Category Archives: Automation

Impartner earns highest market position among top 13 global vendors based on over 100,000 data points from 1,500 manager surveys, analyst opinions and vendor evaluations

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Impartner, the global pure-play leader in SaaS-based channel management technology,was named the No. 1 global winner onResearch In Action's Vendor Selection Matrix for Partner Management Automation (PMA), which brings together Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA). In the new report, Impartner scores highest for the breadth and depth of its solution offering, price/value ratio and customer satisfaction. Additionally, Impartner is recognized for its "single-pane-of-glass" vision for managing the entire partner journey,and for its developer team, which is larger than most vendors' entire headcount, ensuring that the pace of new solutions development to the market is unmatched.

The Research in Action Vendor Selection Matrix is primarily a survey-based methodology for vendor evaluation, in which 63 percent of the evaluation is based on a survey of enterprise IT or business decision makers. The remaining 37 percent is based on the analyst's judgement, which is informed by a combination of intensive interviews with software or services vendors and their clients, plus their informed, independent point of view as an analyst. This approach is one of the key differentiators of Research In Action in market research. For this report, RIA interviewed 1,500 marketing and business managers with budget responsibility in enterprises globally. RIA selected those vendors who achieved the best evaluations scores from the buyers but disregarded those with fewer than 15 evaluations or that did not fit the market profile.

"What's clear in this year's report is that the pandemic has both accelerated digital transformation and created a new dimension of partners requiring a much more sensitive and dynamic digital platform," saidPeter O'Neill, author of the report and Research Director, Research In Action GmbH. "The PMA vendor landscape will leave pure-play PRM or TCMA behind. Impartner is the overall global leader for Partner Management Automation tools and automates the total partner journey for every type of partner."

It's humbling and exciting to come out on top as the solution our market knows and trusts tomanage their entire partner journey," said Impartner VP Product Gary Sabin. "And certainly, to be recognized for customer satisfaction, our price/value ratio, and as the company that can best meet contemporary partner management demands through a single streamlined platform is incredibly rewarding. Those things are at the core of what the Impartner team is focused on delivering to our customers everyday worldwide."

Join Sabin and O'Neill onNovember 11th, 2021, at 8 a.m. MST/4 p.m. CESTfor a webinar, where they will discuss this research and partner management automation trends for 2022 and beyond. Register here.

This news comes on the heels of the company's recent announcement of a $50 million round of funding, led by Brighton Park Capital with participation from existing investors Savant Growth, Emergence and GolubCapital. Recent groundbreaking product releases from Impartner include Impartner PX Partner Experience, a lightning-fast, modern, consumerized interface designed from the ground up to delight partners and accelerate indirect sales; Journey Builder, which helps companies choreograph the perfect partner journey; and Program Compliance Manager, which helps solve the No. 2 problem facing channel chiefs, managing program compliance.

About Research in Action

Research In Action GmbH is a leading independent information and communications technology research and consulting company. The company provides both forward-looking as well as practical advice to enterprise as well as vendor clients.

About Impartner

Impartner is the fastest-growing, most award-winning provider of channel management technologies, including its flagship Partner Relationship Management (PRM) and Through Channel Marketing Automation (TCMA) solutions, which help companies worldwide manage their partner relationships, drive demand through partners and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visitimpartner.com.

Impartner Contact:

Kerry Desberg

Impartner

kerry.desberg@impartner.com

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Impartner Ranks No. 1 in Partner Management Automation In New Report from Analyst Firm Research in Action - KPVI News 6

Lee Morris, chief commercial officer at askporter, discusses how businesses can best approach AI assistants and process automation

AI capabilities for customer service shouldn't only be considered by larger organisations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has made important strides in transforming business practices and processes across a wide range of sectors, by helping organisations streamline operations, manage risk and reduce costs. This is especially true when it comes to critical activities such as marketing, customer service and sales, which have been identified by Forbes as the top three areas that AI can enhance business growth.

Thanks to AI, we are now seeing a proliferation of digital assistants, also known as predictive chatbots. These are application programs that not only understand natural language voice commands, but can also simulate a conversation with users and complete tasks on their behalf. Using AI and machine learning, combined with a users history, preferences, and other information, they can respond to difficult questions, make recommendations, and even start conversations.

Together AI and digital assistants can transform a business, enabling not only the automation of costly and time-consuming processes, but also delivering first class customer experiences. Employees are also set free from mundane tasks, so can dedicate their efforts to other areas of the organisation, where they are needed more urgently.

For any organisation looking to secure the business benefits that such technology can offer, is essential to ensure it is done so in in a manner that results in minimum disruption to your operations and customers, as well as ensuring the greatest return on investment.

