Transform Tour 2021: The Power of Disruptive Technologies Recap

By Katie Bartenslager

Our second stop on our Transform Tour 2021: ‘The Power of Disruptive Technologies’ (sponsored by Avaya and Contentsquare) has come to a close! This event consisted of three sessions that dove into how new technologies can help you transform your business and workplace into something powerful.

This blog will give you a brief overview of the event. If you would like to watch the full event you can do so here.

Analyst Session #1 

Topic: Digital Workplace Strategy: 5 Trends to Act On Now

Presented by Aragon analysts: 

• Jim Lundy, CEO and Lead Analyst
• Craig Kennedy, Sr. Director of Research

Key Takeaways:

• Invest in visual content
  • Make video part of every customer and employee journeys because people want to be able to access recordings after every event. This should be your top priority because video is here and it is never going away—it’s the fastest way to learn and engage.

• Evaluate providers for digital workplace based on their investment in AI
  • You are probably going to have more than one collaboration platform at your enterprise because it is becoming so pervasive and there are so many unique needs to successfully maintain hybrid work. 

• Develop a Conversational AI Strategy 
  • We have seen a massive adoption of intelligent chatbots in many industries, especially in the contact center. Bots are getting smarter and more conversational. Things that used to take seconds or minutes are being taken care of in real time. It is important to take advantage of chatbots to increase your productivity because bots work 24 hours a day and are a great fit for tasks that would take humans longer or more tedious hours to complete. Competition in bots continues to grow so make sure to vet the bots and find one that meets all of your specific needs.

• Make security part of every executive’s charter

• • Security should be a top corporate issue. It is no longer an IT cost. It needs to be viewed all the way to the board level and C-level because security threats are real and imminent. It is time to leverage AI technology because it is the only way to stay ahead of hacks. AI can recognize patterns and deploy countermeasures faster than humans with human identity and cybersecurity software.
  • Make it fun and make it a part of your company culture so that your people know why security is important and will take the necessary steps to implement it. 

Panelist Discussion

Topic: Return to Work: Managing a Hybrid Workforce 

As the workplace and our “normal” continues to change and adjust, our panelists have shared where their companies are headed and why.

Our Panelists: 

• Faye Tylee, Chief Human Resources Officer at Avaya
• Nicolas Fritz, Chief Operating Officer at Contentsquare
• Macy Andrews, Sr. Director, People & Communities Organization at Cisco

Key Takeaways:

• “This last year and a half has taught us that we will gather, we will collaborate, and we will connect differently in the next world of hybrid. Cisco is focused on the hybrid work model.”  – Macy Andrews, Cisco
• “To have growth you need to have a strong team. Our culture at Contentsquare is all about bonding together. It’s more about giving people the atmosphere that they want, while being cautious. We will go step by step and very slowly into the hybrid model.”- Nicolas Fritz, Contentsquare
• “The phrase we have been using is ‘one size does not fit all.’ What are the needs of our customers and our partners, along with our employees? We are working to create a framework that supports the flexibility necessary to meet the business needs.” – Faye Tylee, Avaya
• “There are procedures around gathering but there is also a huge leadership component and there is a huge team gathering component that we need to start to really prepare our leaders and teams for. We need to help our leaders define how their team gathers.” – Macy Andrews, Cisco
•  “Leveraging tools that make sense to support our communication efforts and training and learning environment has helped us deploy and create a level playing field for our employees in terms of their access to information, to training, and focus on career development.” – Faye Tylee, Avaya
• “We are now seeing intelligent video conferencing tools and AI capabilities, and all of that is helping to support an inclusive hybrid collaboration for the future. Hybrid won’t all be about the virtual, it’s about having seamless connections across the physical and the virtual which is why you need intelligent video. ” – Macy Andrews, Cisco
• “It’s not the time to take drastic decisions but to continue to adapt to the way of the ‘new world’.”- Nicolas Fritz, Contentsquare
• “We have all experienced the blend between work and lives. It’s important to recognize that and that we meet employees where they are. It’s health, wealth, and well being and it’s important to make sure we give those resources for support.” – Faye Tylee, Avaya

Analyst Session #2

Topic: Introducing tPaaS: Why Your Business Will Never Be the Same

Presented by Aragon analyst:

Betsy Burton, VP of Research and Aragon Fellow

Key Takeaways:

• Your business will never be the same because we are seeing intelligence and technology mature and become part of our workforce.
• The hybrid workforce is not only hybrid in where you may be working and how you may be working, but hybrid in terms of digital employees and human employees blurring together.
• Just thinking about digitizing is not good enough—you have to think about things in a very unique and different way because Aragon predicts a huge increase in digital labor. 
• If you do not take security seriously your company will cease to exist. 
• Collaboration applications will become the new dial tone, and there will be a huge increase in adaptive reality (AR) and digital assistants in many industries.
• Business automation should be thought of as “how can I operate my business in a more effective way then I did before?” and it’s using technology to do so.
• Business transformation requires businesses to think future-state first and then think ‘how do we change our business to get there?’.
• Digital business is outside-in thinking – how are your customers, employees, and partners working and how do you support them in THEIR environment.
• Make sure you understand the market changes and how they are going to affect your business.
• The tPaaS market is currently emerging and growing because enterprises need this kind of support. It is built on top of the technology foundation of the iPaaS market but adds on business capabilities and business services that are required for transformation.
• Right now we are in the iPaaS market but we believe the tPaaS market is going to be a very important market soon and Aragon Research will be releasing some new research soon on this topic.

What’s Next?

There was a lot of great, useful, and important information in this event. If you take anything away, it should be that one size does not fit all. There are new and emerging technologies that can help propel your business transformation, but it is important to research and vet each one to fit your specific needs. It is equally important to listen to your employees to find the best and most productive “workplace” for them, taking it step by step in this ever changing world. 

So what’s next? There are a couple things you can now do: 

1. Rewatch or watch the event for yourself by clicking here
2. Sign up for our next event, Transform Tour 2021: The Impact of Intelligence on Customer and Employee Experiences that will take place on September 15th at 10AM – 11:30AM PT
3. Get in touch with one of our analysts for a more indepth and personalized conversation

 

We hope to see you (virtually) soon!