Your Weekly Dose of Business - November 21
Dynamic Business
Dynamic Business provides small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs with business news, inspiration and expertise.
1. Let’s Talk: Is outsourcing a sound business move during these uncertain times?
Every business makes an effort to keep one step ahead of the competition, but no business can be an expert in every field.?This is especially true given the severe skill scarcity and inflation that small businesses are currently suffering. And why are we discussing this now?
Despite the widespread public belief that outsourcing is only done to save money by taking advantage of offshoring, outsourcing can also be done domestically. Additionally, it may allow businesses to access knowledge and a degree of productivity not possible within.
In light of this, let’s explore the benefits of outsourcing in Australia and whether it is ultimately the solution to the skills shortage and high costs that businesses are now facing in this week’s Let’s Talk.?
Let’s Talk.
Read comments from 34 executives and senior managers ??
2. Tech Tuesday: The top 19 AI tools for your business needs
With the appropriate AI application, you may quit performing tedious and time-consuming business chores, such as email marketing and analytics, and instead focus on the critical aspects of growing your business.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-based technologies have created a slew of new prospects for businesses of all kinds all around the world. AI is lighting insights and altering numerous business processes. Various AI solutions on the market can help you cut operating costs, increase employee and company productivity, and increase stakeholder satisfaction.?
In this week’s edition of?Tech Tuesday, we have assembled a selection of AI tools you can use for your business needs.
Read on for more.
Infor Coleman
Infor Coleman leverages AI technology to deliver key value towards enterprise goals. With the ability to instantly source data, automate repetitive processes, and optimise workflows, Coleman free’s up employee talent to focus on high-value activities—creating tangible opportunities to achieve greater efficiencies with significant clarity and speed. Whether exploring a user experience powered by voice, considering increased smart automation, or discovering predictive insights in enterprise data, Coleman enables simplified operations.
Named after the physicist and mathematician Katherine Coleman Johnson, whose extraordinary work helped NASA land on the moon, Coleman represents the next generation of intuitive enterprise applications. Chat, voice, and image recognition allow for a conversational user experience that is accessible across a range of interactions beyond Infor applications, ensuring the product continues to learn, ask smarter questions and make better recommendations over time and further use by our customers.
Coleman A.I. is available within the Infor CloudSuiteTM apps.?
Learn more?here.?
LYRO Robotics
LYRO pairs world-leading AI technology with robotic hardware to enable robots to pack fresh fruits and vegetables, including avocados, sweet potatoes, stone fruits, zucchini, and chilli peppers. LYRO’s intelligent robots are helping to solve the world’s acute farm labour shortage and food waste problems.
LYRO has just completed their first commercial robot deployment at?Sunnyspot Packhouse and Sunnyspot Farms in Ravensbourne, Queensland.
More?here.
Robotic Marketer
Robotic Marketer?was founded in 2016 to disrupt?how?marketing strategies are developed, helping marketing departments work faster, smarter and more intuitively. By automating the development of marketing strategies and providing management tools, Robotic Marketer has capitalised on?using?data to make informed decisions on marketing?budgets, resources, and direction.?Robotic Marketer?produces a highly focused marketing strategy in approximately 38 minutes using?artificial?intelligence, machine learning and big data. The company works with channel partnership programs,including SAP, Oracle and Mitel,?and is available on Atlassian and Zift marketplaces with early traction in the SMB market.
The sophisticated tool provides companies with access to powerful marketing strategy tools regardless of size or stage of business and is?recognised?globally as an intelligent productivity tool that helps businesses drive better performance out of their marketing.
More?here.
Outreach AI by Clevertar
Are you delivering job placement services? Employing post-placement support staff to monitor and support job seekers you’ve placed in work? You’ll want to see the newest AI-driven technology for delivering post-placement support by AI experts Clevertar.
Outreach AI is all about supercharging post-placement support. AI-driven technology has been specifically designed for companies operating under the Workforce Australia contract and delivering job placement services.
The?chatbot?asks questions designed to surface any issues or problems the employee might be having in their new role.?This prevents issues from escalating and becoming bigger problems. The main benefit is that it enables job placement providers to manage and monitor large numbers of clients more effectively and efficiently. The system can identify at-risk job seekers and flag them for follow-up, meaning that consultants can provide targeted support to those who need it most.
More?here.
ipSCAPE’s Cloud Customer Communication Platform
ipSCAPE’s cloud customer communication platform takes leading-edge AI technology and optimises it for Sales teams, Customer Service and the?Contact Centre.?For high-performing Sales teams, the?ipSCAPE Dialler?leverages AI to optimise performance by increasing contact rates and talk time.?
Customer Service teams can leverage AI?Virtual Agents?that enable personalised customer service at scale.?To monitor performance and ensure compliance, ipSCAPE offers Advanced Speech Analytics that utilises AI to analyse customer sentiments across voice interactions.??
Advanced Speech Analytics is ideal for organisations within the Financial Services industry as this solution supports compliance objectives with RG271 to be achieved.
More?here.?
Salesforce Einstein
Salesforce Einstein?gives businesses AI capabilities that are easy to use, even for those who have never used AI. From organising customer enquiries and making smart predictions to delivering faster and more personalised experiences, it enables businesses to use and interpret data to drive more meaningful impact. It also makes it possible to get more done quickly without learning complex software and coding skills.
Salesforce Einstein’s capabilities extend across visual analytics with?Tableau Business Science, powered by Salesforce’s Einstein Discovery engine, lowering the barrier to analytics for everyday business users. For example, human resources can assess a candidate’s likelihood of accepting an offer, and many other teams can use it for budgeting or resource allocation activity.
More?here.
SAS
As engagement with retailers becomes increasingly digital in nature, a reliable?customer data platform (CDP)?can provide significant value. Used to consolidate and integrate customer and market data into a single data source, a CDP offers sales and marketing teams invaluable insights needed to run more profitable campaigns. SAS has helped many customers create a comprehensive CDP which can grab information from online and offline sources such as websites, mobile apps and email platforms to give an organisation a complete view of their customers.?
This is then used to determine and then initiate the most appropriate next step in the customer’s journey. Whether this takes on the guise of an optimised outbound campaign, cross-channel analysis and multichannel sales or an alert to a customer service operator – the goal remains to enable seamless customer data activation and a more personalised, effective customer experience.
