Category: Uncategorised

 

1. What’s your career background, in brief?

I’d always wanted to have a career in writing but wasn’t quite sure what that might be. So after university, I interned for a while at a publishing house before bagging a role as a Publishing Assistant at Xbox. I then decided to give agency life a try so moved into the world of content marketing and SEO for five years before joining Whiteoaks tech PR agency last summer.

2. What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

During the summer between school and college, I worked at a nursery a couple of days a week. That was probably the most challenging job I’ve had as I was sixteen and had very little experience of being around small children. It was rewarding and a lot of fun at times, but definitely not for me.

3. What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

I couldn’t live without WhatsApp; my family doesn’t live locally so us all having WhatsApp means I get daily photo updates of my niece and nephew and can video call them once a week. Also, we swapped our TV for a projector a few years ago and I couldn’t live without that now — having a big screen experience for absolutely everything is pretty cool.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

While it wasn’t given to me personally, I really like this piece from Dolly Parton: “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one”.

5. Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

I get a real sense of satisfaction when something I’ve written gets good feedback from a client or journalist – it’s nice to get that little confidence boost.

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

I don’t, but I’m a big list writer so my desk is often littered with Post-it notes of things I need to pick up from the shops on my way home.

7. What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?

I tend to get in fairly early so once I’ve turned my laptop on, I head straight to the kitchen to make a cup of tea and my breakfast.

8. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I’ve just started re-reading one of my all-time favourites, Persuasion by Jane Austen. I’m really interested to see if thirty-year-old me reads it differently to teenage me.

I’m the first to admit that I watch a lot of TV; at the moment I’m loving series 2 of Fleabag and am excited to watch the latest series of Queer Eye on Netflix. I’m a big fan of true crime podcasts so always have one of those on the go and enjoy listening to the weekly episode of pop-culture podcast The High Low on my drive to work.

At Cloud Expo Europe, the UK’s biggest and most attended technology event, I had the chance keep up with the latest innovations in the ever-changing B2B tech landscape by attending the jam-packed speaker programme. Cloud Expo Europe covers everything from FinTech to DevOps, giving me the opportunity to listen to speakers and watch demos and exhibitions. Here are my three biggest takeaways from the event…

Technology is still revolutionising banking

The banking and finance industry has been one of the most disrupted sectors in the last five years due to the number of technology companies that are challenging the traditional banks. It was interesting to hear from HSBC and Allianz – their experiences are that it’s not only well-funded start-ups which are threatening their place in the market, but it’s also the likes of Amazon and Google who are looking to take a bite out of the traditional banks.

So, how are they adapting to keep up with the Fintech specialists? Axel Kotulla, Head of Enterprise Architecture at Allianz and James Bickerton, Global Head of Operational Strategy at HSBC both talked about maximising how they use data so that they can close the gap between what the customer wants and what the banks are offering them. At the moment only 0.5% of data is analysed so it’s no surprise that banks are focusing on investing in technology that will help them interpret data that is currently sitting there unused. Data allows banks to get closer to their customers, so they can give them a personalised experience, not just a one size fits all approach. This is where the FinTech companies have had the edge on banks in recent years: companies like Monzo gave their customers an end of year review, which gave people a snapshot of where they spent their money. It turned out to be a real hit, with many users sharing their review on Twitter, shocked at how much money they had spent eating out, for example. But by utilising this data banks have a chance of fending off the challengers in finance, but at the moment they still seem to be playing catch up to the newcomers.

Cybersecurity is more important than ever in financial services

There has been an unprecedented level of cyber attacks in the UK this year and the finance industry is still high on the list of targets for hackers. Listening to talks in the Future of Finance Theatre, it was clear that the complexity in the industry means that breaches can come from many different sources. The extra threat of attack is on apps, with 71% of hacks in the finance and insurance industry coming through apps. Companies need to plug every hole in their system because hackers don’t wait for the go ahead. A point made by a leading security expert was that the average timeline from identifying a weakness in a company’s system to hacking the system is one week, giving little to no time for the company to thwart the attack.

