If there’s one thing 2020 taught us, it’s that it’s worth taking time to adapt technology to suit users, not the other way around. Most of us engage with technology every day. We browse, share, and connect. We enjoy a slick user experience as consumers. But we’re often plagued by inefficient technology in the workplace. At telecom provider Telia Company, we pride ourselves on giving customers next-generation services.

Like much of the workforce, IT help desk teams have spent the past year implementing new tools and processes to adapt to the new world of hybrid work. Many, for example, have turned to virtual agents, AI-powered enterprise chatbot tools that allow employees to quickly resolve common IT issues. Yet, despite the promise of virtual agents, many IT teams still find themselves manually handling everyday incidents. Some of the most common are virtual application and desktop session “resets.”

Since the early 2000s, when I was introduced to the Agile Manifesto at a small software company in Ann Arbor, I’ve appreciated how great things can be accomplished through iterative and incremental improvements. A vision of excellence is important, but the path to realization is a disciplined approach: recognizing areas of improvement, making adjustments, measuring, and repeating the process until you’ve reached a stable and acceptable result.

Work changed in 2020, but not just for the lockdown period—it changed forever. It’s become increasingly clear that we won’t return to the old working model. Workers have become accustomed to the autonomy of a remote environment. The 2021 Employee Experience Imperative found that six in 10 employees prefer some amount of remote work. As vaccine rollouts make office work possible again, employers are realizing hybrid is the future.

This past April, my husband and I took on our most exciting and daunting chapter yet: parenthood. Despite the chaos around us, we made the most of our pregnancy and thoroughly enjoyed sifting through baby clothes, putting together his nursery, choosing a name...the works. When it came time to bring our little guy home, I thought we had relatively grounded expectations for what our lives would look like as a family of three.

In the new world of remote and hybrid work, creating great employee experiences is more important than ever. That’s why I’m excited that ServiceNow is acquiring Mapwize, an indoor mapping and wayfinding company based in Lille, France. The future of work is hybrid. As more enterprises implement hybrid work regimes, they’ll need indoor mapping and wayfinding capabilities to help guide current and new employees to their workspaces.

Updated May 5, 2023 In banking, insurance, and wealth management organizations, it’s imperative to enhance customer experience to stay competitive. Although digital transformation has improved the front office and customer engagement, it’s not enough. Financial services organizations also need to provide good employee experience, protect against risks, cut costs, and accelerate innovation. It’s a tall order for any highly regulated organization.

When you have access to the best customer service software, you can enhance the overall customer experience and deliver greater levels of customer satisfaction. Customer service software can help to bridge the gap between customer expectations and your existing workflow. If you’re committed to delivering incredible experiences, you must invest in the right tools. 90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company.

Nick Borgwardt, director of ITx workflows at ServiceNow, co-wrote this blog. How do I reset my password? How do I add someone to a distribution list? How do I request ergonomic home office equipment? At many companies, when employees have questions like these or need help, they face the complexity of threading together siloed processes. Sometimes a task can require getting in touch with multiple departments, creating friction and frustration. Other times, it’s not even clear where to start.

A Maori proverb says, “What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.” At New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), a government-owned business development agency responsible for supporting exporters from more than 50 countries, we live by that proverb, keeping people at the center of everything we do. Our aim is to promote a productive, sustainable, and inclusive economy in New Zealand and the world.