Successfully integrating AI assistants and process automation into a business can be a complex undertaking, and often requires expert planning to get right. For example, have employees been properly instructed in the use of the new tech and do they understand how it will benefit them, so they are invested in its successful integration.

Tim Ensor, director of artificial intelligence at Cambridge Consultants, part of Capgemini Invent, wonders whether machines powered by AI will learn as naturally as children do. Read here

For firms to harness the full potential of AI assistants and process automation, an effective approach is to consider how closely the two are intertwined. Weve seen from experience that one of the most effective and logical methods of implementing AI and automation is to introduce digital assistants into their existing customer services, where they can be used to capture and create a log of conversations.

Presently, many companies customer services are constrained by the availability of their employees to man phonelines or speak to customers in person, which can be a challenge outside of normal working hours. Digital assistants help to remove the customer services gap by offering a 24/7 solution with which consumers can share their questions and issues whenever they need to, safe in the knowledge that the enquiry will be logged and prioritised accordingly.

This is not to suggest that digital assistants should be viewed as a replacement to human engagement with customers a survey conducted by Dutch tech firm Usabilla found that 55% of people still like to speak with a human customer service agent on the phone.

However, the same survey discovered that 54% of customers will always choose to speak to a digital assistant rather than a human customer services rep if it saves 10 minutes of their time, showing the appetite among consumers for firms to provide alternative methods of contacting them, besides the traditional phone call.

This is where the process automation element comes in. By capturing and examining all the customer conversations that happen across your organisation, you can quickly understand which ones are the high volume, by looking at the processes that sit behind these high-volume conversations you will quickly get a picture of which ones are high in volume and low in complexity, and will therefore be ripe for some easy wins.

In addition to the time this could save for customers and employees alike, it is also likely to save firms money and actually boost customer satisfaction levels, given that there needs can be addressed with efficiently with the appropriate level of attention i.e. human or AI.

Successful process automation requires not just smart thinking, but also taking the optimal journey between automating process and customer service, employing customer analysis to guide what conversations need automating with your assistant, and what processes to automate behind those conversations. This will also enable staff to be reassigned so they can maximise the use of their time and ultimately achieve business growth as a result.

This article will explore how organisations can ensure success from hyperautomation projects, to drive the most value out of the technology. Read here

No longer should utilising AI to enhance customer services and generate process automation be seen as an approach to be taken only by the very largest consumer brands in years to come, such a strategy is likely to become commonplace for organisations of all sizes and types.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the need for businesses to embrace emerging technologies that can help mitigate the impact of any future disruption on their day-to-day operations, with customer service being a key part of this for many.

Taking the right approach to implementing digital assistants into their existing offering will enable firms to push customer services further than ever before, leading to shorter waiting times and faster outcomes for customers, thereby providing them with a and more positive and impactful experience overall.

Remember that automating a business is a journey there are some easy wins, and some that will take a little longer. If you try and do everything at once, this can cause your projects to stall and your automation journey to become slow and unwieldy. Instead take time to ascertain what it is you want to achieve and the right path to get there. Ultimately, start off easy achievable wins and work from there. That is the best way to deliver the most value to customers and instil confidence in your employees about the technology and the process.

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How to best approach AI assistants and process automation - Information Age

ATLANTAEmployers who prioritize employee health and well-being enjoy a competitive advantage in retaining and hiring employees during what many are calling The Great Resignation. Those investing in automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are seeing productivity gains.

However, adopting advanced technologies like AI can produce mixed or negative effects on worker well-being according to a new study by Ph.D. candidates Lusa Nazareno of Georgia State University and Daniel Schiff of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Automation and AI that complement labor can increase productivity, raise earnings and increase demand for skilled workers, Nazareno said. Many see this technological relationship as a positive one, but our research shows it is not uniformly good according to several measures of worker well-being.

Nazareno and Schiff examined the skill-based technological and well-being literatures to conceptualize automation and AIs possible effects in the workplace, then used a 16-year longitudinal data set to evaluate impacts across four dimensions of well-being: worker job satisfaction, stress, insecurity and overall health.

Their findings suggest automation and AI may be associated with lower stress while also producing negative effects on worker health and mixed or negative impacts on job satisfaction, which may be associated with loss of worker meaning or increased surveillance and control by automated systems.

These results do not support the most optimistic view of technologys impacts as a complement to workers, Schiff said. Even the decrease in stress appears to be reversing in recent years, and these effects were concentrated on the highest-risk workers. That demands special attention.

