Business Continuity Plan – Affectli

Digital Transformation Solution

admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2020 12:00:00 +0000

The biggest challenges organisations face when managing remote locations is Accountability, Visibility & Security (both physical and digital).

By implementing an effective Digital Transformation solution like Affectli that is agile and scalable, as well as device and system agnostic, it provides an organisation with smart technology and connected systems that are the very foundation for business efficiency.

“When digital transformation is done right, it’s like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly.”
– George Westerman (MIT principal research scientist and author of Leading Digital: Turning Technology Into Business Transformation)

One of our clients, a Global telecommunications company with remote locations across the globe, employed our services to improve their operational efficiency and ensure that they met stringent KPI´s aligned to their SLA agreements. Essential to the success of their business was:

Efficiency to take their performance to the edge and beyond.
Productivity to maximise output and minimise waste.

In order to address the challenges of managing remote facilities, coupled with the objective of improving efficiency and productivity, we collaborated with our client to put the framework in place that included:

Integrating their existing systems,
Connecting their IoT Endpoints,
Generating Digital Twins applying semantic ontologies,
Digitising their business processes and
Customising reporting tools.

The result of which is that the client was able to cut costs significantly by meeting their SLA KPIs, rid their organisation of over 14 million emails a year, reduce their MTTR from 4 hours to 2 hours within 6 months, and produced a more efficient NOC.

They were able to achieve these milestones by implementing an effective Digital Transformation strategy as follows:

The Entities & Asset Management feature is used to create profiles for everything within their organisation including their people, assets, clients, vendors and tenants. With the ability to create parent-child relationships through the Classifications Manager, they are able to customise setting permissions and effectively control access to information.

With Digital Information being key to their efficiency, the Affectli Designer provides them the tools to expand functionality by building their own apps and designing custom processes, workflows, pipelines and forms with a simple drag and drop functionality that allows them to create business processes ranging from business management, problem management, preventative management and service delivery to ensure that the right people get the right information at the right time.

The situational awareness feature allows the client to visually track their entities, assets and people within a single map interface using GIS and geo-reporting tools – a functionality that gives them an eagle eye over their entire operation and assets.

The Digital Twin is a schematic visualisation of any entity or group of entities within the system. The graphical representation is drillable right down to granular detail including things like generator fuel levels, security breaches, server room temperature controls, maintenance schedules, etc. With this information at hand, the client is able to trigger a task and dispatch the right teams at the right time, resulting in less down-time and an improved MTTR from 4 to 2 hours within the first 6 months.

From the cutting edge Mi-Stream Integration engine that processes data feeds from a myriad of disparate sources and millions of sensors in the field, Affectli has the ability to collate and assimilate that information, then triggers actions and alarms – including data that is augmented by AI, which is then pushed through to the Events Monitor that provides real-time data that can be filtered according to their preferred view or business objectives. By simply clicking on a record, the Mi-Stream provides a full contextual history relating to that particular task/incident including people, documentation, status, action taken, severity level, to name but a few.

The creation of a contextual, collaborative smart workspace rid the company of more that 14 million emails in one year through orchestrating all incoming activities and tasks within a clear interface called the A-Box. It changed the way the organisation operates by giving them the tools for contextual collaboration that allows them to create, receive and follow digital processes while housing all relevant communication and documentation within each task or activity that is created.

The Dashboard view for the user creates their optimum working space with personalised widgets. This allows for efficient task and incident management.

With the Analytics feature, the client is able to generate an infinite amount of meaningful reports and graphs to analyse production, data and operations. Their reports have been customised to provide real-time information to ensure effective management within the organisation, with the added benefit of being able to toggle and filter displayed information specific to KPIs that can be pivoted and viewed hourly, daily and weekly. For example, sunburst reports represent and allow the user to pivot data in real time, stratified by region, as well as provide layers of data that can be filtered by parameters. Trending graphs reflect real-time performance, and guide their Root Cause Analysis. To build their Annual Report, it’s as simple as a BI interface tool that allows you to drag and drop any graph or parameter to create the report.

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Gearing Towards Smart Workplaces

Andrea — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 10:58:02 +0000

The big question on everyone’s lips at the moment:

Does your business continuity plan make provision for remote working capability?

