There’s plenty of doom and gloom in the media about automation replacing jobs. According to PwC, automation will replace 30% of UK workers – around 10 million people – over the next 15 years[1]. And even more worryingly, Nesta predicts that automation will eventually replace 60% of all UK jobs.

Luckily, Paul took to the stage with much more optimistic news. According to research, creative jobs are more resistant to tech-takeovers: only 13% of creative workers are at risk of automation[2]. And it’s easy to see why – ever heard a pop song generated by a computer? Clever computing, yes. But enjoyable music or admirable art? Not really.

Creativity isn’t ‘fluff’

Paul starts by looking at the definition of creativity. It’s an attitude, a state of being and doing. The ability to make and invent. And while this may sound fluffy, it has clear commercial value. You only need to look at the £110m pay-out that the shareholders at Adam & Eve/DDB got. And they earned it through creating big, beautiful work that explodes in culture and becomes part of the national conversation. You only need to look at the agency’s work with John Lewis and Marmite to see how well they do it.

These ideas and this creativity carries a premium – and it’s one that companies will pay for. Which is then reflected in salaries: creators earn 13% more than non-creators[3]. But it’s not just the money that matters, as creators feel 34% happier, 29% more energised and 31% more fulfilled than non-creators[4].

Contrary to what many people might believe, the UK’s creative industry doesn’t just sit in a London bubble. Creative jobs are spread throughout the country, and as an industry it’s bigger than heavyweights like financial services and construction. Almost 3m people are employed in a creative job – that’s 1 in 11 of us. It’s an industry that’s one of the UK’s shining lights: it’s worth £84bn and is growing every year[5].

For creatives, it all sounds good so far.

The marriage between art and science

Paul points out one obsession in our industry: marketing science. From programmatic buys and big data to automated trading desks and real-time bidding, it’s everywhere you look. Technology lets us do amazing things for our companies and customers, and when it powers marketing science it undeniably drives great efficiencies.

But it’s important to keep the balance right. Ours is an industry where we can take an artistic, creative career path. We can dream, model, make, curate, create and build. Because without our big, bold ideas, there’s no great campaigns. And then there’s nothing for the marketing science-side to optimise, drive or bid on.

The answer lies in the marriage of art and science. We can elevate and celebrate the art and creativity in marketing, by using technological advances. And then we can create amazing moments for our audience.

Every business is a technology business

Paul moves on to discuss the brain: you’ve probably heard of the differences between the left and right sides. The left is associated with science, logic, fact and analytics, while the right is about creativity, intuition, feel and emotion. The left is also dominant in language, understanding what you hear and handling speaking. It’s also about logic and maths, and when you tell someone a fact, it’s pulled from the left side. The right is in charge of movement, facial recognition, and processing music. It also does some maths, but more estimations and comparisons. It allows you to take great leaps of faith, looking beyond the data. Its role in language is more about interpreting tone and context.

So, how can ‘right brainers’ – those creative, gut-instinct types – drive organisational change?

Paul states that every business is now a digital business, as customers are in control and have access to all kinds of technology. This is driving digital transformation, which is about continuously inventing new products and ideas to address changing needs.

If companies want to remain competitive, they must constantly adapt and reinvent, and use creativity to solve problems. 83% of businesses believe that investing in creativity fosters innovation[6].

Creativity is the new productivity

This leaves us with one conclusion: creativity is turning into the new productivity. Creative problem solving is driving business progress, and 78% of businesses think that investing in creativity raises productivity[7].

The future of the UK economy lies in our ability to nurture creativity, and to help people develop it as a skill. And this isn’t just important in creative industries. All businesses can benefit from creative thinking, if they want to adapt and evolve, and solve their customers’ changing needs.

However, only 41% of people would describe themselves as being creative, and only 31% are living to their creative potential[8]. So, our challenge now is to bring that creativity to the fore, and help people reach that potential.

Now read  about how you can improve creativity in your business, without risking your security.