More?here.
HireVue
HireVue exists to remove the friction from the hiring process. Its on-demand and live video interview platform work for clients with real-time, AI-powered evaluation tools, interview guides, automated candidate routing, and shareable recordings. HireVue enables businesses of all sizes to leave complicated scheduling, interview guide creation and downloading apps behind. It also gives candidates a better, more flexible experience, with the ability to interview anytime, anywhere, and engage them using conversational AI via SMS and Whatsapp.?
More?here.?
SnapLogic
Iris AI, SnapLogic’s latest innovation, uses artificial intelligence to automate highly repetitive, low-level development tasks, eliminating the data and application integration backlog that stifles most technology initiatives. The result is an industry-first technology that applies machine learning to enterprise integration – dramatically changing the economics of cloud, analytics and digital transformation initiatives.?
Iris AI uses advanced algorithms to learn from millions of metadata elements and billions of data flow via the SnapLogic Intelligent Integration Platform. It then applies that learning to improve the speed and quality of integrations across data, applications and business processes.
More?here.
Freshworks
Freshchat, Freshworks’ conversational engagement platform, makes customer engagement easy by leveraging AI to create more meaningful conversations.
Customer experience is simplified with AI chatbots powered by over 30,000 Machine Learning (ML) models and trained on diverse big-data and advanced Natural Language Processing?(NLP) models. Bots are able to understand customer enquiries and provide step-by-step troubleshooting processes effectively, can detect language, and for more complex issues, transfer conversations seamlessly to human agents to provide further support.?
With constantly evolving AI capabilities, chatbots are able to learn from past tickets to suggest ticket fields for new tickets automatically. Categorising, prioritising, and routing incoming tickets is no longer tedious, as conversations are automatically triaged to the relevant agent groups. By optimising support, businesses can significantly reduce their Average Handle Time while improving customer satisfaction with instant resolutions.?
Learn more?here.
Enterprise Resource Planning?(Oracle NetSuite)
NetSuite’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is an all-in-one cloud business management solution. It leverages built-in AI technology to help businesses operate more effectively and automate core processes.?This means businesses can alleviate human error and empower people to be more strategic in their roles while providing critical real-time visibility into operational and financial performance.
Automating repetitive or time-consuming processes can provide an immediate time-saving benefit. This can include accounts payable (AP) automation, which converts supplier invoices into a standard digital format and is then pushed through a digital workflow, eliminating manual processes. This helps free up finance teams to focus on higher-value tasks and decision-making.
NetSuite’s ERP system can provide the insights business leaders need to make the right decisions in a rapidly evolving environment. This can be applied across business functions – sales teams can more accurately forecast demand, operations teams can identify potential supply chain problems, and finance teams can enhance cash flow predictions.
More?here.
Trellix
Trellix’s Extended Detection Response (XDR) ecosystem is powered by?artificial?intelligence (AI) helping it to break down business siloes, providing adaptive, real-time protection to monitor, detect and respond to any advanced threats.?Machine learning algorithms are proven beneficial as they constantly learn from threats detected and adapt from them. XDR becomes a strong level of defence for businesses as AI-driven mechanisms power the ecosystem to actively learn, evolve and improve autonomously.
More?here.
Dataiku
Dataiku?is the platform for everyday AI, with a visual, low, or no-code environment that enables a broad range of people to take on AI projects. With Dataiku, analytics teams can label images, build AI models using the latest techniques, and deploy AI applications to help make better decisions, streamline processes and improve customer experiences.
More?here.
reNotes
It can take hours to transcribe and edit audio or video content to create quality written content that helps you promote and grow your brand.
reNotes, designed by podcasters for podcasters, make this easy and fast!
Our advanced AI platform turns audio and video files into well-written show notes, summaries, and social and blog posts in minutes, saving you hours every week.
Plus, reNotes makes it simple to turn your back catalogue of audio/video content into new articles and social posts to engage and grow your audience.
Try reNotes for free?here.
reKnow Summarizer
If you’re looking for a way to repurpose your written, web, and audio content for other channels quickly and easily, reKnow Summarizer is the perfect tool for you.
With reKnow Summarizer’s AI-writing platform, you can summarise almost any written document, webpage, or audio/video file.?
Or transform them into FAQs, articles, social posts and even podcast scripts in seconds. You can even rewrite technical and scientific documents into plain language in seconds. Whether you want to create more content from your back catalogue or reduce your reading load by summarising reports and articles, reKnow Summarizer is the perfect tool for you.
OVHcloud AI Training
OVHcloud AI Training?solution is built on open-source Kubernetes, simplifying?and accelerating AI model training in the cloud while reducing costs, enabling data governance, and improving compliance.
OVHcloud AI Training?allows users to easily train the?Machine Learning?models and avoid time-consuming and complex computing resource management. It relies on OVHcloud’s public cloud infrastructure, which has the best price-to-performance ratio on the market. AI Training enables data practitioners to launch deep learning training with?GPU/CPU as a service?in a one-click environment, a pay-as-you-go model for maximum flexibility and power.??
The platform offers accelerated time to target, simplified user experience, reduced total cost of ownership and open-source innovation. AI Training simplifies day-to-day work by eliminating complex engineering tasks, allowing users to focus on core business without orchestrating computing resources.?
More?here.
RPA (Kofax)
RPA is a great tool for automating tasks in structured environments. Unfortunately, studies show that most of the data today’s enterprises encounter is unstructured, from emails, social media posts, product reviews, chatbots, and similar formats. Artificial intelligence can bridge this gap, providing the link between raw data and actionable information.?
AI-powered intelligent document processing and RPA are both core elements of Kofax’s intelligent automation platform, enabling you to build powerful automated workflows. Low-code/no-code development lets business users and citizen developers design, build and run RPA easily.?
By automating data management, you’ll gain insight into your workplace’s existing processes, allowing you to speed up workflow and improve ROI. Detecting real-time problems, RPA in workflows ensures an efficient workplace, improved information security, and better customer service.?
High volumes of complex data flow through your business every minute of the day; automating its management can deliver true digital transformation, allowing your team to focus on more important and impactful tasks.
More?here.
TeamViewer?