The authors emphasize that these impacts are not predetermined, nor are they independent of the work environment in which they are adopted. Instead, how technology will impact workers is influenced by aspects of job content and context, the choices of managers and policymakers, and by broader socio-technological and economic factors.

On a policy level, it may be insufficient to educate and train workers in the hopes that workers with skills that complement technology will ultimately fare well in the workplace, they conclude. Scholars will have a key role in increasing decision makers awareness and understanding of the complexities of worker well-being.

In turn, managers, firms and policymakers can avoid assumptions of technological determinism and exercise their agency meaningfully by shaping work conditions, technological adoption and the regulation of automation and AI in the interest of worker well-being.

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The Benefits of Automation and AI are Mixed Regarding Worker Well-Being, New Study Shows - Georgia State University News

The P&C industry has been on an automation path for many years. When the pandemic hit, it became a catalyst for accelerating automation and digital transformation. Straight-through processing, self-service portals, virtual inspections, and digital payments are just a few of the areas that insurers put a sharper focus on. But automating tasks and workflows does not mean that machines will take over and leave industry professionals out in the cold.

In fact, the opposite may be true. I believe that a case can be made that automation initiatives will increase the need for skilled professionals with deep industry domain knowledge.

All the automation occurring is good for the industry. And anyone who knows me knows that I am certainly not a luddite or anti-technology when it comes to progress. However, I believe there is one dimension of tech progress in the P&C industry that is being overlooked skilled individuals. Ive written extensively about how automation and AI will elevate the role of industry professionals and how relationships are still vital in the industry, especially in commercial lines.

But in this blog, I turn my attention to another implication of task automation the need to manage it. Several examples expose the challenges.

Over all of this, layer the complexities of the insurance business, the trend towards more specialization, and the evolving risk landscape: the picture gets even more complicated. The state-by-state regulation regime in the US, coupled with the variations by line, introduce multiple dimensions that must be managed for new tech solutions in automation. As customer risks become more complex (as in middle-market and large commercial accounts, specialty lines, and workers comp), the intricacies of the business create new challenges.

Automation and leveraging AI for insights are good for the P&C insurance industry. But there will still be a need for industry experts who understand how to execute tasks that are compliant with evolving regulations, who can exercise judgement based on experience, and who can manage all the automation activities. Some of that automation management will demand IT experts, but much of it requires an understanding of how business is conducted, the details of different customer segments and insurance products, and the requirements imposed by the many regulatory bodies involved.

Will there be increasing levels of STP, bots, and other automation in P&C? of course! But does this mean that the machines will be in control? I emphatically say no! People and their experience and expertise in the industry will remain at the heart of the business.

This blog entry has been reposted with permissionfrom SMA.

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Why automation in P&C creates the need for more human experts - Digital Insurance

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This week, AvidXchange went public with its IPO, and our analyst team published a Spend Matters PRO brief that covered the functional components of AP automation and B2B payments technology, providing insight into how these two capabilities interoperate and why they are particularly valuable to users (SME firms, middle market companies and large enterprises alike). In essence, the intersection of these two areas explains the growth and success of AvidXchange in targeting primarily SME organizations. Theres a highly rational and prioritized need for both, especially during a time where digital automation is critical in tight labor markets and cash remains king.

But there is more to looking at the intersection of AP automation and B2B payments technologies (not to mention AR, working capital, treasury and related areas) from an investment thesis potential than simply the primary business use cases today. This Spend Matters PRO coverage fleshes out three of my own hypotheses for why this market, from an investment perspective, is likely better than just about all others in procurement technology (let alone enterprise technologies generally).

Let me share a quick word of caution before I start: This research brief breaks with recent Spend Matters tradition and is based on qualitative insights from discussions with friends in the industry and investors. I do quote from our previous insights, which I think is necessary to make the arguments that Im about to share. (If you want hard benchmark data and analysis of vendors and the market, read the work of my colleagues!)

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AvidXchange IPO launches: What makes AP Automation so attractive for investors compared to other technology areas (Part 2) - Spend Matters

The healthcare industrys risk landscape is more complex than ever. From supply and worker shortages to ransomware attacks and more, disruption risks are rising in frequency and severity. Unfortunately for most organisations, clear visibility into these issues remains extremely low.

After a tumultuous year and a half of COVID-19 and the resulting worldwide disruption, many leaders are seeking a more proactive approach to supply chain and third-party risk. With the right risk management approach, healthcare organizations can be better prepared for upcoming risks of disruption to ensure continuity, resiliency and most importantly, the trust and safety of patients.

