In 2022, only 4% of people were employed in digital roles throughout the public sector, highlighting the need to embrace technology, upskill internally and produce better outcomes for everyone. The way to do it is by employing public sector employees as ‘change agents’.

Usually recruited from within the organisation, change agents help to manage the relationship between the organisation and the individual for a smooth digital transformation. The best change agents have extensive experience in department processes and technology and can offer moral support to those cautious of change.

Full-time change agents can be expensive and may divert some of the best and most productive people from a team. So organisations should make smart decisions about how a change agent programme is staffed, managed and supported.

As part of Microsoft’s Innovate Together programme, the Change Agent programme aims to train at least one person in every public sector service to be a catalyst for change. Delivered through expert training sessions and an online community of UK public sector change agents, the programme will provide a platform for the rapid exchange of ideas and solutions to maximise your journey to digital transformation.

This article offers insights into the powerful role of the change agent and allows you to register for the next Change Agent training programme in June 2023, open to those from Local Government organisations.

Delivering transformation benefits on the ground with a change agent

A change agent supports strategic transformations to deliver benefits locally on the ground. They also act as transformation conduits from a technology and a culture perspective. On one hand, they need to supply the central team with regular progress reports and flag up potential issues. On the other hand, they need to win over colleagues and support them in embracing new technologies and ways of working that may be unfamiliar to many.

Using technology to overcome complexity

Given the right training, change agents can match an organisation’s needs with the technology that it already has and advise on other opportunities. The Change Agent programme provides training on a whole host of transformational technologies such as AI and Power Automate, along with insights into how to leverage the tech you are likely already using day to day, from Microsoft Teams to SharePoint.

The training also equips participants with an understanding of the principles of change, how to lead and support change, different learning styles and meeting accessibility requirements through technology; providing attendees with the confidence, theory and practical examples to embrace and lead change within their own organisations.

Confidence in these ‘softer skills’ is crucial in enabling change within a complex industry, which is why one day in the five-day Change Agent programme option is dedicated to providing attendees with the skills to enable change. This content is delivered by industry experts; supporting colleagues to adopt digital tools requires empathy and an understanding of human psychology as well as knowledge of the products being used.

The programme also offers a bespoke version for managers within local government, providing them with sessions on how to support their teams with change, as well as technology specific sessions. This is imperative to fostering a culture of change through a top-down approach.

What really brings the training to life is the real-world examples of how other public sector organisations have leveraged these technologies as the catalyst for change within their own teams. After completing the sessions, the change agents are invited to join a digital community of alumni to further share best practice, providing access to a wider support network at anytime, anywhere.

Even where organisations across the public sector provide completely different services, most have shared common problems and therefore benefit from understanding what technologies others have implemented to resolve these issues. For example, many have a similar approach to technology-enabled time and task management, automation of document ingestion, and reporting. Collaboration between change agents should therefore be encouraged, even if that means overcoming competitive instincts.

How change agents enable transformations that differ in scale

Whilst all public sector transformations differ in scale and scope, the success of a change agent depends on a close understanding of how people respond to – and eventually accept – the introduction of technology into their working life. Leaning on a community of change agents continues to be an invaluable resource to previous alumni.

Large scale transformations could include the introduction of a new HR system. For a smaller transformation, a change agent might help a local council save time on admin by enabling the adoption of some simple digital tools. The Change Agent training programme looks at a wide range of common problem statements and the technologies that help to address some of those issues, with digital breakout rooms to discuss and collaborate.

The first key to achieving measurable benefits from change lies in finding opportunities for efficiencies that might start small or incrementally but can then scale across an entire organisation. The second key is to persuade colleagues to collaborate with the transformation programme and embrace technologies that empower them to do more with less. This usually begins by showing them that change is possible, even on a small scale. This is why change agents benefit from training in technology acceptance strategies throughout the course.

Acquiring change-agent skills

Change agents can be full-time professionals who are qualified to optimise a large-scale programme, or enthusiastic volunteers who work within their teams to deliver measurable results on the ground.

Giving these proactive individuals a forum to update their skills and coordinate their efforts adds value to any organisation’s transformation effort by enhancing its collective intelligence. In other words, a coalition of change agents is greater than the sum of its parts.

Change agents can benefit from learning new skills and putting them into practice at the same time. This is often more efficient than attempting to accelerate onboarding with an intense training schedule at the outset. Enabling new recruits to gradually build their confidence through practice lessens the risk of overwhelming them with too much information. Not all change agents are volunteers; some are nominated by their manager to gather insights on the transformation programme, or to develop their career.

The Microsoft Change Agent programme

This free programme is a national initiative designed to support local and regional government (LRG) in its digital transformation efforts. It is open to Microsoft customers, and offers a five-day version aimed at the ‘change agents’ within an LRG organisation, and a two-day version for managers.

The training employs industry experts from Microsoft and Socitm, and experienced local authority staff to help prepare delegates in theories of change, using a wide variety of Microsoft technologies to address common industry problem statements. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn and engage with others in similar roles across LRG. The programme also provides an opportunity for participants to join a collaborative network of Change Agent alumni practitioners, while learning about digital transformation technologies such as Power Platform, Power Automate, and Power BI.

Read more about our Change Agent programme and partnership with Socitm in the Financial Times – Equip the public sector with digital skills for better government.

Find out more

Microsoft Learn for government
Microsoft Adoption Score
Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative
Digital Skills Hub

About the author

I am an Account Technology Strategist (ATS) at Microsoft, with an MSc in managing and leading IT systems change. I help customers understand how Microsoft products can solve business problems, and I lead the Change Agent programme within the Innovate Together programme. I’m passionate about technology acceptance and supporting scalable, sustainable change across public services.

The post Digital public services: How to drive transformation with change agents appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This year’s theme for Earth Day is ‘Invest in Our Planet’ and focuses on engaging governments, institutions, businesses, and citizens to do their part. With this in mind, sustainability in 2023 has become as much the responsibility of each employee as it is the wider organisation’s.   

But how do you make sustainability everyone’s job?

Sustainability might not be the core focus of every role but there is an activist in us all. At Microsoft we believe there are ways to unlock this in employees and empower them to engage with sustainability in a way that is authentic and relevant to their role.

For the past 20 years, I have spent a lot of time in the ‘S’ of ESG. Alongside communications and storytelling, I now have the privilege of focusing on the ‘E’ of ESG. I’d like to share four ways we at Microsoft have found effective in helping make sustainability everyone’s job.

