This results in a very difficult road to deployment. It’s not uncommon for developers to spend more time on these issues than on writing the code. In addition, the repetitive nature of this work often leads to errors: it’s easy to make a small mistake that has a huge impact down the line. For instance, not keeping the underlying framework up to date might cause the software to fail on a system that runs a higher version of that framework.

Most developers are familiar with this effect, which is often referred to as the “works on my machine” state of software. Although that is meant as a joke, it does have some truth in it. Since developers build, test, and deploy on their own local development machine, chances are that even though it works on their computer, it will work differently or even not at all on the final machine it’s meant to run on.

But there’s more. Organisations need to adapt to changing environments if they want to stay ahead of the competition. This usually means that software needs to change quickly too—providing more and better features and fewer bugs. It also has to run on a lot of different platforms, and it needs to be built by teams all over the globe.

All of this adds to the workload of the developer in a very unproductive way. Developers should be building new features, solving bugs, and generally be busy adding value. Having to deal with the extra workload leads to distractions and potential problems.

Getting Started with Azure Pipelines

Azure Pipelines is a great way to mitigate those issues. With Azure Pipelines, we can move away from all those manual steps and have them done automatically whenever we need them.

An Azure DevOps service, Azure Pipelines is a system where you define the steps needed to build, test, and deploy your software once and then have the system take care of whatever else is necessary. It’s extremely simple to get started, but don’t let that fool you—it can be very powerful!

When you go to the Azure DevOps environment, you’ll find the option Pipelines, which is your starting point. There is a handy wizard to help you. For instance, you need to specify where your source code is located. There are several options available, including GitHub.

Once you’ve done that, you get a set of templates you can choose from, depending on what kind of software you are building. There are templates for ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, .NET desktop, and Xamarin (both Android and IOS), among others. But these are just starting points. You can extend this pipeline as much as you want.

You can configure it to take all the dependencies from a NuGet repository, be it your own or a shared one. You can specify not only which tests to run and what to do if those tests fail, but also deployment slots for web apps, Azure Functions, SQL Databases, and so on. If you want to deploy to a staging environment and only swap staging with production when certain preconditions are met, you can specify that too.

You can adapt the pipeline as much as you want, and of course, these pipelines can be put under source control and distributed to others in your organisation.

Save time for more creative work

By using Azure Pipelines, you can automate many of the steps you used to have to do manually. Deployment is now a matter of starting the pipeline or, if you have continuous integration enabled, just checking in your changed code files. The pipeline engine will do the rest.

This results in better, more predictable builds and will leave you as a developer with more time to do what you do best: build awesome code.

You can get started by visiting the Azure Pipelines website.

The post Using Azure Pipelines to increase creativity and reduce costs appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We use AI in our everyday lives, sometimes more than we realise. Our smartphones get us from point A to point B, our assistants tell us what appointments we need to be at, our intelligent search engines recommend movies and TV shows we might want to watch. Real-time translation features in Skype and PowerPoint allow us to cross language barriers with colleagues all around the world.

These are scenarios you’d expect AI to be showing up, but increasingly we’re starting to see AI in creative and unexpected places. For example, Shakespeare. This is a wonderful project from Phil Harvey that uses sentiment analysis to map the entire works of Shakespeare. In particular, it offers some really interesting insights into the power AI and the limitations of AI.

Interestingly it’s Romeo, the blue line, that shows the most emotional volatility across the story. No matter how big a fan you are of Shakespeare, no human has the capability to read his entire works and provide detailed character analysis in just one sitting. But AI has the power to do that. However, when you dig a bit deeper and you run the AI over some of his more complicated works, like Hamlet for example, you start to see the AI really struggle to understand. Things end up looking positive to the algorithm that aren’t intended to be positive, and vice versa.

Hamlet is one of the most well known tragedies in the world, yet the AI recognises it as a happy story. This is a great example of the power and limitations of AI, and at least with respect to this particular type of data set, maybe it says that only humans are uniquely able to comprehend the richness and depth of emotion, and decipher the true meaning of the author.

We have no doubt that AI will power the next wave of digital transformation. We’re working with companies, large and small, in every industry sector, who are already starting to use AI to explore how they improve their value proposition, create new revenue streams and improve the productivity of their employees.

According to a recent report from McKinsey, AI could add £10 trillion to worldwide economic output by 2030. Here in the UK, it could add up to £230bn to our economy, making it one of the most significant economic opportunities of our time. This could be critical for the future economic success of the UK.