Or see how devices can help inspire and enable creativity, in this video.

[1] UK Economic Outlook, PWC, July 2017

[2] Nesta

[3] Adobe

[4] Adobe

[5] DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates, January 2016

[6] Adobe

[7] Adobe

[8] Adobe

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It’s a fairly new relationship, so it hasn’t yet reached the heady heights of pairs like Morecambe and Wise. But it’s going to help you be more creative than Jagger and Richards, and more successful than Ben and Jerry. More adventurous than Go Pro and Red Bull, and (a lot) more productive than Scott and Schrute.

And here’s how.

Working to improve customer experience

Microsoft and Adobe have teamed up to help businesses improve customer experience, and raise their marketing game.

Because marketing isn’t easy now. Audiences are tougher to crack, customers demand better interactions, and creative ideas are getting bigger, bolder and more insightful. While huge volumes of data give you a goldmine of information, an inability to use it often bars the way in. Plus, with new regulations coming in, security and compliance has never been more important.

If marketing campaigns are going to succeed, there’s a lot to do. And businesses can’t solve all of those challenges using one product, one company or one service. Now’s the time for partnering up, so businesses get the best of both worlds. Businesses, if they’re going to produce stellar marketing, need collaboration, identity, data and intelligence at their core.

Which is exactly what Adobe and Microsoft give. With this new partnership, people can bridge the gap between data and content. They can create an identity that spans across countries, so customers get the same experience wherever they are. And they can use data to deliver compelling, personalised experiences.

So, the big question: how?

When you combine Microsoft’s powerful, intelligent cloud and Adobe’s advanced marketing capabilities, you’ve got a system to attract and engage customers in relevant, exciting ways.

Signing documents can be a pain. You’ve either got to find a programme that lets you electronically sign it, or you’ve got to go down the process of printing it off and signing it by hand. It’s not always feasible – especially if you’re on tight deadlines. Now, however, Adobe Sign will work across all Microsoft products, like Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.

More and more people want to work from home, on the train, or in a coffee shop. With Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Stock, and Microsoft Teams, creatives can collaborate wherever they are. The chat-based workspace can speed up giving feedback, sharing ideas and making decisions. And soon, it’ll work with Adobe Experience Cloud too.

When you’re on a tight deadline, and you need agreements, approval and signatures from people in your team, every second counts. So, the combination of Adobe Sign and Microsoft Teams helps you speed up the process and ensure everyone’s involved. Plus, the dashboard has a tab for sending documents for signature, and a bot that lets team members manage and track documents.

Just like peanut-butter-and-jam gives you the perfect combo of sweet and salty, fruity and dry, Adobe and Microsoft give businesses the tools to unleash marketing campaigns that designed for today’s digital customers.

Find out more about the partnership here

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“What ifs” can turn a mundane idea into something groundbreaking. They spark creativity and give flight to new ideas. And being creative is highly valued these days. In a recent survey, 77% of employees consider it to be the 21^st-century job skill.[1]

People at the top see it the same way. When asked “What is the skill you most value in your people?” most CEOs answered, “creativity”.[2] There’s a simple reason for that. Creativity no longer just applies to specific roles, such as marketing or product development. Instead, it releases new approaches to processes, operations, sales activities and more. Being able to think differently unlocks innovative problem solving that benefits the whole enterprise.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) says that creativity at work is going to be one of the most important and in-demand skills in 2020, along with critical thinking and complex problem solving.[3] Continually asking “what if” opens the path to creative, innovative solutions.  

The challenge of “what if”

That’s the upside of “what ifs”. On the other hand, they can also be fierce inhibitors. Nothing stifles creative ideas faster than a person who feels that they or the business are under threat: What if I’m ridiculed? What if it exposes the business to risk?

