After businesses were embroiled by operational disruptions throughout the height of the pandemic, Timo has now reflected on his observations and found that his mission to continue encouraging innovation has naturally become embedded in businesses future. 鈥淲ith unprecedented times came vastly accelerated innovation in order to survive.鈥�

Speaking to 顿别肠补迟丑濒辞苍鈥檚 Chief Value Officer, 鈥淣othing is impossible anymore鈥� is simple the new business experience in light of the innovation that has become possible. The downside to this journey stemmed from the elevated pace that businesses were required to innovate, and in turn, ended up doing so in silos.

鈥淚 recently saw some data from International Data Corporation (IDC) that showed, a couple of years ago, 75% of organisations were innovating with a strategic approach, leaving the remaining 25% who were innovating in silos. Unfortunately, those numbers have changed. Organisations innovated in a silo because they didn’t have time to do it in a more strategic way, and now the number of organisations that have a strategic approach has dropped to 50%. So, unfortunately, there’s lots of innovation, but because of all these new silos, it’s actually harder to do even more innovation in the future.鈥�

With these results in mind, analysts are in agreement that to innovate both at a faster pace and with strategic efficiency, there needs to be a solid information foundation coupled with a flexible set of building blocks. What the pandemic shone a light on was an atmosphere of uncertainty experienced by organisations which can be combated with flexibility, agility and the technology foundations to support it. Those organisations that weren鈥檛 able to adapt or differentiate themselves unfortunately were forced to fold.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STDFvPBYW74

鈥淚 think one of the key takeaways, I hope, is that some organisations were a little complacent about needing to innovate. Why innovate? My business is stable. I don’t need to do anything differently. Instead, that thinking is a little bit like standing on a down escalator. You’re slowly moving backwards compared to the rest of the environment. In order to stay still in modern business, you have to be walking up the down escalator. You have to put effort in because the environment around you is evolving. Customers have higher demands, your employees have new expectations, your competitors are upping their game, so you have to do a certain amount of innovation just to stay still.鈥�

Asked on where organisations should begin their innovation efforts, Timo reminds us that because of a high investment in technology solutions that automate the time consuming parts of day to day operations, there鈥檚 a new wave of solutions such as a solutions. How do accelerate innovation this way? By letting business employees do more of the innovative work themselves in their area of expertise without IT and technology being a bottleneck.

Speaking to a customer, they explained to Timo that his 鈥榢nowledge workers鈥� know exactly what’s going wrong in the business and they know what should be done to fix it, but they feel powerless. 鈥淭hey feel like they’re at the mercy of the machine because they can’t fix it themselves. All they can do is point it out to a technology team, but that team don鈥檛 have enough time, there’s never enough resources, there’s always a backlog. So, the answer is no, we can鈥檛. Now, these new tools are becoming really powerful, where business people can create their entire applications, workflows, analytics and do it all themselves.鈥�

There are always some dangers to be aware of with implementing solutions like these, where if you let anybody in your business become involved in the technology, the result is probably going to be chaos. 鈥淣ot everybody’s ready to be enabled. Everybody’s gonna recreate the wheel and get calculations wrong.

So the right approach is not low-code or no-code or pro-code, but co-code where you have a combination of the technology teams putting in place the Lego bricks that reflects the different objects of the business like a customer or an invoice and so on. Employees can then take those blocks and use them, change the order and wire them up in different ways, and have different authorisations and so on in the knowledge that they’re going to do that in a way that isn’t gonna be damaging for the system it’s gonna be scalable, it’s gonna be compliant, follow all of the security laws and so on.鈥�

To hear more from this discussion, dive deeper into business innovation projects and hear more from Tim about his technology predictions for the future, listen to the full episode of The Best Run Podcast .

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This definition suggests that innovation is broader than technological advances in terms of engineering or technology but encompasses also changes in management and business practices such as mergers, acquisitions, partnerships etc. In this sense, it can be said that all businesses require some level of innovative activity in order to remain competitive.

When it comes to energy and natural resource companies, innovation is a necessity.

Innovation is important to because it allows them to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. To stay relevant, these companies need to innovate and find new ways of doing things that will provide value for customers. If they fail to innovate, they will be left behind.

