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For IT admins, the maintenance of networking, storage and compute is an overwhelming task -- especially as data center technology becomes more complex. Fortunately, automation can ease the burden of tedious and time-consuming management tasks, leaving room for admins to focus on other projects.
Data center operators can use automation practices and tools in a variety of a different ways, from network configuration to server documentation. Explore these five ways IT infrastructure automation can ease your day-to-day routine.
While traditional networks relied heavily on hardware, modern networks incorporate more software and automation to reduce manual deployment, configuration and management efforts. Automation can also reduce human error, thus improving security and network uptime.
Network provisioning traditionally requires admins to manually configure each device, but software enables them to automatically provision network resources across workloads and thousands of devices. With automation, admins can associate specific network and security policies with applications and devices that can follow them as they migrate. Admins can also enable the network to identify specific traffic types and then prioritize resources accordingly and implement policies to automatically change bandwidth.
Network automation, however, is a challenge to implement in most enterprise data centers. There are a limited number of suppliers with products that can help begin to automate manual processes. Also, a lack of clear architecture and universal standards makes it difficult for enterprises to jump on the network automation bandwagon.
As data center complexity increases, policy-based management has become an important skill for data center management. An admin, for example, can apply multiple policies to a single VM to meet needs around security, performance, availability and disaster recovery. These policies drive IT infrastructure automation and reduce manual effort.
Two especially common areas for this kind of automation are VM availability and applications. Admins can create availability policies for web servers that require a minimum number of VMs, for example, or policies that allow those VMs to run on local (rather than shared) storage to cut costs. Admins can also tag VMs to categorize them as being part of a certain application and then apply automated policies for disaster recovery, replication and more.
Hardware and applications aren't the primary reasons behind system downtime -- rather, it's due to system administrators' mistakes. This is partially because many admins still use command-line interfaces (CLI), which don't provide much of a buffer between what an admin types and how the system responds. As an alternative to this risky method, admins should drive IT infrastructure automation through a library of scripts. Unlike the CLI, running a script will always produce the same outcome and leave no room for human error.
Orchestration systems also help avoid downtime by provisioning script outcomes, patches, updates and code rollouts. Admins can find these features in DevOps orchestration systems, such as Chef Automate and Terraform. Organizations with hybrid cloud deployments should consider orchestration tools, such as Electric Cloud and Platform9, to automate these tasks across different cloud platforms.
Documenting and taking inventory of each detail of your data center's hardware is extremely tedious, but automation can eliminate some of the frustration. However, automating the documentation process via scripts is most valuable for smaller organizations with limited IT deployments, since the process can get complicated when too many diverse systems are involved.
Use custom scripts, such as Windows Server PowerShell, to perform system inventories and capture server configurations -- but first verify that the scripts work and collect the information you need. You can sometimes update an existing script to add more inventory or write new scripts from scratch. To prevent "unintended consequences" -- or a change in one system that disrupts other systems -- use change management features, such as Microsoft's Desired State Configuration, to bring hardware and software components back to a known configuration.
When you operate a data center in a Linux environment, there are a variety of options to customize and enable IT infrastructure automation. For example, CFEngine enables admins to automate large-scale configurations and can automatically fix system errors and configuration inconsistencies as it finds them. Its many features include package update automation, remote execution, patch management, configuration management and much more.
Automate for increased IT productivity
Automation can help to manage multicloud environments
The effect of automation on the IT skills gap
Excerpt from:
IT infrastructure automation lessens the load for data center teams - TechTarget
Trade and logistics is big business in Southern California and automation is playing an increasingly bigger role as the industry seeks to remain competitive.
Thats the takeaway of a new report from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. The study reveals that 598.3 million tons of freight valued at $1.7 trillion moved throughout the region in 2015. That equated to a daily average of 1.6 million tons valued at $4.7 billion.
Needless to say, all of that activity fueled lots of jobs.
The LAEDC report shows that the regions trade and logistics sector employed 580,450 direct payroll workers in 2015, a 9.7 percent increase since 2005. An additional 273,840 jobs were supported through indirect effects and another 310,490 were supported by induced effects, creating a total employment impact of nearly 1.2 million jobs.
Indirect jobs include workers who dont directly produce goods or services but make their production possible or more efficient. Induced jobs take into account employees who work at local restaurants, gas stations, supermarkets and other businesses where trade and logistics workers spend their money.
The Inland Empire supported about half of those jobs and Los Angeles County supported another 40 percent.
The pay isnt bad. The average annual wage in the trade and logistics industry in 2015 was $63,130, about 14 percent higher than the $55,310 average annual wage for all industries in Southern California.
Wages were much higher in certain segments of the industry. Those involved in support activities for water transportation earned an average of $111,120 a year, for example, and others who work in air transportation earned an average of $75,710 a year.
Trade and logistics in Southern California generates $224.6 billion in economic output annually, sustained by direct spending of $131.9 billion, which includes $43.5 billion in labor income paid to its employees, according to the report. Industry-related expenditures indirectly generate $47.2 billion in spending at supplier businesses in the region, and compensation paid to employees fueled additional spending of $45.6 billion.
But while wages are good, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are increasingly integrating automation in their operations and thats displacing workers. Trade and logistics industries are looking to become more capital-intensive versus labor-intensive through the use of new technologies.
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The Port of Los Angeles has been transforming its TraPac terminal over the last several years by outfitting it with massive robots. Some are tasked with moving shipping containers from ships and stacking them nearby, and others load the stacked containers onto trucks for the next leg of their journey.
We have eight terminals here and one is TraPac, port spokesman Phillip Sanfield said. Its the only automated terminal and it was very expensive. The Port of L.A.s investment in TraPac was more than $400 million. Well get that back and more over the course of their lease, but its very expensive to do this. And it takes years for a company to plan and get the environmental approvals to build an automated terminal.
The Port of Long Beach has also been outfitting its Middle Harbor terminal with automated equipment, which is expected to be operative by 2020.
