Digicel Business Solutions - DIGIBUZZ Magazine by DigicelBusiness

November 2021

The Business News The ‘New Normal’ And The Future Of Technology After The Covid-19 Pandemic

HGS:

Facing the ‘new normal’ using techology DIGIBUZZ POWERED BY DIGICEL BUSINESS

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WHAT’S INSIDE PG. 4 A MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL MANAGER

PG. 5

CLIENT FEATURE

HGS:

Facing the ‘new normal’ using techology

PG. 7 The Business News

The ‘New Normal’ And The Future Of Technology After The Covid-19 Pandemic PG. 11 OUR SILENT HERO - ANDRE MCDONALD PG. 12 SOCIAL FEATURE - SIP & CHAT

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A Message From the

GENERAL MANAGER

am proud to welcome you to the new DigiBuzz publication! We are happy to have this new format

that replaces our previous publication. We’ve created a magazine that’s easy to read, meticulously reported, and elegantly designed. Going forward, you will enjoy an easier navigation experience along with keen insights and invaluable perspectives on the topics that matter to you. As your regular source of reading, DigiBuzz will take a futuristic look at what’s ahead in the world of innovation for business. At the same time, we’ll keep you up to speed on what’s happening now, so that you are always in the best and most knowledgeable position to drive change and innovation within your organisation. Here’s a quick overview of what lies under each category: • Innovation Insights – articles written by our Digicel Business innovators and futurists • Interviews – discussions with thought leaders and colourful corporate characters • Columns – articles highlighting local and global issues affecting your business or industry • Academic Insights – research-based pieces featuring guest writers • Testimonials – articles highlighting our customers The new DigiBuzz is not the only change that occurred recently. This year marked the minting of Digicel Business as a Gold Partner within the prestigious Microsoft Partner Network. This is a big deal for us and customers like you, because it gives us more leverage to provide the best possible technology solutions to support your business needs. We also collaborated with WallPost to introduce a simple all-in-one for SMEs to gain the same capabilities of large enterprises – from Finance to CRM to HR/Payroll and Performance Management. In addition, Digicel Business WallPost includes modules for industry specific operations.

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On a different but sad note, the recent passing of Raymond

Blackwood, our much-loved and highly respected Strategic Account Manager, left all of us heartbroken. Still, we are eternally grateful to Raymond for the legacy of passion and purpose that he demonstrated throughout his personal and professional life – traits that we can emulate within our own lives. Suzette Burley, Strategic Sales Manager, in a tribute to Raymond said it well. She reflected: “Raymond had a personality that positively impacted the lives of all those he came in contact with. He was loyal, selfless, jovial, driven, striving for excellence in everything he did. The impact Raymond had, was not only for us his colleagues but also for his customers. One customer shared that Raymond would read her blogs and provide his feedback. It is in establishing relationships like this that Raymond got his first contract and many future opportunities. Raymond was truly a passionate and purpose-driven professional. For those of us whose lives he has touched, he will never be forgotten.” As you turn the pages of this edition, I want to remind you that every edition of this magazine will reflect our deep focus on our customers. Please feel free to share your feedback on our articles, or submit one of your own. Enjoy reading DigiBuzz and let’s continue to do great things together!

Darragh Fitzgerald Selby General Manager Digicel Business

darragh.fitzgeraldselby@digicelgroup.com

HGS: HGS

Getting to know our clients:

Facing the ‘new normal’ using techology

DigiBuzz (DB): What kind of services does HGS provide? HGS: We at HGS provide Call Center Services. DB: How many clients do you currently serve? HGS: We serve approximately 15 clients.

monitors our speakers or even headsets that would provide good quality sound and display that would enable individuals to be more efficient when working. DB: What was your greatest challenge during the pandemic? HGS: Logistics getting our equipment to our WAH brand advocates. DB: How prepared were you to deal with the challenges brought on by the pandemic? HGS: We were very prepared as we were one of the few BPO that had our employees out the door and into the WAH setup in less than a month’s time.