#1 Vision and mission

Does your vision and mission clearly align with sustainability? If employees know that their work ties in with the mission of the company, they can feel empowered in making sustainability their business too. Businesses have an opportunity and a responsibility in sustainability so look at your company’s mission and if you need to influence work with the CEO to weave in sustainability goals.

“At Microsoft, we have a strong purpose-led mission: ‘Empower every person on the planet to achieve more.”

Victoria Oakes, Chief of Staff for Sustainability, Microsoft

#2 Collaboration is Queen

To make sustainability everyone’s role, break down silos to make it easier for everyone to work together and foster a community that will collaborate for the greater good. At Microsoft, three things helped us to tackle this.

First, we created a sustainability board where we picked people in each area of the business to represent their teams in sustainability. This forum created a safe space to collaborate, share blockers, challenges, ideas and innovation, and disseminate information. Scaling the work and sharing knowledge is also critical, so having a board has really helped us to develop ‘champs’ in the business who share their insights via their board team lead.

Secondly, we created a dedicated channel on Teams that connects the wider business and gives us a place to share opportunities, wins, training and ideas. We often do social events centred around volunteering, which is not only a good way to give back but also a way to form closer connections with the extended team.

Lastly, having an approachable and credible Chief Sustainability Officer is critical to help galvanise people who want to become part of something that isn’t always their core remit

#3 Demystify sustainability

At Microsoft we have a Sustainability In Action badge that helps us to train the company in all things sustainability, from our own goals and pledges to our narrative, tools and products. We also have regular training and learning sessions with our core team present, so people know who to approach for different kinds of help, support and insight.

Another way to help educate and train people on sustainability is by leveraging world events to tell your story. Earth Day and COP, for example, are great opportunities to educate people when they’re most engaged. We also recently published the Microsoft report on Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap, to help businesses grasp the importance of sustainable transformation. It’s also imperative to remember the importance of social impact. Creating social value and purpose whilst doing business gives companies the opportunity to give back authentically. Companies that can do more should do more, and those that invest will go further. Here at Microsoft, we’re proud of our social impact programs both locally and globally.

#4 Reward and recognise

When people feel valued and recognised their wellbeing is improved as well as their company engagement, it’s also a great way to build community and drive momentum. We always use our dedicated Teams channel to recognise those who complete training, make progress or sign deals. In fact, we’ve recently launched our Sustainability Star of the Quarter Award, which recognises those who make an impact in this space across the business.

Stay committed to your sustainability goals

To wrap up, I want to stress the importance of bringing energy, experience and passion when galvanising cross-discipline teams throughout the business. Walk the walk, stay driven, and commit to building a programme that breaks down silos and promotes collaboration. Invest in sustainable strategies to help you achieve net zero. Look for ways to recognise and reward sustainability efforts, and ultimately try to tie in sustainability and ESG with your company’s core mission and vision.

Not only will it help you make progress towards your sustainability goals, but it’ll inspire a lot of people along the way.

About the author

For the past 20 years Victoria has spent much of her time in communications and the purpose world. Currently holding the position as the Chief of Staff for Sustainability at Microsoft, Victoria leads program management, employee engagement, strategy and thought leadership for the sustainability business. Victoria cares deeply about ESG and how companies can balance business and purpose. She believes companies that can do more should do more and that these purpose levers can drive positive growth and innovation. Victoria also holds a trustee position with African Development Choices, is a judge for the Purpose Awards and won a National Social Impact Award and Platinum Club Award for the innovation she drove in raising awareness of inclusivity.

Find out more

Microsoft Sustainability – products for a Sustainable Future

Closing the Sustainability Skills Gap: Helping businesses move from pledges to progress

The post Putting sustainability into the heart of everyone’s job: 4 ways to take action appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

But what if we’re making a false assumption about the trade-off between growth and efficiency? This very question was raised at a stimulating discussion I took part in at the Financial Times Global Banking Summit in London back in December. We were talking about ‘Sustaining a growth mindset: Innovating for consumer needs’, and I was joined by fellow guests Claire Calmejane, Chief Innovation Officer at Societe Generale; Rishi Khosla, CEO and Co-founder of OakNorth Bank; and Andy Ellis, who is CEO of Mettle and Head of Digital Assets at NatWest Group. The event was moderated by Liz Lumley, Deputy Director of The Banker.

How can banks continue digital transformation in a downturn?

Liz Lumley launched the session by providing helpful context. Rising interest rates and inflation are a challenge to both fintech startups and consumers as the cost-of-living crisis looms and funding is constrained. Businesses are more focused on the shorter term, while consumer purchasing decisions are in a state of flux. Nevertheless, the world’s leading lenders continue to invest in technology, data and hyper-personalisation of services. These are seen as necessary steps to retain customer loyalty and improve risk management during uncertain times.

But, we asked ourselves, is digital transformation really delivering revenue growth and profitability fast enough for shareholders? The vulnerability of many fintech businesses at the current time would suggest otherwise.

Data insights that deepen customer relationships

All the participants agreed that data was going to play a central role in the future of banking, not least by providing an accurate and complete view of the customer. In essence, rich data enables banks to make better lending decisions by anticipating changes in businesses’ financial situations. Modern analytics also provide insights that customers want to know about, which gives banks opportunities to deepen client relationships and nurture their loyalty.

Artificial intelligence, sentiment analysis and omnichannel customer engagement are also on the agenda right across the sector. The advent of these technologies has led many established banks to partner with fintechs to improve the developer experience and add to their stock of digital skills.

Integrating with fintechs for better all-round customer value

Delivering more tailored banking services and real-time customer experiences is, no doubt, an attractive proposition. However, despite the temptation to snap up smaller businesses that can deliver these, Andy Ellis of NatWest Group believes fintechs should only be considered for acquisition if they align with a bank’s strategic mission and deliver a specific capability for a defined sector. While there may be no single formula for a successful partnership, effective integration is fundamental. Fortunately, banks are getting better at preserving the agile culture of startups, where so much value lies.

Meanwhile, banking-as-a-service (BaaS) offers significantly more growth potential than traditional banking, in the view of both Andy Ellis and Claire Calmejane. Looking further ahead, Claire also saw potential in greater collaboration around open data. But progress in this area will require an international framework around data standards, secure data exchange and certification.

