Despite a minor slow-down at the turn of the year, primarily triggered by the political uncertainties in UK and ongoing global economic pessimism, the country’s manufacturing industry seems back on the track for growth. According to Microsoft’s AI research report, ‘Accelerating Competitive Advantage with AI’, both investment and employment are on the rise. Meanwhile, the UK government’s 2019 Industrial Strategy initiative will see £110 million of funding injected into AI development for the sector.

Our manufacturing is a global leader when adopting emerging digital transformation strategies such as AI, with the report revealing more than half of UK manufacturers (51%) are currently using AI to some degree, an increase of 3% since 2018. However, the sector faces challenges regarding the pace and scale of AI adoption.

Allaying Fears

A key challenge the sector faces is the fear among unions and workers about the risks automation poses to jobs, despite acknowledgement that these emerging technologies could give the much needed boost to productivity and safety. These concerns must be addressed and allayed if the industry is to truly move forward on its AI-led digital transformation.

The AI research report provides some interesting insights: we see more than half of UK manufacturing leaders (54%) saying they don’t understand how their organisation’s AI solutions arrive at their conclusions, while 51% admit they would not know what to do if they ever disagreed with their AI’s recommendations. Although lower than the national average (63% and 57% respectively), this still leaves a lot of room for uncertainty – and improvement – especially as UK manufacturers try to build on the positive beginnings and move towards becoming fully AI-enabled organisations.

Strong industry leadership is essential. Business leaders must to immerse themselves in the technology, fully getting to grips with how it works, where in the value chain it can be most beneficial, and what to do when teething problems or conflicts occur.

This challenge is appropriately described in the words of Mark McNally, Challenge Director UK Research and Innovation:

‘Leaders need to understand what you hope to achieve and what steps you need to take to get there. The capabilities of AI are growing, but you need to know what you are trying to fix before implementing anything. The danger is having a technology solution looking for a problem. The capabilities of AI are growing, but you need to know what you are trying to fix before implementing anything.’

An internal disconnect

Alongside the operational challenges, there’s also an important cultural impact to consider. In a sector where automation is increasingly commonplace, workers continue to feel uncomfortable about the effect this may have on their job roles. If leaders cannot communicate where, why, and how their organisation’s AI solutions are working, it’ll be difficult to create a culture where workers are empowered to re-skill. Teams need to participate and work alongside machines, rather than feel threatened by them.

Our research indicates a situation in which leaders are not telling and staff are not asking. 95% of staff say they’ve never been consulted by their boss about the introduction of AI. In the same vein, 85% of leaders claim workers have never approached them about AI either. And when asked if teams in their organisation are able to share knowledge and experiences from using the technology to help each other, 39% of manufacturing leaders said ‘yes,’ but only 26% of staff agreed.

The way ahead

Richard King, Sales Director, Manufacturing at Microsoft UK, explains a roadmap for the way ahead.

‘For manufacturers, there are broadly four stages of the AI journey: driving visibility and insights; creating predictability; automation and being prescriptive; and being cognitive and autonomous. Currently, organisations tend to be largely operating at stage one. So, to derive full value from AI, they need to start accelerating their progress. And that is as much about a cultural transformation as it is a technological one.’

It seems, then, that the biggest barriers to the UK manufacturing industry’s move through King’s ‘four stages’ and into full AI implementation at scale are more cultural than technical.

Staff at all levels need a chance to re-skill and help shape the technology’s impact on their day-to-day work. Employees on the front-line need reassurance about their future job prospects in an automating sector. And communication needs to flow freely in both directions to foster a culture of collaboration, inclusiveness and responsible use.

As Nancy Rowe, Head of Inclusion & Diversity at digital transformation firm Publicis Sapient, puts it:

‘From a structural perspective, organisations must instil processes for educating leaders, managers and employees across the business. They have to know what inclusion looks like, then help people build the skills required to be an inclusive manager or team member.’

Meanwhile, Rina Ladva, Sector Director Manufacturing & Resources UK appropriately summarises the next steps:

‘In an industry that, compared to others, is forging ahead on its AI-led digital transformation, it is vital organisations ensure they know exactly what problems they are trying to solve while keeping their eyes firmly fixed on the humans too.’

If UK manufacturing factors in these insights, it will be well positioned to achieve its vision of being among the largest five manufacturing and industrial nations globally by 2021.

The post State of the Nation: AI and manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

For those of you who weren’t at the Digital Ethics Conference, you can think of data and intelligence as the beating heart of digital transformation. It gives us new ways of knowing and new things to know. As you learn how to empower you employees, engage customers, optimise operations, and transform your products, data gives you the essential digital feedback that guides your decision-making. This could be anything from customer or employee feedback to product telemetry or CRM data.

New tools = new responsibility

With tools like Azure Cognitive Services, pre-built models using APIs covering text, speech, and vision mean it’s never been easier to implement AI and harness the power of data around us. But it’s not simply about what you can do with AI; it’s about what you should do with it. If we take the example of facial recognition, the technology uses a form of is a form of personally identifiable information (PII). You must have the active consent of those whose faces you process if you’re to use this example of AI in an ethical way.

The principles of ethical AI

When it comes to AI, it’s important to understand the principles under which your organisation operates. At Microsoft, our AI principles are very clearly stated, and Brad Smith has actively discussed the need for regulation when it comes to the use of facial recognition technology.

Here are five key principles for every business to consider when it comes to implementing responsible and ethical AI…

1. Fairness

This principle relates, in part, to human unconscious bias. Humans operate under many kinds of unconscious bias as way of shortcutting their decision-making. We have to work hard to identify these and personally learn to correct them. When a machine is learning based on data about human activity, it can capture this bias and store it within the model it generates. This can lead to the AI system using that model to make decisions to copy or amplify unfairness. While it may at first appear innocent, where you live contains implicit information about you. Letting a model use, say, your post code, to decide outcomes is unfair.

