time,” he said.

“This really enables a range of applications that may not have been available in the past; autonomous driving comes to mind immediately, because of the real-time nature of that particular application, and how that application has to communicate constantly to the ever-changing environment that it’s deployed in.”

Why digital trust matters in the IoT

As IoT adoption continues to rise, business success in the world of connected devices depends on building digital trust with consumers

At the same time, it’s not just about speed; 5G also offers slower speeds with frequencies that travel farther from cell sites into buildings that contain IoT devices. This means longer battery life for many devices, sometimes up to 10 years.

5G will change networking

The promise of unrivalled wireless speed and consistency comes with a requirement for some changes in the way networks operate. Providers will need to harness Software-defined Networks (SDN) to handle 5G’s throughput capabilities and scalability. With SDN, new functionality can be built and added on a software-based timeline, rather than the traditional (and slower) hardware timeline, ensuring networks are more agile and more efficient.

AI and IoT: two sides of the same coin

The market is seeing significant investments in the convergence of AI and IoT, and its already begun creating new markets and opportunities

SDN ensures networks can secure and manage this additional traffic. Many forward-thinking organisations have been extensively testing and deploying SDN as a means to lower costs and increase bandwidth across their corporate networks.

Related:

Could low latency 5G boost your business? — Low latency 5G means faster input response times between machines on a mobile network, improving their performance – why is that a good thing and how could it help your business?

5G technology disruption – 4 sectors ripe for disruption — 5G technology disruption – four business sectors 5G will disrupt: financial services/insurance, cloud & edge computing, medical and healthcare, and supply chain management.

The post Why 5G is the heart of Industry 4.0 appeared first on Information Age.

What are the business use cases for 6G? Given how spotty network coverage is for 5G, do we even need a next-generation cellular network? Alan Jones of Blu Wireless explains how cellular networks have evolved, and why 6G will be crucial for the metaverse

Alan Jones, CEO of 5G solutions provider Blu Wireless, has worked in cellular and wireless communications since the late 1980s. He has been involved in the development of cellular networks since the rollout of 2G in the 1990s through to cutting-edge 5G networks today.

Bristol-headquartered Blu Wireless provides turnkey 5G solutions for high-value, low-volume markets, such as transport and defence. Its clients include rail communications provider Evo Rail, part of First Group, which provides trackside to train carriage solutions. The communications system it is developing for rail franchise South Western Railway offers throughput of up to one gigabit per second compared with an industry average of 25Mbps. In America, its Florida office works on 5G solutions for US defence contractors.

InformationAge sat down with Jones to discuss the business use cases for 6G, how 6G differs from all the previous generations of cellular networks which have preceded it, and why 6G is crucial for Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of Facebook.

Can you explain how 6G differs from 5G?

I think you need to rewind the clock and understand the history of cellular networks.

First, we had analogue cellular coverage and then 2G/GSM came along.

The driver behind 2G was capacity and mobile operators being able to get more users onto the network. It was important to have a network that was scalable.

Now, to some extent, 3G had the same drivers, adding more data and video. In the early days of 3G, one of the drivers for data was for video phones. When the 3 network launched 20 years ago, its USP was that it could handle video. However, 3G stalled until the internet took off. At that point, a whole bunch of new features arrived for 3G based around data comms for smartphones, applications such as Facebook.

The problem was that 3G was not really developed for the internet but for video as well as voice.

So 4G LTE focused on having an all-IP solution, leveraging what had been done on the internet side of things and deploying it into a 4G system, but at the same time providing hi-data throughput for internet users.

A key realisation towards the end of the 4G era was that a lot of users of cellular networks weren’t humans but machines. The concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) was really big about a decade ago.

The idea behind 5G has been to evolve the 4G network, supporting a lot of machines while deploying capabilities you would normally see in the cloud, such as virtualisation and orchestration, being able to spin up virtual machines in order to make the network more flexible. This whole concept of network slicing came along, where effectively you could have a network logically separated to different services. That’s what happened with 5G NR.