Advocating industry evolution, not revolution

At Microsoft, we partner with banks to help them deepen and extend their relationships with clients. A key aim is to bolster customer trust through increased responsiveness and security, while anchoring digital transformation initiatives in improved customer experience. In other words, we need ongoing work to build the foundations for innovation rather than a wholesale digital revolution.

Digital transformation is a long-term process, as are the relationships that bankers seek to foster with their clients. Microsoft’s partner network, industry specialisations and technical expertise – as demonstrated by the Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services – play a key role in enabling this to happen, as well as helping businesses become more sustainable.

Looking ahead: agile banking operations that accelerate growth

One critical insight this debate revealed was the need for banks to create an efficient digital operating environment that can add products and services quickly while helping to mitigate factors like climate risk. Digital transformation can also help make lending smarter as well as faster, while growing the quantity of lending as well. As Rishi Khosla neatly put it, “The trade-off between operational efficiency and growth isn’t actually a trade-off if you’ve got a good operational environment.”

Find out more

Lead new opportunities and advancements in financial services

Scale to revenue: How to leverage fintech solutions to drive growth

4 ways to deliver a personalized banking experience

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services: Create new value with deeper customer connections

About the author

As Client Director for Microsoft, Janet is responsible for leading the strategic partnership between Microsoft and one of the UK’s leading banks. She focuses on supporting its transformation, anchored on business outcomes and drawing on Microsoft technology and partner solutions to deliver innovation and strategic change. Prior to this, Janet led Industry Strategy for Financial Services, helping customers address industry-wide challenges and innovate for the future of the industry.

Janet has a background in Corporate and Commercial Banking, having joined Microsoft in 2018 from Lloyds Banking Group and previously held roles at Barclays and NatWest. She has a personal interest in cultural transformation and has also played an active role in supporting the inclusion and diversity agenda during her career.

The post How to negotiate uncertainty in banking: aligning growth with efficiency appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Using hard data as a starting point, we explore the changing world of hybrid work. Guided by our own experiences of neurodivergence and disability, we debate how a more collaborative and accessible approach can drive efficiency across the public sector. In most cases we find that it can be done using technology that governments already possess.  

As a former policy advisor with hands-on experience of shaping equality legislation, these issues are all very close to my heart. 

Aligning leaders and teams to make hybrid work, work

The first episode of the Public Sector Podcast Series, season four, is The Future of Work – Facing the Hybrid Challenge. In it, Microsoft’s Henry Rex, industry advisor, and Rakhi Sachdeva, modern workplace specialist, discuss findings from the latest Work Trends Index report. The numbers reveal a significant disconnect between managers and teams around attitudes to remote working. 87 percent of remote employees reported feeling confident in their productivity at work, while only 12 percent of managers felt the same way about the performance of their remote teams.  

Managers can benefit from investing more trust in their teams and using soft skills to ensure that everyone gets access to the vision and culture of the organisation, which is key to productivity. Helping staff learn new skills ‘on the go’ improves both retention and productivity. We also discuss how a more flexible approach to work can empower individuals who have differing needs to be more effective. Building trust between management and staff enables everyone to align around the public service mission; as Henry Rex points out, people often join an organisation for the money, but stay there for the culture.

Neurodivergence and the innovation challenge

In episode two, Innovate Together, Microsoft account technology strategist, Andrew Boxall, talks about managing change in government and how it can enable staff to embrace more productive and collaborative ways of working. Along the way we discuss our shared experiences of being neurodiverse in the workplace, which provides insights into the challenges of data-driven innovation. 

Addressing bias and differing learning styles enables public servants to collaborate better across organisations. The Innovate Together initiative, supported by Microsoft, aims to accelerate innovation and best practice sharing across the public sector. Trailblazers like Norfolk County Council provide an inspirational example of how advanced techniques such as robotic process automation can drive efficiency.  

Success depends on leaders who set an example and have the initiative to share their learnings. All our guests agreed that making better use of existing tools is a great way to achieve incremental efficiency gains in government, and start building confidence. 

Extending accessibility and inclusion to drive productivity 

In episode three, Accessibility, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion, I speak to Maria Grazia Zedda, senior EDI manager at HS2, who is severely deaf. Maria Grazia speaks movingly about overcoming the challenges of disability and hardship when she arrived in London as a young woman. London is also where she found support on her career path and discovered her vocation, improving accessibility in the workplace for everyone. These uplifting experiences are captured in her first novel which is to be published in her native Italy. 

Maria Grazia welcomes the adoption of new technologies that enhance accessibility and inclusion, such as minicoms and auto-captions (Live Captions in Microsoft Teams), the use of which was accelerated by remote working. The momentum now needs to be maintained so that inclusion becomes a fundamental principle of the workplace and the built environment. 

Explore episodes from our previous series 

Our previous three podcast series provide fascinating insights into how efficiency in the public sector could be improved with fresh thinking.  

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season One

In Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 1, guests discuss how citizen services can be enhanced using new digital technologies. Further episodes explore the challenges of managing security across government in a digital world, and overcoming the barriers to legacy estate reduction. Hindsight is also explored as a means of understanding past mistakes and improving government performance in the future.

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season Two

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 2 builds on these themes, looking at how citizen identity in government can be managed simply and securely. The challenges of hybrid work, and the uses of geospatial data science in the context of the government’s levelling-up agenda, are also up for discussion. A highlight from series two is the episode that draws lessons from the Environment Agency’s experience of digital transformation. Cross-government data sharing also comes under scrutiny.

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season Three

Public Sector Podcast Series – Season 3 digs deeper into data sharing and how citizens engage with government. We assess the government’s Green agenda and the challenge of data literacy in driving innovation across the public sector. And what, we ask, do young people think about entering public service? We devote an episode to figuring out the changing face of apprenticeship in a hybrid world.

Find out more

Successful trial of the Microsoft and Socitm Change Agent programme

Our innovation – Norfolk County Council

Microsoft 365 Collaboration Blueprint for UK Government – Microsoft Industry Blogs – United Kingdom

How the public sector can streamline operations and innovate with intelligent automation – Microsoft Industry Blogs – United Kingdom

About the author

Aaron has worked at Microsoft as an industry advisor for central government for the last four years. Before that he spent twenty-five years in the public sector across a number of departments, in both central and local government, leading on technology policy and strategy. Most notably, he worked on the creation of the Equality Acts (2006 and 2010), the Public Sector Equality Duty and the translation of the EU Accessibility Regulations over to the UK. Outside of his day job, Aaron lectures on accessibility, inclusion and neurodiversity at local institutions and across the wider tech sector.