2. Safety and reliability

One of the examples to focus in on here is what’s known as ‘automation bias’. This is where a person expects an automated process or computer to be infallible. Examples of this include tourists ‘believing’ SatNav systems and driving into the ocean, or falling asleep at the wheel of a self-driving car that subsequently crashes into an unrecognised person or obstacle in the road. We rely on machines too soon because they do amazing things for us. If you’re automating things for your user, have you considered how you keep them safe when they fall foul of automation bias?

3. Privacy and security

I have mentioned the need for regulation in facial recognition. Laws such as GDPR require users to actively consent to organisations using their PII, and for clearly stated reasons. Are you actively gathering this consent? From a security perspective, new technology opens up new attack vectors for your organisation. If you’re deploying facial recognition, are you sure that it’s reliable enough to pick up everyone?

This is an example of me at an event in London. I grew my beard so long it became adversarial to AI and I was not recognised as a person. No one knew I was there.

If you’re not inclined to grow a beard, you could look at your makeup options. Or maybe print some new glasses?

4. Inclusiveness

Facial recognition AI that hasn’t been trained or tested with the appropriate length of beard is open to adversarial beard attacks. Poor testing or training data also leads to the possibility that what you create will exclude people. At Microsoft, inclusiveness is a core principle for us – just take a look at our Xbox Adaptive Controller as proof.

5. Transparency and accountability

The two foundations of Microsoft’s AI principles are transparency and accountability. Transparency is the principle that if a decision is going to be made by an algorithm, that algorithm should be explainable. In machine learning the accuracy of a model (how well it performs) is often higher when the result is less transparent. The reason for this is that a model is a derived piece of mathematics. It’s derived from the data examples in training. The simpler the maths, the more transparent. In the case of deep learning, the mathematics of the model are almost impossible to understand by any individual. Transparency goes hand in hand with accountability. If there’s a negative outcome from an AI system, who’s going to take responsibility for this negative outcome? The nearest person? The company that developed the solution? The user?

When developing your AI solutions, it’s useful to use these examples to inspire you to dig deeper into your own principles for ethical AI and consider how you can mitigate negative impact before the issues arise.

Find out more

Learn to develop AI solutions responsibly

Download the report: Accelerating competitive advantage with AI

Find out more about AI and its role in society 

How to adopt AI at scale – the right way

About the author

Phil is a big, beardy data geek who loves working with data and solving interesting data problems. He’s especially interested in soft skills for technical people in data, empathy, ethics and in the impact of data on what people know and how they know it. Starting his career with a BA in AI, Phil has worked in a wide range of industries from architecture to advertising. He was also CTO and technical founder of a data start-up. Phil now works at Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect for Data & AI in One Commercial Partner.

The post Ethical AI: 5 principles for every business to consider appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

• More students actively learn Azure skills and gain certification
• Academics will choose Azure when utilising cloud-based technologies
• Institutions will consolidate more of their services to Azure technologies

With Azure, the potential is truly unlimited.

Since joining the Microsoft UK Education team as Azure Skills Lead for Higher Education, I’ve been committed to helping HE institutions to access the learning resources available – to empower them to learn and master Azure, and achieve more with the technology. I believe that the key to harnessing this potential lies with raising awareness of what is possible and unlocking this via skills training.

One of the primary enablers for HE utilisation is through the process of achieving Azure skills. These are three Azure resources that you can make use of right now, to empower teaching, drive innovation, and realise the potential of your students.

Microsoft Learn’s Azure Fundamentals

Microsoft Learn is an incredible platform for learning all manner of new skills. It’s completely free, completely online, and lets you learn at your own pace – whether you’re a rookie or a veteran in your field. There are also options to become Microsoft Certified, an industry-recognised award that helps demonstrate your achievements.

Within Microsoft Learn is a portal for Azure Fundamentals. This is a great place to start when bolstering skillsets. Across 12 highly targeted modules, you and your team can understand what the technology will help you achieve and the big benefits it brings. Perfect for those who aren’t sure if cloud migration is right for their HE institution and want to know more.

Azure in Education

Azure for Education is designed to give both students and educators the developer tools required to boost cloud skills. With a focus on hands-on learning, this is the best place for anyone interested in the cloud to experiment with building, deploying, and managing applications within the cloud sphere.

From a free coding course to creating a cloud-based computer lab through Azure Lab Services, there’s plenty to kickstart the passions of students and your team. And don’t forget to check out the Imagine Cup, a highly prestigious competition that asks students to create world-changing applications.

Beyond the fundamentals

Once you’ve mastered the basics of Azure, it’s time to kick it up a notch. Microsoft offer lots of role-based Azure courses that will help you and your team go beyond the fundamentals, and start exploring benefits in greater depth.

Step-by-step guidance is given across topics like security, implementing virtual machines, remote desktops and everything in between – and covers all the essentials for those in a range of job roles, including administrators and business users. If you’re learning or seeking new skills at an intermediate level, these are courses you won’t want to miss.

These are three great places to start, but if you’d like more help from Microsoft, to learn more, or organise additional training sessions, get in touch with us using the Azure Skills Training enquiry form.

About the author

Andrew Bettany is an eight-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), recognized for his Windows and Modern Desktop expertise. He has authored over a dozen books and many video training materials for LinkedIn Learning and Pluralsight on Microsoft technologies. He’s a Modern Management, Cloud and Mobility Solutions Consultant specialising in Microsoft 365 and Azure. Andrew is passionate about helping others learn and adopt new technology and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as Microsoft Ignite.

The post 3 tools to develop Azure skills in Higher Education appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This appearance does more than just solidify a client’s misconceptions of the sector; it has a major impact on the internal culture. If the way a firm operates remains traditional, the service it delivers falls back in comparison to more modern competitors.