Self-driving trucks are also being used in warehouses in the form of autonomous forklifts. More recently, the truck transportation and drayage (short-haul) industries are looking at self-driving trucks as ways to reduce costs and boost their profit margins. But thats not going to happen right away.
Regulations have to catch up with the technology, said Shannon Sedgwick, the LAEDC economist who authored the report. That kind of technology wont be widespread until that issue is resolved.
The federal government has yet to establish laws that deal specifically with autonomous vehicles. But several states have opted to enact their own statewide laws. Another major hurdle to widespread adoption is the publics innate fear of seeing self-driving trucks on the road.
Automation is also widespread in warehouse operations. Amazon is known for its orange Kiva robots, which transport shelving and bins to workers who then pick the products. Several new startups are also poised to enter and transform the warehouse robot space. San Jose-based company Fetch Robotics has created industrial robots that simplify warehouse product handling by following pickers to catch their selected items.
Fetch Robotics spokesman Tim Smith explains it this way:
Our robots are almost like moving pallets, he said. They dont necessarily replace jobs, but they can do the worst part of a job.
A Fetch device can autonomously deliver items to wherever they need to go in the building. That eliminates the need for an employee to walk miles and miles throughout the day to deliver the products.
A map of the environment is created when a robot is installed. That takes a few hours and it takes two to three days to get the system up and running, Smith said. We have about 15 customers all over the world. One of our U.S. locations is in Livermore and others are in Asia and Europe.
The LAEDC report also notes that delivery drones are being readied by several companies, including Amazon, Google and UPS to make deliveries to remote areas or areas with heavy traffic congestion more efficient.
But drones without direct supervision of a person are not currently legal in the U.S. Until they are, delivery drones will still require a human component.
Technology isnt the only game changer in the trade and logistics sector. Labor issues, including disruptions and domestic outsourcing, have the potential to negatively affect the Southern California-based industry in terms of growth for trade volumes and wages, the report said.
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A senior technician and Iwere at a system install last week when we got into aphilosophical discussion on bindery system design. I noted that bindery systems weregetting to the point where the only hands on requirement for an operator was the ability topush the right buttons. My technician friend immediately jumped in and said (in no uncertain terms) that this was not a good thing. Why? I asked.
He countered that all bindery systems process paper. Paper is an organic substance. And all saddle-stitched, perfect-bound and hardcover products (and more) are builtof this organic material. Therefore,an operator should know how paper behaves. They should know how it flows through a system, how it should fold (properly), and how moisture, heat and cold affect it. They should know what the grain direction of a sheet should be for each process. They should also know what the properties of offset, text, cover, tag and newsprint stocks are, and how they perform in different binding processes.How does the speed of the machine affect it? (And believe me, it does). How does the print affect the binding?
After some minutes of discussion with my friend, I began to see his pointabout the dangers of pushing too many buttons and not knowing enough about the finerpoints of the process you are dealing with.
Isthis an argument for better (and more in depth) training for both offset and digital bindery people? You bet. Thats a real investment in both dollars and time, but the result is an operator who both understands their machine automation, and also the underlying processes that the machine is trying to achieve. The end result is a system thatruns better, with less downtime and fewer defective products. So as we were troubleshooting our machine on thatFriday afternoon, I began to pay very close attention to all of those little belts, rollers, scoring wheels and others that had an impact on our high-speed paper path and their proper adjustment with regard to our paper source.
I will leave you with a quote from the great Professor Emeritus Werner Rebsamen of RIT who knew how paper behaved in binding like no one else, and who once described the perfect book block as well pressed is half bound. Thats an accurate statement!
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Too Much Automation? - Printing Impressions - Printing Impressions
MUMBAI: Job creation is the number one challenge for India at a time when digitisation and automation are disrupting traditional roles across all sectors, panellists at the ET India Leadership Council said. The India Leadership council is an exclusive peer group platform working towards bringing change in the country's business environment.
Mahindra Group chairman Anand Mahindra, ICICI Bank MD Chanda Kochhar, Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala, HDFC Bank MD Aditya Puri, YES Bank MD Rana Kapoor, Amazon India country manager Amit Agarwal and BCG Asia Pacific chairman Janmejaya Sinha held the inaugural meeting of the ET India Leadership Council. After the closed-door meeting, Mariwala, Kapoor, Agarwal and Sinha participated in a panel discussion, which focused on the challenges in job creation for India in the next few years.
Speaking at the inauguration, Times Group MD Vineet Jain said, "I am confident that ILC holds the potential to knit the business fraternity together and create 'Change' that will be impactful at multiple levels. Together, we will also enlist the brightest minds, thought leaders, senior academicians and visionaries, as we seek to create the next wave of leaders by encouraging conversations around macro issues like capacity building, innovation and digitisation."
One very real challenge is disruption due to automation which will have to be dealt with by finding new opportunities in areas like design, innovation and creativity, they suggested. Digitisation has already replaced many manual jobs and will continue to do so but there are also new avenues opening up where a different set of skills will be required, the panel felt.
Harsh Mariwala, Rana Kapoor, Amit Agarwal, Janmejaya Sinha at panel discussion.
For instance, the banking sector has already seen an impact due to automation, which is forcing it to change the way bankers work.
"Today the alliances-relationshiptechnology model of a business has been disturbed. We will have to create an economy led by design, innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship (DICE) to bring about a transformation," Rana Kapoor said.
Besides banking, another sector grappling with change led by automation is information technology (IT). Falling margins, a changing political environment and automation are forcing these companies to innovate or shed jobs. Marico chariman Harsh Mariwala said flexible labour policies are crucial if companies are to continue to invest. "Labour reform is a state subject.
But in spite of many states being ruled by the NDA government, we have not seen labour reforms taking place in states. There is clearly a hesitation in bringing about radical reforms. What the industry needs now is flexibility in employment so that in case of a downturn, the workforce can be reduced. Otherwise, it tempts you to invest in capital and equipment," Mariwala said.