The post How to make government more effective in a hybrid world: podcast series appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Digital consumption is a growing part of the global economy. But even non-digital trade in goods and services increasingly depends on data to function effectively. Just as early economic progress was determined by a steady supply of hydrocarbons, the fourth industrial revolution will stand or fall on its ability to exchange and manage data. Our sustainable future depends on it.

The compliance challenges

Businesses and communities have recognised the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, and environmental regulations are increasingly exacting. This requires collective measures to quantify and mitigate environmental impacts. But the burden of compliance on organisations is potentially onerous.

Practical digital tools

For a start, it involves recording your company’s environmental footprint over time and reporting to stakeholders. Recycling, input substitution and the use of carbon offsets all need to be monitored to optimise resource management. Without practical digital tools, most businesses struggle to meet these challenges, or act on them effectively.

Sustainability insights in the cloud

Collaboration with our partners and customers confirmed that automation and data connectors are essential for turning good intentions into action on carbon emissions. We therefore developed a suite of industry-specific cloud offerings that could marshal the capabilities of the entire Microsoft cloud. We wanted to give customers the benefit of accurate real-time data insights to help drive agility and innovation, as well as more sustainable operations.

Accelerate progress on emissions

The Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability helps organisations accelerate their progress in recording, reporting, reducing and replacing their emissions. It provides integrated and automated data insights drawn from across the business to guide more effective actions.

For example, scattered emissions data can be presented in a unified view to enable better reporting. Companies can offer sustainability scorecards to customers who’d like to track progress against their own emission reduction targets. Microsoft Azure also enables you to pinpoint emission areas that require special attention.

Flexible systems to manage intermittent supply

Actions at a company or individual level drive progress towards net zero. But sharing data at an industry-wide or even global level adds greater value still. This is particularly true of clean energy, which needs high quality, shared data to balance supply and demand for the grid.

Energy from renewable sources such as wind tends to be intermittent, which legacy energy systems weren’t designed to handle. High levels of data integration and automation can make these systems more flexible, however. For example, by enabling intelligent demand management in the cloud, it becomes easier to balance the grid.

“Today we still have a 20th century grid, contorting itself to meet the interdependent demands of clean but intermittent renewables, growing demand, accessible and affordable energy for all, and energy security. We need a new 21st century grid that can seamlessly link demand and production, and this will only be possible with real-time, robust data.”

Mike Barry, Sustainable Business Expert

Shared data enables collective action

Market stakeholders need to share data freely to make this approach work in practice. But is the market ready or able to deliver this unprecedented level of data-sharing and cooperation, in what is supposed to be a competitive environment? Until regulators decide to step in with legislation that actively requires companies to share data, businesses need to accelerate their own transition to a more sustainable future. Fortunately, the cloud offers a highly flexible means of doing this.

Sustainable solutions in the cloud

At Microsoft, we’re committed to delivering trusted, integrated, data-driven solutions to accelerate the energy transition. Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Energy Data Services enable you to deploy cloud, data, and AI for improved KPIs that guide more effective operational decision-making and provide best-in-class sustainability metrics. With useful and reliable data insights available in the cloud as a single source of truth, your company’s culture can get aligned around sustainable growth.

Foundations for a lower-carbon future

By embracing the potential of Microsoft Cloud, you put in place the digital foundations for a lower-carbon future in which shared data and industry-wide collaboration can flourish. Learn more about Microsoft’s Cloud for Sustainability and other initiatives to accelerate your journey to net zero, such as the use of quantum computing to solve problems around the shift to renewable energy sources.

Find out more

5 steps to decarbonise the energy sector and reach net zero – Microsoft Industry Blogs – United Kingdom

Increasing transparency for carbon credits with Environmental Credit Service – Microsoft Industry Blogs

What’s new with Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability – Microsoft Industry Blogs

About the author

Kevin is responsible for developing the UK strategy in energy and utilities, supporting the enterprise commercial team to help clients achieve more. Working as part of the leadership team in Manufacturing and Resources for Microsoft UK, he supports the development of new digitally enabled markets, helping Microsoft continue its transformation from a technology vendor to a trusted partner.

Kevin is an Honorary Research Fellow with Warwick Manufacturing Group, supporting leading academic work to help solve infrastructures challenges in cyber security. He also works across government, academia and industry within the Construction Leadership Council, helping to accelerate digital transformation within the built environment.

The post Empowering the sustainable economy with data-driven clean energy appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In the current economic environment, banks and other financial services firms recognise the need to embrace digital transformation to get maximum value from their technology investments and do more with less. Leveraging technology also helps businesses to navigate emerging risks while driving sustainable and responsible business outcomes internally and with their customers. But how are they approaching these challenges? Last week I attended Sibos 2022 in Amsterdam, where business leaders, policy makers and technologists came together for deep dive debates and big picture outlooks on the future of the corporate banking market, including lending, trade and treasury solutions, and the related capital markets instruments. The energy and excitement on the pace of innovation was clear and I saw many themes that resonate with where we aim to lead the market in our Microsoft UK Financial Services business.  

Geopolitical tensions, the economic environment, evolving cyber threats, the race to Net Zero, the competitive landscape and ongoing reimagination of business models, modernising policy and regulation, and the continuous innovation of what is possible with people, process and digital technology are driving rapid change in the industry. When managed correctly, this change can unlock new opportunity. 

The industry is leading in many areas of technology, product and operating-model innovation, but a responsible business purpose and sustainable societal outcomes are now firmly embedded as objectives that banks are expected to deliver. “We should not seek innovation for innovation’s sake,” noted HM Queen Máxima of the Netherlands in the opening plenary. “With each new technology, we must always ask ‘What problems are we trying to solve?’” At the same time, we need to ensure any innovation is done securely and collaboratively while being additive to interoperability of data and platforms. The IMF predicts technological fragmentation can cut a country’s GDP by five percent; the benefit of collaborative industry approaches and ecosystem business models is clear. 

Through all the customer, partner, and colleague conversations at Sibos 2022, and while contributing and learning as much as we could about new ideas and technologies, the Microsoft UK Financial Services team took away four main action points: 

1.      Transform securely  

One of the key things that was highlighted by industry leaders was the importance of getting cyber security basics right to enable secure transformation. “The human firewall is the first line of defence,” said Nicolas Trimbour, Head of Fraud Prevention and Chief Data Officer for Cash Management at BNP Paribas. It’s important to educate employees and customers to recognise phishing, scams and ransomware attempts especially while the attach surface grows with increased digitisation and growing ecosystem business models. 