The world is changing at a fast pace and the increasing use of technology allows companies to do more with less. This means that if energy and natural resources companies do not keep pace with these changes, then they will lose out on business opportunities. Innovation is also important because it provides more opportunities for growth. Innovation is about building new things and doing new things.

The benefits of innovation are not just limited to increasing a company’s market share and improving its bottom line. It also provides significant social benefits as it helps create jobs, improve productivity and provide better products for customers. When it comes to energy and natural resource companies, innovation is a necessity. These organisations are tasked with finding new resources, extracting them, processing them for use in the market, and then delivering these resources to the market.

It is not easy to innovate effectively, but it is very important.

Any company that wants to grow and stay relevant must be able to create value for customers through innovation. In order to do all of this, companies need new ideas. They need people who can come up with the next big thing that will make it easier for these organizations to get their products to market. An organisation’s ability to innovate is the key to its success. Innovation is what will allow energy and natural resource companies to thrive in a volatile world.

The energy and natural resource sectors are becoming more important to society. There are many reasons as to why this is so:

• The demand for energy from consumers has increased due to an increase in population.
• The demand for energy has increased because technology has developed to a point where the consumption of energy is needed for the production process. For example, some factories require high amounts of electricity in order to function properly.
• The demand for energy will increase due to the rise in technology. For example, new types of products and services, require more energy.
• The demand for energy will increase due to the rise in income and wealth. For example, as a person gets wealthier, they are more likely to purchase goods/services that require large amounts of energy.

Energy and natural resources organisations face unique challenges driving innovation:

The first challenge is the morality of our technology and how we use it. It’s clear that humanity has made some awesome advances in science and engineering over the last century or so, but as these developments are increasingly impacting society on a global scale, now more than ever before in history, they should be considered ethically by humans as well as machines.

Automation is changing businesses from top to bottom (and will continue to do so for decades) and if left unregulated could lead to an abundance of jobs disappearing. However, the true benefit of automation is not so much in the jobs that disappear; it’s how we use our time and energy when there aren’t as many routine tasks to do. We can now focus more on innovation and creativity because machines are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us.

The second challenge is how we should best use energy and resources to fuel our technology. I think this is the biggest societal problem that humans face today, more so than automation, because it’s a problem of scarcity rather than an abundance of jobs. How to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy resource in a timely fashion, not only because they want to but also because society has demanded it. The issue then becomes one of cost, both in terms of capital costs and environmental impact.

The third challenge is the most important one: how we should best use our time and energy with technology so that we can improve human civilization, now and in the coming decades.

Co-innovation is the key to solving challenges in energy and natural resources. Co-innovation, by definition, is the collaboration of two or more parties to work towards a common goal. By working together in this way, a greater understanding can be achieved as well as fresh perspectives on problems that arise during such collaborations.

Society is like a large orchestra, with each person playing their own instrument. Each person has to play in time and tune to the others around them. Some people are strong in some areas while weak in others, so they are capable of only small contributions on their own.

But when a team of people comes together to work on one project, each person can contribute their own strengths while the whole team works toward a common goal. The final product is many times more powerful than what any individual could have created alone.

That is why many successful companies are formed from the union of a business person and a technical person. Business people dream up great ideas, but they cannot implement them without help. Technical people can understand the details of an idea, but they do not know how to make it into something that will appeal to customers.

The union of a technical person and a business person is a powerful one because it combines the expertise necessary to both conceive and implement an idea. When this happens, the result is always successful. In this way, the success of a person or company is not due to one factor alone. It takes many different people working together toward a common goal in order for something great to be created.

Powerful ideas and new technologies require the work of many people to bring them into existence. 聽 at the new Centre Of Excellence for Asset Intensive Industries.

This article originally featured on

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I spoke with Sally Illingworth, a communications and marketing strategist with previous experience in food retail franchises; Luke Stow, a technology and innovation strategist with a passion for customer experience; and Evan Mantis, Executive General Manager for Consumer and Service Industries at 麻豆原创 ANZ.

Luke noted how it鈥檚 been a challenging time for everyone and how change management has been critical for retail executives during COVID-19. 鈥淚t has really changed the dynamic around customers in their relationships and experiences are changing based upon a world where communication for work and play are minute-by-minute on any device or application. That experience and the way they shop and engage with retailers is an interesting prospect to explore moving forward.鈥�

Sally noted the importance of digital readiness in providing improved experiences to customers and employees, highlighting the importance of resilient and robust supply chains.