People, data, devices and ideas face internal and external threats from cybercrime, identity theft, security breaches, and more. If you don’t feel secure, you can’t tackle a situation with confidence. If your back isn’t covered, you can’t do your best. For enterprises and ideas to flourish, you must have confidence in the environment you work in, and trust in the people you work with. You need to be reassured and relaxed enough to believe in your big ideas and ambitions. That puts a lot of pressure on the enterprise to provide a secure framework for creativity to flourish.

So, what if the threat were removed? What if security and safety were an intrinsic part of the environment in which teams work and thrive? That’s why we created Microsoft 365 Enterprise. 

Always-on security enables creative thinking

Microsoft 365 Enterprise ensures the security you need is always on, working away behind the scenes to protect you. This means collaboration and creativity can flourish in a safe environment. Your company’s data stays protected across devices – even on employees’ personal ones. Your data and devices are safe from threats, and managed company devices automatically stay up to date with the latest features and security updates.

In today’s workplace, there can be up to five generations working together in the same company, office and even teams. That’s the kind of mix that can give rise to great ideas. Ideas that pack a punch and move an enterprise forward.  The kind of ideas that start from “what if” and can only emerge when people feel digitally, physically, and psychologically safe.

[1] Steelcase Creativity and the Future of Work Survey 2017
[2] Creativity will drive the US economy, US News, 2012
[3] The Future of Jobs, WEF, 2016

Find out more about Sleep Well + Dream Big campaign

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Any CMO looking to establish a marketing team of the future, should look at embracing data and insights into their department to inform decisions and provide direction that enhances the customer experience. However, it’s not as simple as just employing a few data pros and letting them get on with it. It’s essential they get on with and feel comfortable integrating into your creative team – they need to collaborate to add value. And that can be the tricky part. But once you get every part of the brain working together, you’ll have one powerful, unified marketing team for the future.

So, how can you do it?

Scott Allen, CMO at Microsoft UK, was at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2017 where he took time out to speak with Russell Goldsmith from the csuite podcast. In the interview, Scott shares his thoughts on the value of data and creativity skills in his marketing team, including the pleasure and pain he’s experienced in finding talent for the future. Hear more from Scott in the recording below:

Scott Allen has also appeared on a panel with three other industry experts at MOI’s Disrupt Forum in London. Scott discusses his team structure and the people he looks to employ when building a modern marketing organisation of the future. The way he has hired people has changed over the past five years, with his team now made up of people who are part scientist and part creative. Hear more from Scott at 6 minutes 25 seconds in the recording below:

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What’s more, when people collaborate, ideas and creativity thrive. When a team or department is collaborating smoothly, openly sharing information and able to communicate seamlessly, they work more effectively. So, your business can achieve company goals quicker.

Obviously, collaborative working can bring employees closer together in the office. But that also applies when employees work from home or remotely in another office, because when everyone feels involved, they feel part of the team. And when your whole team are contributing, you’ll find the that by using all the experience in your teams you’ll shape much stronger solutions.

Collaborative technology has a big part to play in enabling these efficient, collaborative and connected teams. It can also empower employees to work more flexibly instead of traditional office hours, making it easier to work from home or when travelling between meetings. This modern, flexible approach to work means teams can achieve greater efficiency and overall job satisfaction.

Enhanced collaboration and mobility in every Surface

The Microsoft Surface range is designed to bring people together and each device works seamlessly with the other. And when devices and products collaborate better together, so do people.

The powerful Surface range has an ideal balance of versatility, performance and craftsmanship. So, you can create and collaborate without compromise. The Surface Pro is an incredibly versatile two-in-one that adapts to any situation. The Surface laptop is thin, light and powerful and slides effortlessly into your bag. The Surface Book is, to many, the ultimate high-performance laptop and it’s now more powerful than ever. The Surface Studio gives you a huge digital canvas that’s perfect for collaborative idea generation. And the revolutionary Surface Hub connects you with co-workers or business partners, in your company or around the world, making teamwork possible.

And when you’ve finished your day job, Surface is equally powerful and versatile for your personal life, whether that’s home browsing or an exciting evening venture, and offers a seamless experience between your two worlds.