However, BCG Asia Pacific chairman Janmejaya Sinha said flexibility will prevail if it is rewarded accordingly. "It is important that flexibility in employment is rewarded, in which the flexible workers are taken care of, given appropriate health insurance etc, so it is not a win-loss situation for people engaging in flexible ways of employment and it is a fair and just process," he said.
Amazon country manager Amit Agarwal who has recently been promoted to the position of global vice-president, however, said internet has created a unique method of job creation in non-linear ways.
"Amazon has created close to 1,50,000 jobs in India in the last four years and that has happened because of non-linearity. It was not because of a law that enabled us to do this. It happened because internet, when left barrier-free, lets people innovate," Agarwal said defending the ecommerce sector which he said should not be judged so early for its potential.
There are some areas somewhat immune to effects of automation, the panel felt. "There are three sectors, namely tourism, housing and agriculture and associated sectors, that will not be affected either by automation or lack of labour reforms," Mariwala said.
The government with its various skilling programmes is trying to bridge the gap between eligibility and employability. The panel felt that while some good ideas have been developed on this front, implement is lagging ideation, and regulation needs to be closely looked at in this area.
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In times of automation, job creation biggest challenge: ET India Leadership Council - Economic Times
Overall investment in automation technologies including robotic process automation (RPA), autonomics, virtual customer service agents and personal assistants, natural language processing and machine learning is expected to double in the next two years, the survey finds, as enterprises look to harness technologies that have the flexibility to solve more than one business problem.
"Automation and artificial intelligence are top of mind for business executives and service providers alike and with good reason," said Todd Lavieri, partner and president of ISG Americas. "Robotic process automation, autonomic systems and cognitive agents are making employees more productive by taking over routine, process-oriented tasks. At the same time, data scientists are using machine learning to find patterns and make predictions on vast troves of structured and unstructured data. These technologies, taken together, promise to usher in the next wave of enterprise growth and profitability."
A Strategic Imperative
Some 75 percent of respondents indicate automation and AI will be critical to their ability to deliver products and services competitively, and two-thirds say such technologies will be required to fend off competition from digital disruptors. An equal number say cognitive systems will be central to strategic decision-making.
From a functional perspective, nearly 70 percent say information technology will be most impacted by automation and AI specifically by autonomics in the next two years. Nearly 60 percent believe autonomics will double IT productivity by 2020.
Other key areas of impact are customer care, where more than 60 percent say virtual agents and chatbots will improve customer experience by 2020, and finance and accounting, where more than 50 percent say RPA will automate more than half of F&A processes in the same time frame.
Automation and AI also will force enterprises to completely reimagine their talent acquisition and retention strategies, more than 60 percent of respondents say, particularly for such hard-to-obtain-and-retain skills as software development and data science.
Disruptive to Outsourcing
More than 60 percent believe automation and AI will decrease the need to outsource IT and business-support functions, and more than half say it will enable them to repatriate work now performed offshore.
Among enterprise buyers, 54 percent say they expect providers will need to lower their costs by 25 percent or more as a result of automation and AI, and an even greater number 65 percent say such technologies will reduce the cost to manage their service provider relationships significantly.
Nearly half of enterprise buyers believe service providers are avoiding automation and AI to preserve short-term revenue. Yet, 54 percent say they prefer to buy the business outcomes of automation and AI (cost avoidance, productivity, quality, etc.) from a service provider rather than buy automation and AI software themselves.
"As ITO and BPO buyers increasingly look to automate processes before they outsource them, the need for traditional tower-based outsourcing services will wane as will the need to have a significant number of delivery resources offshore," said Stanton Jones, director and principal analyst at ISG Research, and a co-author of the survey research report. "Buyers also are becoming savvier about the use of automation and are realizing their managed services providers are not always passing savings back to them as services become more automated."
More than 80 percent of respondents say the most important outcomes from enterprise automation and AI are avoiding long-term costs (such as adding new hires), boosting productivity and improving customer experience. The vast majority do not view automation and AI as a way to cut jobs, with nearly 70 percent saying such technologies are focused on automating tasks, not entire roles. Nearly three-quarters feel automation and AI will free up employees to work on more value-added activities.
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About the ISG Automation and AI Survey
The ISG Automation and AI Survey asked 532 IT and business leaders in April 2017 about their current and planned adoption of automation and AI solutions, the reasons behind their adoption, their success to date and how such technologies would impact their talent acquisition and retention strategies both internally and through service providers.
About ISG
ISG (Information Services Group) (NASDAQ: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including 75 of the top 100 enterprises in the world, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; technology strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 professionals operating in more than 20 countriesa global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry's most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit http://www.isg-one.com.
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/isg-research-automation-and-ai-use-to-triple-by-2019-300471665.html
SOURCE Information Services Group, Inc.
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ISG Research: Automation and AI Use to Triple by 2019 - PR Newswire (press release)
Thanks to the development of the world wide web, drop shipping has flourished, becoming a financially sustainable industry that successfully meets consumer needs while maintaining a cost-effective business model.
But the nature of drop shipping is such that there are a few things you have to keep in mind for it to be effective. For one, companies will take a cut so you have to sell something that customers are willing to pay high value for. Youll also have to develop some sort of niche in order to attract customers to your business, since youre not selling your own products but essentially consolidating already available products. And finally, you have to make sure you can maximize your sales as quickly as possible, because youre on the internet and growth is the key to survival.
But if you can do that, you can develop a business that is significantly more efficient at moving products, selling money and meeting customer needs than the traditional store model of anticipating inventory need and hoping you dont get it wrong, as well as dealing with overhead costs and protecting your goods.
Drop shipping only works when you can maintain the benefit customers have come to expect always having unique and available inventory you can sell them. This means you have to develop as many sellers as you can, you have to ensure you have inventory available at all times and you always have to be aware of exactly what inventory is available.
All of this data is easily automated nowadays, making it incredibly easy for you to track what you have or switch to a different provider if you run out of a product automatically. This decreases the frequency with which customers see a product is out of stock and ensures they come to rely on your website for consistency and availability.