It would be extremely difficult to find a healthcare organization that was immune to the supply-chain disruptions experienced during the pandemic. Before COVID, if a supplier couldnt deliver, healthcare organisations could leverage alternate sources. But all of that changed in March 2020 when disruption occurred at such an unprecedented global level. Shortages and service disruptions became impossible to avoid by most who lacked clear visibility into their supply chains.

COVID-19 brought significant risks to organisations through their third-party service providers. For example in the early stages of the pandemic, call centre activity increased by 300% in just a matter of days. As COVID-19 spread, the call volumes reached over 800% higher than normal pre-pandemic levels. This significantly increased outages and lowered performance as third parties struggled to handle the increased demand. Additionally, some call centres reported seeing incidents of fraud increase as much as 150% compared to pre-pandemic levels and a significant number saw double digit increases at minimum.

Beyond the physical supply shortage issues, today healthcare organizations are also facing a critical talent shortage. Hospitals all over the country from Texas to New Jersey and everywhere in between are struggling to fill open positions. Complicating the issue further, nurses are retiring earlier than expected from the extreme levels of pandemic related stress, leaving hospitals at high risk of failing to provide patient care.

As the healthcare industry is a critical part of our national infrastructure, it is an ideal target for malicious foreign entities looking to foster chaos in the US. As a result, Protected Health Information (PHI) holds high value to hackers looking to cash out on the black market. Attacks reached a record level throughout the pandemic and unfortunately, its predicted to get much worse.

In 2020, 560 healthcare organisations were victims of ransomware attacks, costing over $20.8 billion double 2019 costs. Healthcare organisations are also forced to consider the increased vulnerabilities that may arise from compliance legislation intended to make PHI more accessible to doctors. For example, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health ITs (ONC) Information Blocking Final Rule enforced a penalty for health IT developers up to $1 million per instance if they engage in information blocking.

These issues have become so problematic since the beginning of the pandemic that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has settled as many as 18 compliance violations in the HIPAA Right of Access Initiative. Resolution agreements and civil money penalties can be costly sometimes resulting in fines as high as $6.85 million.

Balancing the volume and complexities of compliance legislation, data protection, critical supply chains, and third-party risks is truly beyond human capabilities especially with continued labor shortages. Thats why many leaders are looking to risk solutions that leverage the latest technology to provide continuous monitoring across their supply chains as the complexity continues to rise.

If theres anything todays complex and rapidly evolving risk landscape has taught us, its that old risk management processes are not cutting it. The data in point-in-time assessments many organizations rely on to assess the health of their supply chains and third parties is quickly stale.

Months old risk intelligence may not be relevant today and most critically, cant flag whats coming next. Proactive risk mitigation requires early warning from real-time risk intelligence. This holds true for sudden supply shortages, unexpected labour issues, increased data vulnerabilities and more.

Not only do outdated risk management processes increase risks of disruption for failure to provide the current picture, but also fail to provide a comprehensive view across the entire risk landscape. The vast majority only cover financial and cyber risks when in fact financial and cyber issues are often not leading indicators of trouble.

The earliest indicators of a major cyberattack most often occur outside the cyber realm and can first present as compliance issues, location vulnerabilities or people risks. Without widening the risk aperture for leading indicators, organisations are essentially in the dark and are forced to be reactive - acting too late to avoid disruption.

To secure supply chains, improve resiliency and prevent disruptions, leading healthcare organizations are upgrading their risk management approaches by deploying automation, data science and AI solutions that enable continuous monitoring. Monitoring risks 24/7 and receiving alerts in real-time enables the early warnings organisations need to take proactive steps before disruptions occurs.

With updated technology, organizations can expand the risk aperture being monitored as well. Beyond the standard financial and cyber risks, organisations can include operations, people, regulatory, compliance, ESG, location risks and more. This enables organizations to prevent a seemingly minor incident from cascading into a catastrophic disruption.

As adoption of continuous risk monitoring increases across the healthcare industry, there will be some great improvements in risk mitigation and disruption avoidance. With increased visibility into the current risk landscape, proactive risk mitigation to avoid costly disruptions is finally possible. Secure supply chains ensures operational resilience, and as a result, customer loyalty, brand reputation, patient care and the bottom line will be positively impacted.

While the pandemic continues to cause undeniable hardship around the world, by accelerating the adoption of comprehensive continuous monitoring, healthcare providers can positively impact the organizations resilience, today.

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Using automation to handle healthcare's supply chain - Healthcare Global - Healthcare News, Magazine and Website

Clara Shih, CEO of Service Cloud at Salesforce, explains Salesforce Service Cloud's three-pillar approach to automation and AI and how the technology is transforming customer service.