?TeamViewer?is a leading global technology company that helps companies of all sizes and industries digitalise business-critical processes through seamless connectivity. TeamViewer proactively enables digital transformation and continuously innovates in the fields of global megatrends such as augmented reality (AR), the Internet of Things (IoT), and?artificial?intelligence (AI).?
For example, TeamViewer recently launched AiStudio to support daily tasks with intelligent technology in various industries, including retail, manufacturing, automotive, and food and beverage.??
Rising consumer demand for handling everything online and quickly has led to rising operational costs and a shortage of skilled workers. AiStudio is empowering frontline workers by digitalising and optimising manual processes. The technology enables enhanced workplace safety, hassle-free compliance with laws, regulations, and policies, seamless quality assurance, and improved productivity.??
Find out?more.
Cyber AI Loop (Darktrace)
Darktrace delivers the cyber industry’s first ‘Cyber AI Loop’, a continuous end-to-end security capability that can autonomously prevent, detect, and respond to novel, in-progress threats in real-time. Darktrace’s latest product in this area, PREVENT, uses AI to ‘think like an attacker,’ finding pathways to an organisation’s most critical assets from inside and outside. By closing the loop with an end-to-end security solution, businesses can prevent, detect, respond, and heal from cyber-attacks – all at once.?
More?here.
3. InnovationAus 2022 Award winners announced, Samsara Eco bags the top prize for Excellence
The winners of the InnovationAus Awards 2022 have been announced.?The awards recognise winners in 13 categories that span the breadth of Australian achievement.
The winners were announced at a gala held at The Cutaway, a stunning new venue at the Barangaroo Reserve.
The?InnovationAus Awards?celebrate creativity and innovation throughout Australia’s technological, scientific, and innovation ecosystems, with some of Australia’s most innovative and resourceful companies competing alongside industry heavyweights.
The following are the winners of the InnovationAus Awards 2022:
Sydney tech firm?Samsara Eco?has won the InnovationAus 2022 Awards for Excellence award, winning the Australian Hero category for its pioneering infinite recycling technology. The Australian Hero award winner represents the absolute best of the best, chosen from the best entries among all categories.
Arkwright Technologies?won the Excellence in Defence and Defense-Related Capability category for their use of fibre optic sensors to make dangerous environments safer.
EPIWATCH?received the People’s Choice Award for its AI-powered early warning system for epidemics, while?MGA Thermal?received the inaugural Translation Hero Award.?
High Earth Orbit Robotics?of Sydney received the Excellence category for Space, Earth Observation, and Geospatial Awareness for its satellite photography innovation.
DTEX, based in Adelaide, has received the Excellence in Cybersecurity category for its human-focused security solutions.
Sleeptite, a Melbourne business, has won the Excellence Award in the Digital Health and Health Tech category for its innovative monitoring system that aids in the elderly care industry.?
Ai-Media, a Sydney-based software startup, has received the Creative Tech category for Excellence for its pioneering solutions aimed at enhancing accessibility.
InvertiGro, a New South Wales-based technology business, has won the Food Agritech category for Excellence for its novel and innovative solution to the world’s food security challenges.
Advanced Navigation, a Sydney-based technology firm, has won the Industry 4.0 category for Excellence for its underwater autonomous drone innovation.?
Fivecast, based in Adelaide, has won the Software Innovation category for Excellence for its use of technological advancements to foster a safer world.
The InnovationAus Awards for Excellence 2022 include a six-month programme highlighting and celebrating the extraordinary talent and incredible products and services developed by Australia’s innovation ecosystem.?
Dynamic Business?congratulates all of the winners, runners-up, and finalists.?Here’s the link to the InnovationAus Awards website:?www.innovationaus.com
4. How to have meaningful conversations in the workplace about diversity
Over the past three decades, organisations have seen a ‘paradigm shift’.?
Gone are the days when the typical organisational structure was hierarchical and top-down, as exemplified in the cartoon?Dilbert. Instead, today’s leading organisations recognise their human capital is their most significant asset.?
At the same time, many organisations are experiencing growing internal (employee) and external (client and investor) pressure to overhaul their corporate cultures.?
Leading academics believe that promoting greater cultural diversity and inclusion and catering to employee interests can lead to a diversity dividend. Companies with?high racial diversity in upper and lower management perform best financially.
However, even though encouraging diversity and inclusion (D&I) is unquestionably the right, and smart thing to do, many organisations and their leaders still fail to act or are falling behind in improving their cultural diversity.
Promoting diversity and inclusion is emotional work.
To implement successful D&I programmes, organisations and their leaders must recognise that they are often significant organisational transformations.
As with any successful change initiative, D&I strategies should consider initiatives that involve both ‘head and heart.’?
However, D&I is not considered a top strategic imperative in all companies, with the Diversity Council of Australia highlighting that?18 per cent of companies surveyed in 2021 are not taking any action.
Companies also often focus on the cognitive understanding of change, not its emotional effects.?
Further, its responsibility is frequently delegated to its HR department and focuses on processes, numbers and disclosures. This approach, unfortunately, can reduce the programme to a ‘tick box’ activity to ensure compliance with legislation rather than an organisation-wide initiative.
Nevertheless, organisations need to realise that implementing D&I programmes can lead to their leaders and employees, comfortable and familiar with how things are done, being thrust into the unfamiliar and unknown.
As the composition of the workforce, power relations, and processes will disrupt their lives; their anxieties may increase. This may lead to dysfunctional actions amongst them, such as denial, resentment and acting out to cope with the change.?
The key enabler – psychologically safe spaces.
Discussions exploring race and ethnicity are uncomfortable topics many Australians do not want to discuss in the workplace. It makes many of us uneasy and often leads us to bury our emotions.?
Nevertheless, being politically correct or even silent is not a solution. Silence can help manage short-term anxiety but not long-term performance, as people may behave in ways that are not collaborative.
In these situations, where emotions may be at play, inclusive leaders recognise the need to create a ‘psychologically safe’ organisation culture that supports inclusive behaviours.
They also use ‘holding environments. These are safe spaces in small groups where people of all backgrounds feel empowered and supported to speak up and out, make mistakes and learn from them without fear of consequences.
These spaces can allow leaders to learn from their culturally diverse employees how they feel and what barriers they face that may hold them back from achieving success. It will also enable employees in the majority to share their concerns and fears.