Whilst finance brands are still focused on strengthening their security infrastructure, there’s no reason why other industries should be complacent. Other industries including retail and healthcare still have too many vulnerabilities.

Digital Transformation is a dangerous buzzword

The most interesting speaker slot and the topic that most resonated with me was about ‘dangerous buzzwords’ by Lindsay Herbert who is an author and the Inventor & Senior Technology Leader at IBM. She talked about the ongoing megatrend: Digital Transformation and how much it is misunderstood. Here are some of the myths and misconceptions about Digital Transformation, according to Lindsay:

• “We need a major budget for a Digital Transformation project to be successful”: Some of the most successful had low budgets.
• “We have consensus within our organisation on what Digital Transformation means” Real-world evidence shows that this is far from the case.
• “Business will revert to Business as Usual after a Digital Transformation”: it is a one-way trip with a single-minded strategic objective: make an organisation more adaptive to change.

She goes on to say that real Digital Transformation is about the organisation’s ability to react to using new processes, technologies and ways of working not about how much they have spent on new technology.

With so many expert speakers and exhibitions to enjoy at Cloud Expo Europe, it was impossible to take everything in, but these were some important points that stuck with me. If you want to get ahead of the curve, explore how we can support your business to break away from the overused buzzwords – and then there’s always the work we’ve done with the UK’s leading secure hybrid IT provider Pulsant.

Technology has become such a staple of everyday life, it’s almost impossible to imagine life without it — I speak from experience as a so-called ‘millennial’ who doesn’t know a world without internet. We’ve come a long way since the mechanical age in the late 1400s. In fact, we’ve come a long way since the invention of the internet and that was only about 30 years ago (not that I’d remember!). Today we use technology without even thinking about it; setting a timer on your phone, tracking your steps on your Fitbit, buying clothes, even turning on the radio in your car… it’s everywhere.

As consumers we almost take this for granted. But for businesses, it’s all about making sure they’re staying ahead of our expectations and their competitors. In fact, some businesses only exist today because of technology. Amazon is the obvious example, but fashion brands such as ASOS and Burberry have exploded in the last five years in particular, due to their online presence and general digital developments. All the big names in fashion are competing with one another to capture a bigger share of the market, attract new customers and retain their existing ones, increasingly using technology to achieve these goals. As a result, consumers are spoilt for choice and most make full use of this technology-enabled approach.

Take ASOS for example; founded in 2000, this online phenomenon has smashed through all the tech barriers and taken the online shopping world by storm. While it has experienced a few lows in its history, the trajectory has been undoubtedly up – and it reported a 26% increase on sales in 2018 over the previous year, with a whopping 18 million customer base worldwide. Every year there is something new that this company releases to keep its customer base interested, excited and most importantly, loyal. From video catwalks to virtual models demonstrating a variety of sizes per product, digital personal shopping via a camera on an app or same day delivery, ASOS has mastered how to keep its customers constantly wanting more.

The two worlds of fashion and technology have come together once more and made perfect harmony in-store with fast fashion giant, Zara. Its Westfield London store has an entire digital floor dedicated to purchase and collection of online orders. Shoppers simply enter a QR code that they received with their online order into the iPads available around the floor, and pick up their purchase within minutes – no human interaction required. One might wonder when the time will come whereby human shop assistants won’t be necessary at all. If that wasn’t good enough, Zara has now introduced self-service checkouts to help bid farewell to those long queues and say hello to new and intrigued customers. I’m sure you’re familiar with the blood curdling phrase, “unexpected item in bagging area”, yes? Well gone are those days because not only does the customer operate the till themselves, they just simply hold up the product to the screen and it will recognise it, no scanning or beeping or making sure you find that teeny tiny hidden security tag.

And it’s not just the fashion industry that technology is seeping into; world renowned cosmetics brand L’Oréal has introduced augmented reality makeovers in its Chinese and Korean stores. Shoppers can now walk right up to a concession stand and see exactly the product they want on themselves without even having to swatch it – its AR technology applies digital makeup through the mirror and even recommends products suited to you. Now that’s clever!