As such, transforming the customer experience demands transformation of the internal culture. Encouraging collaborative, flexible working practices that chime with the needs of both employees and clients alike. While tradition, precedence, and formality has stymied the sector’s ability to innovate, new technology is starting to build the foundations that help transform the experience you deliver customers.

Where to start a transformation?

The question many in the legal sector face when wanting to transform their workplace is…

Where do I start?

Step 1 – Get a technical infrastructure in place

Pivotal to the modern IT experience is an updated back-end and cloud-based workloads. However, these ‘transformations’ are invisible to the end user – rare is the employee that compliments an employer for moving their mailbox to the cloud.

Take advice whenever necessary. For many in the legal sector, upgrading systems is a new and exciting task, but not one with which they’re au fait. Successful implementation doesn’t happen overnight. It often requires consultation with those in the know in order to determine the infrastructure and complementary hardware that’s right for your business.

A major consideration at this stage is security. Choosing a system  and devices tailor-made to protect and defend your law firm from cyber-attacks doesn’t just offer peace of mind (and keeps you focused on what really matters). It also ensures you can maintain the integrity of your client records, and any private, personal, and sensitive data within.

Part of this transition will see you bring legacy and paper-based data to the cloud. Immediately, this is a revolutionary move. No longer are client records stored away in filing cabinets, lost, or forgotten. Secure in the cloud, they’re easily accessible to your team.

Step 2 – Bring employees on the journey

Internal buy-in is critical to transforming the way you work. The customer experience can’t change if employees are unwilling or unable to move to a new way of working.

Start by explaining what you wish to change, and how you intend to do it. This is the stage when most companies stop – it’s the end of the journey. Yet this is really the beginning. Now, request feedback from your team.

What issues do they face and how will a digital transformation help? What do they want from a new system and devices? How can these be used to improve service delivery?

During your ‘exploration phase’ – that is, when considering all the systems and devices that will help you alter your working ways – place employee experience at its heart. Your team wants an interface and device that makes it easy to do their job and offer an exceptional customer experience. Give it to them.

Step 3 – Choose a device that offers a good work-life balance

Your team needs to be at the top of their game – it’s one of the admirable hallmarks of the legal sector. Salaries can be matched. Perks can be offered. But nothing beats an employer that supports true investment in employees.

This is at the crux of creating a modern digital workplace.

By changing the way your team works through technology, you help encourage a healthy work-life balance. Today’s cloud-connected law graduates are used to the flexibility that modern technology affords; they’re adept at working remotely and collaboratively.

A senior associate from one Surface-enabled firm said, ‘I’ve really enjoyed the flexibility that comes with our new Surface laptops. It took an hour or so to get set up. Then, I was able to work from home within the first few days without disruption. The whole process of starting up for the day and getting going with work is so much quicker.’

Devices that deliver on the promise of the modern workplace keeps staff more engaged and productive than ever before. And they appreciate that, as an employer, you understand that life doesn’t simply stop once work starts. With an employee experience like this, it completely alters the level of service offered to clients.

Step 4 – Embrace collaboration

We’re creatures of habit. Because of that, it can be challenging when trying to encourage people to work in new, more productive ways.

Put something new and exciting, like a Surface, into their hands and suddenly it ignites enthusiasm. They find themselves able to work differently. Because the technology’s there to streamline and enhance collaboration, they begin having more video conferences with clients and other solicitors; they draw their ideas; they embrace the hot-desk mentality, when necessary.

Step 5 – Encourage diversity, inclusion, and accessibility

The more diverse and inclusive a team is, the more creative and productive they are. And that can only be a benefit to your law firm. Part of that means ensuring your workplace and the tools within it are wholly accessible for those with disabilities.

As part of this drive to be diverse, inclusive, and accessible, Surface features a number of design choices that enable a better experience for all. For instance, the power and volume buttons can be managed with one hand. The device’s microphones make use of extremely accurate Closed Captioning. Use a Surface pen, and your team will discover one of the most natural digital writing experiences available to them. Ultimately, these features help your team to work better than ever before.

Technology is changing the way we communicate, creating a modern digital workplace. If your legal organisation wishes to make a statement and cultivate a culture that empowers every employee, it starts with the user. Connect your team with the devices that help them work smarter, and support your digital transformation.

Find out more

Choose the Surface for you

How technology helps business maximise the value of ideas

About the authors

Alex is a Modern Workplace Solution Specialist working closely with our Legal and Professional services customers to transform the way they work; making them more agile, productive, mobile and empower their employees to achieve more. Watching the transformation of workplaces like the legal sector, and the people working in them, has been incredibly rewarding.

Will is a Surface Specialist at Microsoft helping Professional Services organisations realise the full value of Microsoft Surface devices in their business. He enjoys working with customers to embrace advances in technology that create a new world of work – where technology empowers people, data and systems to connect, collaborate and communicate in new innovative ways. 

Rachael is a Surface Specialist focused on the modern workplace. She loves to help customers transform their ways of working to embrace mobility and new devices that increase their productivity and enhance their work life balance.

The post 5 steps for digitally transforming the legal profession appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Our in-depth report into AI, ‘Accelerating competitive advantage’, showed that 38% of business leaders want to be at the forefront of AI innovation. This figure has doubled since last year.  Despite the overwhelming desire to be at the forefront of emerging technologies, many organisations are struggling to successfully implement AI.  

Never-ending experimental phase – or not doing anything at all

While 8% of UK organisations consider themselves in the advanced stage of AI use, plenty more find themselves trapped in the experimental phase. 48% of organisations say they’re ‘experimenting’ with the technology. They tinker, they toy, they try – but many struggle to move beyond exploration of the technology into enterprise scale AI.  