In the run up to Dreamforce 2021 in September, Salesforce announced new capabilities for Einstein Automate as well as new AI-driven workflows and RPA capabilities for Service Cloud .

Prior to Dreamforce 2021 , I had a chance to talk with Clara Shih, CEO of Service Cloud at Salesforce, about how the cloud-based software company sees automation and AI transforming, and actually humanizing, customer service.

The following is a transcript of our interview, edited for readability.

Clara Shih, CEO Salesforce Service Cloud

Image: Salesforce

Bill Detwiler: All right. So let's talk automation, AI, RPA and how that relates to the Service Cloud and how that's kind of changing how organizations approach their interactions with their customers. Because I know that automation is a large part of many organization's digital transformation processes. So I guess maybe start with how are automation and AI in the companies that you talk to and in Salesforce's customers, how are they using it to really provide service to their customers?

Clara Shih: Well, this is such a pivotal time for customer service right now. If you think about the major forces that are top of mind for every C-level executive team. Number one is customer experience and customers wanting faster answers, they want to self service, they want to use the digital channels of their choice. Another trend around automation. And the third is know if the easy tasks are going to go to bots and automation, what's the future of the workforce and how do we continuously up-skill our service agents and our field techs? And so it's really exciting to be in this world right now because it really... Service Cloud is at the epicenter of these three major market trends.

Bill Detwiler: Yeah. And so I'd love to drill down on that part of, do you see a certain segment or processes, I guess, a segment of the process of that interaction more ripe for automation and using AI as part of that process than others? So I guess, what are some things that organizations, especially service organizations are automating? What types of processes are being automated right now?

Clara Shih: It's such a good question. I mean, the thing with automation AI is that it can apply to so many different areas. It's sometimes as hard to wrap your head around it. So I'll just share at Service Cloud the way that we approach our Einstein AI and automation is we have three pillars. The first is full automation. Looking for repeat processes, looking for manual steps and our new Service Cloud RPA is a great example of that, right? Instead of an agent, opening a legacy application, waiting for the system to load up and looking up a piece of data, all of that can happen pretty much instantaneously with full automation. And also what we're doing with Einstein Automate, which is part of our Salesforce platform built into Service Cloud but with just a few clicks, no coding required, any business analyst, anyone at a company can create a full end to end automation story. So that's the first pillar is a full automation.

The second is when you want a human in the loop and this is what we call an assistance scenario. So if you're sitting inside of a contact center and you're talking to a customer, you're not fully automating the customer interaction but there's manual steps that previously, maybe the agent had to type in a bunch of texts to look something up. Now, we can do it for them. And this is a great example, Service Cloud Voice. As the customer is explaining her problem to the agent, instead of the agent frantically typing that in, Service Cloud Voice is listening. It's bringing like what we would have at home with Siri or Alexa, it's bringing that into the workplace so that the agent can focus on building connection with the customer. And frankly, solving the issue much, much faster and driving kind of the suggested next best actions.

Salesforce Einstein Document Reader

Image: Salesforce

Or if you look across at an organization. What we're doing now with incident management and swarming between Service Cloud and Slack. Instead of if you're an insurance company and a natural disaster strikes, instead of manually creating a phone tree, which is highly inefficient and you're sharing a lot of the same message over and over again, we use assistance to help spin up the right set of experts from across the company. And it could be spread out across the country, they could be spread out across multiple countries. You've got claims adjusters in the field, you've got your catastrophe teams, you've got your executives at HQ who are very eager to understand the damages and how to make sure that we get people safely evacuated into temporary housing. So all of that can happen through an assist scenario. And then the third pillar that we talk about for AI and automation is optimizing.

How do we help every service organization, every company continuously improve using all of this data that we have? Whether it's from conversations or agent behaviors and workflows. And I'll give you an example there. Every call center struggles with the volume and unpredictability of calls that flood in. And as consumers, we experienced this, right? When we are put on hold for many minutes or even hours, it's because a call center is feeling overwhelmed. Well, with our new Einstein Conversation Mining, we're able to listen to all of the reasons why callers are calling in and identify which of those really should have been self-service opportunities. And recently, in a large organization that we work with, one of the largest contact centers in the US, through working with them, we found that a lot of customers were calling in just to update their mailing address. That's not a good reason to call in. The customer doesn't want to call in for that reason, the company doesn't think that's a good reason. And so by being able to optimize and analyze that data, we were able to identify that use case.