鈥淢any retailers that struggled through COVID-19 were due to a lack of digital preparedness.鈥�

A critical questions Luke put forward was about the importance of customer loyalty programs after this global pandemic. 鈥淩etailers should focus on services that can provide customers 鈥� regardless of price point 鈥� a more seamless customer experience,鈥� he explained.

鈥淚t鈥檚 about structuring information systems and little data to get the right info to the right people at the right time to tailor experiences and utilise meaningful insights for the customer or employee journey. Retailers need to build around these journeys rather than a simple supply chain or process.鈥�

Sally agreed about the importance of little data for tailoring customer and employee experiences.

鈥淢any businesses don鈥檛 understand the volume of data they create or have access to, which can make it seem overwhelming. Retailers should be more proactive and targeted with its data to remove an overwhelming feeling and provide a more specified focus.

Data is an asset, manage it correctly to realise benefit for suppliers, retailers, and employees.

Evan noted how these elements are important for a retailers鈥� ability to pivot quickly. 鈥淲e saw two major retailers provide essential boxes, offering a service to society鈥檚 most vulnerable. They鈥檝e also provided temporary employment arrangements for most affected industries such as airlines. That ability to simply and rapidly onboard 20-30,000 people is vital considering major retailers have seen four Christmas peaks within last few months.

鈥淩obust HR solutions like offers retailers insights on staff leave balances, reducing liabilities for compulsory leave rather than layoffs, which really helps morale during this time. But even simple initiatives like Docusign, lets staff sign for things like JobKeeper while keeping them safe and engaged with the business.鈥�

Luke expressed an excitement about the retail sector鈥檚 opportunities moving forward, tailoring supply chains towards experiences rather than just moving goods. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about being included as part of the value chain in delivery and experience to customers, reshaping retail鈥檚 supply chain, distribution, and delivery to customers,鈥� Luke explained.

鈥淗owever, retailers need more little data to offer its supply chain resources and tailor experience requirements for customers at multiple touchpoints 鈥� these are the considerations to get excited about.鈥�

Evan noted the increased focus on an ethical supply chain, particularly considering the Modern Slavery Act 2018 and the wider value of product sustainability, which has become a consumer focus as well. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about the importance of de-risking supply chains,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen this in the fashion industry as delays of supply from China impacted on local wholesalers and consequently on retailers and customers.

鈥淩etailers have also come to understand the economic realities to purchases and will need to be more creative around business models, such as sharing costs through common suppliers, warehousing, or systems. COVID-19 has shown the risks of reliance on import, highlighting the need for more local manufacturing, which can also help ensure more ethical and sustainable supply chains.鈥�

Luke look at the value of omnichannel delivery to customers, ensuring backend systems connect to customer-facing digital touchpoints to help leverage capabilities and provide a more seamless customer experience anywhere, anytime, and through any application that enriches communication and engagement between the brand and its customers.

Sally said retailers will experience ongoing challenges due to the impact of COVID-19 on traditional business models. 鈥淭here will be a challenge in pricing for customers on omnichannel; retailers need to be aware of the operating costs of offline versus online to remain competitive. We鈥檝e got more informed customers, so the importance of communication and transparency in terms of unit economics and pricing strategy needs to embraced by retailers to grow out an omnichannel experience.鈥�

Looking at inspiring brands that have adapted well, Evan highlighted Bunnings. 鈥淭heir e-commerce strategy over 12 months has been very good as they鈥檝e especially ramped up over past few months to provide a consistent experience. That combined with Woolworths鈥� essential boxes is why those two retailers emerged out of COVID-19 as trusted brands.

鈥淢oving forward, it鈥檚 about providing a seamless experience and improved digitalisation of customer services. By offering omnichannel, more choice, and an enhanced digital experience, retailers can deliver on promises and grow.鈥�

Sally also noted the importance of digital readiness and embracing change at a leadership level. 鈥淩etailers need a balanced approach to management to adapt and grow from this. They must understand the relationship between costs, investments, employee and customer experience.