In the face of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and with many countries declaring a State of Emergency, now, more than ever, it demonstrates the importance of building remote working capabilities into business continuity plans.

Critical to this transition is identifying a proven management system that allows you to work from anywhere and on any device. It’s essential that you digitise your IP and enable your business ecosystem community the ability to work more effectively and efficiently in order to help your business survive the economic downturn that is inevitable.

For companies that intend fast-tracking towards digital transformation of their business to Smart Workspace principles, consideration needs to be given to the platforms used to consolidate the various operational requirements of their business, and key to that is identifying a platform that can contextualise collaboration, offer superior process compliance, while at the same time, adapt behaviour that will drive digitalisation and transformation within the organisation.

With the ever-changing digital landscape and growing demands of organisations needing to consolidate their Smart Workplaces, Mi-C3 identified a need to develop a product that could successfully integrate and manage the operational needs of businesses and set out to solve that problem… Enter AFFECTLI.

In simple terms, what Android is to your Smartphone, AFFECTLI is to your business… It incorporates a unique combination of IoT, Big Data Analytics, Process Automation, AI and Contextual Collaboration to Digitise and Automate tasks & processes, making businesses more effective and providing a LIVE overall view of operations that creates the ultimate Smart Workplace and the added benefit of this solution is that it can be integrated into existing platforms for a more scalable, cost-effective and seamless transition.

For more information or to onboard with us, please connect with us at contact@affectli.com.

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The Human Centric Approach To Technology

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The principle behind the Human Centric model is that you need to apply empathy to understand the problems people and communities face, then design a solution that serves them.

Hal Rosenbluth published a book in 2002 titled “The Customer Comes Second”. At the time, it seemed a bit far-fetched because we had been programmed to accept that the Customer came First. Always. But once you drill down into the methodology, he goes on to explain that by looking after your staff, they, in turn, will look after your business.

Looking at the best companies to work for in 2010, standout benefits included on-site childcare, healthcare, work-life balance and telecommuting (up to 20% of the time).

In 2018 and 2019, Kaiser Permanente was listed for their “supportive family-like” culture. In addition to pay and healthcare benefits, they maintained their high ranking for recreational activities and benefits extended to employees and their families.

Fast forward to 2020, and a study by Glassdoor identified that within the Top 20 motivators for employees are Flexible Schedules, Childcare and Commuter Assistance. The common thread through all of these things is simple… over and above compensation and benefits, employees want more time. Time with families. And time to enjoy a good quality of life.

In “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren, he sums it up beautifully: “Time is your most precious gift because you only have a set amount of it. You can make more money, but you can’t make more time…. Your time is your life.”

If you’re still not convinced, FlexJobs conducted a survey in 2019 of Flexible Work Space Choices. Of the 7300+ respondents:

80% said they would be more loyal to employers who offered flexible work options
76% prefer to work remotely
65% said they would be more productive working from a home office
75% said they wanted a flexible work space for a better work-life balance
78% of people said having a flexible job would allow them to be healthier
86% said they’d be less stressed
44% said a job with flexibility would have a “huge improvement” on their overall quality of life
70% appreciated the reduced stress from commuting
72% were more productive as a result of fewer interruptions from colleagues
64% appreciated the minimal exposure to office politics

Whilst there will always be a need for a “conventional” workforce, we live in a day and age where technology can be used to meet the growing needs of employees without compromising on productivity and accountability through the implementation of effective tools to create a smart workspace solution.
For this very reason, Mi-C3 set out on a passion-project and developed an ecosystem called AFFECTLI. It’s a Human Centric Technology model that was designed to revolutionise the way businesses operate – designed to support humans in order to make them more efficient in the workplace, and in turn, give them more time with family and loved ones.

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Surviving the Covid-19 Lock-down

Tee Smith — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 11:48:00 +0000

As human beings, we are creatures of habits … there’s absolutely no getting around that!

We wake up at the same time on weekdays, go through our morning routines of getting ready for work, then leave the house and head to the office – and in some cases, dropping kids off at school en route.

Now that we are facing a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, our daily routines have summarily been turfed out the window. Life as we know it has been turned on its head and everything we have been “programmed” to do has been challenged…

No more social contact. No shaking hands or warm embraces.

No more venturing out to socialise with family and friends.