AI/ML solutions can work at high performance across large amounts of data to spot fraud or suspicious activity in transactions and endpoints. An industry-specific cloud solution that uses a completely private data model, while offering full data portability can help organisations as they shift from on-premise to hybrid or cloud-native architectures. At the same time, organisations can benefit from built-in security and compliance offerings that infuse healthy cyber hygiene. 

Our security experts have pulled together resources, training and more to help your teams empower and educate your employees and customers to be cyber aware. This is the right time to focus on this with October being Cyber Security Month. Check out our Cyber Security Awareness Month resources. 

2.      Build a talent and collaboration model that supports your digital ambitions   

Banks need access to the right engineering and digital skills at scale to drive industry digitisation and innovation. This is not just about attracting the talent, but re-skilling and up-skilling current resources and creating an empathetic, flexible culture. I’ve often heard it said that the number one headwind on many banks’ ability to execute on their digital transformation strategies is access to the right talent and skills. “We need to make sure we invest in our people and support them in their growth,” says Erika Irish Brown, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and Global Head of Talent at Citi.  

At Microsoft, we’re helping financial services institutions give their employees the digital skills they need. Whether that’s showing how decentralised teams can work collaboratively while working remotely, using tools to securely automate processes and workflows, or empowering pro dev, citizen dev and fusion dev teams to develop new apps, processes and reporting to make their work simpler in their domains. With 53 percent of employees more likely to prioritise health and wellbeing over work, leaders must take an empathetic approach to building a hybrid workplace. A culture that embraces flexibility and prioritises wellbeing will build a thriving organisation and drive long-term sustainable growth. This webinar with my colleague Craig Wellman goes into the importance of planning, leadership and culture in transforming financial services. 

3.      Align your ESG objectives to your business value 

The banking industry has a societal obligation to direct funding, capital, investment and lending to businesses in the real economy that will move the needle positively on ESG measures and on carbon reduction. And not only do customers, stakeholders, investors, regulators and governments expect it, but it’s also good for business. “$97 trillion needs to be invested to get to net zero. That’s a massive opportunity. It’s the most strategic and important thing we can do as an industry,” says Marisa Drew, CSO at Standard Chartered. 

The best way to start building effective ESG strategies is to tie it into your business value. Some institutions are already including their sustainability results in their financial statements. However, the industry faces challenges. A lack of global standard around climate reporting, mixed with slow manual processes and siloed data can affect how quickly you can build an effective strategy. “We don’t have perfect data, but we have actionable data,” says Gill Lofts, Global Financial Services Sustainable Finance Leader at EY. 

A unified and resilient cloud infrastructure like Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability can help you gain visibility across your data, drive efficiency, track and minimise your environmental impact and create sustainable value chains. We also need to drive more cross-industry collaboration.

“This is a planet-scale problem that needs planet-scale innovation and collaboration,” says Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft.

When we made our sustainability commitment in 2020, we also decided to share our learnings, results and practices, and increase our focus on supporting our customers drive their own ESG agendas. 

4.      Lead on innovation that can open new sources of value  

Recent innovations are increasingly moving from POC to production adoption across digital assets such as Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). 

While AI has been leveraged in organisations for a long time to reduce risk and streamline operations, organisations need to take a novel approach to AI to create new avenues of growth. “People don’t think of AI as a way to get to a new digital business,” says Sameena Shah Managing Director, AI Research Executive, and Chief Transformation Officer for Client Onboarding at JP Morgan Chase. “You need to bring people with a business mindset together with people with AI knowledge.” These groups, known as fusion teams, can help organisations deploy solutions up to two and a half times faster than siloed teams. 

“Cash as a form of payment has been declining, but cash in circulation is growing. We have also seen over the past 10 years the rise of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and CBDCs,” says Marion Laboure, Senior Economist at Deutsche Bank. 

One thing digitisation can do is help with financial inclusion. The 1.7 billion people who don’t have access to financial services can potentially use CBDC to start using financial services without a bank account. 

NFTs are currently used to tie ownership to a digital asset. However, as they evolve, it could allow the construction of the end asset to be more sophisticated. “That’s when it becomes more interesting to us in Finance. We can look at a new type of securitised asset, a new type of yield profile that may or may not be totally uncorrelated with traditional markets and assets,” said John Egan, CEO of L’Atelier at BNP Paribas. In fact, the US Securities and Exchange Commission are already looking into NFTs as a security. With no intermediaries, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is less complex and more agile than the traditional central counterparty model. However, it is probably riskier. Experts suggest a hybrid model for DeFi, with the right regulatory guiderails to manage AML, fraud, conduct risk, and cybercrime. 

“Web3 and blockchain technologies are unique because they create a different, efficient way of executing processes. They can be best served to decrease complexity, increase security and transparency,” says Willayna Banner, Microsoft’s Head of Web3/Blockchain in Financial Services. Learn how organisations are using blockchain to transform functions such as trade finance and commercial specialty insurance. 

Collaborating for industry growth and responsible innovation 

As we shared these thoughts and ideas on the future of banking at Sibos 2022, a recurring theme was industry collaboration across the widest perimeter of stakeholders. To drive growth while being resilient, secure and compliant in our changing industry, our key priorities must be removing friction, increasing interoperability and improving the service experience for our customers, empowering our teams, and driving inclusive, sustainable innovation. 

Find out more 

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services 

Microsoft Dynamics Customer Service Webinar for Financial Services: The changing role of the Digital Contact Centre

Rethinking the Customer Experience | Microsoft

About the author 

Niall is responsible for defining and leading Microsoft’s strategy for Financial Services in the UK. His focus is on helping Microsoft’s customers’ address industry-wide challenges, adapt to new regulatory frameworks and achieve business transformation through the adoption of Microsoft technology and partner solutions. He works to deliver on the cost, growth, risk and regulatory agenda front-to-back through the enterprise. 

Niall has experience in consulting, partner ecosystems, and large programme delivery in Financial Services. Niall has focused on operating model transformation and technology solutions for business challenges in Banking and Capital Markets, often in the regulatory change context. He has worked mostly with international banking groups and has lived in Hong Kong and London. 

The post The future of banking: How to stay innovative, collaborative and secure appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

As a society, we use apps to manage, connect and augment our day-to-day lives. So, it’s understandable that when we go to work, we expect to have the same. Apps can help organisations modernise processes, create new innovations and uncover opportunities.