I’ve seen many organisations getting stuck in the experimental phase, and very few ever manage to move into a live AI product. Even those that do deploy AI only manage to do so in pockets within the organisation, and face challenges when trying to scale. It’s also apparent that a large section of the businesses we talked to don’t have any AI strategy in place at all; 34%, according to our research, are doing nothing in the burgeoning AI arena.  

This creates some major challenges in demonstrating the business ROI of AI. Without demonstrating wins, as small as they may be, organizations might fail to see the benefits and turn away from this technology.   

So, what’s the best way to advance from being in the 48% – or even the 34% – to the 8%?  

To start, you should approach AI implementation as you would any other on-going digital transformation project. That is to say, this isn’t something to be driven solely by your IT department; it demands buy-in at every level of your organisation, since the technology will empower every job role. This requires thinking beyond the technology itself, and starting to think about the process, governance and roles that need to be in place to foster AI innovation.  

One of my favourite statistics from our report shows that 96% of employees claim managers never consulted them on the introduction of AI into the workplace – and 83% of leaders claim employees never asked about the business’s AI plans.  

Or, to put it another way: organizations need to leverage communication to drive innovation.  

Lack of understanding

It’s very easy for organisations to get caught in the hype surrounding AI. The technology itself promises so much – but with that comes a lot of confusion as to what AI actually is, the benefits of AI and what it can actually help businesses achieve.  

As Dr Lee Howls, Head of AI at PA Consulting Group, says: ‘It is worth understanding whether you are just trying to do something for technology’s sake, or if there is a genuine problem that might be solved through AI.’  

While scaling the technology should be approached like any other digital transformation, this is more than just another IT project. AI has gone beyond the technical definition, impacting every employee in every department – from marketing to finance. Therefore, it is fundamentally important that organizations think about AI enablement and education across all roles and functions. Through this understanding of AI organizations will be able to unlock capabilities and potential.  

AI must be used fairly, responsibly, and effectively. The challenge is, many business leaders aren’t entirely sure how to implement the technology in this way. A lack of training lies at the heart of this issue. ‘Accelerating the competitive edge’ reveals that a little over a fifth of UK leaders have fully completed training; they understand how AI complements their job and empowers their organisation.  

On the other hand, two-thirds don’t yet know how AI actually works, and therefore where it would be best placed. Without a fundamental understanding how the system comes up with the conclusions it does (hint: lots of data + lots of compute + algorithms = AI) , it’s impossible to fully recognise the value of AI.    

Lack of process and tools

A strong data strategy is what separates advanced AI organisations from their rivals. Not every business is equipped to deliver that. 

Part of the issue here is the ‘novelty’ of AI. The systems have evolved at great pace, so now organisations find themselves playing catch-up. How can we transform AI into enterprise-grade?, leaders wonder. 

The answer, of course, is the introduction of the right processes and tools.  

Hugh Milward, Microsoft UK’s director of CELA, strikes a sympathetic note, saying: ‘It’s hard for a company to make a decision that looks like it is against its own short term commercial interests, but that is the point where ethics really hits the road. Having the right process by which making the “right” decision is eased for the Chief Executive Officer and management of the company is really important.’ 

Creating any sort of AI framework doesn’t end post-launch, AI systems are constantly evolving and iterating on themselves. The launch is only just beginning, and organizations need to think about having the right processes in place to review and refine these systems over time to maximise the value of AI.  

Cultural change

Any sort of organisational change can be challenging for employees. With the large scale of change AI presents, your business may be facing a full-blown culture shock.  

Perhaps this is linked to a misconception of how AI should be used. It shouldn’t be used as a replacement for human workers, but to augment their roles and allow humans to use our uniquely human skills to do things that they do best.  

The introduction of AI demands a change of skills and a change of mindset – neither of which happen overnight. In itself, this, perhaps, wouldn’t be an issue. Every business leader understands how change must be managed without damaging morale. However, in our report, 71% of leaders say they’re not sure how to cope with staffing changes and workplace disruption as they drive through AI.  

Thankfully, according to PWC’s 2018 Economic Outlook report, there is a very real chance that “AI will create as many jobs as it displaces. This chimes well with the outlook of both employers and employees who are eager to become AI literate – in those AI-advanced organisations, 66% of business leaders claim to be actively supporting their employees on the path to AI literacy. Meanwhile, 36% of employees state that they’d use the time saved by the technology to learn new skills; 29% believe AI would allow them to take on new responsibilities. On the flip side, however, a little over one in ten workers have completed any sort of educational training.  

The only way to overcome this sort of challenge is for businesses to, first gain buy-in, offer dedicated training on AI systems and ensure you bring everyone on the AI journey. Microsoft’s popular AI business school is an excellent place to start when creating new business opportunities for your business, employees, and customers. 

Find out more

Download the full AI report, ‘Accelerating competitive advantage’

Watch Kate’s Future Decoded session, ‘Our Intelligent Future: How AI Will Impact Business and Ethics?’ 

About the author

Kate currently leads the Data and AI Cloud Solution Architecture team for Financial Services at Microsoft UK, helping organisations shape their data strategies in a scalable and responsible way. Her main focus lies in the intersection between technology and business, how data can shape organisations and AI systems. Prior to joining Microsoft, she worked at start-ups where she focused on leveraging big data and behaviour analytics to augment decision making. Kate comes from a background in scientific research, specialising in neurobiological genetic engineering. During her research, she studied the influence of genetics on behaviour and survival mechanisms. She holds a MSc in Molecular Biology from Bar Ilan University and a MBA from Tel Aviv University.

The post 4 things holding businesses back from AI implementation (and how to address them) appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

While many projects can be quite simple, it can get very complicated very quickly. The reality is that coordinating different people and making sure things go smoothly, on time, and on budget isn’t always easy. It takes time and effort. A big part of what can make this easier is just using the right tools for you and your team.