Support your aspiring culturally diverse leaders to thrive
Negotiating the career ladder to become a leader is difficult for anyone. Becoming a leader involves a cycle of ‘trial and error’.
It can be even more challenging for those of culturally diverse backgrounds, particularly those who grew up outside Australia and face stereotypes.?
Inclusive leaders recognise that managers sometimes prefer to favour staff members like them as we all have ‘mini-me’ bias at work.?
Being an ally for culturally diverse employees is essential. However, this can be a passive role that may not support increased leadership diversity. Inclusive leaders take a further step and sponsor culturally diverse staff members to help them professionally and personally.?
Sponsors help their sponsees acquire ‘what’ and ‘who’ to know competencies. They are crucial in supporting aspiring culturally diverse employees to feel like they belong to the organisation and thrive.?
Finally, inclusive leaders appreciate that ensuring that their culturally diverse staff are given equal opportunities for stretch assignments and mobility experiences is vital. These will allow them to increase their agility, hone their skills and learn new things.
To find out more, Karen Loon’s new book?Fostering Culturally Diverse Leadership in Organisations?provides an essential roadmap of actions for HR Leaders looking to build a more inclusive workplace and is now available to purchase via Routledge. For more information, visit?https://karenloon.com/.
5. Online reviews could make or break your retail business this holiday season
With one week until the beginning of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period, the Australian Retailers Association predicts that Australians will spend a record $6.2 billion over the four-day shopping weekend, up $200 million from 2021.?
The annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts, which were first made popular in the US, are now more anticipated in Australia than Boxing Day sales.
Undoubtedly, this year’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Small Business Saturday will be entirely different from previous ones. The fourth quarter of the year is said to be the busiest and most lucrative for retailers because it is the last quarter of the year.?
Retailers’ online sales have increased dramatically this year, thus, converting their operation to a flexible e-commerce platform will satisfy each customer’s fluctuating traffic needs.?
The minimum star rating the average Australian will take into consideration is 3.5, according to research from the communications and payments platform, Podium. Twenty-eight per cent of Australians will read a business review while standing outside before deciding whether to enter.
Key findings:
When it comes to choosing a business, 84 per cent of Australians are influenced by Google reviews, while 44 per cent are willing to travel further and spend more to visit a business with superior evaluations.?
Dave Scheine, Country Manager, Australia at Podium, notes that consumers today are increasingly digital-first, using online channels to research, engage and build relationships with their favourite local businesses.?
“In the discovery phase, word of mouth is still essential for local businesses, but today that word of mouth is digital in the form of reviews. For consumers, reviews are relatable and authentic, and genuinely influence their decision to engage a business, whether they’re a high street retailer, a hair salon, a tradie or something else entirely.?
“Shopfronts are still hugely important, particularly for retailers, but those who rely solely on footfall and physical location during the peak season will struggle to compete with the retailers who are using great reviews and a digital presence to engage consumers online.?
Dave emphasises the significance of online reviews and argues that a business doesn’t exist for customers if it doesn’t have a website or if it does, but it has negative reviews.
Podium research shows that local businesses who have optimised their Google Reviews will be better placed to succeed and facilitate meaningful experiences with the millions of Aussies who love supporting local businesses.
“A retailer might have beautiful products at great prices, but that counts for little if consumers can’t find them when searching for ‘best toy store near me’ or ‘custom jewellers Perth’.?
“Incentivising happy customers to leave reviews is a time- and cost-effective way to drive customer retention, customer acquisition, and tap the full power of the ‘support local’ sentiment during peak season, and long after it.”
Fake negative reviews?
Customers are increasingly relying on online customer reviews to make more informed purchasing selections. This is a welcome thing as long as the neutrality of the reviews is maintained.??However, falsely negative customer reviews that are motivated by a personal dislike for a business or its employees and are posted on a review platform can cause considerable damage.?
Businesses that receive falsely negative ratings can file a complaint with the review site and the proper regulatory agencies.
6. Aussie consumers are demanding sustainability, and retailers are listening
Consumers and merchants are finally on the same page when it comes to eco-sustainable shopping.
More than half of Australian customers say they buy sustainably, will continue to do so, and are ready to wait longer for delivery to reduce their carbon footprint over the holiday shopping season.
According to recent Shopify data, more than three-quarters of Australian retailers consider sustainability a vital component of their business culture, which is higher than the global average. This demonstrates that Australian merchants are meeting, if not exceeding, the aware customer challenge.
Australian retailers are focused on sustainability initiatives this Black Friday Cyber Monday despite the obstacles of investment (43 per cent), lack of time (32 per cent) and knowledge (25 per cent), as well as because most people (the majority) feel that it is a major factor in brand loyalty (82 per cent).?
Despite the rising cost of living, 62 per cent of consumers say it affects their willingness to spend more, and 61 per cent say it influences their recommendation of a product.
The green consumer
As per the survey,?sustainability?is rated as an important?purchase?criterion for the majority of?Aussie consumers. Furthermore, Australians are more likely to recommend products they purchase from sustainable businesses (61 per cent) and are more prepared to pay more for sustainable goods (39 per cent).?
Additionally, when compared globally, Australian consumers are the most likely to claim that they prioritise supporting local businesses and reducing the carbon footprint of the goods and services they use, at 29 per cent.?
Nearly two-thirds (59 per cent) of customers in the region say they’re willing to put in extra work studying and shopping around to discover the ideal sustainable product. This percentage rises for younger generations. As a result, they’re also looking for this.
领英推荐
“Conscious commerce is growing on a mass scale and plays a significant role in the purchasing decision of today’s consumer,” said Shaun Broughton, Managing Director, APAC, Shopify. “It’s incredibly promising to see the determination of both consumers and businesses to make better choices for the environment through these findings. As an industry, it’s now critical that everyone plays their role in lowering the barriers so that conscious shopping doesn’t come at a cost to the planet.”
“In July, our goal is to break the cycle of single-use travel products, so we offer a lifetime warranty on all of our suitcases so our customers can keep them forever,” said Zhoe Low, General Manager at Melbourne direct-to-consumer luggage startup,?July. “As a result, we also put a conscious effort into ensuring that our products are durable, sustainable and long-lasting, with a considered footprint from materials to manufacturing.”?