By choosing to automate features like selecting vendors, updating inventory and processing orders, you do two things: you make your drop shipping business run far more efficiently, and you save yourself the cost of paying someone to do it. These tasks can traditionally take several hours of manpower, which can add up if you have an employee, or eat up significant parts of your day if youre a busy entrepreneur. You can keep several thousand dollars more a year in your pocket and in your business by automating as much as possible.
Simplify your business so you can focus on whats important: making connections with new vendors and growing your customer base through marketing and advertising.
Finally, the most compelling reason to automate your drop shipping? Because all your most successful competitors are doing it. EBay and other major retailers have long since moved into this method and smaller retailers are doing it too. AI is one of the most popular developments that companies can take advantage of, and developments in AI including machine learning have enabled programmers to automate increasingly complex tasks with code. A company in the modern era must take advantage of this development in order to stay in the game.
Several companies are now available that offer automation services for drop shipping businesses, including Spark Shipping, Dropship Commerce and Etail Solutions. Any of these companies is likely to fit your needs, but you can research to see which one is most suited to your particular industry, niche or business size.
Drop shipping is the new era of online business retail. And automated drop shipping is the streamlined, most efficient version of it available. Catch up to the developing trends of AI by implementing this into your business. Improve your productivity, your growth capacity and your bottom line all at once.
Read more about business trends on Tech.Co
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Why Automation Is the Key to Achieving Drop Shipping Success - Tech.Co
While the promise of automationhas been around for years, the pace and the extent of its adoption in the workplace has significantly picked up over the past 12 months. For an industry that barely earns its cost of equity, automation at scale represents a massive competitive advantage for businesses that can get it right.
McKinsey recently moderated a panel discussion on automation at scale in insurance. The panel consisted of Alex Bentley (director of Corporate Development, Blue Prism), Edwin Van Bommel (chief cognitive officer, IPsoft), Eric Musser (managing director, Robotics and Workforce Intelligence, Pega) and Max Yankelevich (CEO and chief architect, WorkFusion).
Edited excerpts from that conversation follow:
Max Yankelevich:Fundamental breakthroughs in quantum computing have already happened, but were now seeing them cross into the mainstream. Machine learning is a good example. Most insurers use people to handle first notice of loss, basic investigation, and data entry. Machines monitoring humans as they perform their computerized tasks can actually develop a cognitive understanding of how to process documents, automating 50 to100 percent of this work in some instances. The impact is very real.
Eric Musser:Were all familiar with machine-learning engines on websites like Amazon, which regularly serve up targeted offers to customers. Were now taking that model into insurance back offices for policy-application review and approval processes, for example. People often make different decisions with similar data, and this inconsistency points to an opportunity. In addition, the average user in the back office interacts with many different types of technology to get their job done, and this naturally raises the notion of using robotics to integrate and automate these systems. We are now exploring how to automatically create rules, centralize them, and make them available to all applications across the organization.
Alex Bentley:We now enjoy the capabilities that allow you to unlock the potential from these automation technologies. Because the execution platform is far more agile and flexible, insurers can better manage constant changes in a complex legacy environment. Cost pressure is increasing, and insurers need to manage the cost to serve.
Organizations that adopt automation are able to reduce the cost to serve, be more responsive to the market, and address growth areas more effectively. So I think there will be winners and losers in that respect. Those organizations that embrace automation can drive tremendous step changes in their productivity, while those who do not will be left behind. So while its not Netflix versus Blockbuster, I think anybody too late to the party will be significantly disadvantaged.
Max Yankelevich:In addition to improving operational efficiency and regulatory compliance, we often forget that automation can drive higher morale within your workforce, because youre freeing people up to perform higher-value activities instead of mundane tasks. A lot of employees mindshare and budgets can be invested in new products, services, and new ways of serving customers. Additionally, customer satisfaction improves, because we can accelerate delivery to our customers and improve quality through the consistency of answers and customer experience.
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Genpact launches an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based solution to usher in a new era of drug safety automation.
Genpact's Pharmacovigilance Artificial Intelligence (PVAI) will be the life sciences industry's first fully-integrated, end-to-end adverse event (AE) processing solution, leveraging intelligent automation to not only reduce the effort of processing adverse events, but also to enable an AI-driven level of real-time predictive analytics and actionable insight not previously possible.
As life sciences companies face escalating AE volumes for their products and increasing pressure to improve quality and compliance while reducing costs, they are looking for breakthrough solutions to help them transform their pharmacovigilance operations.
Genpact's PVAI offering brings together and integrates optical character recognition, robotic process automation, natural language processing, and machine learning technologies to automatically extract and code AE data from unstructured and semi-structured source documentseliminating manual workflow, saving pharmaceutical companies significant time and resources, and helping to establish a scalable PV operating model. The solution continuously builds predictive insights as more and more AE goes through it over time.
"Industry leaders have stated that the current manually-intensive approach to AE processing is simply not sustainable and needs an innovative approach. Through robust pilot testing with clients, our new PVAI solution has proven that the vast majority of case processing can be successfully automated in a fraction of the time and cost,"said Balkrishan 'BK' Kalra, senior vice president and business leader, Consumer Goods, Retail, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Genpact. "We continue to invest in PVAI and are excited to bring this holistic, unique and market-leading, AI-driven digital proposition to the industry."
As part of its investments in PVAI, Genpact recently acquired the assets and team of November Research Group (NRG), aBerkeley, CA-basedprovider of product vigilance software. The transaction added NRG's domain expertise and fully-featured pharmacovigilance Software-as-a-Service, contributing to PVAI's approach to automating drug safety operations in the life sciences industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Genpact currently serves global life sciences companies, helping pharmaceutical and medical devices companies pursue growth, achieve cost reduction, increase speed to market, and improve regulatory compliance by providinga range of digital solutions, analytics services, and business process transformation expertise. Genpact has alife sciencesregulatory servicesbusiness stemming from its acquisition of Pharmalink in 2014.
(Source: PR Newswire)
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Genpact Launches AI-based Drug Safety Automation Program - Pharmaceutical Processing
In Brief A new video from Kurzgesagt In a Nutshell explores the history of innovation and job loss, and points out why the age of automation is different from anything we've seen before.