Watch a day in the life of David Frymann, Planning Partner at advertising agency McCann London, as he helps others achieve their ambitions during the day and realises his own at night. All with the power of Surface:

Find out more about unlocking the Power of the Group
Find out more about our Surface Family

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Take a look at our range of infographics, white papers and resources available to help you be GDPR compliant.

Supporting your EU GDPR compliance journey with Microsoft Enterprise Mobility +  Security

Find out how Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security can help support your journey towards EU GDPR compliance.

Download the infographic

How to provide persistent data protection on-premises and in the cloud

Protecting your data is an important part of the GDPR. Find out how Azure Information Protection can support your GDPR compliance journey.

Download the infographic

How to grant and restrict access to data

Use Azure Active Directory to audit user activity in your system, manage identities and protect access to sensitive data and apps.

Download the infographic

Helping you and your organisation understand the GDPR
Where to get started with the GDPR
Get GDPR compliant with the Microsoft cloud

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But not only are Industry 4.0 technologies such as automation, robotics and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) creating opportunities for greater efficiency and collaboration, they’re also creating data. A lot of data. Although managing this data can present its own challenge, it also presents a tremendous opportunity to create new products and services from the insights this data provides. That opportunity is servitization. It allows manufacturers to provide greater value to their customers further up the value chain and greater visibility to their suppliers further down the value chain.

At Microsoft, we’ve been able to help a number of UK-based global manufacturers, such as pipeline and flow leader Rotork, and aerospace pioneer Rolls-Royce, make better use of their data to create tangible business value through greater insight and servitization.

If you want to get a better understanding of how you can transform and create business value by embracing Industry 4.0 technology, the first place to start is our new whitepaper: The Road to Customer Intimacy through a Service-Centred Approach. Developed jointly between Microsoft and The Manufacturer magazine, this report gives practical insight into digital transformation in manufacturing – from the impact on manufacturers’ people and culture to key value drivers.

Download The Road to Customer Intimacy Whitepaper

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Delve deeper

Take a closer look at Sanjay’s presentation on digital transformation in Manufacturing below:

To find out even more about digital transformation in Manufacturing, download our eBook  Manufacturing, Reimagined, which explores how IoT is transforming the business of manufacturing.

Download the Manufacturing, Reimagined ebook

The post Sanjay Ravi on Digital Transformation in Manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

We can help you bring your people, data and processes together in transformative new ways to deliver actionable business insights. When all your decisions are powerfully data-driven, timely and pre-emptive you’ll be able to invest wisely for the future, while keeping things running smoothly right now. Because that, after all, is what your business is all about.

• Create better products and develop lucrative new revenue streams
• Improve customer experiences by understanding and serving customers better
• Optimize operations to maximize revenue and profit
• Empower your employees, increasing their productivity and cutting cost

Genscape is fuelling growth

“Typical solutions can constrain the art of the possible. We can grab everything we would have wanted five years ago and at marginal cost.”

Albert Hofeldt, Ph.D., Managing Director of Platform Services, Genscape.

New ‘Systems of Intelligence’ drive it all.

Driving this transformed new way of working are systems of intelligence, powered by all sorts of innovative Internet of Things technologies, real-time sensors and considered new processes. These enable four powerful and complementary approaches to analytics which together help you to run your plant better today, while planning for tomorrow.

What’s happened?
Descriptive analytics help you capture, aggregate, plot, highlight and present data.

Why did it happen?
Diagnostic analytics suggest plausible explanations and unearth hidden correlations.

What might happen next?
Predictive analytics forecast and predict outcomes intelligently classifying insights and actions.

What should I do?
Prescriptive analytics advise on the best actions to take, making smart recommendations.

Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency is optimising energy costs with Microsoft Enterprise Services

“We are able to quickly and cost-effectively connect and present big data from industrial IoT devices for remote monitoring, analysis and control.”

