Daily Archives: November 27, 2019

As winter sets in, a warm home is important. In the U.K., home heating is almost exclusively done with a boiler, which conjures images of cantankerous elderly equipment that fails at the worst moment. If you think that home heating is a relic of the analog world and technology wants nothing to do with it, think again.

Thermostat on radiator. (Photo by BuildPix/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images)

However advanced technology becomes, the digital world has to work in conjunction with the analog one. A smart home where the morning alarm clock triggers the central heating, the lighting and even the tea kettle still needs the right plumbing, gas supply and mains power. Big organizations like British Gas or Boxt, which is a recent addition to the service industry, are eager to make digital and analog work together.

Boxt is an installer of boilers, air conditioning and, soon, electric vehicle chargers. Like British Gas, the Boxt engineers work with smart home accessories, too. So, when a boiler is installed, you can opt for a Nest learning thermostat, for instance, just as British Gas can supply its favored Hive system.

British Gas has a huge team of engineers, while Boxt has a network of local suppliers and installers.

Technology can help keep costs down, and one way to do this includes an initial connection thats done exclusively through a carefully detailed website. This is key for Boxt and is the first contact the customer has with the company. There are increasingly specific questions greeting the site visitor, such as Is your boiler combi or system?. It enquires which room your current boiler is located in and whether youre in a flat, bungalow or terrace. It even establishes water pressure in accessible terms by asking how quickly the water comes out of the cold tap, in accessible terms such as: Slow, takes more than 10 seconds to fill a pint glass.

These are questions that determine the kind of boiler and lead to the website deciding the price. Boxt claims the site can deliver a quote within 90 seconds. I tried the site multiple times with imagined scenarios of varying complexity. Sometimes it took longer, but never more than about six minutes in total. Crucially, this automation avoids the need for an engineers visit in almost all cases, which keep costs down. As a result, Boxts quotes can compare favorably to British Gas.

If a particular property is more complicated, youre asked to call Boxt so they can discover more details, or you may be required to send photos of your current boiler. If needed, Boxt can arrange an engineer visit.

Although it doesnt mean the service cant do complicated installations, there may be some situations like a complete relocation of the boiler to another room, say where it could be simpler to use a local tradesperson after all.

Boxt takes advantage of the fact that many new boilers are like-for-like swaps where the old one is removed and the new plonked in its place.

Key to the whole experience is the immediacy of availability: if your heating has broken, and you are keying in your details before 3PM, you can even choose a next-day installation. This attracts a price premium.

There are also higher prices for weekend visits, lower ones for midweek dates that are a little time off.

A central heating boiler, here installed by BOXT, can look good enough that you don't need to hide ... [+] it in a cupboard.

The boiler, pipes, fittings and all accessories arrive automatically by courier on the day of the appointment and apart from one phone call where the installer introduces themselves, everything is automated though customer service staff are available if needed. Costs are competitive but even when they are not the lowest, the fixed-price element is critical to the simplicity of the service.

None of this would matter much if the actual installation and supply part of the deal wasnt up to scratch.

Dre Smith, a musician who lives in Sandy, Bedfordshire, had her new system installed by Boxt. I asked her about her experience and she was impressed. I used the website to specify what boiler I needed. It took a few minutes, but it was straightforward and there were explanations to help if youre not sure. I got my quote immediately, and I chose a day when installation was a bit cheaper Id planned ahead because my boiler was still working. I think I might have been able to get a cheaper price elsewhere, but the fixed price was one of the main attractions, and you dont feel youre being upsold. I had the option of a free Google Nest Learning Thermostat and Google Home Mini, too. The day before installation, I got a call from my assigned engineer to arrange what time they'd come and on the morning, the boiler and other accessories were delivered about an hour before the engineer arrived.

British Gas also has a website where customers can specify what theyre after and estimated prices are quickly shared there, too. But there seems to be a hand-off to humans sooner than with Boxt.