No school for kids.

No more freedom of movement unless it’s for essential errands.

Millions of people’s livelihoods (around the world) have been adversely affected, and many still hang in the balance. But if you have been fortunate enough to enjoy continued employment, you have likely been tasked with working from home.

It may seem like a novel idea at the time, but you will undoubtedly find yourself feeling a tad shell-shocked at the change of pace and lack of social engagement.

If you’re like me – the new kid on the block – trying to adjust to working remotely, here are some handy tips that have helped me adapt to my “new normal”…

SET UP A DEDICATED WORK SPACE.

Having a dedicated workspace will help shift your brain from “home” to “work” mode because it’s easy to get distracted by things around the house. You’ll see things you’ve been meaning to attend to, washing that needs to get done, hear the kettle calling your name for another caffeine fix… the list of distractions is endless.

If you don’t have a spare room in your home to dedicate to a work space, create one in a quiet corner of the house where you can focus and avoid distractions. Try to find an area that allows natural light and fresh air to fill the room. (Yes! It sounds a tad poetic, but it helps with concentration levels and feelings of confinement.)

Set up your laptop, cell phone charger, a notebook and essential stationery items you may need. A radio is also a great source of “companionship” during your work day as it helps to keep you connected to the outside world.

SET BOUNDARIES WITH YOUR FAMILY.

This is probably the most challenging of adjustments to navigate – especially if you have kids…

Ask your family to respect your dedicated work space, and to ONLY disturb you for anything that requires your urgent attention. Give them reassurance that they will see you during your breaks, and enjoy quality time with you at the end of your work day.

If, like me, you’re a single parent, it will require a little planning and some creative thinking on your part (although Google & Pinterest are great sources of inspiration and ideas too!)…

ESTABLISH A NEW DAILY ROUTINE.

Starting your work day in your pajamas is never a good idea… Know your work hours and work around those as you would if you were heading to the office for the day.

Continue your usual morning routine of getting ready for work (albeit in more comfortable clothing), have breakfast, then head off to your designated office space.

Work smart. Not hard. And avoid the temptation of getting “lost” in work until all hours of the night. It’s important – now more than ever – to set aside quality time for yourself and your family at the end of each day.

SCHEDULE MEETINGS WITH YOUR BOSS, COLLEAGUES AND/OR TEAM MEMBERS.

Communication is key, regardless of whether you’re working from an office or home, or working as a CEO or a waitress in a restaurant. If there are open lines of communication, you are able to manage expectations, control the narrative, and put everyone’s mind at ease that you’re all on the same page, and heading towards the same goal.

It’s ideal to have these meetings/discussions at the beginning of your work day, as it helps you get focused for the day ahead, and sets the tone for the remainder of the day. Tasks and assignments are clearly laid out, so everyone knows what the expectations are, what they’re working on (and towards).

We live in an age of technology … use it to keep your colleagues updated whenever necessary – even if it’s by way of a simple WhatsApp message or Google Hangouts call.

TAKE BREAKS.

Just as our electronic appliances like cell phones need to be recharged, so do our bodies and our brains.

Be diligent about taking at least one coffee (or tea) break in the morning and the afternoon, along with a short break for lunch.

Move away from your office space, and if possible, take a walk in the garden or sit outside in the fresh air for 5 minutes to recharge. Gather your thoughts and mentally gear yourself up for the next task of the day.

It’s a myth that it takes only 21 days to form a new habit… A study published in the European Journal of Psychology found that whilst a new habit can be formed in anything from 18 to 254 days, it takes on average 66 days before a new behaviour becomes automatic.

It’s anybody’s guess how long it will take to flatten the curve of this monster virus, or how long it will take for us to resume our “normal” lives as we once knew it, but until then, be kind and patient with yourself while you adjust to your new work routine, and reach out to friends, family and colleagues for support.

For everyone that’s in lockdown, take comfort in knowing that we are all playing our respective parts in this war we are facing. Please continue to exercise self-isolation, social distancing, washing our hands, and where possible, take a moment to thank, supporting and acknowledging our war’s frontline army… the men and women working tirelessly to treat the sick, and those working behind the scenes to keep us safe, fed, fueled and supported during this crisis.

From our Mi-C3 family to yours … Stay safe!

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