And then the company with, again, a few clicks, they were able to expose updating your address in their mobile app, on their website, through their bots. So that customers going forward, if they wanted to, they wouldn't have to call in for that reason. And so those are the three things that automation, assistance and optimization.

SEE:Research: Video conferencing tools and cloud-based solutions dominate digital workspaces; VPN and VDI less popular with SMBs(TechRepublic Premium)

Bill Detwiler: Yeah, I think that's really interesting. And it leads me to my next question, which is, I guess there are a lot of customer expectations and customer needs are constantly changing. And there was a time, I guess, when people wanted to talk to a live person for most things, or maybe that was just the way we were accustomed to doing things. And that's shifted now for people to be able to do things in a much more self-service manner. And so I think that's a good example of that. I'm wondering if you can kind of expand on that part of it. Are there... And talk a little bit about how automation is maybe key to companies addressing those changing customer needs. And I guess, you've given a great example of that, but I'm thinking about it in general. Like is automation the only way basically to react quickly enough these days to needs that are kind of changing in the future?

We don't have years to make changes. We don't have decades to make changes like maybe we used to. And do you think automation is key to companies be able to react quickly enough to their customers to provide that really good experience that they want?

Clara Shih: That is such an interesting question. I think the answer is yes. Just because customer expectations and frankly employee expectations are sky high and you're right, there are still plenty of instances and plenty of customers who do want to call in and talk to someone. There's more complex issues or in financial services, if someone's relative, loved one has just passed away. That's not something that they want to, most of the time self service through. They want to be talked through that process. But I think that's the power of automation is taking the none strategic repeat tasks and freeing your workforce to focus on those higher touch, proactive, more complex issues.

Salesforce Einstein's new digital process automation tool

Image: Salesforce

Bill Detwiler: That actually is a perfect segue to even my next question, which is one of the criticisms that you see a robotics, RPA automation is that it either dehumanizes the experience, but it also eliminates jobs from the workforce. So from what I hear you and I've talked to a lot of people and they're trying to say that... Their position is that automation is augmenting the workforce and it has the potential to do exactly what you just said. Which is free up agents who used to handle the repetitive tasks to handle more complex or specialized tasks. If that's the case, how did companies, or how did the customers that you see who are doing it successfully, what's their secret to doing that successfully? Because like you said, the last thing that some customers want to do is talk to a bot when they're dealing with a very complex issue.

SEE:Salesforce lays out its Cloud 3.0 strategy(TechRepublic)

Clara Shih: It's so true. I think, let's talk about the pitfalls. So a pitfall might be to push too many things to self service or not offer an option to have high touch. A recent example, I was just with a customer in the insurance space where when someone's house burns down, they don't want to talk to a bot. They want to be comforted. They want to talk to a human being. You could build a bot, but just the data shows most of the time that's not what the customer needs at that moment. And so being really hyper aware of that customer experience, of that customer needs state and making sure that you offer choice, but also have empathy in how you guide the channel and the right agent to do the job. I think another pitfall...

The second pitfall that I see is that companies don't provide the continuous up-skilling for their human agents. But I think that's a pretty common in the customer, at least in the contact center industry. Where agents are almost... It's a high turnover business and agents kind of cycle in and out. And we really have to shift our mindset as an industry from viewing agents as kind of fungible interchangeable to really viewing them as a workforce, an intelligent workforce that deserves investment in these AI assistance tools and deserves ongoing training opportunities. I'm really proud of a couple of things that we've done here. Both our new workforce engagement management solution has personalized training built in. And so instead of subjecting all 10,000 people in our contact center to the same eight hours of grueling training, it can be really targeted. And might identify that you need training in one particular area and that I might need training in a completely different set of areas. And we can each be on our journey and up-skill over time. And frankly, we can earn more over time as we become more skilled in more areas.

Image: Salesforce

Bill Detwiler: Is that a hard argument for you to make to companies who have seen? And I will cop to being a help desk tech, way back decades ago when I started in IT. I worked help desk, I worked in a call center. Luckily, I didn't do external support, I did internal support. So I feel that kind of frustration of a lot of people who are CSRs, and I'm curious if you think that that's a hard argument to make to organizations that for a very long time have seen that workforce is very transitory, as fungible, as not really not really investing in the growth in that workforce, or maybe investing in one or two people to be a team lead or a manager or something like that. But there's not really a defined career path. I mean, have you found when you make that argument, which I think is an excellent one and should be made, do you find that people listen? That forward-thinking companies really do want to do that and see the value in that?