As we progressed through all these evolutionary steps through cellular systems, and networks in general, we’ve seen an increase in the throughput in general, latency and general capacity.

One of the big drivers of 5G has been this ability to get latency down because that’s what required to support some of these machine-type applications.

If you watch some of the TV ads for EE and they’re landing an aircraft over a comms network and somebody remotely giving a guy a shave on the top of a mountain, that’s all trying to demonstrate how latency has improved with 5G NR.

The common thread through all of these evolutionary steps in networking from 2G through to 5G has been improvement in throughput and latency. I expect 6G will be exactly the same.

When 3G started, bandwidth was about 1MB per second. By the time 5G completed, it was 400MB per second. The way to get those bandwidth improvements is to go to higher frequencies of the spectrum, which is where 5G mmWave exists, which we use, because channel bandwidth is higher and if you’ve got more bandwidth, you can service more customers.

Can you give me some examples of business use cases for 6G?

As I said, with 6G you will see improvements in bandwidth/throughput and improvements in latency and then it will come down to use cases the industry wants to deliver on.

Generally, how this technology is used is driven by use cases. This was very much the case with 5G and the IoT — being able to service a large number of machines, such as parking meters or sensors embedded in a road or on a bridge. 5G NR had a certain set of requirements that it was looking to address, such as having a large number of users in a certain sector. Rather than having 20 users using their 5G smartphone, you may have 20,000 users but those users are machines picking up data.

One of the areas 6G wants to focus on is what’s called enhanced digital world experience. We’re starting to see that with Facebook moving into Meta with VR experiences. More human interrelated interaction with a digital twin is one of the end goals for this. So a much more human integration will include aspects of sensors, higher bandwidth, lower latency, so you could meet and interact with someone on the other side of the world.

And there’s also a power saving aspect to this, the amount of power being used on the network. Moving towards the higher frequency domain, you get better power efficiency.

6G is also about bringing the distributed cloud closer to the users to enhance these experiences.

Another difference between 6G and 4G/3G is that they’ve all been very dial-in centric. That’s been driven by use cases for the smartphone, such as downloading Netflix and Amazon Prime on a smartphone.

What we’re seeing with 5G use cases is that they’re uplink centric, where a large amount of data needs to be uploaded in a resilient way back into the core network. In the past, there’s been a tendency to focus on the end user, the smartphone. You may see in 6G a shift to looking at the uplink side as well.

A good example is hi-resolution cameras where you’ve got an 8K camera that’s kicking out a lot of data and you want to support that data into the cloud to do some analytics or to store data locally with edge computing. What you might find with 6G is an interest in this uplink centric application.

6G will be more about interacting with data, that’s where the vision is going.

Which business sectors are going to make the most of 6G?

There’s always the question of, if you make a network available, will people develop applications for it?

It’s always been a very difficult question to answer.

Remember, 3G started out with voice and it was all circuit switched and it ended up being a data-centric network where it was very much IP centric, which was driven by new applications coming through.

One of the problems in the past with 2G and early 3G was that it was very focused on circuit-switched voice and video applications and it was very constrained.

6G will be more about flexibility and being able to create networks that can be adapted and changed to meet these new emerging applications operators and service providers will be looking to monetise.

Given that most people are either at work or in their home, do they even need 5G, let alone 6G?

A lot of mobile operators have been looking a new business in new areas. Private networks are an application area they’re moving into. There may be certain services which are more niche, where this technology will be more prevalent.

For example, our rail solution has the ability to have hi-res cameras on board trains. Once you can do that, it opens up a whole swathe of applications which could be developed on top. It allows you to do lots of things, such as advanced image processing.

What would you say to those who say 5G network coverage is spotty and that it’s not really 5G anyway? It’s just 4G with a wrapper

It was the same thing with 3G and 4G. A lot of people asked, why are we even doing 4G? With 5G they’re still looking for use cases, let alone 6G.