“Sustainability has been a core value since we launched in 2015, and even though it can be costly, we have always chosen purpose before profit,” said Astrid Schwartz, founder of Queensland-based Bubsnest, Australia’s only manufacturer of hand-made, local, and organic baby nests.?
“Unfortunately, one challenge many other retailers grapple with is greenwashing. Despite our commitment to sustainable and plastic-free products since our launch in 2015, consumers can get jaded by the words ‘sustainable’, ‘eco’, and ‘organic’ as many retailers use these incorrectly and disingenuously.
“Over the next 12 months, we want to educate consumers to help them know how to make more informed decisions about what they purchase and what the implications have to the future of this world.”
Half of Aussies set to spend more this holiday season
Another Shopify study found that, despite worries about the cost of living, almost half of Australian consumers will spend more during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, with quality and value driving choices.
Retailers are optimistic about consumer spending despite the bleak economic outlook; 72 per cent say they plan a big Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) to kick off the holiday season’s shopping, and 78 per cent say there will be better deals than last year’s BFCM.
Shopify commissioned an online study of 24,009 consumers and 9,012 businesses (fewer than 1,000 employees) in the UK, EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the US, and Canada. The study was conducted during September and October of 2022.
For more information, visit?shopify.com.
7. B2B businesses: Why it pays to keep your e-commerce operations ticking over during the holiday period
Don’t go dark on your business buyers this new year period.
Is your B2B business planning on shutting up shop over the upcoming Christmas and New Year period??Taking the opportunity to give the team a two-week break used to be unremarkable behaviour for many Australian enterprises operating in this space.
But that’s changing – and fast.?
For B2B businesses that have taken to selling online, in particular, telling the team to take leave and nailing up a ‘Closed until 10 January’ sign on Christmas Eve can prove a damaging move.?
Research suggests the global B2B e-commerce market size will reach an extraordinary $US13630 million by 2027, up from ‘just’ $US7659.4 million in 2020.?Operating with business customers digitally in a market potential of this size brings with it a very different set of expectations.
Unlike B2C e-commerce, B2B online selling is driven by relationships, not transactions. Both online and off, customers overwhelmingly prefer to deal with other businesses they know and trust, and a big part of that trust arises from your reputation for reliability and responsiveness.????
Like it or lump it, customers that have become accustomed to interacting with your organisation online – making enquiries, placing orders, seeking post-sales support and the like – whenever and however suits them best will expect you to revert promptly all year round, Christmas and New Year included.??
Keeping the lights on
Changing buyer attitudes means being absent can seriously damage the customer experience.
For that reason, we see more B2B businesses stay open with a skeleton crew over Christmas. This is also useful for customers who might use the time of year to review their business operations and cost base and seek to negotiate better contracts with their suppliers.?Being open, accessible and responsive at this time could well pay a dividend for the 12 months ahead.
At the same time, by using technology to streamline and automate processes, they’re able to maintain a proactive sales channel which provides customers with access to crucial purchase information such as updated inventory and product stock information.?
Yes, not operating at full capacity may mean their staff are a little slower to respond and deliveries take a little longer to arrive, but if they’re transparent about this and manage expectations carefully, the effort is generally much appreciated by business customers that have also opted to stay open over the break.
And, if the trade is slow, it can be an opportunity to catch up on administration, including all those tasks that end up parked on the back burner for months when business is brisk and more urgent matters take precedence.???
We’ve also observed some organisations turn a quick profit during the lull by running promotions on superseded or surplus stock. Selling it off for a song can be a great way to clear the shelves and start the new year afresh.??
Preparing for closure
If you intend to close down entirely for a spell over the festive season, ensuring your customers are informed, and onside well in advance is critical.?
It pays to start with a plan that identifies your cut-off time for pre-Christmas projects and orders and how quickly you will be able to ramp up your operations again in the new year.
Communicate these deadlines to your customers early and often – via telephone, email and clear messaging on your eCommerce site – and you’ll ensure no one is taken by surprise when the phone reverts to voice mail and your digital channels to an auto-reply message.
Fail to do so, and you may find customers repaying the ‘compliment’ by going dark on your business once the doors re-open.?
Harnessing technology to deliver high-quality service all year round
Providing outstanding customer service, online and off, is challenging without the right tools. An ERP-integrated eCommerce solution will help you deliver high quality customer experiences to your business buyers whenever they interact with you digitally. More Australian businesses embracing online procurement can help your business meet and exceed their expectations over the festive season and all year round.
8. Aussies are investing more in software than their US and UK counterparts, a trend likely to continue in 2023
Compared to their US and UK counterparts, Australian professionals are more optimistic about using software in the office; more than one-third are highly satisfied with the tools’ ability to boost productivity.
The study also discovered that spending is expected to continue in 2023, with 68 per cent of local IT professionals wanting to increase software budgets while consolidating platforms and putting a premium on user-friendly and platform-integrated products.
However, Australian respondents outpaced respondents from the United States and the United Kingdom in the poll, with 35 per cent identifying significant scope for improvement in their tools to raise overall productivity and efficiencies, compared to 29 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.?
According to a Monday.com survey, more than half (56 per cent) of AUS IT decision-makers increased their software spending in 2022, and more than two-thirds (68 per cent) plan to do the same in 2023.
The study also discovered that, with only 50 per cent using four or more platforms every day, Australians use the least number of software tools necessary for their daily job functions.?
Australian IT professionals are more likely to cut the total number of software platforms, stating that three or more tools might be deleted without hurting productivity, despite their more simplified use of platforms compared to US and UK decision-makers. There are several noteworthy conclusions in the report on how IT decision-makers will approach their work this year and in the years to come.
“These results emphasise that digital transformation is not only well underway here in Australia, but set to accelerate over the coming years,”?said monday.com Vice President Asia Pacific and Japan Dean Swan.
“While trends emphasise consolidation and platforms that work intuitively with others, we expect 2023 to be a strong year for the software industry, with companies doubling down on tools that increase efficiencies. It’s clear Australian IT professionals are more focused than ever on making their teams more productive and efficient through software that has high adoption and enables productivity in any environment, whether in person, remote, or hybrid.”?