As more parts of the process are computerized, costs can be controlled and human involvement limited almost until the first moment where tap meets wrench. At which point, the providing of cups of tea to the humans in your house is still mandatory.

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Read more from the original source:

How Technology Is Improving The Future Of Home Service Installations - Forbes

Family Photo

Warren Bobrow=WB: Please tell me about yourselves? Where are you from? What was your path to your healing with cannabis? Who were your mentor(s)?

Phiton Nguyen=PN: Growing up in Orange Countys Little Saigon as second-generation immigrants from Vietnam, my sister and I had an ideal environment to explore our mutual interests in nature and health. I was interested in cannabis plants from an early age and even grew 8 plants in our backyard when I was 13. Most recently, I spent several years in the e-cigarette industry pursuing another interest born out of curiosity more than personal use, and learned the mechanics of vaporizer technology. At the time, devices on the market were complicated to use and sometimes downright unsafe, usually designed for self-learned or inexperienced users. I was intrigued by the challenge of engineering a vaporizer that was well designed, safe, high quality, and practical for ex-smokers who wanted to offset health risks. Our parents have been our greatest supporters and mentors. They overcame unimaginal hardship as refugees during the Vietnam War and were able to start a renowned record company, Lang Van once they came to America. Their entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen has guided many of our critical decisions as a young company.

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Mimi Nguyen=MN: We began to explore the medicinal uses of cannabis after my mom and I were both diagnosed with cancer. Thankfully, we are both in remission now, but the experience was serious wake up call for our entire familys health. We collectively developed more health-conscious habits and started researching the benefits of cannabis and Eastern medicine. When California legalized recreational cannabis, we began exploring the potential applications of cannabis as a wellness tool. While there were countless options available on the market, we realized that the majority of those products were designed in a way that mitigated the plants nutrient-rich and medical benefits when consumed. When eaten, at least half of the cannabinoids are effectively lost to the digestive process, and while inhalation allows a higher absorption rate of cannabinoids, many arrive dormant or destroyed by the heat used in standard methods of combustion. Phitons expertise in vaporizer technology and our familys penchant for holistic experimentation converged as a family pursuit of smarter cannabis consumption, leading us to create the product that becameQWIN.

WB: Why CBD? Where do you source your products from?Tell me about your company a bit more? What is micro-fusion technology? How do you determine dosages?

PN & MN: We believe that CBD has the potential to help individuals who depend on medications that are either addictive or have adverse side effects to manage chronic physical or mental conditions. We wanted to create a natural source of relief for anyone who is spending numerous hours a day dealing with pain, anxiety, or distress. Our CBD is sourced from an extraction facility in Milwaukee that is also USFDA approved for bottling and is in the process of being CGMP certified.QWINs MicroFusion technology is an ultrasonic emulsion process where we create a more bioavailable formula where the CBD becomes more absorbent particles that your body can process faster and more efficiently. The process also infuses food-grade flavors into each formula and creates an effective product and maintain a lower cost to the user. We designed QWIN to be used frequently throughout the day to give our customers a steady and balanced feeling. Each CBDi cartridge contains 100 mg of full-spectrum CBD and approximately 45 doses. We do not have a recommended dosage amount because each body is different, but users should feel the effects within 5 minutes of inhaling and can decide if they need more from there.

WB: Did you go to B-School (or school of hard knocks)? What is your professional background in this field? What is your six month and twelve month plan?

MN: I went to Chapman University for film production and did not have a formal business education, but being involved in my familys music business at a young age gave me the skills and insight to runQWIN. I manage the legal aspects of every project, design our digital licensing program for our entire catalogue of music and videos, and lead the acquisition of our cannabis facility and licenses. In the next six months, we expect to have a fully licensed cannabis manufacturing and distribution facility, launch a line of high potency CBD and microdose THC capsules, and focus on building our educational and influencer partnership divisions.