Clara Shih: I've seen the conversations shift dramatically in the last 12 months by contact centers and retail companies. It's a tight labor market. It's hard to hire people and it's become imperative therefore to retain the workforce that you have. And so I think the mindset has completely shifted. And we saw this happen in a lot of office jobs too, before where we went from viewing people that way to realizing that everyone can have a growth mindset. And companies and leadership need to encourage that. We're seeing that same thought process permeate the contact center in this labor market. And also as companies realize that it's more important than ever to service their customers because that's how you drive that ongoing loyal relationship and growth.

SEE:Digital transformation: A CXO's guide (free PDF)(TechRepublic)

Bill Detwiler:Yeah. And I take it that is the key part that what every company should really strive for is to have, if you have engaged employees, they're going to provide an engaged and a good customer experience as well, right?

Clara Shih: That's what all of the data shows and we experienced it, right. You can tell as a consumer, when you call into a contact center and someone is just, they're just mailing it in. They're doing their job. It's transactional. They know that they might not work there the next week or the next month versus someone who really cares. And someone who is almost like a brand ambassador for the company. And it just leaves you with a complete night and day different feeling in terms of how you want to continue your relationship with that company.

Bill Detwiler: And automation, I guess, I mean, is a place to kind of round it up. It sounds like building those automation processes and tools and giving companies the ability to build that into their processes is key to making that transition to the humanizing, both the interaction with the customer, but also changing the career trajectory for those agents.

Clara Shih: That's right. It's a real career moment for those agents. And then we have to be extremely careful, as you said. Technology is a powerful... It can be used in powerfully dehumanizing ways if we're not careful. And so that's why I'm also really proud of our design ethics team and just really putting that agent human experience at the heart of what we do and making sure that it doesn't... I've heard some technologies out there that contact centers are using, especially with agents working from home where it sounds like Big Brother. That's not the best way to get the most out of your workforce and to build trust. And so we believe we have a highly ethical humane way where we're trusting our people. Where we holding them accountable, but we're treating them with dignity and respect. And as you said, that is how you end up delivering an excellent customer experience at the end of the day because those agents feel empowered, they feel trusted and they feel loyal to the company.

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Will automation and AI actually improve customer service calls? Salesforce thinks so - TechRepublic

Kerala University Library, the oldest university library in the state, has ushered in an automated management system.

Established in 1942 during the pre-independence era, the library has evolved into a digitalised facility replete with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, self check-in/out stations and smart cards that encompass its collection of 3.6 lakh titles.

The RFID-enabled library services, implemented at a cost of 70 lakh, is bound to enable efficient circulation of books.

According to assistant librarian (selection grade) P.K. Suresh Kumar, the tags can be easily scanned using handheld readers and will also enable locating misplaced books. A security gate system that has also been put in place is meant to detect unauthorised RFID-tagged books with a read range of 90cm and is equipped with an inbuilt alert system to prevent thefts. RFID chip-based smart cards will also be issued to all library members.

Yet another feature of the automation is the self check-in and out station (or drop box) that has been installed at the library entrance. Library members will be able to return books at anytime of the day through the facility. While such books go to a bin, the users are issued receipts that record the date and time of return, number of books and overdue amount.

Touch-screen information kiosks have also been introduced to enable users to search the status of books and trace their location. The university has a networked library system comprising of the Central Library (or Kerala University Library) in Palayam, Campus Library in Karyavattom, and 43 teaching department libraries and three regional study centre libraries with a total stock of 9,55,731 books, rare documents, theses, bound volumes of periodical and newspapers, government publications, journals and others.

Dr. Kumar said the library also has a 30-lakh resource centre for visually challenged users, including senior citizens, with assistive technologies that can convert text into speech.

The centre is equipped with modern computers, smartphones, Digital Braille devices and reprographic reproduction scanners.

The university has also operationalised a digital repository of 20 lakh pages of rare and old books, periodicals and grey literature hosted in open source digital library Dspace at a cost of 50 lakh.

Continued here:

KU Library embraces automation - The Hindu

For beginners, it can seem like a good idea (and an exciting prospect) to buy a company that tells a good story to investors, even if it completely lacks a track record of revenue and profit. But as Warren Buffett has mused, 'If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.' When they buy such story stocks, investors are all too often the patsy.

If, on the other hand, you like companies that have revenue, and even earn profits, then you may well be interested in Brooks Automation (NASDAQ:BRKS). While that doesn't make the shares worth buying at any price, you can't deny that successful capitalism requires profit, eventually. Loss-making companies are always racing against time to reach financial sustainability, but time is often a friend of the profitable company, especially if it is growing.