Most people I know manage their business projects and plans on spreadsheets. And while spreadsheets are great, and can do wonders in the right hands, they’re not really designed to help you manage projects.

Step 1 – Figure out what could be improved

To pick the right tool, you need to understand what could help make the process managing easier for you and your organization. Here a couple questions that can help shed light on what those improvements could be.

Consider…

• What are we spending our time and resources on?
• What problems need to be solved?
• Where can we be more productive?

Step 2 – Figure out what you need

Now that we know what we could do better, we can start looking at how to do this.

Capabilities can widely vary from one software to the next. The simplest tools can offer an organised view and management for a To-Do list; the more complex tools allow allocation of tasks with dependency and users, as well as resource management and high reporting capabilities.

These are some of the capabilities you might want to consider when evaluating project managing solutions:

A quick measure to how good a solution is would be to evaluate:

–              The amount of time and work it can save across the organisation

–              The risks it can help detect and mitigate

–              The benefits it can deliver through helping finishing projects on time and on budget?

Not all capabilities are as important, and what might be important can vary from one project or person to the next. To figure out what capabilities are relevant to your case, go back to what it is you want to achieve.

Step 3 – Test it out

So much about deployment depends on the way we work. There is no such thing as the perfect tool. Whether one solution is right or not depends on how people use it – and if they use it.

• Roll out your solution to a single department first
• Identify ‘champions’ – people that are enthusiastic about the tool and can help deploy it and teach others how to use it
• Encourage time and training so all team members understand how to use the tool, and its benefits
• Record results, quirks, and any additional considerations necessary for a successful implementation
• Ask for honest feedback and, where appropriate, act upon it

Step 4 – Review how people are using the tool

Even after a solution has been found, make the time to observe and analyse how other people are using the tool.

Successful implementation depends on internal buy-in at all levels of the business. Make sure they can use it – but just as importantly, ensure they understand the benefits it brings to their roles. These concerns will vary, depending on the department and job role, just as the capabilities they use will vary.

• Record positive and negative reactions
• Listen to and act on post-implementation feedback
• Respond with personalised comments, not blanket statements – for instance, the concerns of the leadership team won’t be the same as those in the finance department
• Hold additional training sessions – don’t just show employees how to use the system, help them master it

Introducing a project management tool into your company is a project in itself. The best advice: choose wisely. That’s why Microsoft Project promises to offer the complexity required to fit the needs of your organisation, with the ease-of-use employees demand, empowering them to be more productive and efficient than ever before.

Find out more

Microsoft Project is a complete cloud-based project and portfolio management solution, designed to help you align, prioritise and optimise your projects, your way. Simple, intuitive, and designed for everyone, Microsoft Project is a powerful, scalable platform for managing any type of work – from team projects to the most complex portfolio and resource management initiatives.

About the author

Paulina is a new Microsoft Aspire hire who just graduated from the University of Cambridge, where she completed her MBA. She is currently part of the Modern Workplace business group in the role of Product Marketing Manager for Project and Visio, where (apart from writing blogs like this one) she localises the benefits and uses of these Microsoft solutions to UK market. Paulina has a green belt in lean six sigma and a strong belief in the search for constant improvement in everything we do; be it learning a new language, improving at a particular sport, or just being smarter about the way we work.

The post How to find the right project management tool appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

The benefits of the technology are clear: with its power to deliver increased productivity, collaboration, and innovation, the cloud is no longer considered an optional extra. Today, it’s as fundamental to the running of a successful business as the typewriter was a century ago. A necessity that enables you to remain competitive, relevant, and gain market share.

Whatever the size of your organisation, the question is how much cloud technology you should adopt, when and where should you adopt it, and how soon to introduce it?

Every business will have a different starting point. Knowing what’s right for you, and which workloads to move first is critical to beginning your journey. Once you’ve moved these to Microsoft Azure, you’re then free to investigate modernising your operations and adding innovation into the mix, leveraging technology like AI.

Unmatched security

Cyber-security is a topic that never seems to the leave the headlines. It’s a core focus for any business; without the defensive protection of the cloud, you leave yourself open to the threat of your IT systems being taken offline – a cost no business wishes to bear. And that’s before we consider the risk of data loss.

If you find yourself a victim of a breach, with sensitive data hacked, the cost is two-fold. In the first instance, you’re liable to be fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office under GDPR. This can be as high as £18 million or 4%, depending on the severity of the breach. However, the second cost is far more worrying: a data breach hurts your reputation, resulting in customer trust spiralling.

Azure’s built-in security measures prevent this from happening – this includes Azure Sentinel, the intelligent security application that fuses AI and the cloud to protect your entire enterprise. We invest $1 billion every year in security measures that protect your organisation. Microsoft’s cloud solution analyses 6.5 trillion threats every day, and with 3,500 security experts, you can be confident we’ve got you covered.

Unparalleled innovation

Don’t let that end of support worry you. In fact, if you migrate to the cloud, you don’t need to ever think about it again.

Azure is the only cloud solution with evergreen SQL. This ensures that you’re always using the most up-to-date version available. No patches, no updates. This is just one of the reasons why Azure is the best cloud to run your Windows and SQL Servers.

When you make the switch to the Microsoft cloud, you’ll also begin a transformation with built-in intelligence to simplify resource management and governance and reduce complex admin tasks. It also offers the only fully managed service for any .NET app.

We have a full commitment to Linux migration and open-source projects and applications like Kubernetes, so you can make the choice that’s right for your organisation.

Unbeatable offers

The Azure Hybrid Benefit brings extra pricing benefits to customers with both Software Assurance and on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses. We know, as a decision-maker, you’ll always have one eye on the bottom-line. That’s why we’ve made Azure the most attractive proposition, without compromising on the top quality you expect from Microsoft.