Brandon Reid Procurement Officer IT - HGS

DB: How has technology played a role in ensuring that you maintain high standards of service? HGS: The technology which we use in our company has to be of high quality to ensure that client standards have been met and performance is at optimal standard. We always try to push to ensure we are up to par in terms of up to date software or hardware for making our internal customers and external clients lives easier. This can be by purchasing up to date

DB: How did Digicel help you resolve your challenges? HGS: We had an issue where a large number of our employees were experiencing internet outages. This is where Digicel stepped in and provided us with wireless modems to aid with quelling this issue. DB: On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 lowest, 10 highest) how would you rate your Digicel services? HGS: 10 DB: On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 lowest, 10 highest) how would you rate the level of customer/technical support received from Digicel? HGS: 10

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The Business News The ‘New Normal’ And The Future Of Technology After The Covid-19 Pandemic “We are already seeing video chat software such as Zoom, Teams and Slack playing a critical role in connecting employees to their jobs and connecting families and friends. Many of these technologies have been around for some time, but they started to play a far more prominent role and will continue even after Covid-19.”

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image: Freepik.com

ladimir Lenin is often quoted as saying, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” But this phrase is probably inaccurate when it comes to what happened in technology, economy and politics in the last decade alone. Yet, the gist of the quote is quite powerful when we look at the first weeks and the past 10 months of the coronavirus pandemic. A lot has happened in technology and technology adoption in an incredibly compressed time and at a fast pace. It has been a long, sad and painful time since the pandemic started, but with advanced technologies, we are able to endure many of the ills brought about by this pandemic, and technology seems to be the way out of it. There is light at the end of this long coronavirus tunnel, and vaccines are on the way to get us out of this pandemic.

One of the great questions that is constantly being asked is what the “new normal” will look like after the pandemic. In his new book Ten Lessons for a PostPandemic World, Fareed Zakaria sums it up by saying that life after the pandemic “is going to be, in many aspects, a sped-up version of the world we knew.” And this is also applicable to technology and its role at the onset of the pandemic. The pandemic accelerated the adoption and implementation of many technologies that would have taken years, if not decades, to become mainstream. We have seen how we switched from our high-touch, highly analog daily interactions at work, school and entertainment venues to the exact opposite in a span of few weeks. Clearly, the pandemic accelerated the dominance of technology in our lives and made us more digital creatures, with all the advantages and drawbacks therein. It is possible to imagine the impact of technology in our “new normal” lives and the general trends that are already emerging by looking back at previous pandemics and analyzing what is already

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happening now. Prior crises accelerated the adoption of technologies, such as the quick adoption of e-commerce in China after the SARS epidemic in 2005. Also, the 1918 pandemic invigorated research and innovation in microbiology, clinical infectious diseases and public health. Clearly, there will be an even faster acceleration of digitalization and automation across the board. We have seen numerous in-person activities switch quickly and successfully to being delivered online. From virtual work from home to telehealth, distance learning, online shopping, entertainment, journalism and virtual physical activities such as yoga and fitness training, many activities managed to switch to online delivery. Work from home for knowledge workers seems to have been rather successful, with some

productivity gains. But the big question is how it will look like after the pandemic. According to a Gartner survey, 82% of employers will allow employees to work remotely some of the time, and 47% say that they will do it all the time. The future of work, or at least where it will be done, will be highly virtual. We are already seeing video chat software such as Zoom, Teams and Slack playing a critical role in connecting employees to their jobs and connecting families and friends. Many of these technologies have been around for some time, but they started to play a far more prominent role and will continue even after Covid-19. Two major technology trends will accelerate in the post-Covid-19 world: touchless technologies and highly automated robots that augment human tasks. It is likely that we will see additional robotic automation and AI in supply chains, customer service and beyond. With robots, the IoT and the increasing availability of 5G technologies, we will see

image: Freepik.com

an array of touchless technologies take off, such as robots that make your food or drinks. New devices and technologies will be designed with touchlessfirst or minimal-human-intervention principles. We already see examples of the acceleration in touchless technology and AI-driven automation adoption in airports with self-service check-in, where passengers create a digital token on their smartphone that can verify their identity. But the winner of all accelerated technological categories is biotechnology. Biotechnology made it possible to have vaccines that are safe with over 90% efficacy in the span of 10 months instead of the 10 years it used to take. With the publishing of the virus sequence in January 2020, the race began for a vaccine, and various technologies, such as mRNA, which I’ve worked with in the past, enabled the development of proteins that would bind to the spikes of the virus, preventing it from binding to human cells and rendering the virus harmless. Essentially, this revolutionary mRNA technology instructs the human body to make the vaccine itself. Even more impressive is the fact that mRNA technology could be capable of “changing medicine and the pharmaceutical industry as we know it.” It is being studied to treat heart diseases, cancer and other infectious diseases. While transformative, mRNA technology has been in the making for over 20 years, but it took a pandemic to be adopted successfully. With advanced computer simulation and sequencing tools, it took the biotech company Moderna just two days to design synthetic mRNA and a month and a half to ship its first batch of vaccines for clinical trials. This pandemic has indeed been the great accelerator of many technologies and innovations, and it made decades happen in few weeks. How will your organization embrace these new innovations as quickly as they evolved? Elnaj, S. (2021, January 22). The “New Normal” And The Future Of Technology After The Covid-19 Pandemic. Forbes. https://