Looking ahead, we believe AI to be more game changing than any technological advance that came before it. It’s taken us nearly four decades to put a PC on every desk and a smart phone in every pocket, but the pace of AI deployment will be much faster, and its impact more profound.

But it’s not exactly new – AI has been around since Alan Turing was cracking codes at Bletchley Park during the second world war. So what is it that is actually accelerating this AI revolution? It comes down to three things.

Firstly, it’s the explosive growth of data. We see connected consumer devices and IoT sensors producing more data today than humans can possibly make sense out of. It’s estimated that two quintillion bytes of data are created every day, and that’s more than 15 million text messages, and staggeringly, 100 million spam emails every minute.

It’s also the power and pervasiveness of cloud. Cloud is what enables the efficient and rapid analysis of all this data. Microsoft is investing billions of dollars on a global cloud infrastructure to ensure we can deploy AI quickly and at scale.

So the explosive growth of data and the power and pervasiveness of cloud computing combined are enabling the development of increasingly powerful algorithms than we’ve ever seen before, capable of reasoning over all of this data and predicting outcomes with increasing accuracy. The pace of change with these dynamics is why we believe that the time to embrace AI in your organisation is right now.

AI isn’t only about economic opportunity, it’s also about the power to create very positive societal impact, and really be used as a force for good in the world. To realise that, we’ve launched a program called AI for Good, which is a program focused on the three key areas you see here.

AI4 Earth is all about using AI to drive sustainable environmental impacts for our planet. AI4 Accessibility is about using AI to improve the quality of life for the more than 1 billion people on the planet with disabilities. And AI4 Humanitarian Action is about using AI to help with disaster and recovery relief, and to deliver aid to those in need.

As optimistic as we are about AI, we’re also very aware of the responsibilities that we have in this space. AI has the potential to create unintended consequences. It’s critical that we design, develop and deploy this technology with a huge amount of care. The question we should ask is not what can we build with AI, but what should we build with AI. In answering that question, it’s vital to adhere to clear principles of ethics and fairness, accountability, privacy and security. Our ability to realise all of these incredible benefits from AI depend fundamentally on our ability to build trust in the technology.

One of the unintended consequences is, of course, the risk of job displacement. Despite all of the positive predictions that AI will be a job creator over the next decade, if it takes decades to retrain people then there’s a risk that we leave an entire generation behind. While we look forward to all of the amazing new career paths that AI will open, the reality is that we need to intensify our efforts to prepare today’s workforce for the jobs of tomorrow with the right digital skills and digital capabilities. Success tomorrow requires action today. Building digital skills is a shared responsibility for us, for the private sector, for government, for educators. We need to work together to create the opportunities for life-long learning to connect jobs and workers, and to ensure that no one is left behind.

A new program that Microsoft UK will be launching is the Microsoft AI Academy. The Academy will be helping develop practical AI skills, learning and certification for customers and partners. It’ll run both face-to-face and online training sessions for business leaders, IT Professionals, developers and start-ups. Given our own internal commitment to continuous learning, we’ll be using the academy to skill up our own employees as well.

To empower you and your organisation to achieve more with AI, we want to ensure that we have the most AI-enabled workforce and partner ecosystem. More details about the AI Academy with be shared in the coming weeks.

In addition to our commitment on skills, we also want to remain at the forefront of what the UK business community is thinking and feeling about adopting and using AI in their organisations. We are sharing a new research report called Maximising the AI opportunity, which provides a powerful lens on how successful UK businesses are already integrating AI into their operations.

This research, in conjunction with Goldsmith’s University of London, combines a comprehensive set of interviews with industry experts, academia, government, along with an extensive barometer survey of over 1000 business leaders and 4000 employees.

The research gives us a clear picture of where UK organisations are already on their AI journeys, and how they feel it will impact their organisations in the future.

[This article is based on Cindy Rose’s keynote at Future Decoded 2018]

Resources

• Microsoft Learn is the fun, free, easy way to learn Microsoft technologies.
• docs.microsoft.com is the home for Microsoft documentation for end users, developers, and IT professionals.
• Download the Maximising the AI opportunity report.
• Learn more about Microsoft and AI.