Steve Raschke, CEO of agency partner Candi Controls. 

Swap retro-active thinking for forward-looking new strategies.

Infrastructure resilience
Ensure security of supply

• See and stop current leaks and blockages
• Predict and stop future incidents
• Deliver predictive maintenance and improve scheduling
• Start actively planning for resilience

Happy customers
Enrich the customer experience

• Monitor social channels and sentiment in real time
• Respond fast to customer needs and manage complaints
• Deliver smarter billing and improved brand experiences
• Cross-sell services and increase revenue

Competitive operations
Succeed in changing markets

• Understand flow rates and blockages
• Act fast and smart to rectify issues
• Automate the smart deployment of engineers and jobs to drive up efficiency
• Plan for changing compliance and maintenance needs

Proactive management
Predict events and respond faster

• Gain one view across plants, employees, customers and more
• Connect to great 3rd party feeds like weather and satellite data
• Judge where field crews are most needed
• Reduce events though better maintenance

Rolls Royce is transforming customer service with Microsoft Enterprise Services

“Microsoft [is] helping us filter the signal from the noise across large data sets, so we can focus on finding the real value in the data.”

Nick Farrant, Senior Vice President, Rolls-Royce.

Art meets science.

Many of the world’s most respected data scientists and architects work for us, including Dr. Matthew Smith and our Chief Technology Officer, Pete Mellish. They bring the art and science of complex data algorithms together to reimagine predictive modelling – supported by Microsoft’s R&D division, deep sector experience, visibility into global best practices.

 Meet Pete: Disruptor and re-inventor

As Microsoft Enterprise Services CTO for Manufacturing, Utilities and Services, Pete Mellish brings a wealth of experience from across Microsoft to bear on one question: how to disrupt and reinvent business. He loves to challenge the status quo, unravel customer challenges and drive rapid transformation.

 A simple 5-week engagement is all it takes.

We’ll evaluate your business goals and give you a clear view of the impact you can achieve.

eSmart Systems is delivering smart grid management

“The new sensors monitor on a microsecond-level, and that’s a lot of data. What we’re doing now…is connecting all of that data together and providing grid managers with a single user interface for all of their tasks.”

Knut Johansen, CEO at eSmart Systems.

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Welcome to the first blog of a new Microsoft UK Health series “Security in the Cloud for the NHS”. We understand you’re hearing a lot of things that make you nervous about moving to the cloud and meeting compliance standards. The UK healthcare industry has been victim of some incidents of ransomware that have threatened hospital operations and the ability to provide timely care. According to Gartner, security concerns are still the biggest reason organisations avoid the public cloud. They hear about stolen patient records, breaches in security, and ransomware.

With this blog series, we want to raise awareness on the current security landscape and regulatory framework as well as explain our “protect, detect, and respond” approach to security threats. This is an industry-standard mind-set, and the one we use to manage our platform operations and we recommend this approach to our customers.

A lot of technology to protect information is readily available. Usually these protection mechanisms protect endpoints like devices or applications. But here’s the problem: most companies have already been breached—they just may not know it yet. Hackers can sit inside a company’s network for 200 days or more before anyone notices. Protection needs to be stronger across all devices and endpoints. You need stronger doors and stronger locks to keep the bad guys from getting in.

That said, even with protection, the bad guys can still get in. Then what? You need a way to detect intrusions. This is similar to putting up cameras to spot criminals breaking into your house. Detection, however, requires sophisticated resources—not just tools, but access to millions of signals plus the advanced algorithms and computing power to monitor them, interpret them, aggregate them, and report them as attacks are happening. Microsoft has machine learning capabilities built from our considerable expertise, experience, and research investments.

Finally, once an attack has been detected, you need the ability to respond very quickly, ideally in an automated way, to control the damage. For example, automatically recognising “impossible travel”—logging in from Stoke and then logging in from China an hour later—and requiring a second authentication attempt, with Multifactor Authentication enabled, before allowing access. Or, pushing a required update to users of your application after identifying a potential exploit during an internal penetration test.