Kurzgesagt In a Nutshell on YouTube just released a new video that explores the age of automation and how, while automation has changed society before, things are different this time. Before, as automation modified industries like agriculture, jobs were lost. However, with this job loss came job creation, as machines needed to be repaired. This actually was an overall positive movement, as the new jobs which replaced the old ones were typically better in terms of pay and working conditions.
One of the main differences between that shift and the one that we are currently in is the lack of job creation. While the internet led to the creation and development of new industries and jobs, it simply hasnt been enough to keep up with growing populations and the demand created by automation-driven job loss. Industries and jobs of the information age simply need fewer peopleto make them work.
But we are beyond that now. While the information age couldnt support the need for new jobs, the age of automation will pose even more issues and difficulties. As populations continue to grow and job creation continues on a downward trend, what will we do? The video above explores both the grim and positive possibilities that the age of automation could create. This moment in time could forever shape the future in ways that have never been seen before. We as human beings should learn as much as we can about whats happeningin order to adapt to an inevitably automated world.
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What Will Really Happen in the Age of Automation? - Futurism
Left: Paul Santos, managing partner of WaveMaker. Right: Tim Draper
June 11, 2017:
Wavemaker Partners is hunting for automation, data, and intelligence startups across the region. The venture capital firm is in the process of closing its Southeast Asia-focussed $50 million fund, and is eyeing about 40 more companies, that would make its portfolio 80-strong, its managing partner Paul Santos said in an interaction.Its main focus about 80 per cent of the fund would still be business-to-business (B2B) models, while the remaining 20 per cent will go to B2C. The firm has at least 10 portfolio companies that count Indonesia as a key marketand is looking to invest more in the country, he added. Edited Excerpts.
Can you give us a brief description about your new fund?
We are early stage investors, so we will come in between seed and series A. This fund were aiming to have about 80 companies as we want to build a big portfolio.
About 80 per cent will have a B2B focus and the remaining balance, with minority invesments, is B2C. The mandate of the fund is Southeast Asia, especially Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand, which are our primary markets, as well as Malaysia and Vietnam.
How big is your ticket size?
First checks were about $100,000 500,000. Now the total exposure is between $1-1.5 million.
When you say B2B you mean which sectors?
It could be financial services, logistics, healthcare, or even SaaS. Basically anything from automation, to data, to intelligence. These are the sort of (verticals) that wed like to look at.
Automation is sensors for data. When you have automation youre creating data you never had before, and you can have data analytics when you start analyzing the data. If you have a lot of data, like multidimensional data, then artificial intelligence is something that you can apply next. So, I look at the problems, then opportunities that I want to pursue (in terms of determining sectors).
Whats the status of Wavemakers latest fund? Have you started to deploy it, and if yes, to how many startups?
We have deployed some of it already. In fact, we did our first close earlier at about half (of $50 million). We have invested in about 40 companies.
Is Tim Draper one of your LPs? What is the profile of your LPs?
Yes, and he is one of the advisors and a member of this network. Our LPs come from around the region and are ranging from family offices to funds, so very diverse.
How big is Indonesias position in this fund?
I would say around 25 per cent of the portfolio at least, if not more. Most of them (Wavemakers portfolio companies) tend to be Singapore-headquartered, but it does not mean that they only have Singapore as their markets. Many of them will touch Indonesia in a big way.
90 per cent of the businesses in the SEA are SMEs, and will always be an interesting market where startups can work by putting a layer of technology to leverage them. For us its more whats the opportunity, who are you serving, why do they love you, are you building a valuable business?
Why are you confident about Indonesia?
I grew up in the Philippines so I have a feel in emerging markets. And emerging markets all over SEA are going through the same change, like you have this young growing population, getting wealthier, adopting tech like mobile phones and cloud, which are enabling things that werent there before.That, for me, is a huge opportunity, and across the region you have that. You can actually make that leapfrog to take advantage of the latest tech, and thats very exciting. Things are changing.
You have seen startups in across emerging markets in the region. Where is Indonesia compared to others, lets say, the Philippines?
I think Indonesia is more aggressive in terms of the numbers of startups that are being built, and investors are more bullish than in the Philippines. Although, there are many problems to be solved across both markets, and entrepreneurs are coming up trying to solve them. In some ways Indonesia is more advanced, but in other ways, they are the same problems, like the population of the unbanked, limited access to information, access to capital, and so on.
Also Read:
Wavemaker to close $50m SEA fund; Indonesia to be main driver
Wavemaker Partners puts $200k in data platform Einsights, participates in Series A round of VideoAmp
There needs to be more investor interest in B2B plays: Paul Tenney, Ematic
Snapcart bags $3m from Vickers Venture, Wavemaker, SPH Media Fund
Tags: automation data Indonesia intelligence Paul Santos Wavemaker Partners
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Wavemaker's new fund's all about automation, data, and intelligence: Paul Santos - DEALSTREETASIA
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A Brief Explainer on Automation and How it Will Impact Economy ... - Digital Trends
The Hindu | 'Dynamic pricing' hard to implement sans complete automation The Hindu It might spell trouble where filling stations are either not automated at all or when the automation is not fully functional. Incidentally, a majority of the filling stations are non-automated, and there are many other issues that should be sorted ... |
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'Dynamic pricing' hard to implement sans complete automation - The Hindu
Customers by nature, are human beings. They want to be treated in a personal way. Customer service is hyper-personal. Period. But, in times that we live today, automation is happening everywhere. Businesses are rapidly replacing customer service executives with chatbots and automation tools that spew out canned responses. Customer service is gradually becoming artificial, something far away from the personal touch that customer service requires. Lets face it. Automation has taken away the charm of customer service. Customers all over the world feel like they are just another number in a brands database. That personal attention which made customers feel special is a thing of the past. And soon, it will vanish too. In the short-term, automation is great to achieve cost efficiency. But, businesses also need to ensure that their customers do not feel missed out for attention due to automation. How exactly does a business do that? We explain in simple terms, some tactics for businesses to retain and engage their customers better in times of automation.
