The Value of the Human Contribution

Professional Service Management Awards 2018

Last night I got the pleasure of giving a State of the Nation Address at the Professional Service Management Awards 2018. I was thrilled to have been invited and was really excited to share the evening with some of the amazing people working in the ITSM sector and help celebrate their achievements. I have been part of the Service Management/Service Desk community for over 12 years now and it continues to be a great source of inspiration and motivation to me. The address was a joint collaboration between myself and Barclay Rae and provides insights into some of the challenges facing our sector in an increasingly automated world. I hope you enjoy.

This is an exciting time for the tech industry. Just a few weeks ago I was at a tech event in Leeds where I was privileged to hear a session from someone working in the robotics industry. Her company were using the latest in AI and robotics technology and combining it with 3D printing to make artificial limbs, bringing the cost down from over ￡100k per limb to under ￡10k, clinical trials are already underway with the aim of one day making these available on the NHS! More importantly – by focusing heavily on the design aspect they have made artificial limbs that people want to wear, limbs that no longer amplify the disability but make the wearers feel empowered and strong – like superhero’s - we really are at the point where we are creating super humans. And the most amazing aspect of all is that both the software and the blue prints for these limbs will be open source and available to anyone. The potential for technology to transform and reshape people’s lives for the better is simply mind blowing.

For many of us the day job isn’t nearly as exciting. However this new wave of technology is going to have an impact on our sector.  As the industry seems more automation, more AI and more VR, and we reduce the frequency of personal interaction there will be increased demand for a far higher quality of contact and experience when customers and users do need to speak directly to people. 

 If we are to make the most of automation then we are going have to significantly improve the maturity of our systems, processes and knowledge – something that is years away for many organisations and it will be sometime before we can really exploit AI or RPA to do anything more than the most basic tasks. 

Automation will make us focus on our key skills, the things we are really good at that no robot or computer could ever do. And therefore the role of the Service Desk remains even more valid as automation moves us away from the standard activities, Service Desks will be carrying out the complex tasks and activities in nonstandard environments. The difficult people stuff! No longer will the Service Desk be the Cinderella of IT. It is time for our sector to recognise the value of the human interaction – a good service will always need good people!

Frameworks will continue to come and go and add more complexity to our industry. The new entrants and updated models can serve us well if we use them properly. Too much blame is put on these if things don’t go to plan – we must use these with flexibility, people and experience in mind and of course common sense. We need to get more human in the way we use tools frameworks and processes and remember that they are not the silver bullet. Creating the right culture and working environment will remain critical in delivering digital transformation.

2018 has been dubbed the year of the woman and many of you will already know that I am passionate about supporting the empowerment and enhancement of women, in particular women working in the tech industry. Women have been responsible for some of the greatest technological inventions in the modern age and yet they continue to be massively under represented within the industry - currently women hold less than 20% of technical roles in software companies, and make up only 18% of computer science graduates , and only 16% of tech companies are founded by women. Given the importance of technology and software and how central it is to modern life this is certainly worrying. Not only have we got a leaking pipeline but we also have a very limited pipeline! When females make up 60% of our graduates in the UK this is a shocking waste of talent. What is even more shocking then is the fact that this is at a time when we are facing a digital skills shortage. Currently 72% of large companies and 49% of small and medium enterprises are suffering a technical skills gap. There is a clear mismatch between the skills we need and those the workforce is currently offering and this is holding back the growth of many organisations. We need more people with the digital skills but supply is simply not keeping up with demand.

And the tech industry has an image problem – there is a lack of awareness of career opportunities within the sector, we struggle with gender stereotypes and much work needs to be done to demonstrate that this is an exciting and interesting sector to work in. This is not just a gender issue though – we need to focus in on diversity in general. Recognising the value of a much wider pool of people from all backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, gender and age could go some way in addressing the challenges of the digital skills shortage. Studies have shown time and time again that the organisations that focus on diversity are far more likely to be successful. Creating a diverse workforce will increase creativity and innovation, encourage personal growth, enable you to develop your talent pool and is likely to increase employer performance. And who doesn’t want that?

As an industry it is time for us to focus on the skills and competencies required to be a successful IT and ITSM professional – that magical mix of technical understanding, business and market awareness, leadership and influence and of course communications skills. If we really want to attract more diversity into tech we need a different approach to recruitment and think about how we can create exciting opportunities for talented people.

I am going to finish by asking you that the next time you are working on a project, are implementing a new service or simply doing your standard BAU be reminded of that at the end of each process, each system, each service each piece of equipment that we purchase, install and support. sits a real live human and let’s make the words customer experience really mean something! 

We need to up our game and take our industry to the next level of maturity, regardless of what’s happening around us and regardless of what new shiny stuff comes our way. We need to keep focussed, keep improving and most important of all keep it human.