See our latest analysis for Brooks Automation

As one of my mentors once told me, share price follows earnings per share (EPS). That means EPS growth is considered a real positive by most successful long-term investors. Who among us would not applaud Brooks Automation's stratospheric annual EPS growth of 49%, compound, over the last three years? Growth that fast may well be fleeting, but like a lotus blooming from a murky pond, it sparks joy for the wary stock pickers.

Careful consideration of revenue growth and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) margins can help inform a view on the sustainability of the recent profit growth. Brooks Automation shareholders can take confidence from the fact that EBIT margins are up from 6.9% to 15%, and revenue is growing. That's great to see, on both counts.

In the chart below, you can see how the company has grown earnings, and revenue, over time. To see the actual numbers, click on the chart.

The trick, as an investor, is to find companies that are going to perform well in the future, not just in the past. To that end, right now and today, you can check our visualization of consensus analyst forecasts for future Brooks Automation EPS 100% free.

Since Brooks Automation has a market capitalization of US$7.6b, we wouldn't expect insiders to hold a large percentage of shares. But we are reassured by the fact they have invested in the company. Notably, they have an enormous stake in the company, worth US$123m. I would find that kind of skin in the game quite encouraging, if I owned shares, since it would ensure that the leaders of the company would also experience my success, or failure, with the stock.

It's good to see that insiders are invested in the company, but are remuneration levels reasonable? A brief analysis of the CEO compensation suggests they are. I discovered that the median total compensation for the CEOs of companies like Brooks Automation with market caps between US$4.0b and US$12b is about US$6.3m.

Brooks Automation offered total compensation worth US$3.9m to its CEO in the year to . That comes in below the average for similar sized companies, and seems pretty reasonable to me. CEO compensation is hardly the most important aspect of a company to consider, but when its reasonable that does give me a little more confidence that leadership are looking out for shareholder interests. It can also be a sign of a culture of integrity, in a broader sense.

Brooks Automation's earnings have taken off like any random crypto-currency did, back in 2017. The cherry on top is that insiders own a bucket-load of shares, and the CEO pay seems really quite reasonable. The sharp increase in earnings could signal good business momentum. Big growth can make big winners, so I do think Brooks Automation is worth considering carefully. However, before you get too excited we've discovered 1 warning sign for Brooks Automation that you should be aware of.

You can invest in any company you want. But if you prefer to focus on stocks that have demonstrated insider buying, here is a list of companies with insider buying in the last three months.

Please note the insider transactions discussed in this article refer to reportable transactions in the relevant jurisdiction.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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Here's Why I Think Brooks Automation (NASDAQ:BRKS) Is An Interesting Stock - Simply Wall St

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When Coupa had its IPO and started its public market climb, it put procurement technology on the map from an investment perspective. While there has been significant buzz over the AP automation market in recent years and unicorn valuations for AvidXchange, Tipalti and Tradeshift, among others there had not been a specialized vendor with a large valuation to go public in the market. But all that changed this when AvidXchange had a successful IPO, issuing its stock at $25 a share and raising $660 million. That gives the firm an enterprise valuation of approximately $5 billion. For those new to AvidXchange, we summarized the provider in the following brief AvidXchange IPO analysis: A look behind the curtain (S-1 review, vendor summary, SWOT and outlook).

Granted, AvidXchange is not entirely alone as a publicly traded AP automation vendor. Glantus, an Irish-based AP automation firm, also had a successful IPO this year, but its revenue is a fraction of Avids, and its enterprise value is less than $100 million. BottomLine and Bill.com also are public companies that serve the AP automation market, but both have multiple P&Ls outside of the AP area.

So the questions remain: Could AvidXchanges IPO do for this market, and associated sectors, what Coupa did for procurement technology? And may this market prove even more attractive than procurement alone?

Based on interviews with dozens of clients, investors and partners in the AP ecosystem and Spend Matters research, this two-part Spend Matters PRO series provides insight into why the market is zeroing in on AP automation as the next big technology thing.

Today we begin by providing an introduction to the functional components of AP and B2B payments for those who are new to the sector, and we explain why these areas are sticky and attractive for solution providers, including key takeaways for those who are brand-new to the area and just need to know the salient points.

Additional data and insight on AP automation and providers can be found for those who want to further unpack and flesh out their understanding of AP automation and B2B payments capabilities and requirements, including the competitive landscape of providers, how they stack up and which segments they serve:

See our PRO analyst content for AP Automation/Invoice-to-Pay here.

See our vendor rankings in SolutionMap for AP Automation and I2P.

See our PRO content on payments technology vendors here.

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AvidXchange IPO launches: What comprises AP Automation and B2B Payments capability and is it 'the next big thing'? - Spend Matters