10 ways to promote innovation in your organisation in the digital age

Innovation is a commonly used phrase in most organisations but how can it become a change agent for better business outcomes is the real challenge. Here are 10 top tips for promoting innovation in your organisation in the digital age: 1. Be customer centric – for successful transformation from a traditional enterprise to a customer centric digitally enabled organisation, staff and management need to be brought along the journey of discovery. Solutions that align to the strategic goals of the organisation are of prime importance with customer centricity always a key consideration. It...

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Technology-enabled teaching methods dramatically improves STEM learning and skill development

Research conducted by the University of Canberra STEM Education Research Centre (SERC) in collaboration with tech giant Samsung has announced some pretty interesting findings this week. Investigating the effects of a practical approach to mathematics education, the project found that integrating technology into primary school teaching practice increased students’ spatial reasoning and mathematical capability scores. In addition to this, it was also demonstrated that the integration of technology devices into secondary school science investigations improved student’s design-process...

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Ctrl+alt+delete- Rebooting our digital government with the US Department of State

Five years into a comprehensive Digital Government Strategy, the US Department of State has transformed the way they deliver digital services to the American people. Fore-fronting the movement as the Director of the Office of Digital, Bureau of International Information Programs, is Sheila Rose Campbell. Her team is responsible for managing the digital platform for the 200+ U.S. embassy websites and providing industry-leading digital tools to support the Department’s public affairs staff worldwide. Our Senior Conference Producer Claire Dowler chatted with Sheila ahead of Akolade’s...

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Leaders to gather in Cairns to discuss Indigenous Economic Development

Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and its people remain disadvantaged in several ways. But the urge to keep fighting for better life prospects remains strong. People from across the nation will travel to Cairns to join forces. One of them is Karen Diver; Former Special Adviser to President Barack Obama on Native American Affairs and Former Chairwoman of the Native American tribe Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Ms Diver told how “Indigenous communities world-wide share many commonalities towards achieving self-sufficiency....

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Government procurement professionals have to be strategic, not just transactional

There can be no doubt that 2017 is a tough and challenging year for the public sector. This means challenges and hopefully opportunities for procurement professionals across the public sector. There is less money with further and deeper cuts to expenditure and services. Over the last decade public sector procurement professionals have been asked or perhaps on many occasions told to respond to financial pressures. In many cases they have responded well; but sadly too often this has not been the case. The pressures and expectations on this cadre of public servants will increase in 2017...

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Industry 4.0 needs digitally-literate innovators in Australia

Australia’s workforce is ageing and the development of technical skills is not keeping pace with the retirements. We have a static rate of graduates, high dropout rates and lower and lower numbers of secondary students interested in completing the required maths and science to enter engineering. It seems that the appeal of STEM is dwindling amongst Australia’s young people – a looming catastrophe in world of accelerating technological change. We are in the midst of a new digital revolution known as industry 4.0. Technology is changing the way we live, work and play and shaping major...

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Adapting your contact centre KPIs to drive growth

In an age of increasing customer-centricity, where we value service quality and the ability to access information through any channel of our choosing, KPIs such as average handling time and average talk time are not only redundant but counter-productive to your end business goals. Consider instead implementing the following KPIs to maximise efficiency as well as effectiveness: 1. First call resolution This KPI is a direct reflection of customer satisfaction and many argue it is the most important statistic you can measure. “It is the percentage of calls that the agent completely...

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