According to the IDC, this growing demand for digital solutions means that 500 million new applications will be built in the next five years. And with a shortfall of 4 million developers predicted by 2025, most organisations don’t have enough developers to create the apps they need. We call this the App Gap Challenge:

The gap between the number of software developers you have today and the number of software developers you need to build the next generation of apps.

So how can organisations solve this? Low/no code platforms like Microsoft Power Apps can help speed up app development and democratise it across the organisation.

Empower developers to innovate with low/no code

Low/no code solutions allows the rapid building of solutions that automate and streamline routine tasks. This allows developers to focus on more high-value, complex work. According to The Total Economic Impact™ Of Power Apps commissioned study by Forrester Consulting, Power Apps can reduce app development and costs by 74 percent.

It can also help organisations drive a growth mindset culture in development teams. They can use Power Apps to quickly prototype a new idea and deploy this capability rapidly.

Take, for example, AstraZeneca’s HealthyMind app. The biopharmaceutical company wanted to ensure their employees had convenient, secure access to mental health resources. It took the developer team just four months to build the solution on Power Apps.

“Key to the choice [of Power Apps] was its ease of use. It is low code, so it is quick to develop and deploy. This all meant that we were able to design and build HealthyMind very quickly,” says Matt O’Halloran, Head of Workplace and Enterprise Services at AstraZeneca.

A platform like Power Apps can also connect to hundreds of different data sources including Microsoft Dataverse. This brings all your business data together into a single source of truth. Your developers can easily customise and extend capabilities in Azure and leverage business data from your systems of record such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Surface through Microsoft 365.

“[HealthyMind’s] natural integration with the broader suite that we use enabled us to deliver the application within the context of Teams, which was another game-changing factor,” says O’Halloran.

Drive digitisation with citizen development

With low/no code, development is democratised throughout your organisation. It allows anyone to solve business problems themselves.

At Centrica, citizen developers have built over 1,000 apps.

“We’ve really embraced this technology in Centrica. We’ve made an effort to be on the front foot and use the latest technology first, rather than waiting for it to be embedded and then acting,” says James Boswell, Director, Design and Engineering at Centrica. “It was a conscious risk but it’s worked really well – it’s giving us some great benefits and rewards and we’re well on the way to ensuring all our employees are digital employees.” 

For the energy services and solutions company, Power Apps has changed perceptions and steered to business-led development. Take, their finance team for example, in a couple of months they built an app that simplified and automated coordinating tax returns across different regimes. 

Build fusion teams to digitise and innovate faster

What happens when you combine your pro developers and citizen developers? You build fusion teams and unlock the true value of low/no code. According to Gartner, 84 percent of companies already have a fusion team.

By bringing together people with different experiences and knowledge into a multi-disciplinary team, you’ll build more innovative, inclusive apps, faster.

In a fusion team, citizen developers, with the support of pro developers, can rapidly build more complex applications. Citizen developers can focus on the UI, whilst pro developers can create and manage the APIs needed to enrich the application with key data sources. This accelerates time-to-delivery. Fusion teams can deploy solutions up to two and a half times faster than traditional siloed teams.

Centrica used a fusion team to develop an app that matches Centrica volunteers with people from the Trussell Trust charity.

“We’ve got people from all over the business working together. Some are working on the development work, some on the UI, some acting as scrum masters to manage the project. It’s all being done by people who came to the clinics and volunteered. And it will be a huge help to the Trussell Trust,” says Roy Young, Global Head of Office 365.

Build a fusion team

1. Find your use case

Pick a relevant problem that needs solving quickly and when solved, provides a considerable impact.

• Assemble your team

Have a mixture of proactive employees from across many lines of business, such as customer service, developers, team leaders, business leads.

• Plan your roadmap

Determine how much time it’ll take to create, implement, and produce results. Make sure you have time to troubleshoot and determine which solutions work best.

• Accept mistakes along the way

By working in an agile environment, your team will constantly be testing and may have to be ready to pivot when necessary.

Drive digitalisation and innovation

Power Apps helps organisations increase agility by giving everyone the ability to rapidly build low-code apps that drive innovation, modernise processes and solve tough challenges.

Cara Barratt, Workplace Transformation Lead at AstraZeneca agrees, “…we’re really looking at how we can empower our colleagues across AstraZeneca so those that have great ideas can develop their own use cases.”

Find out more

Accelerate innovation with low-code

Microsoft Power Apps

Join a Power App Microsoft Training Day

Make app building easier

Take the Fusion Development Learning Path

Take a fusion development approach to building apps

About the author

As a Power Platform Technical Specialist at Microsoft, Simon takes great pride in helping companies solve their business problems and generate insight into data, providing rapid answers to business questions through use of the Power Platform (specifically Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Power Virtual Agents, Dataverse and AI Builder). He enjoys working with the people in customer organisations who are helping to drive transformation using this technology and seeing the impact it has on their organisations and their careers.

The post How low/no code solutions can accelerate innovation and digitisation appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In this blog, we’ll look at the role of technology in underpinning collaboration and in driving more joined-up, effective care.

Capitalising on collaboration

Do you remember when health and care providers were strongly encouraged to compete with each other for business? Anyone in the NHS will appreciate this was at best a double-edged sword. Competition incentivises individual provider organisations to improve their services and gives patients more choice. However, it can also lead to poor coordination, duplication of effort and wasted resources. Striking a balance is key.

Collaboration has been a priority for the NHS since the Five Year Forward View was published in 2014. It was also underlined more recently in The Long Term Plan. But COVID-19 threw it into sharp relief. With unprecedented demand—and limited finances—siloed competition was no longer a viable option. The sheer scale of the task called for a collective response. Health and care providers shifted their focus towards more collaboration. Leveraging technology at the same time to facilitate collaboration and improve outcomes for local communities.

Louise Robson, Chief Executive Lead for Provider Collaboration across the North of England, puts it best:

“The collaborative response of trusts working together to deal with the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19 gave a tantalising glimpse of the potential achievements that could be realised by working at scale.”

COVID-19 is just one of the many challenges the NHS has been facing lately. But it has shown that successfully levelling up communities is without doubt a shared endeavour.

Levelling up begins with integration

This is where Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) come in. They bring together NHS, local councils and voluntary organisations, as well as wider delivery partners. ICSs seek to unlock the full potential of collaboration and provide better services to all. Early signs are promising. According to a survey by the NHS Confederation: “90 percent of system leaders believe they have been able to improve joint working quite or very effectively.”