Technology is ever growing and constantly impressing all of us. We know technology today won’t be the same in a year’s time which I think is really exciting. Who knows, maybe my dream of being here the same time as flying cars really isn’t that far away…

Discover the Whiteoaks Difference

Technology is powering significant change across industries that were once seen as established pillars of society.

Financial services, healthcare and energy are just three that have experienced transformational change over the last decade or so. Naturally there are significant external factors such as industry regulation, macroeconomic trends or global initiatives, but it is technology, the data revolution and various offshoots that are enabling change.

And what do all these industries have in common? There are an increasing number of disruptive firms willing to make things better and easier for consumers, breaking down and reimagining complex market problems at the same time.

The energy sector is a prime example of a once monopolised industry that is undergoing structural changes. Whether energy production, distribution, storage or usage, they are all highly important and often with high growth, with a shifting vendor landscape inevitably looking to grab their share and navigate the precarious and confusing political winds.

Related to various aspects of the energy market comes the numerous dependencies and links that it has with a more sustainable Built Environment industry. Whether as a result of initiatives like BIM Level 2, the heart-breaking disaster at Grenfell Tower or the enhancements to the places we live and work to ensure we can better withstand floods as our climate changes, both industries are now full of companies with a common mentality.

Unseating incumbents, unsettling the establishment, empowering change; it’s now par for the course for the disruptors and makes for great PR as part of an integrated marketing mix.

If there is one thing we understand, it is how to take firms that are catalysts for change in their markets and tell their story to the world so their users can experience what ‘better‘ is. Whether it’s Glasswall Solutions in the sphere of cyber security or Fraedom in Fintech, we understand the demands of innovative, agile firms and what PR can and should achieve for them.

We find these types of fast-growth organisations understand that beating the competition will never be achieved by doing things the same old way. This in turn requires a new way of looking at communications.

Signing up to a monthly retainer and buying hours on a timesheet, simply won’t move the needle for these disruptive firms, and this applies to the energy and built environment industries now more than ever. Understanding these markets is vital for their agencies, but at the same time, it’s in the agency’s interest to burn through those hours “straaaategising”, then asking for more money when it comes to actually deliver something of value.

Fast-growth firms need context, action, a clear strategy and defined goals.

We are deliberately different, having ditched retainers long ago, we build bespoke campaigns consisting of specific deliverables, all up front and agreed at the outset. Against this activity, we agree strict performance commitments to judge success against – and underpin them by a formal Service Level Agreement offering a pro-rata fee rebate if we fail to hit these targets. There’s more about this here.

Suddenly the barriers to success are removed. Firms have confidence in what they are receiving for their money, knowing that we are incentivised to deliver proactive and effective campaigns which bring about changes in perception and in life, or risk giving them money back!  Our client roster is packed with firms that have benefitted from our unique approach, including those in the built environment such as Kone, UK BIM Alliance and Autodesk.

Disruptive firms require disruptive PR and communications – and that is something we can confidently offer.

‘Mission Possible’ is one of the themes for this year’s Cloud Expo Europe. However, many businesses, I think it’s fair to say, haven’t yet received their orders from Mission Control.

The trouble with “the cloud”, just like “big data” or any other technology megatrend, is that it means many different things to many different people.

For some, DevOps agility is an absolute must, in order to accelerate application delivery. Others need to enable a more secure and compliant IT environment with the combination of root and branch cyber security solutions laid on top of their cloud-based infrastructure. For others, the question is still as fundamental as “should I look at cloud computing at all?”

And after answering that question, then there are the multitude of buzzwords, acronyms and often generic references to the vast and deep capabilities of cloud computing that are hard to navigate – especially when trying to choose suppliers and partners, and calculate the TCO (total cost of ownership) of everything you need.

Wind the clock back a few years and cloud computing seemed inaccessible to the vast majority of B2B businesses – a malevolent and confusing presence lurking in the corner of a virtual IT closet. Now there is much broader awareness and understanding of the complexity, capability, power and scale of the cloud – and the wider democratisation of technology is accelerating this.

For instance, the silos between business units are steadily breaking down, with non-IT departments in back and front office now far more empowered to implement solutions that meet their very specific goals.