When do you expect 5G coverage to be nationwide, let alone 6G?

4G didn’t get rolled out until six or seven years after its first deployment and then widespread deployment came maybe 10 years after that.

The capabilities of 5G have not yet been fully exploited. There are some interesting use cases out there. We see them in the verticals we sell into, such as transport and defence. You need to look at the vertical markets that you’re selling into. If you look at those niche verticals, they have unique problems which need solving.

Rather than running off to 6G, 5G still has a long way to go. Some people potentially are looking at problems to solve but if you speak to customers in those verticals, they are normally open about the issues they’re facing.

More on 6G

Race towards 6G explored in new research – A study conducted by IDTechEx has delved into emerging developments around 6G technology, and which companies worldwide are entering the race

Quantum radio receiver being trialled by BT to boost 5G and IoT – BT is trialling a hyper-sensitive quantum Atomic Radio Frequency (RF) receiver, to boost next generation 5G & IoT networks

The post Tech leader profile: business use cases for 6G appeared first on Information Age.

BT and Ericsson have partnered to deliver private 5G infrastructure to UK businesses, allowing for sale of next-generation mobile communications

Claimed to be the first agreement of its kind in the UK, the deal will combine BT‘s evolving mobile communication capabilities with Ericsson Private 5G, to allow customers to address specific business needs using 5G and other digital technologies.

Organisations in sectors such as manufacturing, education, retail and healthcare will be able to leverage new applications and IoT capabilities to improve productivity, optimise business operations and save costs.

In the private sector, 5G is capable of powering automation and more accurate tracking of complex supply chains.

According to MarketResearch.com data, 5G private networks are predicted to grow at an average rate of 40 per cent a year between 2021 and 2028, by which time the market will be worth $14bn (£10.7bn).

What’s more, Gartner forecasts global 5G network infrastructure revenue to grow 39% this year.

Both BT and Ericsson believe that there is significant business demand across the UK for the benefits that the new infrastructure can provide.

In line with this, BT plans to invest £100 million into its recently established ‘Division X’ emerging tech unit over the next three years.

“This UK-first deal we have signed with Ericsson is a huge milestone and will play a major role in enabling businesses’ transformation, ushering in a new era of hyper-connected spaces,” said Marc Overton, managing director of BT’s Division X.

“We have combined our skill and expertise at building converged fixed and mobile networks with Ericsson’s leading, sustainable and secure 5G network equipment, to offer a pioneering new proposition that will be attractive to many industries. 5G private networks will also support smart factory processes and the advancement of Industry 4.0 which can realise significant cost savings and efficiencies for manufacturers.

“Unlike a public network, a private 5G network can be configured to a specific business’s needs, as well as by individual site or location. They also provide the foundation to overlay other innovative technologies such as IoT, AI, VR and AR, opening up a multitude of possibilities.”

Katherine Ainley, CEO of Ericsson UK & Ireland, commented: “This ground-breaking agreement with BT means we are together taking a leading role in ensuring 5G has a transformative impact for the UK.

“The high quality, fast and secure connectivity provided by Ericsson Private 5G can help organisations make all-important efficiency gains that can create safer, more productive, and sustainable business operations and help the country build global leaders in the industries and technologies of the future.”

Related:

5G rollouts: what is the priority? — Matt Percival, senior director service provider at Gigamon, discusses how prioritisation of 5G rollouts will play out in 2022.

5G and sustainability: a corporate responsibility — Bhushan Patil, senior vice-president EMEA at Tech Mahindra, discusses how businesses can adopt 5G to align with sustainability initiatives.

The post BT and Ericsson strike private 5G network partnership appeared first on Information Age.