PN: I went to UC Santa Cruz for printmaking and mathematics and also learned how to manage a production facility producing artists which taught me the day-to-day business operations and distribution of entertainment from our parents business. My product development background helped me design and launch QWINs innovative technology. During my five years in the industry, Ive developed several product lines in hardware technology and e-liquid brands. In 12 months, we hope that other vape companies will use QWINs technology and platform in their own products.

WB What kind of stigmas do you face? How do you anticipate removing these obstacles? What do you see as the future of wellness?

PN & MN: The entire vape industry has received a lot of negative press due to the rise in lung illnesses linked to illicit THC cartridges. The media has characterized all vape use as dangerous, which is vastly misguided. Inhaling medicine has been around for decades and is one of the most effective methods for instant relief. The only way to challenge this misperception is through public education. Just like how cannabis use was widely vilified decades ago, people are often scared of what they do not know. We see this current vape crisis as an opportunity to engage with consumers and health officials about the benefits of vaping legal CBD and THC and will diligently work with testing labs to reinforce that our products are safe. The future of wellness lies in taking a preventative approach by having access and education to natural remedies and learning how to be more mindful of our health choices.

Kits-CBDi-Starter (1)

WB: What is your passion?

PN: I love developing products that can enhance peoples life experiences. Some of the most life-changing products ever created resulted in incremental changes that made a significant difference in peoples lives. While we cant solve the underlying problems that cause chronic health issues, what we can do is give individuals a natural tool to make their lives easier as they navigate this challenge.

MN:The Mongo verb temu comes to mind. It roughly translates to, I believe that I am not passionate about one particular thing, but a way of living life. I want to be in a constant state of inspiration, always creating and rushing to create holistic solutions for individuals trying to improve their quality of life.

Link:

Meet The Family Behind QWIN: Revolutionizing CBD Technology - Forbes

Most tech solution stories start with the need to not only figure out but also how to navigate around a specific pain point.

For commercial real estate, an industry that has historically been slow in adopting technology as compared to other industries, instead of simply playing catch up and solving those pain points, it is imperative to stay ahead of the curve.Not only are today's employees increasingly requiring it but tenants are also expecting it. And more than likely, the competition, too, is aiming to be at the top of their tech game.

For the many commercial real estate companies looking to utilize technology, there's a lot of uncertainty when it comes to figuring out which solution might be right for them. Some companies are looking to improve data management or contract management, while others might want a better decision-analysis software or one that can provide improved efficiency. No matter which type of technology is the right starting place for your company, one thing is certain: At a time when large brokerage firms are heavily investing in the space, incorporating something and using it is key and staying at the forefront of CRE technology is essential.

Not only that, but investors in the commercial real estate space are also expecting it. The "2019 Commercial Real Estate Outlook"report by Deloitte says that investors have certain expectations about technology usage from their CRE investee companies. Over 80% of the survey's respondents said that commercial real estate companies "should prioritize the use of predictive analytics and business intelligence."

Those results aren't at all surprising to me, since improved efficiency will become a great advantage during future downturns. We often hear about robotic process automating and other diverse technologies that move across many functions and processes, but if you are at a standstill trying to figure out where to begin incorporating technology, start at the foundation and think about what information you have as a company that you can better use to your advantage.

The foundation of any great analytics and automated solution is data. Companies need to pay attention to how they capture and manage their data, whether it is property data, internal company data or the data hidden in their documents.

The first step should be to collect, standardize and manage data in a more efficient and accurate way. The important qualifier to note is to be sure that the data collected is clean, because without clean data analytics, any technology software is useless.

Once all that is accomplished, that clean data can be used to your advantage to improve many other aspects of the business and make more informed decisions. Better investment decisions result in better ROI and better management decisions resulting in higher efficiency company-wide, improved tenant experience and lower operating costs.

Let's look at Real Capital Analytics, for example. Founder and president Bob White has said that technology has played a huge role in shortening the time it takes to both market and sell a property, and that technology has allowed investors to transact across ever-increasing distances. By taking advantage of these advancements, commercial real estate brokers can become even smarter and more efficient.