www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/01/25/the-newnormal-and-the-future-of-technology-after-the-covid-19pandemic/?sh=31508b556bbb

image: Freepik.com

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Our Silent Hero Often there are persons who are critical to us achieving seemingly impossible or complicated tasks. They help with a smile here, a joke there, no complaints and are reliable beyond compare. We’re taking some time to get to know a silent hero - Andre McDonald DigiBuzz (DB): What’s your work alias? Andre McDonald (AM): Dre Mc. I have been called Uncle Dre on occasion. DB: What’s your Digi Story? “How it started vs How it’s going”. AM: Started in customer care 10 years ago. Now I’m in Digicel Business. From RKA to downtown. DB: Where are you from and what was it like growing up? AM: I’m from Kingston. My childhood revolved around school, table tennis, friends and family. DB: What would your occupation be if you had followed your childhood dreams? AM: Accounting but as I got more in the details I discovered it wasn’t for me. DB: What do you enjoy doing outside of work hours? AM: Cooking with friends NOT for friends DB: If you could only eat your favourite meal for the rest of your life, what will you be eating? AM: I don’t have a favorite meal but it would probably be pasta dishes. Someone famous once said “Life is a combination of magic and pasta” DB: What does true happiness looks like for you? AM: Sometimes South Avenue Grill pasta and being comfortable DB: What’s one thing that upsets you the most? AM: Google first, then ask questions DB: If you could time travel, what’s one moment in your life that you would revisit and why? AM: Prep school. Patty was $10…but seriously, I’d go back 20 years and tell myself to be more outgoing and network. DB: What’s the biggest life lesson you’ve learned so far? AM: All we have is time, for the most part, it is never too late to do or try anything.

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Social Feature

(from left) Digicel Business Senior Manager Marsha Laing, Microsoft Azure Specialist Dalian Barnett, Microsoft Regional Cloud Specialist Claudine Blackwood, and Digicel Business Commercial Director Ative Ennis come together for a group photo during the Sip and Chat tech talk event.

Sip & Chat In the search for greater efficiency, lower operating costs and increased productivity, more local firms are turning to cloud computing solutions that can guarantee these results. The feedback came from a recent discussion with public and private sector firms and tech experts from Digicel Business and Microsoft. The event, held recently at the AC Hotel in Kingston, featured senior executives form the finance, entertainment, gaming, energy, and other sectors.

Digicel Business Commercial Director Ative Ennis addresses guests at the ‘Sip and Chat’ tech talk on Azure cloud computing hosted by Digicel Business and Microsoft at the AC Hotel recently.

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(from left) Supreme Ventures Vice President for Operations and I.T. Services, Aiden Whittaker, engages Digicel Business Commercial Director, Ative Ennis, and Strategic Sales Manager, Suzette Burley, about the efficiency-boosting products and services the Digicel Business/ Microsoft partnership can offer medium to large enterprises.

(from left) Rosanna Moo-Young and Douglas Ennis from the Bank of Jamaica engage Microsoft Azure Specialist, Dalian Barnett, to discuss the powerful tools offered by Microsoft Azure Cloud and its applications for the public sector.

ABOVE: Information Systems Manager for the National Irrigation Commission, Brian Hastings, asks a question during the Digicel Business/ Microsoft Sip and Chat event. TOP RIGHT: Rhian Eddy (left), Digicel Business Account Manager and Microsoft Regional Cloud Specialist, Claudine Blackwood discuss the positive participant feedback from private and public sector decisionmakers during the joint Digicel Business/Microsoft ‘Sip and Chat’ tech talk on Azure cloud computing. BOTTOM RIGHT: IT Director for the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sports (MCGES), Rasheed Delmohammed, makes a point to Digicel Business and Microsoft representatives about the security and data protection components of the Microsoft Azure cloud suite of services.

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“Our customers count on us to keep the lights on and the natural gas flowing, no matter if it’s 90 degrees or 9 degrees outside. That is a responsibility that we take very seriously. These investments enable us to keep those promises and deliver quality service to our customers.” -Denis O’Brien - Chairman, Digicel

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To provide feedback and comments,please email:

digicelbusinesscorporaterelations@digicelgroup.com