Matt Dyson, general manager at Likewize Support, discusses how AI is transforming technology customer care

As our reliance on technology continues to grow, so does our need for quick and seamless solutions for when our tech inevitably goes wrong. We all know consumer technology is now more complicated than ever, and at a time where dependence on our devices is rapidly increasing, getting the most from those devices, while finding a quick solution when our device has an issue, is crucial.

Modern businesses know that providing seamless customer care leads to customer loyalty alongside a healthier bottom line. In fact, 89% of customers claim they will purchase from a brand again if they had a great experience, according to Salesforce research.

Customer care doesn’t only need to be managed via call centres

Within customer care, it is assumed consumers wish to speak to a representative immediately, but more often than not, simply providing consumers with the tools to fix issues themselves can prove to be a better solution.

Let’s face it, many consumers wouldn’t consider themselves “tech savvy”, due to having limited knowledge of what their devices can do and how to tackle problems when they arise. The problem is not the consumers’ tech expertise, but instead the brands failing to provide the necessary information to help them. This leads to millions of avoidable calls to contact centres as well as unnecessary returns and repair requests. These requests put a tremendous strain on call centres throughout the world, where customers are asked to hold the line as staff try to catch up in the background – not something any brand wants to see or prolong.

While various companies have already incorporated chatbots and tutorial videos within their customer care journey to drive self serve providing excellent customer care needs to be more deeply integrated and properly equip consumers with better tools to fix their daily tech problems.

Achieving customer satisfaction through proactive education

Through proactive education customer care will naturally lend itself as a way to create greater consumer satisfaction. By educating your customers about the ever evolving tech devices they own, we can remove a great deal of initial frustration when those small annoying things go wrong. Again, this is about encouraging customers to self-serve – a critical pillar of effective customer support.

Of course, the inevitable unexpected customer questions may arise, and we might not always have ready-to-go answers, but we can forward plan and predict the most likely questions. The more we can look to answer some of these questions through AI, the more we can deflect time spent on the phone. A win-win for businesses and their customers — saving time, energy and money.

A vast knowledge base powered by AI helps solve 80% of queries

We offer advanced solutions, such as our AI knowledge base which aims to answer customer questions within seconds, either by contact centre agents or through online self-serve platforms. On top of this, our troubleshooting app runs over 189 tests in just under four minutes to truly ascertain if the problem even exists (in many cases it actually does not). Through this service, we have found that consumers can resolve over 80% of their issues for themselves, if given access to our high-quality knowledge base which is powered by AI. On top of this, 75% of customers who say their device is damaged and needs repairing are often mistaken and their issue can be easily resolved without the need of a technician.

We also use AI to process natural language in relation to all customer queries. The sheer magnitude of questions customers hold is tremendous and by using AI, brands can gain a deeper understanding of customer needs and future intentions. This insight in return helps to make diagnostics and our knowledge base more effective as we can cover of a wider breadth of topics and identify problems earlier in the process.

AI in customer care helps improve customer satisfaction

Innovate tech solutions like AI, ultimately make customers save time, money and effort by helping them fix their issues in the moment. We’ve reduced customer contacts for some clients by a staggering 90% and improved customer satisfaction by 107% within the first six weeks (C Sat). This simultaneously allows the reduction of cost-to-serve for the company, including enabling customer care teams to focus on more complex needs and providing customers with the capability to execute as much as possible themselves.

Linking this back to the issue of increasing staff shortages in call centres, coupled with the mounting cost for businesses; repairs, returns and call centre customer service costs can be easily avoided if companies invest in newer and smarter technologies to help manage the end-to-end device support.

While technology may be the enabler, at the very heart of implementing such solutions is a customer experience philosophy that we know drives success. Let’s remember, AI can be a powerful partner in tech education and preservation.

Written by Matt Dyson, general manager at Likewize Support

The post How AI is transforming technology customer care appeared first on Information Age.

Why seamless collaboration is crucial for UK small businesses and what tools can help

Life is not getting any easier for the UK’s small businesses.