There’s free extended security updates when migrating Windows Server and SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 workloads. Pre-paying your compute capacity on a one or three-year term is another way you’ll save on costs. This is designed to simplify budgeting and forecasting. You can also get started at speed with our Azure Migrate Program, which includes prescriptive advice, resources, and tools for a successful path to the cloud. The program leverages our strong and highly capable partner network to ensure customers move to Azure is successful.

Find out how much you stand to gain by visiting the Azure Hybrid Benefit page and using the Savings Calculator.

Built-in hybrid

Microsoft is the only cloud provider with end-to-end hybrid infrastructure, with 2.5m+ hybrid-enabled Windows Servers through Windows Admin Centre.

Using Azure with Windows Server provides a truly unique hybrid experience, letting you seamlessly operate across your data centre and the cloud. The systems’ are deeply integrated and for a very good reason – by developing platforms that not only work well together, but are made for each other, you’ll discover it’s easy to perform critical scenarios like Backup, Disaster Recovery and migration.

When you move to Azure, you’ll find the most comprehensive backward and forward SQL compatibility with Azure SQL DB Managed Instance. This enables existing SQL users to switch on-site applications to the Azure cloud with little disruption and database changes.

Take the first steps and start your migration journey

There are four core stages to migrating your business to the cloud…

Step 1 – Assess

This is, arguably, the most important stage: planning. Cloud migration tools, such as the Azure Migrate Tool, can be used to assess your inventory and figure out which on-premises apps need to be moved over to the cloud.

Step 2 – Migrate

It’s time to make the move. This is where you’ll use tools like the Azure Migrate Tool and Azure Site Recovery – this essentially automates your migration with next to no downtime.

Step 3 – Optimise

The work doesn’t just stop once you’ve migrated. Now, you can calibrate your apps, so they perform optimally on Azure, while Azure Cost Management helps you monitoring and budgeting.

Step 4 – Secure and manage

Congratulations! You’re now operating in the cloud. At this stage, you’re free to leverage Azure security and management services, to keep your cloud applications running smoothly.

Is it time to modernise your business, make it more secure, and increase the productivity of your whole team? We’ll help you with step-by-step guidance, advice, and all the support you need to accelerate your cloud-based future.

Find out more

Listen to the webinar: Discover why Azure is the right choice for cloud migration

 Download the eBook: Cloud migration essentials

Join the Azure Migration Programme

About the author

Michael is responsible for all aspects of UK technology strategy including supporting the implementation and use of technology by commercial and public sector organisations and acting as a catalyst for digital transformation. He joined Microsoft in 2008, working in a number of roles including as Government Industry Manager responsible for solutions and partners, and in the public sector team for Microsoft Dynamics. Michael has a bachelor of Engineering with Honours in Software Engineering, a bachelor of Business Management from University of Queensland and a Master’s of Science and Computer Network from Liverpool John Moores University.

The post 4 reasons why SQL Server & Windows Server work best on Azure appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In truth, it’s likely that companies like this didn’t realise that the internet was a ‘must do’ at the turn of the millennium either. That’s why it’s essential to help these sorts of businesses understand not just the importance of technologies like this, but how they can integrate them across the organisation.

Being held back

In my experience, there are three main reasons why AI opportunities can be difficult to see.

• Lack of knowledge about the technology – which leaves forward-thinking companies to gain the competitive edge
• Case studies aren’t relevant – in most instances, case studies are about, and aimed at, global brands with a near-infinite supply of money
• Tech projects, and particularly AI projects, have notoriously high failure rates due to lack of experience, complexity of the project, and unrealistic expectations – no-one wants to face spiralling costs, white elephants, and business disruption

The trick to successful implementation of AI is to refuse to over-commit at the early stages – this, instead, should be the exploratory stage where a business discovers AI’s impact, and how it should be deployed.

Once the impacts are fully understood it’s time to develop a roadmap, incorporating each part of the business that will use or be affected by the technology. This leaves room for smaller initiatives to be drawn up and integrated into the ‘big picture’ programme.

Oversight is also critical to success. The team in charge of executing the AI master plan needs to engage with the rest of the business. That way, they can evaluate success (or potential failure), serve additional knowledge, and give the leadership team necessary feedback.

With this in mind, I believe there are five core steps to making AI integration a success.

Step 1 – Teach the benefits of AI

Gaining internal buy-in at the earliest possible stage is vital – this starts with the leadership team. AI is not just another IT project, after all. You should then look at which areas of the business will also be benefiting from the technology and get them involved in the process. It won’t be long until AI is essential for many operations across a business. Don’t get left behind.

Appoint someone to own your AI project. This should, ideally, be someone with strong leadership skills, as they’ll be heading up a cross-functional team and informing company leadership of its progress. Your ‘project owner’ should also be considering the skillsets and expertise needed to bring the project to completion, whether internally or with your partners.

It’s their job to drive through success. Everything must be measured and kept in control. It’s the only way to dodge those high failure rates.

Step 2 – Build a team or partner up

Depending on the size of your company, this is the ideal moment to construct a multi-disciplinary team. Keep this to around three people. It’s likely you’ll need to gain a fundamental understanding of AI, the opportunities, and the challenges. This overview helps guide you as you build out the required capabilities of AI and your proposed solutions.

Seek out partners with experience of implementing data and AI projects for similarly sized businesses. These partners will have a good understanding on the challenges you may face, and how to circumvent them. As with any IT project, but especially AI implementation, the sooner you get them on board, the easier it will be.

Step 3 – Identify the right problems

Why do you want to implement AI and what do you plan to do with it? Begin by building a solid business case, focusing on key challenges, and how AI can help overcome them.

If AI can’t solve these problems, look at where your organisation could become more efficient through automation, instead. For many smaller companies, this will prove an excellent stepping stone to future AI adoption.