You read that right. Today customers are able to find infinite product suggestions under the sun through online stores. There are also star ratings and reviews that rank the best sellers. But, not all best-sellers match individual requirements. There are also other constraints like budget, choice of color, delivery and so on. Product suggestions programs cannot help a customer pick a product that is best suited to their personal preferences. It is here that a business can tear down the virtual wall that digitalization has created and forge a personal relationship through true and honest advising. Marketing tactics like content marketing, video marketing, influencer marketing all fall under this category of educating a customer before turning them into lifelong buyers. Since they all happen online, it is easy to stay connected with customers even if they are located far away from the business.
We forge friendships and relationships with people whom we trust. Even in a business trust is the key factor that convinces a customer to part with his/her hard-earned money. The fact that security concerns rank among the top reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts is evidence enough. A brand that is trusted by customers is sure to beat the competition and soar to leaderboards. Take for instance, Amazon the global eCommerce brand. The brand is able to amass such massive volumes of sales effortlessly only because of the trust that the brand has earned through customer-centric service. But, in an automated world building trust in a business relationship can be challenging. It is here that modern tools for marketing like email marketing, personalized offers, dedicated virtual assistants come into play. They can make the customer feel the same way they would feel if they were to transact with an offline business.
More than half of the world is connected through social networks. For more than one-third of millennials, social media remains the prime way to communicate with businesses. A business which is not on social media is very well missing out to attend to its customers. This statistic compilation from Digital Resonance sums the importance of social media in customer service: Keeping apart the social medias ability to market on a large scale, it also doubles up as a platform where customers and businesses can come together and resolve common problems that arise in the due course of customer service.
One customer well taken care of could be more than $10,000 worth of advertising. ~ Jim Rohn.
Source Nothing could ever be true than this. Your happiest customers are your brand advocates. To take care of them you need trained staff who can defuse a possible damaging situation into a resolution. To begin with, recruited staff can be enrolled for any customer service course that will expose them to the right way of treating angry and frustrated customers. Moreover, it will also improve brand image, since customer service is nothing but the front face of business post sales.
Like I said before, automation can take away the personal touch in customer service. Automated emails, chat support replies, IVR messages can make a customer feel unwanted. However, it is not possible to do everything manual either, like sending welcome emails when a new customer signs up or when they subscribe to a newsletter. The trick to striking a balance between automation and personalization. Like the automated mail can be written in a personal tone with clear mentioning of the customer name and preferences. They can also be signed off by the manager or the CEO which will make the customer feel more valuable. Here is how Buffer, the social media sharing tool makes sure its customers are taken care of 24/7.
Source
Customer service is an attitude, not a department. This famous quote proves the need for personalization in customer service even when processes are getting automated. We have explained so far how to improve customer service without losing the personal touch. Use automation whenever necessary, but make sure you do not miss out on the personal effect that heartfelt customer service can have.
MeghaParikh
Megha Parikh is a digital marketing expert and has been journeying through the world of digital marketing for more than 7 years. She especially enjoys learning about social media marketing and conversion rate optimization while exploring her social and interpersonal skills.
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How To Retain Customers In Times of Automation | CustomerThink - Customer Think
KOLKATA: Indias top telcos could expand their operating margins by around 500 basis points each over the next three years from automation initiatives like the Aadhaar-based e-KYC process and online recharges, which would lower sales, marketing, distribution and administration costs.
Analysts and industry experts say a combination of automation and ongoing sector consolidation is likely to also help telcos cut subscriber acquisitions costs, which would also lead to a sharp reduction in manpower requirements.
Rajiv Sharma, director & telecoms analyst at brokerage HSBC, expects listed incumbents Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular to go slow on additional hirings once automation and consolidation picks up.
He expects Indias biggest telcos to each see at least a 500 bps Ebitda margin expansion in the medium term (read: next three years) from a combination of automation initiatives, sector consolidation and simplified tariffs in an era of bundled plans.
Of this estimated 500 bps Ebitda margin expansion, he expects nearly 150 bps to stem from rapid adoption of online recharges, especially with the government driving digital payments.
Badal Bagri, chief finance officer for India & South Asia at Bharti Airtel, had said at the No. 1 phone companys earnings call that customer adds, which are largely based on e-KYC now, had led to substantial cost reduction. But Reliance Jio, owned by Indias richest man, Mukesh Ambani, said the emerging digital ecosystem will eventually drive jobs creation.
While operators will work towards reducing costs with automation and use of digital methodologies, newer opportunities will emerge for value addition to customers leading to creation of more jobs, said a Jio spokesman in a written response to ETs queries.
This movement has already started with recruitment increasing in areas such as digital services, platforms, content and app development, infrastructure and cyber security, network optimisation to digital payment chains.
Sector experts expect mass-market adoption of bundled plans in the 4G era to drive tariff simplicity, which will reduce customer complaints and queries at telco call centres and translate in additional cost savings. Once that happens, telcos need not invest in large teams to manage thousands of tariff plans, which is the case today, said HSBCs Sharma.
According to an HSBC note seen by ET, Idea Cellular has reported sharp savings in its selling & distribution expenses in fiscal quarter ended March 2017 and suggested that 80 per cent of this saving was driven by the e-KYC process.
The countrys third-largest carrier reported a near 13 per cent sequential fall in subscriber acquisition & servicing expenses & advertisement and business promotion expenditure in the March quarter to Rs 825 crore from Rs 948 crore in the quarter to December 2016.
Market leader Bharti Airtel has also reported a near 10 per cent sequential fall in its sales & marketing expenses to Rs 1,693.4 crore in the March quarter. The on-year fall was even steeper at 17 per cent on this metric.
According to HSBC estimates, deployment of the e-KYC process has already led to Idea and Bharti seeing a 21 per cent and 11 per cent quarter-onquarter decline in their sales, marketing and admin costs respectively in the March quarter. Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India did not individually respond to ETs emailed queries.
