Margaret Munro, Gen-i customer interactions services manager, talks to CIO Magazine

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CIO Magazine, ‘5 Things I Have Learned’

Margaret Munro, Gen-i customer interactions services manager, talks about the cloud, customer service and why teleporting is still the technology to watch.

Release date: 18 August 2010

Virtual power is off my Christmas card list
I used to think the untapped technology development, with the exception of teleporting, was virtual power, reducing the number of outlets, multi-boxes and laptop power packs. With the advent of the iPad and, more interestingly for me, the developments occurring in e-paper and taking Microsoft’s Surface to a mobility model, the need for power at a user level is dramatically reduced. The introduction of IPTel into new buildings reduced the cabling costs significantly — reducing the number of power outlets will realise additional savings, with overnight charging stations a potential for the future — not to mention ticking the green box.
My personality is my identity
Biometrics have always fascinated me, not least because I have issues with remembering passwords. I recently saw a device that took fingerprints without the user touching a screen (for those of you who don’t like touching the street cross buttons), which started me thinking about the information available about me without any effort on my part. The RTA has my photo, as has my company and the passport authorities — all of which use biometrics to identify me and, more importantly, identify who is not me. If the information were to be shared (and here I am ignoring all legislation and privacy controls), identification is readily available and verifiable across a large part of my daily interactions. Consider developments where I ring my bank, which not only verifies who I say I am, but uses voice analytics to identify the stress level of my voice and direct me to the ‘most appropriate’ resource. It could be a trainee if my speech pattern indicates I’m calm or happy (unlikely if I’m ringing the bank), the office dragon if it sounds as if I’m looking for a fight, or an automated service. It’s not about one size fitting all, as many emerging technology deployments tend to be; it’s about the business thinking like a customer, and IT thinking like the business thinking like the customer.
Public v private v federated
Cloud computing is all about removing IT from the critical path of business and forums abound with conversation around what private, public and federated clouds actually mean. One of the most easily understandable and exciting applications is in the development of a single login or authentication. Those of us who have been in ICT for some time will have created, audited, or abused provisioning models and templates at some point. All of us will have incurred the pain of setting up new users ‘just the same as Fred’. A single authentication model enables tick-box selection for the creation of services for users. A cloud-based model extends the capability outside of the customers’ environments and into their partners, certification authorities and subscription institutes.
Differential peer review
Euphoria is the feeling you have just before you realise your brilliant idea won’t work. I can see the advantages of technology in all the examples here and being in ICT means that we are constantly in touch with tech-heads fervently focused on different technologies and specific business applications. But the best jam sessions we hold are those that have different business- and service-focused people in the mix, many without any idea of the technology under discussion, which creates real-life opportunities for productive products.
Test, test and test again
The level of interest in testing is often inversely proportional to the understanding of the impact to the end user. Traditional IT&T projects often focus on the systems and end-toend testing at a technical level. But the customer experience must be understood before the project, and the expectation and realisation after the project, after the initial adrenalin rush of new technology has occurred. Return on investment business cases measure the financial and operational targets of the implementation. Targeting and measuring customer experience is more challenging. Understanding the current environment from the customer viewpoint may redirect the intent of the project to gain the best outcome overall, be it the value of all customers or value per customer.