For vendors operating in this space, it’s a hugely exciting time. Organisations recognise the myriad threats and opportunities of cloud computing – these extend beyond the IT department’s responsibilities – increasing opportunities to engage stakeholders across the business. Did you know, it’s now recognised that the average number of individuals in a B2B technology buying decision can be as many as six or more?

When it comes to external communications, I think the focus must be on education. With so many B2B stakeholders now attuned to and involved in cloud computing solutions, talking only about the features and functions, bits and bytes will doubtless fall on deaf ears.

Instead, conveying the benefits, problem-solving and efficiencies simply and clearly, is what will resonate – and too often this can be a failing of technology vendors who are great at talking within their bubble, but less adept at why their audiences should care.

That’s why today, we’re launching a new campaign: ‘We’re breaking up with the cloud’. Our extensive experience with international clients at the forefront of the cloud and cyber security industries is varied but with one guiding principle for all of them applies. We help exciting brands, including Pulsant, Kaseya, Enghouse and ASG Technologies, to break free from tired padlock images, stereotype acronyms, the features and functions – so they can instead educate and inform their prospective and current customers about how they can help their clients achieve their very individual and specific goals.

With 600 suppliers, 800 speakers and senior executives from organisations as diverse as the National Crime Agency and John Lewis, next month’s event at the ExCel in London is sure to be a hugely engaging and informative one. And I’m really looking forward to changing mindsets about how cloud computing can be better communicated. If this sounds like something you’d like to achieve too, please contact me for an informal chat.

We challenge the status quo to make sure you can too

Ask About Results-Driven Campaigns

Any idea what the top data trend is for 2019? Three years ago, Gartner said blockchain was “near the peak” of its hype cycle for emerging tech — however, it has since been downgraded to number nine. With Gartner announcing the latest data and analytics top ten this week, it’s an opportune moment to see what will be making the headlines. Let’s run down the list:

Trend No. 1: Augmented Analytics

Augmented Analytics is the next wave of disruption coming our way. It uses machine learning (ML) and AI techniques to transform how analytics content is developed, consumed and shared.

Trend No. 2: Augmented Data Management

Augmented data management leverages ML capabilities and AI engines to make enterprise information management categories, including data quality, metadata management, master data management, data integration as well as database management systems (DBMSs), self-configuring and self-tuning.

Trend No. 3: Continuous Intelligence

Continuous intelligence is a design pattern in which real-time analytics are integrated within a business operation, processing current and historical data to prescribe actions in response to events.

 Trend No. 4: Explainable AI

Explainable AI in data science and ML platforms, for example, auto-generates an explanation of models in terms of accuracy, attributes, model statistics and features in understandable, real language.

Trend No. 5: Graph

Graph analytics is a set of analytic techniques that allows for the exploration of relationships between entities, such as organisations, people and transactions.

Trend No. 6: Data Fabric

Data fabric enables frictionless access and sharing of data in a distributed data environment.

Trend No. 7: NLP/ Conversational Analytics

By 2020, 50 percent of analytical queries will be generated via search, natural language processing (NLP) or voice, or will be automatically generated.

Trend No. 8: Commercial AI and ML

Gartner predicts that by 2022, 75% of new end-user solutions leveraging AI and ML techniques will be built with commercial solutions rather than open source platforms.

Trend No. 9: Blockchain

The core value proposition of blockchain, and distributed ledger technologies, is providing decentralised trust across a network of untrusted participants. The potential ramifications for analytics use cases are significant, especially when leveraging participant relationships and interactions.

Trend No. 10: Persistent Memory Servers

Persistent memory represents a new memory tier between DRAM and NAND flash memory that can provide cost-effective mass memory for high-performance workloads.

While some of the trends are easier to comprehend, for non-data specialists, than others, it’s essential for business leaders to at least know what they are and consider how one or more could improve their business processes. Doing so will help them determine what skills sets and infrastructure they require to run successful operations.

A great philosopher once said: “It’s not all about the money, money, money”. Okay, it was actually Jessie J in her first big hit ‘Price Tag’. While the sentiment of the song is self-explanatory, what we didn’t know at the time of its release was that this song was all about social influencers.