The era of digitisation
Gartner’s latest?forecast?projected a total Australian IT spend of AU$117.2 billion in 2022, increasing by 13.1 per cent from 2021. “This year is proving to be one of the noisiest years on record for CIOs,” Gartner distinguished research vice president John-David Lovelock said.
“Geopolitical disruption, inflation, currency fluctuations and supply chain challenges are among the many factors vying for their time and attention, yet contrary to what we saw at the start of 2020, CIOs are accelerating IT investments as they recognise the importance of flexibility and agility in responding to disruption.
“As a result, purchasing and investing preference will be focused on areas including analytics, cloud computing, seamless customer experiences and security.?
According to Gartner, the effects of the two-year rise in pricing for IT hardware, including PCs and mobile devices, are starting to trickle down to software and services. Additionally, salaries are becoming more competitive due to the present IT skills scarcity. This necessitates price increases from technology service providers, ultimately resulting in higher spending in these sectors in 2022 and 2023.
Furthermore, according to Gartner, the expanding use of managed services, infrastructure, and enterprise application software in the short and long term suggests that the digital transformation trend is systemic and long-lasting rather than passing after one or two years.?
According to Gartner, corporate applications and infrastructure software spending will rise by double in 2023 due to digital business activities such as supply chain optimisation and experiential end-user experiences.?According to Gartner, the Russia-Ukraine crisis will not impact Australia’s IT spending. Instead, price and wage inflation are expected to impact CIOs’ plans more in 2022 than combined talent shortages and other delivery issues.
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9. SMEs list the top three expenses that they would find difficult to cover in 2023
This year’s high inflation levels’ impact on families has received much attention. However, new research reveals that 72 per cent of small businesses – that have survived the pandemic – have also been hit by rising expenses this year.?
The?survey from?Small Business Loans Australia?finds that supplier expenses, gasoline, and labour came out on top of the costs that SMEs are battling with the most. SMEs estimate that these same expenditures will be a problem next year.
Respondents were asked which, out of the below ten costs, they are struggling to meet the most now and will struggle with next year:?
Nearly one in three (31 per cent) SMEs are struggling with supplier and petrol costs, and 26 per cent cannot pay wages, salaries and contractors. Next, 21 per cent are finding it hard to pay rent, 19 per cent equipment; an equal 17 per cent cannot meet the costs of insurance and tax. Ten (10) per cent cannot meet the cost of office and staff amenities, and 8 per cent with business consultants such as HR or accounting.?
Small Business Loans Australia analysed responses across business sizes. Micro businesses predicted they would be better off in meeting expenses across all categories than small and medium-sized businesses: just 66 per cent of micro-businesses are struggling with costs and will continue to do so, compared with 15 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses.?
The costs impacting small and medium-sized businesses most are supplier costs (for 46 per cent of small and 34 per cent of medium-sized businesses) and petrol (for 39 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively).
Responses were also analysed across the major States. West Australian businesses indicated they are struggling to meet inflated supplier costs, labour costs and petrol prices above any other state. Following 38 per cent of West Australian SMEs who are most likely to struggle to pay labour costs, 27 per cent of South Australian businesses, 26 per cent of NSW businesses, 23 per cent of Victorian businesses, and 20 per cent of Queensland businesses will also struggle in this category.
Inflated rent is a significant issue among South Australian and NSW SMEs, with 27 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively, struggling to meet this cost. This is followed by just 16 per cent of Victorian and Queensland businesses and 14 per cent of West Australian businesses.
Small Business Loans Australia asked businesses if they would seek financing to cover any of the costs they are struggling with. Over half (54 per cent) said they would look to get a loan to help relieve the financial stress of inflation, with more than a quarter (28 per cent) prepared to take out more than $50,000.
Micro businesses proved their financial stability again, as the least likely group to require a loan, chosen by 32 per cent, compared with 66 per cent of medium-sized businesses and three-quarters (75 per cent) of small businesses.
More than a third (37 per cent) of small businesses would consider borrowing more than $50,000 to meet inflated costs, while 8 per cent of micro-businesses would borrow the same.?
Alon Rajic, Founder and Managing Director of Small Business Loans Australia, says: “SMEs have shown incredible resilience through the pandemic and are now facing unprecedented inflation. Like Australian households, businesses have been hit by significant increases in the everyday costs of running their operations.?
“SMEs are the backbone of the Australian economy, making up 98 per cent of the business market, but the tightening of budgets often has a greater impact on SMEs, which tend to have smaller financial cushioning than bigger corporations.
“If SMEs decide they need financing to get through the challenging period ahead, it is important for them to seek financial advice and research financing options to ensure they are in a position to service a loan over the next few years and secure the most cost-effective and lowest-risk loan. A loan comparison platform may be a good place to start.”
The full survey results, including breakdowns across business sizes and States, can be found?here.?
10. COP27: Climate Change Performance Index ranks Australia 55?
An analysis presented at the Cop27 UN conference in Egypt revealed that Australia continues to lag behind other developed nations in solving the climate catastrophe.
Australia remains a “very low-performing country,” according to the climate change performance index, which was created by Germanwatch, the NewClimate Institute, and the Climate Action Network with input from 450 experts and activists.
Australia moved up three spots from the previous year, although it still trails other developed countries by a wide margin.?It rose from 59th place last year to 55th on the 63 nations and country groupings list.
The nation received a “poor” grade for climate policy and a “very low” mark for emissions, renewable energy, and energy use. As a result of having “no strategies or national plans for phasing out coal and gas mining,” as well as having intentions to increase coal and gas output by more than 5 per cent by 2030, it received a bad rating.
“Australia has gone from dead last too far from a pass, and despite the nation’s recent progress, there is no escaping just how far behind we are and how much catching up we’ve got to do,”?Climate Councillor and economist Nicki Hutley, who’s in Egypt at COP27 said.?
Australia has gone from 59th to 55th place in the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), published annually for almost two decades by Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute and Climate Action Network International. The index assesses 59 countries and the European Union collectively responsible for more than 90 per cent of global emissions.
The improvement, according to DEA spokesman Dr John Iser, was brought about by its strengthened Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), but the emissions target of 43 per cent below the level of 2005 by 2030 was still far below what would be needed to stay within its carbon budget and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Dr Iser said Australia still failed massively with its reliance on fossil-fuel mining.?“As yet, there are no policies to phase out subsidies and exports of coal and gas, which are still among the highest in the world,” Dr Iser said.?