鈥淭raditional retail models have changed; we can鈥檛 make ad-hoc decisions based on balance sheets. There needs to be longer term decision making, using a learn as you go approach with agility to test and change.鈥�

To understand more about how the retail sector has changed following COVID-19. To learn how retail is adapting to this new environment with greater practices and technologies than ever before, check out 麻豆原创鈥檚 global webinar, Adaptive Strategies in a Changed World. to see highlights from the retail and consumer products webinar.

To listen to this latest podcast you can visit , and

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noted that, in absence of a Federal Government stimulus package, COVID-19 would reduce Australia鈥檚 GDP by about 0.9 percent 鈥� over $17 billion 鈥� by the end of 2020. By the end of March, Australian federal government announced its to help Australian businesses and workers navigate through this current crisis.

However, the , and the RBA has since noted that its priority is 鈥渢o support jobs, incomes and businesses, so that when the health crisis recedes, the country is well placed to recover strongly.鈥�

The key message businesses everywhere should be conveying is that the priority is people, not profits.

Industries everywhere need to exercise greater duty of care towards its staff, customers, and partners because everyone is facing these extraordinary circumstances and only a united effort will end this widespread crisis.

To help organisations navigate through this challenging period, 麻豆原创 recently hosted a series of virtual forums called . This digital event featured industry-specific episodes to help businesses not only adapt to this extreme situation, but find ways to be more resilient and prepared for the future.

We鈥檝e already seen the impact of COVID-19 on markets and market trends, how businesses are adjusting to the legislative changes that are limiting movement 鈥� both of people and goods. The trickledown effect of supply chain impact is being felt everywhere, and compounded with social distancing and business closures, this is a time to be more accommodating to staff and customers.

In terms of supporting employees, it鈥檚 about clear communication and ensuring the wellbeing as they or face potential redundancy. Business leaders need to ensure employees have the right information and technology to work efficiently and safely from home, remaining abreast of the company鈥檚 situation and their employment.

When it comes to customers, communication is also paramount, and both stakeholders rely on the digital capabilities of financial services in order to remain safe, informed, and engaged.

Digital Channels and Experience Management
Businesses that invested early in digitalisation are better equipped to face this current crisis as they鈥檙e able to offer online services to customers, particularly banks that moved towards branchless service. The development of cashless payment is certainly a valuable service as branches remain closed, however debit facilities are being challenged and we鈥檙e yet to understand how this will impact on the customer experience.

Understanding the customer experience now is vital as their preferences (alongside employee experience) dictates how successfully a business can adapt to change.

FSI providers must have a digital first strategy to not only service their products on digital channels, but also to be able to cross-sell, up-sell and attract new customers.

Staying close to customers is crucial 鈥� and digital communication platforms can help business connect with customers and staff more comprehensively.

FSI players must constantly assess the sentiment of customers and employees to refine its service offerings and experience management goes a long way towards understanding those sentiments. This not only helps businesses better define its purpose, but build loyalty, increase revenue, reduce management costs, and ultimately unlock efficiencies.

The ability to be transparent is limited to customers and staff as digital platforms can also facilitate improved collaboration across industries and supply chains. While COVID-19 has brought forward some major challenges, it also presents businesses everywhere with a significant learning opportunity to evolve, to digitally transform and emerge more resilient to shock events like this.

To learn more about how the FSI sector is mitigating risks and responding to this global pandemic, to the second edition of the 鈥� going live on August 6^th2020.

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A build on 麻豆原创鈥檚 鈥楨xperience Revolution鈥� podcast series, the show focuses on how different industries are evolving, new business models are emerging, and the changing nature of how work gets done.

As part of the series, the team has created some special episodes that focus on how tech is helping manage the disruption caused by of COVID-19. This includes episodes focusing on , , and lessons from the in how to source supplies in times of crisis.

Industry Insights by 麻豆原创 is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify. Listen to the podcast

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The key here is that to realise any benefit, the task has to be repetitive to realise value in automating, and simple enough for the technology to perform reliably. What is considered simple is changing as time moves on with the technology becoming more capable and incorporating AI technologies.

Tasks like , , payroll are excellent candidates for RPA as they typically include tasks that are relatively easy to capture as a workflow, with high repetition rates which increases the value of the automation.