You’re dealing with an ultra-competitive hiring environment, rapid, persistent inflation – and still going flat out to bring in new business and provide a top-class customer experience. On top of this you’re still untangling how best to make flexible, remote work – well, work – while leading a tight-knit group of people who have fundamentally changed how they define the role of work in their lives.

Tough as it may be though, companies across the UK are managing to find the opportunity in the difficulty.

According to Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index, 84% of UK staff said they are as productive or even more productive compared to a year ago. Also, less than half (43%) of business leaders in the UK said productivity had been negatively impacted since the move to remote or hybrid working.

The 2022 Index also revealed that, because most UK organisations aren’t taking a productivity hit due to remote work, they are giving employees more autonomy about whether they should commute in or work from home. Less than half (44%) of business leaders in the UK say their company is planning to require employees to work in-person, full-time within the next year.

Understanding people’s new ‘worth-it equation’

Understanding the drivers and operational nuances of this new way of working can be very valuable for small business leaders, who often have to spend more time motivating and coaching the teams they work with so closely. For example, people’s ‘worth-it’ equation has changed, in terms of what people want from work – and what they’re willing to offer in return.

This is simply because people’s priorities, identities, and worldview has been irrevocably altered by the experience of the last couple of years – health, family, time, and purpose have become more important and the power dynamic has shifted towards staff.

The ‘worth-it’ equation applies to what people are willing to come into the office for. If someone is going to commute in for say, 60 minutes each way – given it means leaving home earlier and getting back later, possibly having to arrange childcare – there needs to be a purpose for doing so.

‘This meeting could have been an email’ really hits different in 2022.

Which is why people now want to be able to decide for themselves, based on what they must do each day, whether they will go to the office or work remotely, and take a flexible approach to getting the job done.

What this all means for genuinely seamless collaboration

When people are empowered to make these daily decisions – which they very much want to be – it sharpens the definition of what sort of flexibility small businesses really need. It’s not just about giving people the choice to work from home or somewhere else, it’s about accepting that, on any given day, some will be in the office, and some won’t, and they will still need to be able to work together effectively at all times. This realisation has become increasingly clear as we’ve been closely studying how work is changing, through our research, the daily conversations we have with our customers, and indeed the data and usage patterns we see across the Microsoft 365 platform and suite of apps.

As a result, what we’re hearing is that teleconferencing point solutions, together with different instant messaging apps, are not cutting it – they lack features, they don’t connect well with Office or your emails, and they’re too time consuming to manage and use. Plus, the costs of using multiple solutions soon adds up.

Modern SMBs who want to thrive through the seamless, fluid collaboration this new era of work requires, need digital-first, integrated tools that serve a clear purpose – helping people connect anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

That’s why we have recently launched Teams Essentials – to enable that environment of seamless collaboration small businesses need. It’s the first standalone version of teams and designed with small businesses in mind, costing just £3 per user, per month – making it the most affordable all-in-one solution on the market today.

Yet it’s still so well integrated and feature-rich, that’s it’s useful and connected enough to transform the way your SMB communicates, with clients, partners, prospects – and each other.

For example, with powerful, instant meetings you can meet, chat and share video simply from any device which helps more people to be feel seen, heard and included in the conversation – 83% of Microsoft Teams users agree that Teams helped their organisation improve customer experiences.

Bristol Dental Specialists has been using Teams for everything from virtual consultations to collaboration with colleagues and have found it to be a tool that helps them deliver faster, friendlier and more cost-effective patient care.

“Communication is so important, and with Teams, we’re working together better than ever to provide patients with a standard of care that sets us apart.”

Rebecca Metcalfe, senior treatment coordinator, Bristol Dental Specialists

By being able to connect your team – with shared documents and files always available – you can create, share, and exchange ideas whenever you want, and keep things moving forward together – information workers using Microsoft Teams save an average of four hours per week through improved collaboration and information sharing.