The post The Opportunities and Responsibilities of AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

The truth is, healthcare professionals can’t afford to be locked down to a single workstation anymore, or be held back by slow and unreliable legacy tech. They need devices that allow them to find time for one-to-one consultations, without negatively impacting on the quality of the experience with patients.

According to McKinsey & Company, the majority of customers (75%) expect to use digital services in the future. They want to use their personal devices to access their information and interact with medical services in the same way they do with other services. If legacy tech remains a blocker to these digital services, healthcare organizations who aren’t providing this experience will start to lose their constituencies to those who are.

With Surface Go, it’s healthcare professionals and their patients that benefit. Mobile care workers can capture patient information on the go, using Wi-Fi to ensure there’s always a connection for accessing records and requesting assistance from doctors and consultants.

Nurses can stay productive while on the move, allowing them to react quickly to emergencies while still having the patient information they need, ready to go. Physicians using Surface can see two new patients a day on average, thanks to the time saved by eliminating delays caused by logging into multiple devices throughout the day.

Whether you are a physician or a pharmaceutical sales rep, the Surface is the ideal device to support you in your day to day.

With a rise in mobile healthcare workers and portable technology, there of course need to be assurances that sensitive information is always kept safe and secure. Having top class security has never been more important, either. According to Deloitte, 23% of all data breaches hit the health industry.

With Surface Go, you can access patient data knowing that built-in security features such as BitLocker, TPM, Windows Defender and Secure Book are keeping personal health information protected.

The needs of each individual in the healthcare industry are incredibly diverse, so Surface Go has been designed to cover as many of these as possible. These features include:

• View and share medical images and files clearly, using full versions of clinical desktop apps.
• Work seamlessly across other Microsoft devices, all supported on Windows 10.
• Streamline processes and create efficiencies in a hospital or clinic with Windows 10 apps on Surface devices.
• Smallest, lightest Surface yet means that it can be carried around for work without being cumbersome.
• 12 hours of battery life support extended hours working on the move.

The Surface Go is an incredibly flexible device that can have a massive positive impact on the healthcare industry. Try one today and see what difference it can make to your organization’s digital transformation.

Find out more about Microsoft Healthcare Solutions

The post Surface Go’s Application within Healthcare appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

With so much of our time spent collaborating with others, it’s important to use the time effectively, to drive creative thinking and positively impact business outcomes. Last month, we teamed up with Management Today to deliver our “Collaboration: Make it work” event, where industry leaders shared their thoughts on the things that impact productivity and how we can all work better together as a team, leveraging everyone’s strengths.

Kicking off proceedings was Management Today’s Head of Content, Kate Bassett, with a welcome address that looked at collaboration and the importance of teamwork. The way to get ahead isn’t through pecking orders, individual superstars or competition. The best way to get ahead is by working together towards your shared goals.

1. Reward collaborative efforts

Whilst we should absolutely be rewarding individuals in the workplace for their achievements, it’s really about a mindset shift, and how we show our workforce that collaboration is the key to success and not simply a race to the finish.

Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Deputy Dean of the London Business School, then joined us to talk about the current ways of working and why collaboration doesn’t always come naturally.

“If we look at football teams or music groups, collaboration seems to come much more naturally than in the business environment. Why is that and how can we learn from the ways these groups work together?

“It’s largely down to the way we work. The old model of working, with all the bureaucracy, a siloed hierarchy and short-term goals, is a model based on division. A better model is one based on multiplication – working on big projects at a lower level and bringing them together to create bigger things.”

2. Bring your teams together to work on bigger projects

When you look at the team structure in your own organisation, think about the projects where you could bring together different teams and leverage their expertise. Working together will help drive bigger and better outcomes.

Next up, Stuff’s Global Brand Director, Guy Cocker, hosted a ‘How we did it’ panel – a look at how other organisations encourage collaboration in their businesses. He asked the panel how collaboration works for them, especially when their workforce spans across several generations.

Emily Forbes, Founder of Seenit, shared how bringing in different levels of experience and different ages into the company is essential.

“Bringing people with experience into a younger team can be incredibly powerful. They bring leadership with them, and they’re able to share what’s worked well in the past, as well as learnings from what hasn’t worked.”

Brand and Sustainability Director at Leon, Kirsty Saddler, mentioned that their food development meetings were not limited to just the food development team.

“There’s a massive amount of value that can be had from inviting other people from around the business, so we rotate in team members from the wider business to get their feedback too. You can obsess as a brand about what you’re doing for your customers, but the first communications campaign is to your team.”