As a national assessment, the CCPI judges Australia a little unfairly, as much of its progress has been gained by state policies.?
The states have pressed on with renewable energy and battery storage to enable Australia to achieve the highest uptake of solar conversion to electricity per capita in the world.?This gain must now be supplemented by national policies to offer more incentives for electric vehicle car imports, strengthen building efficiency standards and curb emissions by industry and agriculture.?
“There is still much to be done,” he said.
For further information, go to:?climatecouncil.org.au
11. SMEs are battling with month-long payment delays
New research shows that nearly one in every four large enterprises takes more than 120 days to pay their invoices, leaving small business suppliers empty-handed.?
According to the Payment Times Reporting Regulator, the Business Council has a 30-day payment goal, but seven out of ten large enterprises fail to reach it. According to the research, large manufacturing, retail commerce, and construction corporations were the worst offenders.?
Only approximately 14 per cent pay their vendors within 30 days. Suppliers are, by definition, small businesses. Public administration and safety are the most dependable industries, with 54% of invoices paid on time.
“This data reveals an appalling story of big businesses really treating their small business suppliers in a shabby way and really delaying payment when we know cash flow is the lifeblood of so many small and family businesses,” Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson said.
“Small businesses can’t avoid the demands on their cash. So, you’ll often see a number of them having overdrafts, working capital, or, as the Reserve Bank has revealed, in 2022, more and more small businesses tapping their own financial resources to meet the obligations of the business.?
“What we’re saying is that excellent business pays.” This is a critical business partnership. Unfortunately, I believe some of the larger corporations do this because they can live in an ideal society. The cost of funding would be lower for larger businesses than for small businesses.?
“As a result, small firms would add a little extra to their invoice to compensate for the fact that they are cash-strapped while huge enterprises profit. That, we know, does not happen. We all know that a small business can accept terms and prices from a larger business.?
“And here, even with the goal of paying a fairly standard performance rate of 30 days, which is the target that has been set by the Business Council of Australia, only two-thirds of big businesses adopt that fairly ordinary standard to pay within 30 days.
“During COVID, we saw some of Australia’s largest businesses get organised and, in some cases, pay small and Indigenous enterprises in just a few days.?The government has made pledges around payment timelines or, you know, pay within the stipulated period or pay interest, which is what many small business suppliers to the Commonwealth must do.
“So it is feasible. I mean, there are systems like eInvoicing that make it easier to deliver timely payment times.?This appears to be a matter of attitude and appetite. This is where I urge large businesses to take action and protect their important partners, their small business suppliers.”
A breakdown of payment times shows:
23% of big businesses take more than 120 days to pay their small business suppliers
According to the data reported to the regulator, the worst performers were big businesses in manufacturing, retail trade and construction.
“And we’re seeing an increasing number of Commonwealth organisations and departments use eInvoicing to make that happen more quickly. As a result, governments have been doing a lot of the right things. It doesn’t always go as planned.
New rules to curb late payment
The federal government has unveiled a new policy to address the problem of late payments faced by small businesses. The new policy aims to reduce payment times for businesses with government supply chain contracts and encourage ethical payment practices.
The new Payment Times Procurement Connected?Policy?– which goes into effect in October this year — requires businesses with an annual income of more than $100 million that are awarded government contracts worth more than $4 million to pay suppliers’ bills (up to $1 million) within 20 calendar days.
Scottish Pacific, a large independent finance provider, estimated that the cost of delayed payments in 2019 was around $234.6 billion in lost revenue. That is, SMEs would have generated more revenue if cash flow was improved, as late payments accounted for a 43% downturn in cash flow.
A?2019 report?from?Xero, the global small business platform, revealed for the first time the magnitude and impact of late payments to Australian small businesses, putting the value of outstanding late payments at $115 billion a year.
The research found that half of all trade credit invoices were paid late, and solving it would see small and medium businesses benefit by $4.38 billion over ten years.
Payment times reporting scheme
Within the scope of the policy, large businesses will also be required to report their payment terms and practices under the Payment Times Reporting?Scheme to increase the transparency of payment times from large to small suppliers.
The scheme aims to:
12. How to transform the weakest link in your security posture into your strongest asset
Employees are the first line of defence when it comes to cybersecurity. Unfortunately, they’re also often the weakest link.?
When you see the headlines, it’s easy to think that breaches are a result of sophisticated cyberattacks. But that’s not always the case. They often come about because someone clicked on a malicious link, gave their credentials away to a scammer, misconfigured a system, or failed to patch a system in a timely manner.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), human error was the source of 41 per cent of data breaches reported between July and December 2021. The most common mistakes reported include personal information being emailed to the wrong recipient and the unintended release of sensitive information.?
Given employees play such a significant role in protecting organisations, investing in training can help organisations avoid costly mistakes down the line.?
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), there were 67,500 cyber-attacks reported by businesses in the 2020-21 financial year — that’s one report every eight minutes — with an estimated financial impact of more than $33 billion.
It may not seem like it, but taking care of “low-hanging fruit” by patching vulnerabilities, checking for product misconfigurations and following security best practices will significantly impact an organisation’s risk profile.?
The process starts with addressing the knowledge gaps. While people are generally aware that threats are out there, they don’t always know what would happen if they were to make a mistake —?like unknowingly clicking on a malicious link or accidentally forwarding confidential documents on a private email chain to a third party.?
This is why organisations need to take cybersecurity training seriously. A one-pager with the basic “dos and don’ts” is a good start, but it isn’t going to stick long term.?
Of course, investing in training doesn’t mean teaching every staff member to become a cybersecurity expert. It’s about making sure every employee is aware of their role — however big or small — in keeping the organisation safe. They need to be able to identify, manage and mitigate the key risks associated with their line of work.
For organisations looking to build a security-savvy workforce, here are some key things to consider.
Customise security training for different roles?
There are standard good practices that everyone in an organisation should follow.?
But different teams have different levels of exposure to different threats. That’s why training also needs to be customised depending on each employee’s role within the organisation.?
For example, sales teams or executives that spend 80 per cent of their time on email could benefit from training on how to spot malicious emails.