Who are the big players?
Although the industry is relatively new, there are a number of major players in the market including Blue Prism, UiPath and Automation Anywhere. , enabling built in automation for 麻豆原创 systems. By incorporating RPA technology into the 麻豆原创 applications and databases, the automation will become easier to implement and more tightly integrated with the applications.

Pros and Cons?
Simply put, RPA will enable businesses to reduce costs by freeing up employees from drudge work into tasks better suited to humans 鈥� tasks requiring creative thought, initiative and the ability to deal with variation.

By the end of 2020, Gartner is predicting RPA and AI technologies will free up 65% of employees in business shared services centres and the RPA market itself will grow to be worth over $1B.

There is a potential dark side to this bonanza though – jobs losses and stifling of application innovation are some of the issues. Magical success for a deployment is by no means guaranteed. Careful use case evaluation and selection is very much required. Project oversight, change management and governance is essential.

Who is using it?
I thought I鈥檇 talk to an actual RPA developer to get some insight to real world application. My son happens to be employed by an Australian government agency where he has worked on automating their systems.

What sort of systems have you automated with RPA tools?
The systems I have experience applying automations to are; 麻豆原创 payroll and HR systems, 麻豆原创 Child systems, and Outlook.

Where do you think RPA technologies help the most?
The best candidates for RPA software in government typically are HR systems and financial reports. The generation of invoice management reports and budget reports is one of the biggest time-consuming requests the agency handles on a regular basis. The implementation of automation in these areas is massively beneficial as the returned massive resources to the business unit and added improved perception from clients.

RPA in government is most successful when implemented on processes that are already defined and not undergoing other development.

Where do you think RPA technologies don鈥檛 help?
RPA implementation struggles in areas that are already undergoing change, such as departments effected by the recent Machinery of Government (MOG) change that has huge process and policy changes.

In my experience automations are quickly scrapped where the system is still undergoing development and in-system changes adversely affect surface based automations.

What is the hardest thing about developing RPA systems?
The biggest hurdle when developing in-system automation is process definition and managing stakeholder expectations.

If the process has other changes ongoing it is always best to define the process after the changes are implemented. Any developer knows the pains of creating something that can鈥檛 be included as part of an update due to compatibility issues. In short, develop completed systems 鈥� there is no point working with a beta as the entire platform may not work with the finished automation.

This can be hard to do in government as the push to roll out updates in-parallel means managing stakeholder expectations on delivery timeframes. I would advise all developers to stay in the loop with all system development meetings and engage with local subject matter experts at every available opportunity.

Are there any downsides to using RPA technologies?
The only real downside to RPA is the perception that staff have of the new technology potentially 鈥渄oing them out of a Job鈥�. This is never the case however, in every successful case of in-system automation staff are able to get new training and new experience to further their careers. Although the perception can make implementation of the change hard, once it鈥檚 done the perception is quickly turned around.

What was the hardest thing to get right?
One of the most important and most critical aspects of RPA is performance capability mapping – you need to know how well the process currently performs and how the automation is expected to perform.

As with every system it needs to be capable of handling increased workload with no effect on reliability. So, when undertaking the development plan for new automations, make sure to investigate the systems limitations and issues with current functionality.

It鈥檚 always best practice to improve on reliability when implementing automations – an intelligent automation with the ability to self-diagnose issues and recover from errors is more valuable than an automation that requires constant intervention.

Finally, where do think RPA technology is going?
RPA technologies are being implemented in almost every modern business or government around the world.

It is quite literally the way of the future.

I expect that by 2025 we鈥檒l see RPA established in every government department and as the technology is implemented, we鈥檒l see the perception totally change.

The Future
As my son mentioned, RPA is going to become pervasive in modern organisations. AI technologies are increasingly being included in RPA, enabling an easier, less proscriptive way of designing the workflows.

麻豆原创 is investing in this future with an intent to bake intelligence in to create an integrated automation platform.

Of course, with less human direction comes more risk of the wheels falling off, so even more time needs to be spent in the oversight of the project. And of course, the potential negatives mentioned above are amplified.

The end state of this is replacement of the human oriented applications altogether, allowing the machines to exchange data directly. Perhaps we鈥檒l call that system Skynet 😊

Like it or not RPA is here to stay (until it is superseded or made irrelevant). I think when that happens I鈥檒l go get a beer 鈥� I wonder if I can automate that process?

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