It is important to note that being at the forefront of technology does not mean all jobs will be replaced, as some might think. Above all, commercial real estate is still a personal business where relationships matter. What technology can do, however, is give a competitive advantage to those relationships.

Original post:

Why Technology Is Crucial For CRE -- And Why Investors Now Expect it - Forbes

A Canadian project aims to make voice assistants more accessible by having individuals with atypical speech offer recordings of their voices.

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society recently announced its latest program, Project Understood, which helps Google voice technology better understand individuals with Down syndrome.

"People with down syndrome have atypical speech, their facial structures are different. Their tongues are larger, thicker, and it means that they speak in a way that is not typical," said Shelley Brown, chief strategy officer at FCB Toronto and leader of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society's project. "As a result they find voice technology really hard to use."

SEE: Amazon Alexa: An insider's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Digital voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple Siri have become staples in daily life, infiltrating smartphones and smart home devices. Juniper Research found that the popularity of voice assistants will increase worldwide, with eight billion projected to be in use by 2023.

However, these voice assistants may not be able to help those with disabilities, a population that could be helped most from the tech, Brown said.

"Voice technology could be so useful and important for people living with Down syndrome. It could be a technology that could make the difference for somebody to be able to live independently or not," Brown said. "It is a very intuitive, easy way to get access to everything that a computer can do, from giving you a reminder for an appointment, directions on how to get somewhere, or how to do something."

Once the Canadian Down Syndrome Society decided to pursue this mission of making voice assistants more accessible, officials realized they needed the support of a big name company, Brown said.

"We did a lot of research and started calling a whole bunch of different places," Brown said. "When we called Google, they were so open, excited, and receptive to the whole idea."

The first step Google and the society made involved a test. "One of the questions that we didn't have the exact answer to was, are speech patterns of people with Down syndrome similar enough [to those without] that the voice technology can learn from them?" Brown asked.

To find the answer, Project Understood recruited nine people living with Down syndrome and asked them to record 1,700 words and phrases. The recordings would be played back through a Google voice platform and researchers would discover whether or not the technology could learn from repeated input of the voices, Brown said.The group received an exciting answer from the test: Yes. "On the basis of that initial test with nine people, it became very clear that the technology could learn from them and it just needed more data," Brown said.

Project Understood is still at the very early stages of development. Right now, Google gets approximately one out of three words incorrect for someone living with Down syndrome. However, the system is extremely dynamic, meaning it will be able to better understand if it is given more data, Brown said.

"What we're really looking for is to collect about a thousand voices of people with Down syndrome. The more data we can give the system, the smarter the system will be," Brown said, "Right now, we have almost 300 participants already in the program and we will just continue to bring on more people living with Down syndrome so that they can teach Google how to understand them."

"By teaching Google to understand people who are living with Down syndrome, it will have an impact for other people with different disabilities or different forms of atypical speech," Brown said. "While the initial group of people who will benefit from [the project] are people with Down syndrome, their participation is actually going to make voice technology work better for many other people."

Individuals with Down syndrome can help the cause through this link. By recording their own voices saying certain words and phrases, those with Down syndrome can directly help improve the accuracy of Google's voice recognition models, Brown said.

The press release offered some example phrases users may be asked to record:

"We've always tried to reframe how people think about those living with Down syndrome. These people are not victims, they're not ill. These are engaged individuals and they have a point of view on the world," Brown said. "Google is one of the biggest and smartest companies on the planet, and somebody living with Down syndrome is an expert in living with Down syndrome. This is a case where they can share their expertise and actually teach Google to be more helpful, not only for people with Down syndrome, but also people with any form of basic difficulties."

For more, check out How to make your sites accessible for all users: 3 tips for business owners on TechRepublic.

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Project Understood makes Google voice technology more inclusive to those with Down syndrome - TechRepublic