Meanwhile, employees who are responsible for critical systems would need to undertake more advanced cybersecurity training — such as sessions on how to securely configure applications they are responsible for and security good practices specific to their role type. .?
As the threat landscape is always evolving, training needs to be a continuous process. This can seem like a big job for organisations to manage internally. But the other option is to partner with third-party experts who specialise in this area.?
Provide hands-on learning?
Written guides, diagrams and video tutorials are all great resources for employees. But the best way to learn is usually through practice.?
Rather than reading about how to tell the difference between a genuine and malicious email, doing a practical exercise could be more effective at helping employees absorb, retain, and apply new knowledge.?
For example, employees could be provided with simulated environments — separate from your business systems — where they can safely learn how to navigate different threat scenarios and be rewarded for taking the right steps.?
In any training program, organisations need to be able to capture data and access insights. This allows you to keep an eye on your staff’s progress, identify areas of improvement and understand the overall effectiveness of the training.
Cultivate a culture of security?
To protect your organisation over the long term, you need to create a culture of security — one where there’s a common understanding that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, not just the technical team’s.?
Senior leadership has an important role to play in cultivating the right culture. To set the tone for the rest of the organisation, leaders need to endorse and participate in training programs themselves and give employees the time and space to undertake training. Telling them to get up to speed in their own time isn’t going to inspire them to learn.?
It’s also crucial employees feel like they’re personally benefiting from the training — for example, understanding how to protect themselves and their families outside a work setting.?
Helping employees improve their personal IT security will also, by default, benefit the corporate environment — especially given the prevalence of hybrid working and BYOD.?
Get systems right / Make systems friction-free / Make systems seamless
Assuming (or hoping) that people will never make mistakes, take shortcuts, assume trust or act in self-interest is itself a common human error.
Employees can’t be perfect at all times, especially if they’re continually being asked to make critical security decisions in order to perform a function or get an outcome. For example, a rapidly emerging type of attack against authentication services is “MFA Fatigue”. That’s where users of mobile authentication apps are receiving endless requests to validate and approve access requests.?
Users get so fed up dealing with requests that they end up clicking “allow” because it’s easier. This only has to happen a single time with a malicious request, and an attacker gets in.
So, it’s important to ensure that the user doesn’t feel that security systems are a burden that prevents them from being productive. They should be as invisible and friction-free as possible for the end user.?
Ultimately, the more savvy your staff are, and the more seamless your systems are, the more secure your organisation will be.?
13. How to capitalise on the golden future of data
The turn of the century saw a boom in data collection, where businesses were hungry for insight and placing increased value on the business-critical information that could put their organisations above the rest.?
Hand in hand with new technologies, this heralded a new, golden age of data insight – businesses across every industry could now track their ins and outs, retailers could better predict purchasing habits, and doctors could keep hold of more detailed medical records.
But now, as we’ve seen from the most recent cyber attacks on high-profile Australian organisations, data is incredibly precious, with many businesses realising too little too late that having all the data they want can be a double-edged sword; the more data there is, the harder it is to manage, and the more at risk organisations are of a cyber attack. If there is data missing, stolen or corrupted, the whole system collapses.
In a world where everything we touch turns into data, enterprises will benefit by adopting an Autonomous Data Management (ADM) approach to monitor the vast amount of information within their systems beyond what any human team can manually manage.
Drowning in dark data
Think of a time when you’ve shared a critical document with colleagues. You make a copy of your original document to share with two team members, but it also needs to be shared with someone in Legal and someone in Finance – that’s six copies of the same document being stored on your company’s servers.
Years down the track, this same document is still being stored on your company’s servers, but it is no longer being used to derive insights or decision-making. This is what we call ‘dark data’, where a business accumulates massive amounts of data that exceed its ability to maintain or analyse.
In fact, Veritas research has found that 33 per cent of data stored by Australian organisations is dark, while a whopping 68 per cent is considered redundant, obsolete or trivial (ROT), well above the global average of 50 per cent. Dark data growth has soared with more organisations working in a remote and highly distributed environment in recent years.?
This overload of unused information and data-driven decision-making can be problematic for a number of reasons. Not only can dark data create significant waste in employee productivity when searching for old documents, but dark data can also contain highly sensitive information which, if compromised, can lead to significant legal, financial and reputation tarnish.
On top of this, the servers that store duplicates of this dark data create enormous volumes of carbon pollution due to the amounts of electricity required to run them. Veritas calculated that, in 2020 alone, businesses’ storage of dark data was estimated to have contributed 5.8 million tonnes of CO2 waste to the Earth’s atmosphere.
It is critical that IT leaders take their data into their own hands to avoid such risks and maximise the benefits of full data control. After all, with this dark data piling up so quickly, you’d have to be superhuman to sort through it all –?so then, what is the solution?
Reducing the data burden through ADM
In a rush to fast-track digital transformation and hybrid working models due to COVID-19, IT leaders worked quickly to implement the technology infrastructures necessary for business continuity, leaving security as an unfortunate afterthought.
Veritas has called this phenomenon the ‘vulnerability lag’, with research revealing there is a two-year lag between the deployment of new applications and having the appropriate protection strategies in place to secure them – that’s two years of being vulnerable to ransomware and two years of leaving the door open to potential compliance breaches.
Not only that, but Veritas research has found that, on average, Australian businesses would need to hire 27 full-time staff and spend US$2.3 million to close these gaps within 12 months.
In a tough talent pool, organisations must lean on solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to augment the skills of an existing IT team and process greater amounts of information at speed. This is called Autonomous Data Management (ADM), which sees cloud technology platforms learn data management practices and automatically apply them to new data sets.
This is historically a manual, time-consuming task, relying on an IT member to tell the system where data needs to be stored, how it is used, and when it can be deleted. But with the capabilities of ADM, proactive data decision-making, storage and protection can take place autonomously and transparently, without the need for human intervention.
ADM enables enterprises to unlock full cloud benefits, such as operational scale and agility, whilst also allowing for
With the threat of cyber criminals and security breaches not going away anytime soon, businesses must act now to manage their data efficiently and securely or risk significant IP loss. This new era of data management through ADM is an opportunity for businesses to put businesses back in control of their data and restore the powers of big-data-decision making.
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