Fuji Xerox provides insights on pivoting to the "next normal"

At the Fuji Xerox Innovation Re:Mix Forum – Work Reimagined, industry leaders and analysts shared perspectives on how to pivot into the ‘next’ normal. Organised by Fuji Xerox Singapore, a provider in document and communications solutions, the 3rd edition of its flagship event, Innovation Re:Mix Forum Work Reimagined 2020 is aligned with Fuji Xerox Singapore’s corporate practice of Genko-Itchi, a Japanese concept of walking the talk, and explored what businesses face in their accelerated digital transformation journeys to ensure business continuity in the current climate.

New Fuji Xerox Singapore CEO Koh Ching Hong, who assumed his role during the pandemic, said: “As Fuji Xerox innovate within to meet the new demands in the marketplace, we are also enabling our customers with new ideas in transforming how their processes work in new digital world, how their distributed workforce collaborate more effectively, and how they are able to reconnect and re-engage their customers and stakeholders as we go into the next normal."

Koh and Sandra Ng, Group VP, Practice Group, IDC Asia/Pacific brought into focus the significance of redefining, rethinking and refreshing workplace collaborations to ease into the ‘new’ normal and enhance business outcomes with the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and robust application programme interfaces (APIs). They also highlighted successful case studies shared in pre-event podcasts by Sarabjit Anand, Regional CIO, Standard Chartered Bank; Poh Chi Chuan, Executive Director, Digital Transformation, Technology Transformation Group, Singapore Tourism Board; and Chandana Shukla, VP, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Asia Pacific, Korn Ferry.

One key insight shared was how digitisation has moved beyond innovation and is now focused on well-designed and integrated platforms to build resiliency on top of efficiency. In Rethink Operational Resiliency, Ho Swee Huat, Principal Consultant, Advanced Industrial Services, Fuji Xerox Asia Pacific, shared that intelligent automation can catalyse the way forward for companies which want to modernise traditional work processes and expedite transformation initiatives. Intelligent automation can include technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), cognitive capture, process orchestration, analytics, and mobility.

During his session on Digital Disruption: Pivoting Your Business for a Strong Future, Piff shared what IT investments have been made during the COVID pandemic as of August 2020. Overall IT investment took first place, followed by IT visibility and remote management solutions, then technology to support hybrid working styles. In a hybrid work style, employees work in more than one location, instead of just at an office, or just at home.

The Digital Disruption: Pivoting Your Business for a Strong Future enterprise track offered out-of-the-box perspectives about what to consider as industries across Asia Pacific return to the workplace. Simon Piff, VP, Practice Group, IDC Asia/Pacific, noted that working from home has turned out to be far more successful than expected in Asia. 

"The perceived fears were never manifested," he said, citing improved employee health and safety, as well as higher employee retention as a result of remote working. "Hybrid or remote work is the new model – could be far more productive."

However, companies need to invest to get to the "next normal" faster. "They should be moving past crisis response," Piff said. Dynamics at play including employees wanting to return to the office because they miss the social interaction and ability to share ideas, while also preferring to work wherever they like.

"It's not work from home, it's work from wherever you are productive," he said.

Piff added that investments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic automation can enable a growth-oriented hybrid work model, where workforces are supported through IT visibility and remote management.

Cloud-based infrastructure will provide a measure of agility, Piff said. "A COVID-induced work-from-home environment is not a true testament to remote working," he explained, pointing to people being forced at short notice to work wherever in the home was convenient as opposed to creating a space that is conducive for work. Technologies for hybrid work will include remote collaboration technology that will help to share ideas company-wide, as well as intelligence-based risk management to secure the environment. Other investments could include robots, exoskeletons, software-defined wide-area networking (SD-WAN), 5G and virtual reality during videoconferencing.

The Reinvent Digital Workplaces panel covered productivity and new value in digital terms. From left: Piff as moderator; Koh of White Coat; Altun; and Koh from Fuji Xerox Singapore.

The panel Reinvent Digital Workplaces discussed what productivity means to their digital workforce, and shared how they are creating new value digitally. The panellists were: Koh Ching Hong, CEO, Fuji Xerox Singapore; Alp Altun, Chief Transformation Officer, Allianz SE Insurance Management Asia Pacific; Bryan Koh, CEO & Founder, White Coat, which provides on-demand telemedicine through a mobile app.

Koh of Fuji Xerox emphasised the importance of strong basic infrastructure such as workflow automation in supporting a more seamless implementation and integration of the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and cognitive technologies in organisations. He shared that the implementation of a new intelligent e-invoicing system in-house resulted in cost savings of 22% and faster payment cycles for Fuji Xerox Singapore.

White Coat's Koh said COVID-19 had catalysed adoption of the company's solution, to the point where they have had more demand in 1H20 compared to the whole of 2019, and added that the company coped well. 

"The management felt very well-placed to deal with this as most of us had grown up in a technology-driven environment," he said. Group communication tools had been installed since day one, including Zoom and Slack, he said. As part of the work-from-home change, milestones and timelines were emphasised, with twice-daily "alignment calls" for project management.

"It made each individual very accountable (and) enabled everyone to maximise the day and the output for the day and week," he said.

In the small and medium-sized business (SMB) track, a roundtable discussion with SMB leaders such as: Tan Su Lin, Chief of Staff/VP, Operations, Carousell; Toby Koh, Group MD, Ademco Security; Charlene Chng, Head of IT, Poh Heng Jewellery; and Connor Clark-Lindh, Head of Smallholder PeopleOps, Yara Digital Farming concluded that SMBs can effectively and efficiently digitise processes and operations by taking an "inside-out" approach. The speakers also envisioned an AI-led omnichannel experience as the future of customer engagement.

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