Current UK cyber threat landscape

Figures from Get Safe Online reveal that a staggering £10.9 billion was lost to the UK economy as a result of fraud, including cybercrime, in 2015/16.

In last for years, the rate of NHS cyber-attacks quadrupled. The Freedom of Information (FoI) investigation examined spending, defences and the manner of attacks and despite the increase in cyber-crime, the report uncovered that overall spending on cyber-security across the 75 trusts and foundation trusts providing this data had remained at around £18m since 2013.  Meanwhile, cyber-attacks, such as ransomware, had increased from 1,565 reported cases in 2013/14 to 7,178 in the last financial year. Unsuccessful attempts, including hundreds of thousands phishing attempts, were not included.

The Information Commission Office (ICO) “Data Security Incident Trends” shows that the UK Health Sector is accountable for the most data security incidents. A particular risk factor for incidents within this category is the use of “autocomplete” rather than typing in an individual’s full name into the “to” field. Often, the sender of the email will not realise their error until alerted to it by the recipient. Microsoft secure posture can help reduce the impact of these accidents.

Our commitment to trusted cloud

When it comes to customers feeling secure about the cloud, trust must be earned. Microsoft has made a deep commitment to trust that can be summarised on these 4 points:

1. The first trusted cloud principle is Security. Microsoft cloud services are designed, developed, and operated to help ensure that confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data is completely secured.
2. Next is Privacy. We believe that you own your data. You should be able to keep your data. Your data is not ours to be used. We want to provide all of our services while keeping your data private to you.
3. We strive for Transparency. We want you to understand how we are running the services and how, and where, your code and data is used and stored. We want to ensure that we are as transparent as possible with all of that information.
4. We also focus on Compliance. We work with regulators to make sure that we are in compliance with regulations such as GDPR.

At Microsoft, we are committed at empowering every individual and organisation in the world to achieve more. Working with organisations that span all the sub-verticals in health, Microsoft have made a deep commitment in earning your trust as an advisor in the healthcare industry.

This is why we are working with our partners and with Intel to conduct a Healthcare Security Readiness Programme to help your Trust to understand where it stands in terms of maturity, priorities and breach security capabilities, compared to the Healthcare industry across eight types of breaches and 42 security capabilities.

The Report

Together with Intel and our Partners, we are running a global program offering a complimentary and confidential Healthcare Security Readiness Programme.

These engagements involve one-hour meeting (face to face or over Skype for Business) in which you will receive a complementary and confidential report that shows how your organisation’s security compares with the broader healthcare industry. The readiness programme can be tracked to key regulations and standards, enabling participants to see how to address any gaps to help with compliance.

Some interesting trends have started to emerge 19 organisations that have already conducted the programme in the UK:

• The UK healthcare organisations outperformed Global ones in capabilities such as User Awareness Training or Endpoint Device Encryption. However, they are lacking behind in Security Information & Events Management and Threat Intel The least mature capabilities overall in UK Health organisations are Network Data Loss Prevention (Prevention Mode) and Server Solid State Drive (Encrypted), with respectively only 6% and 9% of organisations have it.
• When it comes to organisational priorities, 82% of respondents listed Cybercrime Hacking as a high priority, followed by Ransomware (75%) and Insider Accidents or Workarounds (63%) as medium/high priorities. The data rich report shows how your security capabilities compare to global and UK healthcare’s.

This information suggests that there is a lot that can be made to protect, detect and prevent attacks. An example report is available for your preview.

If you want to have more information on how to conduct the programme, get in touch with us and one of our representatives will respond your queries.

View the Health and Life Sciences Breach Security Assessment Report

Get in touch with Microsoft to understand more on how to find out where your organisation stands in terms of maturity, priorities, and breach security capabilities, compared to the rest of the industry.

Email: UKsecuritybreachasse@microsoft.com

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