Indeed, given failure is linked to a project’s overcomplexity, it’s worth considering whether your first AI project could be used to automate a simple process. You don’t have to re-build your business from the ground up with an AI foundation. It’s all about giving you time back to focus on more critical tasks.

I recently worked alongside suit e-tailer The Drop. During that time, we identified three areas where AI could benefit business process, while improving the experience for customers.

• Finding mistakes in customer measurements
• Measuring without a tape measure
• Create a 3D image of a customer using two photos

For The Drop, AI helped them streamline the supply chain. This resulted in faster deliveries and fewer returns, since measurements were accurate and mistakes were found before production.

Step 4 – Get your data ready in advance

AI is only ever as good as the data it has. So, once you’ve identified how AI will assist you, you must then look at what data you have or need to ensure it works properly. Your data should be clean, organised, and easily accessible for the technology.

A word of warning, though. It’s possible your IT team may push back on this request – but the data is owned by the entire business, not a select department. As long as that data is secure, flexible access is a must to capitalise on the value it holds.

The Wild Me project is a good example of using data – specifically, images – for the greater good. Anyone is free to upload animal images to the Wildbook Cloud, where they can be catalogued and tracked. That crowd-sourced data then helps scientists make informed decisions over conservation efforts.

Step 5 – Activate with AI

With the other four steps complete, the final step is simple. With your business identifying a business challenge, how AI can solve it, and the data it needs to do so, you can start rolling out your AI initiative.

Start with a proof-of-concept. It helps you achieve your stated scope and scale of the project. Next, create a model; build and implement AI. Test it. Ensure it’s delivering what you need. You’ll be obtaining results and value in no time – whether that’s increasing process efficiency, analysing data, or making customer experiences truly personal.

And I say all this as someone who has been on the journey you’re preparing for – at the start, we used Microsoft’s tools and products, like the pre-built Cognitive Services, and the cloud capabilities of Wirehive to build a chatbot. With the initial groundwork done, and the experience gained, we’ve been able to work on even more complex projects, fuelled by increasing amounts of data and machine learning models. If we can do it, so can you. Good luck on your journey.

[msce_cta layout=”image_center” align=”center” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”http://approjects.co.za/?big=en-gb/industry/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/CTA-image.png” linkurl=”http://aka.ms/AcceleratingAI” linkscreenreadertext=”Link to download Microsoft’s AI report” linktext=”Download the full AI report” imageid=”17871″ ][/msce_cta]

Find out more

Become a Microsoft Partner

About the author

Dean has owned and managed agencies for over 16 years. In this time, he’s worked on a range of technology projects for global companies. Now, in his role as COO at a specialist health and beauty agency, The Pull Agency, he creates multi-disciplined teams that help bring the worlds of brand and technology together. Although Dean has a broad, journalistic knowledge of emerging technology, he’s most passionate about solutions that improve customer experience, applying old school marketing know-how and creative thinking with the latest technologies. He has a passion for road cycle racing, having represented Great Britain at the Under 18’s. Dean also enjoys a good Rioja and listening to Radiohead at maximum volumes.

The post How to implement AI as a mid-sized company: 5 practical steps to success appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In 2018, Black Friday sales hit a colossal £1.4bn in the UK – an increase of 7.3% on the previous year. In the US, it hit a record £4.8bn.

• Was your business prepared?
• What can you learn from UK retailers during the run up to this period?
• What business decisions can be made to ensure your success?

This is now one of the most important dates in the retail calendar. It’s essential that you’re ready to drive those all-important sales.

There are two ingredients for success: customers and data. Place each of these at the forefront of your preparations.

Consider the end-to-end experience a customer has – from spotting your advert online to shopping for those Black Friday deals on your website to after-care emails. They should be engaged every step of the way. Data provides you with the means to do that. Use your analytics to identify where customers are going (or not going); what they’re buying; when and where and how. AI is a prime tool for this, taking the guesswork out of data analytics, offering insights into refining that experience.

Update your website

It’s entirely possible, if you have carefully managed your brand’s image, that customers will actively visit your website with very little marketing from your organisation. However, it’s important to remember that customers are likely to visit your site’s landing page in their hunt for the latest Black Friday bargains.

Anecdotally, most retailers stick to the classic red colour scheme with white typography. This isn’t surprising, given that studies find that we react ‘faster and more forcefully’ when we see this colour. However, this presents an opportunity to rise above your competitors – even a moderate tweak, such as yellow writing on a red background can help you stand out from the crowd.

Most organisations also create ‘hot spots’ in a static image. This lets customers navigate to specific sales pages, such as ‘Furniture’ or ‘Beauty’. A more fluid, intuitive user experience is essential for driving traffic and sales.

Promote your website on social media

If your brand isn’t particularly well-known, adjusting your social media channels to drive traffic to your website is a wise decision. This is also vital if you’re aiming to attract a new type of customer to your winter sale.

This isn’t a silver bullet for increased sales, however. It’s interesting to note that not all retailers followed this method.

Dunelm promotes its winter sale across its social media networks, as does Next, who also ran a series of adverts this year featuring the dogs, Dodger and Pixel.

Other retailers, such as Debenhams and House of Fraser, have not changed the appearance of their social media channels since Christmas, but they have published posts that direct customers to their sales landing pages.

Create and track unmissable newsletters

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to entice customers to shop with you – so long as it’s done the right way (and you don’t spam potential shoppers).

Most retailers support their sales through email newsletters. These often feature similar design cues as their websites, creating a sense of continuity and branding, while enabling customers to quickly navigate around their website.

But you can also obtain excellent data from email clicks that can help you make better business decisions.

Next, for instance, individually track each hyperlink in their emails. A close inspection of each of these links, like ‘Home Sale’ and ‘Brands Sale’, reveals slight differences in each tracking code. This lets the retail giant effectively report on the efficiency of their email newsletter.