Recently this group has been accused of using their popular feeds, with typically large followings, to promote brands’ products for a fee and inadvertently taking advantage of young social media users. In some cases, this criticism is fair, but I believe it’s a biased view of the industry. A recent BBC Panorama investigation sparked a heated online debate with some viewers stating that the programme didn’t provide a “balanced” view of the topic. The programme highlighted the ease of which diet supplements, gambling-related products and alcohol are promoted on digital platforms but seemed to imply that all influencers who promote products on their social media profiles are doing so in an irresponsible and harmful manner. This is simply not the case.

In September 2018, the Advertising Standards Authority released the Influencer’s Guide that outlines the rules that social media influencers need to abide by when promoting products online. The guide states it’s the responsibility of both the influencer and the brand to ensure that advertising content is labelled as such using hashtags like #ad, #sponsored or #freebie. No one can disagree that these measures offer more transparency to the industry but should brands still consider partnering with influencers? Let’s consider the advantages:

Firstly, it’s now widely accepted that consumers are more likely to trust the people they see on their social media feeds than in traditional marketing. Secondly, social influencers allow businesses to reach larger audiences, promote positive branding and increase customer engagement and awareness. And finally, influencer marketing is a growing industry: in 2018, Google searches for the term “influencer marketing” increased by 325% compared within 2017.

In conclusion, the power of influencer marketing is continuing to grow from strength to strength and I don’t think businesses should be put off by the recent bad press of the role of a social influencer. By working with them, brands can gain a lot of value, especially as part of an integrated marketing campaign and using the right strategy to support them.

While the wintry weather definitely caused inconvenience and chaos last week, it has certainly become so much easier to keep a busy work life on track and stay efficient during challenging weather conditions. Thanks to technology, not only can we work from the comfort of our own home, but we can also better understand the changing weather and plan for minimal disruption.

Some years ago, having a ‘snow day’ ultimately meant that you could forget about achieving anything work-related. Travelling to the office was near impossible and VPN did not have all the wonderful qualities we are so familiar with now. Technology has since enabled us to carry out most, if not all, of our office duties from home and deliver equally high results. If you’re worried about team communication when you can’t reach the office, there’s no need. There are countless ways to maintain quality contact with your colleagues and continue working closely, whether that‘s by email, in an online meeting room, Skype or by phone. In an agency like ours, the use of technology ensures we deliver a high-quality service to all our clients.

The way in which technology can so accurately forecast the weather has done wonders for the working snow day. With this knowledge, businesses can be fully prepared for a ‘day out of the office’ and can plan a smooth-sailing schedule. More significantly, technological forecasting can now enable us to actually get to work – authorities can be made aware of vulnerable transports links, giving them an opportunity to make the journey possible for intrepid commuters. The development of IoT smart city technology is another way in which councils are tackling these issues and identifying areas at risk. One example of this is smart tree technology. Using tree sensors, councils can collect data which measures the movement of trees and evaluates their stability and overall condition. If, for example, heavy snowfall has put a tree at risk of falling and disrupting traffic flow, councils will be notified and can take immediate action.

We are even seeing the effect of technology on snow days at schools – a recent story from the BBC told of a new ‘e-learning day’ for students in the US whereby they are required to work from home.

Despite all these technology advances, the future of the traditional snow day is unclear. The need for a physical office is declining for some businesses due to the increasing use of IT solutions and some companies already operate solely through virtual workspaces. What’s more, with ever-evolving smart city and transport technology, we may once and for all beat the travel chaos!

Long gone are the days of clicking through Teletext pages or reading the TV Guide to see what programmes you wanted to watch over the next week – aside from the regularly scheduled soap slots.

According to a new report from Ernst & Young, 30% of UK viewers say streaming is now their primary mode of viewing TV and film content at home as many consumers are continuing to ‘cut the cord’ on paid-for TV services and control their own viewing experiences. This is the same story across the pond too; in fact twice as many (60%) US households have ditched the cable.

Simply put, ‘cord cutting’ is the term for cancelling cable packages in favour of streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hayu – while also using catch-up and on-demand services provided by traditional broadcasters.