Julia Dodd, Digital Transformation Director, showed us that in the workplace at Parkinson’s UK, collaborations come not with just tools, but also processes and attitudes.

“If we can have a shared mindset about the need to be working together, it’s much better than working in silos. It’s a multi-layered effort of processes and tools, with an attitude that collaboration is really the way of solving any major social challenge.”

3. Think about your team dynamic when hiring

When you’re hiring, think about how you can create a diverse team, with a mix of different generations and experiences. This will help you get the right balance between challenging new ideas and taking a ‘tried and tested’ approach. You should also think about how you can include your whole team in the decision-making process – after all, you should all be working towards the same mission.

After a quick coffee break, Russ Shaw was interviewed about the big benefits of collaboration, and what it’s meant for him as the Founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates.

As an example, Russ recalled how a lady in Scandinavia once reached out to him. This was the start of Tech Nordic Advocates which, along with London, makes up just two of the thirteen groups from around the world. Groups that exist to collaborate with others.

Microsoft’s efforts were also recognised in how we’re helping improve remote working, and how partnering with other businesses, setting up work spaces, incubators and accelerators like the new Microsoft Reactor, is all helping collaboration efforts in and around London.

4. Learn from other businesses

The best way to get collaborating is to show that collaboration works. Use specific examples, meet with the people that have been successful, and demonstrate who did it wrong and why.

Zoe Humphries then joined us for a look at the new world of work, detailing her work as a Workplace Consultant at Steelcase and how we can improve our own workspaces to encourage collaboration and inspire creativity.

“Space is important when it comes to collaboration. The classic meeting room with the table in the middle and a screen for presentation is dull. The clicker is hierarchical. Instead, find a space dedicated for group collaboration. A space that allows you to display everything, including the messy workings of what you’re working on, so that all the ideas are there.

“This is perfect for rapid prototyping. You won’t be distracted and will have the chance to really think and break down your work.”

5. Be intentional about collaboration

From the start, attendees need to know the rules that are in place and what everyone’s role is, and they must be 100% sure that everyone knows why they’re there. Think about how you can enhance your work environment to encourage people to work better together. Are there any barriers that can be removed?

The day came to a close with one final panel, hosted by Guy Cocker, where our panellists shared the large changes they’ve made to usher in a new way of working.

Stephen Docherty, CIO of South London and Maudsley Foundation Trust, spoke about data security and the challenge of getting access to the right information at the right time when you have 4,700 staff members and 90 sites to consider. South London and Maudsley currently use the UK Azure datacentres for their cloud clearance model, which tracks where sensitive data is being held at all times. This has been running since the datacentres opening in 2016, where they were joined by other organisations such as the Ministry of Defence.

Knowledge Management and Collaboration Product Manager, Nick Ledger, shared how his team adopted Yammer for collaboration, and how it changed the dynamic of collaboration within his team at Atkins.

“Everyone has different objectives depending on the project and teams, yet everyone wanted their voices heard. Yammer was brought into the business to solve this and it proved to be a huge success, with groups being created for innovation, sharing ideas, and suggestions for moving the company in interesting directions.”

Kerri Hollis, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Intelligent Communications at Microsoft UK, spoke about the challenge some companies still face in knowing where and why to collaborate.

“Look at what it is you want to collaborate on, and work backwards from there. Microsoft has many suitable solutions to help facilitate this, from company-wide collaboration with Yammer, to focused groups using Teams.”

6. Give your team the tools they need to thrive

Technology should be your enabler and not your starting point. Think about what you’re trying to achieve and then look at the technology and tools that can best enable you to achieve those objectives.

Rounding off a day packed with valuable insights and practical tips, Nick ended the panel with a final piece of advice.

“The most important ingredient for good collaboration will always be the people. Once you have that, give them the tools they need to succeed.”

A huge thank you to our speakers on the day for sharing their experiences and lots of actionable learnings which can be taken back to your business, whether it’s making slight tweaks to your already smooth operation or providing a breath of fresh air to the way your teams currently collaborate.

With these learnings and an eager team, you’ll have what it takes to get collaborating efficiently and effectively.

With the right culture, the right behaviours, and the right technology, collaboration can resume its status as hugely helpful activity. Learn more about how to get the right collaborative balance in your business with our in-depth article.

Discover more from the Collaboration: Make it work event

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