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Automation may push big 3 telcos' operating margins up by 500 bps - Economic Times
Reason writer Ronald Bailey outlines a strong case that fears about technological unemployment are overblown. For instance: He adds needed context to the recent finding by MIT economist Daron Acemoglu and Boston University economist Pascual Restrepo that each additional industrial robot in the United Statesresults in 5.6 American workers losing their jobs.
But even taking the high-end estimate, job loss due to robots was has been just 670,000 since 1990 while last year some 62.5 million Americans were hired in new jobs, while 60.1 million either quit or were laid off from old ones, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I would add that total nonfarm employment over that span has increased by nearly 40 million.
A passenger stands in front of a row of Cathay Pacific Airways self check-in machines in Hong Kong Airport March 10, 2010. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu.
And Bailey on the basic economics that shock stories often miss:
When businesses automate to boost productivity, they can cut their prices, thus increasing the demand for their products, which in turn requires more workers. Furthermore, the lower prices allow consumers to take the money they save and spend it on other goods or services, and this increased demand creates more jobs in those other industries. New products and services create new markets and new demands, and the result is more new jobs.
Pessimists also fail to appreciate our inability to imagine what future jobs look like, a failing that stems from our inability to imagine future technology and its uses. Bailey cites research from economist Michael Mandel that in the decade since the advent of the smartphone, the app economy now supports nearly two million jobs.
Let me end with this bit from Bailey that quotes economist David Autor:
Imagine a time-traveling economist from our day meeting with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller at the turn of the 20th century. She informs these titans that in 2017, only 14 percent of American workers will be employed in agriculture, mining, construction, and manufacturing, down from around 70 percent in 1900. Then the economist asks the trio, What do you think the other 56 percent of workers are going to do?
They wouldnt know the answer. And as we look ahead now to the end of the 21st century, we cant predict what jobs workers will be doing then either. But thats no reason to assume those jobs wont exist.
I cant tell you what people are going to do for work 100 years from now, Autor said last year, but the future doesnt hinge on my imagination.
(For more on the issues surrounding automation, a relatively recentpiece from the Richmond Fedis worth reading. Itlooks at things through the lens of how driverless vehicles might affect truck drivers.)
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A techno-optimist take on automation and jobs AEI | Pethokoukis ... - American Enterprise Institute
Small towns specializing in mining, oil and gas and manufacturing are most prone to losing jobs to robots, according to research from the Brookfield Institute.
A research report released Friday entitled Automation Across the Nation breaks down the locations and sectors most prone to losing jobs to increasing computerization and robotics.
In addition to shedding light on susceptible small towns like Ingersoll, Ont. and Quesnel, B.C. the report also identified accommodation and food services as the sectors most likely to be affected by automation. It found that 69 per cent of tasks in that industry could potentially be automated.
The reports authors, Matthew Lo and Creig Lamb sought to take the automation issue to a micro level after seeing an abundance of national data.
To date, studies examining the potential labour market impacts of modern advances in machine learning, robotics, and other technologies, have largely been limited to the national scale in Canada, they wrote in the report.
While these studies are necessary to set the context, Canadas large, diverse economy means that the effects will undoubtedly be experienced differently across the country.
For example, Woodstock, Ont. with a population of just over 30,000 25 per cent of which works in manufacturing had 50 per cent of its workforce susceptible to automation.
The news was not good for Canadas oil sands heartland, either, as Wood Buffalo, Alta. ranked as one of the more endangered locations in the nation. About 30 percent of the areas, 54,000-plus citizens work in the resource sector and about half of those jobs could potentially be automated, according to the report.
Conversely, cities with large hospitals, colleges and universities or a distinct public sector footprint are in less danger. The report identified locations like Ottawa, Kingston, Ont. and Corner Brook, Nfld. as being well-insulated against automation.
Canadas bigger cities are less prone, due to a smaller reliance on manufacturing. However, the report found that cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver still had 46 per cent of total tasks susceptible to automation.
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Small energy or manufacturing-reliant towns most in danger of job automation: Study - BNN
Automation and robotics may be a serious threat in the next couple of decades to the flourishing economies of Oxford Countys three major centres as automation becomes cheaper and more accessible.
According to a new report, three out of the top five Ontario communities that are predicted to have jobs threatened by automation are in Oxford County with Ingersoll and Tillsonburg rated number one and two respectively.
Woodstock is number five on the list of towns or cities with the highest concentration of work with the potential to be automated.
Released this week, the new report is the second in the last two years published by Toronto-based Brookfield Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (BII+E) using compiled information to examine potential jobs threatened by automation.
Some industries, the report says, involve a higher concentration of tasks that are susceptible, such as manufacturing and mining.
We dont want to be the bearer of bad news but we want to let people know how they will do under this phenomenon, said Sean Mullin, executive director of BII+E. The point of the paper is to bring awareness.
Entitled Mapping Automation: How will the advancing technology impact cities and towns across Canada? the report uses McKinsey and Company and census data to examine which towns, cities and regions that are more susceptible to automation.
Mullin said the three Oxford County communities were identified based on the composition of the local labour market.
According to the report, the three Oxford communities have work forces in which 50 per cent of jobs have the potential to be automated.
Manufacturing, not surprisingly, is an area considered to be quite susceptible to automation, Mullin said. The composition of the three labour markets is fairly similar.
Other occupations with the potential to be eliminated include accommodation and food service industry, as well as the retail industry due to the emergence of online shopping and self-checkouts.
The changes could take around 10 to 20 years to take place but nothing is written in stone.
As with any forward looking forecast there is a certain amount of uncertainty... Mullin said. Rather than precisely predict what will happen two to three years from now, we want to provide a guide that says here look at this phenomenon. How should we be thinking about this over 10 or 20 year period?
Mullin said the report is designed as an early warning of what may be to come for some workers.
It gives you a sense of how to anticipate some of those areas and even respond to them, he said.
In Ingersoll, almost one-quarter of the labour force is employed in the manufacturing industry.
According to the report, the town may have already felt the brunt of some of the trends associated with the decline of manufacturing, with 625 job cuts likely due to globalization as well as automation.