Since the introduction of Netflix in 1997 – becoming more popular in 1999 when it first adopted a monthly subscription model and reaching 20 million subscribers by 2010 – video streaming has boomed, and it shows no sign of slowing down. Even traditional broadcasters are now having to follow suit and offer customers more flexible viewing platforms, with big names in the entertainment business also cashing in on this trend.

One of the players entering the market is Disney which will be launching its own on-demand service, aptly named Disney+. Slated for launch in Q4 this year, analysts are already predicting Disney will sign up over 55 million international subscribers in the first five years alone. Time will tell if it can hit that kind of scale.

One of the biggest drivers of this change is the large sums of money being pumped into developing and marketing new content – The Economist projected in June last year that Netflix was going to spend almost $13 billion on original programming in 2018.

Alongside this, the advances in HD quality, and now Ultra HD/4K, technology and faster broadband infrastructures has allowed the video streaming giants’ content to be viewed anywhere, across a range of devices, at any time and all in high quality. As a result, viewers are ditching paid-for TV in favour of the simplicity of streaming, while avoiding sign-up fees, confusing bundles and long-term contracts which typically come with cable packages.

Streaming providers have also mastered the art of cleverly using data to add value to the whole experience, personalising customer profiles and offering programme recommendations based on previous viewing. This beats the 30-word blurb you were given in the TV guide to help you decide what to watch…

During the last 20 years we’ve seen first-hand how the broadcast sector has experienced  rapid rates of change as it continues to meet consumer demand and remain up-to-date. It’s going to be interesting to see what developments are ahead in the race for subscriber numbers and whether the cord is going to be cut for good.

Discover the Whiteoaks Difference

1. What’s your career background, in brief?

My career has been somewhat varied. After spending fifteen years within the IT industry — eleven of these as a partner business manager at Hewlett Packard — I decided to retrain as a science teacher. I spent ten years or so teaching at local secondary schools before joining Whiteoaks last year as a content writer. I haven’t worked for a B2B tech PR agency before, but my IT and science background are proving very useful in understanding our clients.

2. What’s the most challenging job you’ve ever had?

Teaching without a doubt! Imagine teaching six back to back lessons — 180 students in total — where you need to instruct, motivate and manage them. All this while remembering every name and ensuring that they all understand what they are doing and are staying safe with the various chemicals and Bunsen burners in the lab.

3. What apps, technology items and gadgets can’t you live without?

I’m fairly old school and if I’m totally honest, I probably wouldn’t miss any of them too much — I even possess a hard copy A-Z! Having said that, it’s a different story with the rest of my family. Holiday planning involves much researching to ensure that the Wi-Fi connection is available and fast enough to meet my teenager’s demands for data.

4. What’s the best advice you’ve been given?

Probably the best piece of advice is to try and enjoy your job – if you wake up every morning dreading it, then it’s probably time to look for something else. Life is too short to be miserable for the forty hours minimum we spend working each week. I would also like to add my own bit advice to this — keep learning, expanding your skills and don’t be afraid to change direction if your interests and priorities change.

5. Name one thing about your job that gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you leave the office smiling…

When tasked with writing a 1,500 article for a client it can seem like a hill to climb at the beginning, but after some thorough research, quiet thinking and productive writing I get a great sense of achievement when it’s completed.  The icing on the cake is positive feedback from a client to say how much they liked it!

6. Do you personalise your workspace?

I don’t – I like to spread out while I’m working so my desk tends to be pretty messy while I’m working on a piece of writing.  I think anything else would just add to the clutter!

7. What’s the first thing you do in the office in the morning?

I’m a big tea drinker and need a couple of cups of tea in the morning to get going so this tends to be the first thing that I sort out after firing up my laptop.

8. What are you reading, watching or listening to at the moment?

I tend to alternate between reading new fiction and something which I think I ought to read. I’ve just finished Normal People by Sally Rooney, which is an interesting love story and a great read.  I started The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck a couple of days ago, but I haven’t got into it yet — I’m hoping to be enlightened and entertained by the story and the characters.

I’m also following each episode of Les Misérables on the BBC. I can’t confess to reading the book but it’s a great TV production.