By concentrating on the data, companies can focus on the links that perform well, or present an opportunity to drive more traffic to under-performing links by tweaking various elements. Finally, it’s a chance to remove others entirely depending on the click-through rate of each link. Why waste time on links that, despite your best efforts, aren’t generating sales via email?

Be different

Think outside the box. It’s a sure-fire way to create delight and excitement among customers – especially during busy times of the year like Black Friday and Christmas, when so many others follow the same old trends.

Companies like Dunelm use other social media channels like Instagram to drive traffic to their sales page – this is via links in their profile bios, or through services like Feedshop. This tool lets you add links to Insta pics via a separate webpage.

You may also want to consider using Snapchat geo-filters across your store, digital advertising with Microsoft Advertising, and even Facebook Livestreams. These tools can help you increase visibility and drive customers to your website.

What are your thoughts? How does your organisation use digital marketing to help drive sales through sale seasons? Share your best practices in the comments.

Find out more

5 ways to increase the accessibility and visibility of your social media content

About the author

Tom Wakelin is Microsoft UK’s Social Media Marketing Manager, responsible for our digital communities across consumer, commercial, education and developer. Whether it’s a Facebook message, tweet, Instagram Live broadcast, or LinkedIn blog, Tom and the team are always looking for innovative ways to help tell the Microsoft story and drive excitement for our products and services. He’s always on the lookout for exciting customer stories that bring the magic of technology to life. You can follow Tom on Twitter at @Thomas_Wakelin

The post How to prepare your business for Black Friday & Christmas sales appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

‘To establish a sector leading digital learning platform that provides for independent, collaborative and interactive user experiences.’

And so it began.

Tip 1 – Do plenty of research

Once you’ve got a goal, the initial stage should be one of exploration. Research every possibility that might fit your needs.

Our first year was spent visiting other institutions, attending conferences, and talking to various third-party providers about their products. We had no preconceptions of what this new platform would look like, or who would provide it; even Moodle was still on the table at this stage.

But the reality was, our research with students and staff pointed to the fact we needed something new, something that was current, future-proof, and mobile-friendly. Developing skills and professionalism for the workplace was also a key consideration. We just didn’t cover these well enough and the student experience was compromised. Change was required.

Tip 2 – Stay open-minded

At the beginning of our journey, Teams had literally just been released. We’d taken a cursory look, but didn’t feel it had the functionality to provide a suitable platform. We were very much leaning towards one the big Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) providers and had them down to the college a couple of times to present to staff. The feedback was varied, from ‘this is great’ to, ’I didn’t get any of that.’

And then there was the cost. I started to have doubts about the suitability of the VLE platforms for the college. Meanwhile, Teams – and especially Teams for Education – had been developing at breakneck speed.

So, we started looking more closely at Teams. Yes, there were gaps, but Teams was clean, focusing on communication and collaboration. It wasn’t trying to be all things to all people, but was offering the opportunity to use other applications, if required. It was reliable, both in the mobile and desktop world. It was also supported by one of the largest tech firms in the world. We thought we’d take a look and implemented a pilot scheme.

Tip 3 – Trial your solution first

After finding the perfect solution – or even several potential solutions – don’t jump right. Get your IT team involved and trial these platforms. See how each works in a real-world environment, away from glossy presentations and sales pitches.

The college’s Digital Team managed to get our Teams trial in place for September 2018. It was a comprehensive pilot scheme, pulling together representation from 12 departments and included 40 teachers and around 450 students. The majority of these pilots were using only Teams as their Digital Learning Platform, with a couple of classes using a hybrid model of Teams alongside Moodle.

The pilot was incredibly successful. Feedback throughout the pilot from staff and students was overwhelmingly positive, particularly around how this had improved engagement of students and we made the brave decision to move the entire college away from Moodle and into Teams and Office 365 for the 2019-20 academic year.

Tip 4 – Manage change and offer training

Our decision to switch to Teams as a digital learning platform wasn’t taken lightly. The key to such a significant change has been a well thought-out change management strategy that focused on people, and the things they do, rather than the technology that supports them.

We carefully managed the messages that staff received. We put in place an extremely comprehensive training programme that consisted of six hours face-to-face basic training for all curriculum staff. We also offered extended ‘masterclasses’ that staff could access for various Office 365 and other applications.

Teams were centrally managed through Powershell, to give curriculum departments the flexibility to decide how they structure their delivery. This included determining which groups are collated into Teams, and which are separate. Membership of teams is linked directly to our Learning Management System, so encouraging better management of data.

We are about a month or so into the new academic year now and so far, so great!

The learning curve is steep, and it’s not without its challenges. But it’s been very manageable, with great support from Microsoft. Most importantly, our training doesn’t stop now we’ve rolled out Teams. Our Digital Team has been sent to bootcamp, as well as numerous face-to-face training and support visits from Microsoft.

In the latest visit, Microsoft’s Dominic Williamson and Alan Crawford met with staff and students to offer support and review progress. This was hugely successful and motivational for the college. Happily, it also coincides with the announcement that SGS College will become a Microsoft Showcase College 2019.

Find out more

Introduction to Microsoft Teams – the digital hub for educators and students

Staff Teams for effective leadership and saving time

About the author

Simon has worked in the Further Education sector for 13 years, all of them at SGS College, and very much with a focus on curriculum development. He started lecturing in Business and IT, before moving into cross-college roles, helping teachers develop pedagogy and other aspects of teaching and learning. After two years as Head of Teaching and Learning, he moved into a role focusing on the development of digital learning. In this role, Simon’s transformed the way students and staff use technology in the curriculum, moving them away from a content-driven solution to one based on communication and collaboration. This shift is proving revolutionary, with student and staff engagement vastly improved on all fronts.

The post 4 tips for establishing a digital learning platform appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.