Plus, having all the meetings, chat, calls and collaboration functionality all in one place, helps your staff work in a more focused and efficient manner – with Teams reducing app switching, and saving users an average of 15-25 minutes every day.

How to encourage seamless collaboration within your SMB

You can see how having the right tools makes a big difference when trying to help people in different places, at different times, work together smoothly – but technology alone is not enough, it’s also about culture – and that comes directly from you as someone who is running an SMB.

As the saying goes, “Culture is just the behaviour of leadership”. So how can you create and establish an environment that empowers people to work independently, but still engage with others and collaborate effectively?

Much of it comes down to being very clear about what the expectations and permissions of the business are – and articulating that your organisation is one that consciously seeks to give people the space and flexibility to do their best work. Telling people that they have the freedom to set their own schedule – where viable and reasonable of course – as long as they get the job done, usually increases employee trust and engagement.

Allowing people to block out short periods of time where they can turn off notifications and ignore distractions is another way to encourage clearer thinking and more focused work. Similarly, making clear when you do or don’t expect people to give or receive instant responses gives people a framework to operate by, letting people reply when they can. Staff can also minimise interruptions by using @ mentions in docs, channels, chat and email in order to call someone’s attention specifically.

Ultimately, encouraging staff to allow a little room for each other’s different rhythms and habits will go a long way, as will people clearly communicating their own preferred hours and ways of working.

When it comes to giving people a purpose for coming in, you might want to take a tip from the Swedish, who have a tradition called FIKA which just means ‘a coffee and cake break’. But beyond this, it’s more of a state of mind – to make time in your day to reconnect with people and share something together. These more meaningful touchpoints help people relax, refocus and make everyone feel more like part of a team.

With these kinds of behaviours, you can make your flexible working culture feel less remote, less alienating and more empowering, because it allows for both virtual and in-person fun and productivity.

If you’d like to know more about how technology can help you improve communications, collaboration, and security in a modern small business environment – please visit https://aka.ms/HybridSMB for more help and guidance.

Related:

Tooling up for hybrid — Equipping your people with the best technologies for the hybrid workplace.

The post It’s time the UK’s small businesses got the seamless communications and collaboration tools they need appeared first on Information Age.

The UK Government is trialling deployment of full fibre broadband via water pipes located in South Yorkshire

According to a Government announcement released today, water pipes between Barnsley and Penistone will be utilised, with the potential to connect up to 8,500 homes and businesses to faster broadband.

The trial is being delivered by Yorkshire Water, alongside Arcadis and the University of Strathclyde.

A first of its kind trial in the UK, this will also allow experts to explore how fibre can help the water industry detect leaks, operate more efficiently and lower carbon costs generated by drinking water.

Additionally, the project aims to power new 5G masts to connect people in hard-to-reach areas.

The trial will last for up to two years, and if successful, the infrastructure will be set to be implemented into networks from 2024, being replicated in other parts of the UK.

“Digging up roads and land is one of the biggest obstacles to rolling out faster broadband, so we’re exploring how we can make use of the existing water network to accelerate deployment and help detect and minimise water leaks,” said Digital Infrastructure Minister, Julia Lopez.

“We’re committed to getting homes and businesses across the country connected to better broadband, and this cutting-edge project is an exciting example of the bold measures this government is leading on to level up communities with the very best digital connectivity.”

Sam Bright, innovation programme manager at Yorkshire Water, commented: “We are very pleased that the Government is supporting the development of the Fibre in Water solution, which can reduce the environmental impact and day-to-day disruptions that can be caused by both water and telecoms companies’ activities.

“The technology for fibre in water has significantly progressed in recent years, and this project will now enable us to fully develop its potential to help improve access to better broadband in hard-to-reach areas and further reduce leakage on our networks.”

Ensuring safety and compliance

The first phase, which commences today, will involve focus on the legal and safety aspects of the solution, and ensure that combining clean water and telecoms services in a single pipeline is safe, secure and commercially viable before any installation is carried out.

