{"id":31267,"date":"2020-01-08T14:00:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=31267"},"modified":"2020-01-10T08:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T08:14:02","slug":"rpa-and-practical-use-of-cloud-to-define-the-digital-workplace-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2020\/01\/08\/rpa-and-practical-use-of-cloud-to-define-the-digital-workplace-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"RPA and practical use of cloud to define the digital workplace in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The past year has seen companies implement several incremental changes to create a more immersive experience for employees around the digital workplace. And as Ryan Jamieson, Solutions and Innovation Officer at Altron Karabina says, one of the most exciting things for 2020 and beyond will be to remove the grunt work out of employee interactions thanks to Robotic Process Automation (RPA).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nthis automation has always been a focus area when it comes to computing-centric\nsolutions, RPA has been a significant driver for growth in 2019. However, one\nof the most disappointing technology trends that has not materialised is that\nof practical Blockchain technology. It can potentially benefit all industries\nand transform the digital workplace, but many decision-makers are still stuck\nin the cryptocurrency mindset. There are positive signs with the digitising of\nhealth records and insurance processing using elements of the Blockchain, but\nit will be some time before the technology becomes mainstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collaborate,\nprotect, find<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead,\nthe focus has been on making enhancements to collaboration platforms. This has\nbeen the fundamental challenge plaguing companies \u2013 how do you break beyond the\ntraditional limitations of people sitting in a central location and instead\nengage with one another digitally from anywhere in the world? To this end,\nMicrosoft has invested significantly in enhancing its Teams unified\ncommunication and collaboration platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\npart of this shift towards the digital workplace is to ensure that cybersecurity\nkeeps up with the pace of change. People remain the most significant infection\nvector into the organisation. They either open phishing emails containing\nransomware or do things on their laptops that introduce the ability for\nmalicious users to penetrate the organisational defences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis especially important given that the office environment is no longer limited\nto a building that can provide localised defences. Instead, collaboration tools\nlike Microsoft Office 365 will continually introduce cyber protection\nmechanisms to reflect the geographically dispersed digital workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nimportant element is the need to become better at finding information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nmeans companies must have the ability to search for something more\nintelligently in a way that interprets context and not be reliant on simply\ntagging everything like in the past. This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI)\ncan be used to interpret the content and delivering insights to the end user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making\nthe move<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks\nto the arrival of the Microsoft Azure data centres, more local companies are\nembracing the transition to the digital workplace. Of course, the level of\nsophistication will still be determined by the type of industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nexample, it is not practical for labour-based organisations (think\nmanufacturing and mining) to embrace telecommuting. However, they can still\nempower their deskless workers to interact with their mobile devices or kiosks\nin new ways to benefit from AI and other insights while on site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information\nworkers (for example, professional services, insurance and financial) are\nstarting to benefit from working remotely. While many traditionalists view it\nas essential to have people in the office, this is starting to change with a\nwillingness to give employees the opportunity to work wherever it suits them\nwhile still coming into an office when required.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safe\nspace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies\ncan create a space for their employees to collaborate better. From a process\nside, RPA is becoming increasingly important in this regard. This is where the\nbusiness is starting to look for opportunities to allow a robotic agent to do\nmore of the menial work and let people refocus on where they can deliver better\nvalue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\nthough the physical workplace will never completely disappear, it is becoming\nless of a constraint in terms of geographic or physical location. Altron\nKarabina has done much work around remote teaming and interactions using\nMicrosoft Teams for virtual collaborations, meetings and presentations. The\ndigital workplace means you do not have to have everyone physically present in\na room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One\nof the most exciting things for 2020 and beyond will be to remove the grunt\nwork out of employee interactions. This level of automation gives people the\nability to rise to a new level of responsibility and capability. Now employees\ncan add an even richer value layer to the organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nthanks to the ability to interact across time zones and physical locations,\nteams can now work on the same outcomes with equal effect if they were\nphysically in the same place. But a cautious approach is necessary. Employees\nmust become disciplined in how they control work and its impact on their\npersonal time. This year must bring with it a maturity in how this is managed.\nSo, fundamentally, education will be a vital aspect of the digital workplace as\nmuch as embracing technology is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The past year has seen companies implement several incremental changes to create a more immersive experience for employees around the digital workplace. And as Ryan Jamieson, Solutions and Innovation Officer at Altron Karabina says, one of the most exciting things for 2020 and beyond will be to remove the grunt work out of employee interactions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":31268,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,182,6,275,10675,13,262],"tags":[3626,8989,386,826,676,388,433,2178,8879,1340,7531,10965],"class_list":["post-31267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-cloud","category-insights","category-intelligent-technology-newsletter","category-thought-leadership","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-airports","tag-altron-karabina","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-automation","tag-blockchain","tag-cybersecurity","tag-microsoft-azure","tag-microsoft-office-365","tag-microsoft-teams","tag-robotic-process-automation","tag-rpa","tag-ryan-jamieson"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31267"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31272,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31267\/revisions\/31272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}