ICSs are not a silver bullet, though. There is significant variance between different areas and complex relationships to negotiate. Many regions, such as the South East, have large numbers of NHS providers and multiple local authorities. They all must find ways to work together effectively. As the NHS Confederation notes: “Ultimately the success of systems (as with many healthcare reforms) will rely most on the kind of culture that develops between partners.”

Technology drives collaboration

How can health and care providers establish clear lines of communication, responsibility and accountability, both within and between each ICS? And, crucially, how can they provide the kind of care that truly levels up communities?

There remains much to work out, but one thing is certain: Technology will be essential.

Microsoft was proud to support health and care providers during COVID-19. Microsoft Teams, in particular, proved invaluable. By enabling collaborative and remote working, we helped staff to improve safety and productivity. They were able to deliver essential services to the people who needed them the most.

Collaboration allows the care team to optimise resources and solve problems together. But there are many other ways in which technology can help health and care professionals to work together more effectively.

For instance, patient monitoring, supported by Internet of Things (IoT) devices and analytics, ensures that staff are aware of their patients’ needs, and can coordinate and escalate their involvement accordingly. When organised into virtual wards, these technologies allow staff to deliver safe, effective and efficient care while allowing patients to remain in the comfort of their own homes.

But the value of technology extends beyond any one service. It’s a cultural enabler. By promoting a sense of belonging to a single organisation, ICSs can realise their vision of collective leadership and joined up care.

In this spirit of collaboration, ICSs can share their insights on the use of technology to help level up other ICSs. For example, the latest best practice developed in South West London ICS can be quickly translated across all London ICSs and beyond. In this way, whole regions—indeed, the whole nation—can improve their care.

From survival mode to sustainable modernisation

Microsoft played a vital role during COVID-19. And we’re committed to continue supporting your organisation to transform quickly in an agile, collaborative and people-focussed way.

Truly integrated care can only happen when health and care organisations can collaborate seamlessly. As a strategic partner, we can help you pursue long-term transformation. One based on integration and collaboration. And one that puts people at the centre of everything you do.

Find out more

Data-led foundation for unrivalled patient care

About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post The role of technology in helping communities to level up appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

I think this is true. There are always going to be more patients. But as recent times have shown, there’s hardly ever going to be enough of everything else.

The last two years has certainly exacerbated this situation. Backlogs of patients requiring care have multiplied dramatically. We’ve essentially lost two years’ worth of elective treatment. And waiting lists are worse than ever.

Despite this, I’m actually optimistic. We’ve known that we would have to face up to these challenges eventually. The pandemic has significantly brought them forward, but we’ve also learnt a lot about ourselves over the last few years.

It is a fact of life that demand for healthcare will grow faster than our supply of doctors and nurses. As a result, we must be open to how technology can help.

What’s interesting, however, is that a lot of the challenges that we didn’t know how to answer have already been by necessity. We didn’t know if people would use their phones and various technology to interact with healthcare. But they have and it’s not been anywhere near as problematic as we thought.

In other words, it turns out that technology is much further along than we thought it would be for our sector.

More importantly, we can now much more confidently use it to deal with more current and future issues. We can tackle key problems such as clearing waiting lists, improving time management and more.

The importance of looking at the bigger picture

I may be Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft, but I’m also a paediatrician. Spending my Fridays at the children’s hospital is still my favourite part of the week. This is where I get to really see life on the shop floor. As a result, I can help find the digital solutions to help improve it.

And the inspiration can really come from anywhere. For example, at the hospital we use an orange, lever arch folder where we store all the relevant information about a patient; tests we’ve run, follow-ups and more.

One time the orange folder broke. There was panic, because we didn’t have another ‘orange’ folder to replace it (we only had black ones). We ended up having to order a new one online.

Now, the beauty of my job is not just finding a solution to this particular – and relatively small – issue. But to solve them on a much broader scale. Replacing the orange folder shouldn’t be the end goal. There are so many other parts of that system that we cannot just improve but transform for the better.

Using the cloud to stay agile in healthcare

One of the big issues we’ve always had in healthcare is that there’s always another revolution coming, another update or digital initiative that needs to be actioned.

To prevent the inevitable fatigue that comes from lots of change, we need to ensure everything we are doing is scalable and fit for the future. I believe that the answer to this is the cloud. We’re never going to be able to implement all of this if we do it as a small step. The last two years have shown us that we need to take some big steps. Cloud technology gives us just that. Combine that with Microsoft’s suite of CRM apps, like Dynamics 365, and we will be able to deliver patients with specific information, send them personalised advice and engage with them more.

Just look at the work we’re doing with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. They have moved their entire electronic record to the cloud. This has given them functionalities and scale that will serve them well into the future.

Leeds covers one and a half million patients. They’ve got about 20,000 staff and the sheer number of electronic forms that they must process has grown by 300,000 since 2015. That’s hundreds of thousands more forms that patients and caregivers are filling in. Additionally, they then need to be processed. It would be a nearly impossible task if they hadn’t just moved it all to the Azure cloud.

Beyond making them far more scalable this has also helped them to use their extra computing elsewhere. And therefore, to do things such as keeping track of data, analyse it and review it for any future needs.

Simplifying processes and consultations via Teams

Another technology that’s proving key in solving backlogs is Microsoft Teams.

The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust caregivers lead the way in this respect. They carry out virtual consultations that allow patients to utilise teams for clinical interactions.

This has double benefits. On one hand, it allows caregivers to visit their patients without having them come to the clinic. On the other, it gives patients greater visibility of their appointments. Additionally, they can reschedule without having to go through back-and-forth calls.

I have learned the pains of contacting patients through regular phones the hard way. For privacy reasons, the NHS forbids us to leave voicemails to patients, unless that person has a message that states who they are. Whilst understandable, this is a rather outdated policy as now no one picks up a private callers’ phone and too few people check their voicemail.

Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to start saying to our patients directly during the consultation: I’m going to send you a link for you to have the next appointment. However, even better than that they can choose a time that works best and it will automatically go into both our calendars.

And if you need to change it, you can do that online without wasting time with inefficient telephone calls.

Managing resources though Power Apps

Another brilliant way to use technology to clear backlogs and waiting times is using data and data-centric low and no code solutions.

We all obsess about this ability to try and find the right data and then be able to use it meaningfully to achieve better patient outcomes. With the help of cloud technology, organisations are increasingly shifting towards huge data centres. Here, they can analyse data in real time and use it to make decisions and forecast, identify patterns and much more.