Ingersolls economic development officer Curtis Tighe said there is very little difference between Ingersoll and other Ontario and Oxford communities in terms of manufacturing percentages.
Its an Oxford County issue, he said. It will affect Oxford County hard but it will also affect all of Western society hard. It will affect us all similarly.
In Ingersoll, Tighe said a small population with a large number of manufacturing jobs is likely why they are teetering at the top of the list.
We've done a great job of attracting manufacturing jobs in the past, Tighe said. Our best opportunity is to be adaptable and change quickly as the world changes. As long as we have a good mindset - and I think we do in Oxford County - to adapt to a changing world , I think we will be fine.
Our adaptability gives us the opportunity to change and lessen the impact.
Tighe said the town will be watching closely as BII+E continue their research into the automation and the future.
We will look forward to those reports and will read them closely, he said.
Whether massive job losses and a flailing economy are part of Oxford Countys future is yet to be determined.
Forecasts are not destiny, Mullin said. We think there are bunch of things Canadians and policy makers can do in response to this, in terms of preparing for types of careers or jobs likely not to be at risk. Whats not picked up in the nuance of the study is the difference between a really first class manufacturer and somewho may be about to become obsolete.
According to the report, Canada also has a large portion of its labour force that will be insulated from automation, with 28 per cent of its population working in least susceptible industries such as health care, social assistance, as well as services in the professional, scientific and technical fields.
View full report at brookfieldinstitute.ca.
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About 46 per cent of the work done in Canada is at risk of being taken by machines, according to a report that seeks to identify the industries and places across the country that are most vulnerable to automation.
The report from the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship doesnt argue that automation is a bad thing.
In the long run, technology has often helped to produce more jobs than it destroyed, researchers Creig Lamb and Matthew Lo wrote.
Jobs in food services and accommodation are at greatest risk of automation in Canada, with 69 per cent of the work done in those fields at risk of being replaced by machines.
But in the short run, automation can displace large numbers of employees whose skills have become redundant.
Current predictions suggest that these technologies are likely to disproportionately affect lower paying, lower skilled jobs, the report said.
Automation could replace the equivalent of 7.7 million jobs in Canada, the report estimates.
But that doesnt mean 7.7 million people will simply lose their jobs. Automation usually replaces only certain parts of a job which still reduces the overall demand for people doing that job.
Small regional economies specializing in manufacturing or mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction are most susceptible to automation, including Woodstock, Ont., Tillsonburg, Ont. and Quesnel, B.C., the researchers found.
In those places, about 50 per cent of all work is at risk.
Those areas most immune to automation are those that rely heavily on hospitals, post-secondary schools and government for employment.
Petawawa, Ont., comes out on top as the town with the least work at risk of automation, with 42.5 per cent of its jobs vulnerable. Thats followed by Ottawa-Gatineau and Fredericton, N.B.
Looking at jobs by industry, the differences are much more striking.
Accommodation and food service jobs have the highest risk of automation, the study found, followed by jobs in manufacturing and transportation and warehousing.
About 62 per cent of work activities could be automated within these industries, the researchers wrote somewhat concerning, given that these sectors are among the countrys largest employers.
At the other end of the spectrum, jobs in education have the lowest risk of automation. But that still means about 30 per cent of the work done in education could be automated.
Health care jobs, as well as professional, scientific and technical jobs, are also among the least vulnerable to automation.
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Canadian Cities And Industries Most At Risk From Automation - Huffington Post Canada
Taking a page out of the software development low-code/no-code movement, testing automation provider LogiGear Corp. has developed a "code-free" automated testing platform designed to make it easy for nearly anyone to achieve scriptless test automation.
At a time when companies of all sizes are moving to a DevOps approach from software development, the need to automate testing has never been greater. A Forrester Wave report in 2016 on functional testing automation tools said companies need to automate 80% of testing, leaving only 20% manual. But the research showed just between 42% and 45% of Agile companies are automated.
To look at it a bit differently, a 2016 research paper written by Divya Kumar and K.K. Mishra, titled "The Impacts of Test Automation on Software's Cost, Quality and Time to Market," indicated testing is the most expensive part of the development process. According to an email interview with Kumar, nearly 60% of the money spent on developing software is used for different types of software testing. So, despite the initial costs of setting up test automation, it pays for itself very quickly, he said.
LogiGear's new product, TestArchitect Team, is designed to achieve scriptless test automation for small businesses and will be free for two users, said Hung Nguyen, CEO of LogiGear, based in Foster City, Calif. "We think it's good to get more people to have access to automation options, even though they often look at ways of finding tools that can be free," Nguyen said. "Now, we offer a free solution that is beyond open source. Our 'freemium' version offers full features, and we also gain the advantage of having more engineers using the product, so it's beneficial to everyone."
Though the company's core user base is large companies, Nguyen said small companies need scriptless test automation, too. "In many situations, you have a developer who's also a product manager and a project manager and a tester and a customer support person. That's the real world, and giving this tool to this person gives him or her the automation ability to keep up."
To make TestArchitect Team work in a low-code/no-code or scriptless test automation way, Nguyen said the company took two approaches. The first step was to identify which are the most common command functions and translate those in to a businesslike language in English. Using natural language was key. "It's the old-school way of thinking that you write tests and run them. Today, it's you write the test and somebody else may run them, and if it fails, they have to have the ability to understand what your test was doing and how to analyze the results," Nguyen explained.
The second part of the process was to ensure a tester could create brand-new testing scenarios by choosing among prescripted actions. "It's like taking different blocks of Legos and slapping them together to create something new," Nguyen said.
The goal for TestArchitect Team is to open the world of testing to anyone on the development team. "This is very different from any approach we're seeing out there," he said. "By using action-based language, we're making the potential staff writing the tests huge. Now, companies are going to have a larger pool of resources."
What is a citizen developer, and why should you care?
A primer on software testing automation
It's a low-code world, but you need to learn to code -- here's why
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LogiGear's new scriptless test automation tool targets small businesses - TechTarget