From here, sensors will be inserted into the water pipes, which will help utilities firms improve the speed and accuracy of leak identification and repair.

The technology being deployed has been approved by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), which requires rigorous testing ahead of approving any products and processes that introduce them into drinking water pipes.

With water companies committing to delivering a 50% reduction in leakage, this trial looks to help firms to reach this goal.

Related:

For the 5G ecosystem to fly, we need accessibility and industry collaboration — Panch Chandrasekaran, director of segment marketing, infrastructure line of business at Arm, discusses the need to rethink wireless infrastructure to facilitate successful 5G operations.

Tech Leader Profile: leading utilities IT strategy as CIO of Northumbrian Water — Nigel Watson, CIO of Northumbrian Water, spoke to Information Age about how he ensures tech leadership success in the utilities space.

The post Broadband delivered via water pipes being trialled in South Yorkshire appeared first on Information Age.

Research from Tessian has revealed that nearly a third (29%) of businesses have lost a client or customer as a result of email recipient errors

The Psychology of Human Error report from Tessian revealed that two in five respondents (40%) have sent work emails to the wrong person, while 39% of employees have sent an email with the wrong attachment in the last 12 months.

As well as reporting accidental data loss to customers — something 35% of respondents said they did — businesses also had to report the incidents to regulators.

In fact, the number of breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), caused by data being sent to the wrong person on email, was 32% higher in the first nine months of 2021 than the same period in 2020.

Pressure and distractions key factors

When asked why emails were sent to the wrong person, exactly half of employees said they were under pressure to send the email quickly — up from 34% in 2020.

49%, meanwhile, said they weren’t paying attention, versus 36% in 2020, and 47% said they were distracted — up from 41% in 2020.

Academics who contributed to the report suggest increases in mistakes caused by stress and distraction could be linked to changes to working environments over the past 18 months.

Jeff Hancock, professor of communication at Stanford University, explained: “With the shift to hybrid work, people are contending with more distractions, frequent changes to working environments, and the very real issue of Zoom fatigue — something they didn’t face two years ago.

“You also have to consider the impact that the Great Resignation is having on people’s workloads. When stressed, distracted and tired, people’s cognitive loads become overwhelmed and that’s when mistakes happen.

“Businesses, therefore, need to understand how factors like stress affect people’s cyber security behaviours and take steps to support employees so that they can work productively and securely.”

A loss of trust

While the percentage of employees who made email recipient errors has dropped 8% since July 2020, the impact of incorrect email recipients on customer trust have become more severe.

The percentage of respondents who stated their business lost a customer or client due sending an email to the wrong person increased from 20% in 2020 to 29% in 2021.

Additionally, 21% of employees said they lost their job after making the error – up from 12% reported in 2020.

With harsher consequences in place, Tessian’s report reveals fewer employees are reporting their mistakes to IT — one in five (21%) didn’t report security incidents, versus 16% in 2020, resulting in security teams having less visibility of threats in their organisation.

“Rewards are far more effective than punishment. If employees feel uncomfortable in reporting security mistakes, security teams will never have full visibility into these threats,” said Josh Yavor, chief information security officer at Tessian.

“So rather than scaring employees into compliance, encourage employees to engage with security by creating positive security experiences so that you can cement a partnership mindset between security teams and staff. Those positive incentives will help combat security nihilism and build strong security cultures.”

Tessian’s Psychology of Human Error report surveyed 2,000 working professionals: 1,000 in the US and 1,000 in the UK, aged 18 to 51+, in January 2021. The full study can be found here.

Related:

Addressing insider threats: how board members can maintain cyber security — Paul Stark, general manager, UK at OnBoard, discusses how board members can address insider threats by maintaining cyber security.

Why email is still the most significant vector that attackers exploit — Chris Powell, head of cyber labs at 6point6, explores why email remains the most significant attack vector that attackers exploit.

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