Just look at the extraordinary work by the Northern Care Alliance. They use Microsoft Power Apps to get continuous, real-time updates on the state of beds and bays at their facilities.

In operation since before the pandemic, this solution turned out to be a game changer during the tough months of lockdowns, when the status of wards and beds would evolve constantly. Thanks to the solution, staff at the Northern Care Alliance were able to check availability on real-time dashboards and allocate available beds in a much more efficient way.

Driving digital modernisation in healthcare

The most amazing thing about the NHS is that it’s simply the world’s biggest team. Every person working within it is there to look after patients and is committed to doing things better.

If we can use technology to let this huge team be more efficient and work better together, we’ll really be able to help clear the backlog and relieve staff of all the simple repetitive tasks that frustrate them and get in the way of treating patients.

Organisations often ask me how they can start this much-needed digital modernisation in the most effective way.

My advice is to simply start off by looking around you. See what other organisations are doing, and then pick up the phone and find out how they got started and what is going well. Also keep an open mind. In my experience, there is always a group of people that will remain negative. But don’t be discouraged by that – once you get started, you’ll be surprised at how quickly momentum can build and what seemed implausible becomes routine.

Lastly, make sure that you set and over-communicate your goals. Embracing new technologies will help empower all caregivers to achieve more – freeing them to spend more time caring for patients and leading to better outcomes. Plus, you’ll be making sure the foundations are strong for continued innovation, ensuring healthcare is fit for the future.

Microsoft Envision UK

London, May 19 2022
Join us at our first in-person UK conference in over two years where we will explore the road ahead in 2022 and beyond.

Reserve your FREE space now

Find out more

 Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare

The transformation imperative in healthcare

The Digital Healthcare Playbook

Healthcare Delivery Cloud Solutions

About the author

Umang is a Chief Clinical Information Officer at Microsoft with a passion for ensuring that technology delivers its full potential and value in healthcare. He is also a practising NHS paediatrician and has a background working across multiple sectors covering both payors and providers. Umang was a foundational member of start-up Babylon Health which had a successful IPO in 2021 on the New York Stock Exchange. With Microsoft, Umang is helping shape the digital transformation in health across the UK which is aiming for better outcomes through seamless integration and innovation. 

The post Using technology to manage the healthcare backlog appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Frontline workers have suffered ongoing disruption throughout the pandemic which has led to considerable exhaustion and burn out. Increased working hours and pressure means they are also likely to experience a feeling of disconnection from their organisation and their team. As a result, organisations need to support healthcare staff wellbeing. Based on the Work Trend Index Special Report, one of the main focuses organisations should have when it comes to building an inclusive team culture is ensuring frontline workers have the digital tools to stay connected to core organisational messages and resources.

Improving connections to organisational knowledge

Technology like Microsoft Viva Connections can play an important role in shaping the organisational culture to include frontline workers. Viva Connections brings together relevant news, conversations and resources from around your organisation into one place within Teams. It provides both a desktop and mobile experience. Viva Connections is built on the current Microsoft 365 ecosystem within your organisation. It’s powered by SharePoint to help inform, engage, and empower the hybrid workforce. The Viva Connections experience is fully customisable to your organisation’s requirements. Living in Teams, this allows all employees to access information no matter what device they are using and where they are. As a result, all healthcare workers can complete their roles without the need to search for different websites, use different and outdated applications or load resources and tools which only work on a PC.

An improved and updated intranet brought into the flow of daily work in Microsoft Teams provides a simple way for health organisations to deliver all relevant news to frontline workers. It can also create a safe and collaborative space for healthcare teams. This can support organisations in their efforts of keeping employees engaged which can result in higher levels of retention.

Every day, new healthcare regulations are put in place by governments. Often, healthcare workers struggle to find the latest government regulation or guidance and may struggle to pro-actively locate this information. With Viva connections, organisational leaders know they can deliver this content in a uniform experience to all employees, regardless of role.

Delivering connections to new employees

Viva Connections can be particularly useful for new healthcare workers. When joining an organisation it is often difficult to embrace and understand the organisation’s culture and mission. Especially remotely when on the frontline and not in an office setting. Viva Connections provides a virtual resource portal for a new healthcare worker. It supports onboarding through a customisable dashboard which can be personalised to different employee roles. The dashboard delivers a tailored view of these resources through adaptive cards. These can be targeted directly to frontline workers and their own needs. Popular use cases can include weblinks to view pay and benefits, submit holiday requests, view and manage shifts or access time sheets. All these are opened within the Teams browser on a mobile device.

Through the dashboard experience, Viva Connections also provides an extensible platform, where 3^rd party integration such as ServiceNow, LifeWorks or Talentsoft can be plugged directly through adaptive cards. This means that employees can access and complete even more tasks directly from the Connections app. As a result, healthcare workers can save large amounts of time. This is because they no longer need to search the organisations intranet for scattered resources.

Take control of your organisation’s internal communication strategy

In a hybrid working world where healthcare workers are likely to be more disconnected than ever from their organisations, both information workers working from home and workers using mobile devices on the frontline have benefitted from using Microsoft Teams. Now, in this evolution of Microsoft Teams, Viva Connections can ensure healthcare workers stay in touch with their organisation’s latest news, legal requirements and their organisation’s mission and purpose.

To learn more about Viva Connections please connect with Edward Adamson and Ioana Marinescu on LinkedIn. Or, contact your Microsoft account team and we can organise a Viva Connections envisioning session.

Find out more

Get started with Microsoft Viva Connections

Work Trend Index Special Report

3 ways technology can help rebuild your frontline workforce

What’s a Simple Definition of Employee Engagement?

Viva Connections mobile and new partner integrations are now generally available

About the authors

Edward is currently a Modern Work Specialist working with healthcare organisations across the UK, helping on their journey towards digital transformation. Focussing on hybrid working, frontline technologies and wellbeing and productivity management, connect with Edward on LinkedIn to follow content relating to healthcare and Microsoft 365 optimisation.

Ioana works with healthcare organisations across the UK to improve their journey towards digital transformation using Microsoft 365 technologies. She helps healthcare organisations utilise Microsoft Teams to connect multi-disciplinary communities across the organisation, bring wellbeing and productivity management into the flow of everyday work and surface knowledge and learning across the organisation.

The post How to keep frontline healthcare workers connected with digital technology appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.