Print.IT Reseller - issue 59

01732 759725 16 RESEARCH IT and computing jobs sector booming The latest Report on Jobs, published by KPMG and the REC, showed a further steep increase in demand for both permanent and temporary IT workers during November. Adjusted for seasonal factors, the IT & Computing permanent vacancies index registered well above the neutral 50.0 level at 63.6 in November. Across the ten monitored job categories, IT & Computing has been the best-performing sector in terms of permanent job vacancies for the past five months. Demand also rose for temporary IT workers midway through the fourth quarter of 2018. The rate of vacancies growth was similar to that seen in the prior month and sharp, with the respective index edging up from 58.5 to 58.6 in November. www.rec.uk.com The M-Files 2019 Intelligent Information Management Benchmark Report revealed that 45 per cent of employees find searching for documents and information challenging and time consuming Improper document management inhibits employee productivity The study found that the UK and US have mirrored experiences when searching for documents and information with just under half (43.5 per cent for the UK and 45.6 per cent for the US) of organisations reporting challenges around this. Moreover 95 per cent of UK employees express frustrations when searching for the most recent version of a document or file. Greg Milliken, M-Files Senior VP of Marketing states that the findings reinforce the persistent frustrations felt by employees towards information handling. “Looking at the results it’s clear that all organisations – regardless of sector or geographical position are united in the challenges they face towards information management practices,” he said, adding: “Managing the information and data within an organisation is more complicated than ever. The volume of content that the average organisation creates has risen significantly and it's often stored in a wide range of different systems or spread across shared network drives which makes it difficult and time consuming to find and control. For employees, the need to get-to-grips with multiple interfaces is slowing down user adoption and decreasing productivity. It must become a priority for organisations to address this.” www.m-files.com Software licence complexity can be bad for business A survey commissioned by Nuance Communications conducted among IT decision-makers in the UK, has revealed that licence complexity hinders greater adoption of PDF Solutions in UK businesses. Of the 60 per cent of respondents who said that PDF is a critical business application, almost half said that licence complexity hinders their use of PDF software. Three-quarters of workers who said that licence complexity hinders their use of PDF software, stated that PDF software is a strategic component of their document processes at work, painting a concerning picture with respect to the impact that licence complexity has on productivity and security across businesses in the UK. Nuance argues that for businesses stuck with PDF solutions whose greater deployment in hindered by inflexible licencing options, the implications of the licence barrier to broader PDF adoption is even more acute; in today’s digital economy, an ever increasing number of documents – in physical or electronic form – flows in, around and out of an organisation. Therefore, if access to PDF solutions is compromised by complex licenses, then productivity and security maybe compromised, as PDF remains the most effective way to capture paper documents and convert them into electronic ones. www.nuance.co.uk UK companies deploy AI to improve customer intimacy Humans + bots: Tension and opportunity – how top global brands blend human skills and AI to build customer intimacy and drive growth , is a new report from MIT Technology Review Insights, sponsored by Genesys analyses how businesses leverage AI in customer experience and examines the resulting business performance and ROI. The report finds that 48 per cent of companies cite improving customer intimacy as the main reason for artificial intelligence adoption. Additionally, large companies with at least 30,000 employees are more than 50 per cent more likely to have made major investments in AI for front-line customer interactions and analytics. 100 per cent of UK firms polled already employ cutting-edge tools such as chatbots and sentiment analysis, with more than a quarter using AI in customer engagement for over two years. Across Europe the survey found that nine out of ten firms use AI solutions to improve the customer journey. More than 90 per cent of European respondents said their companies are investing in AI tools to automate processes and enhance customer channels. 92 per cent of respondents in Europe note measurable improvements in the speed of complaint resolution and 82 per cent say they enhance call volume processing through AI. Additionally, the average respondent indicated that between 25 to 50 per cent of all enquiries are now completely resolved through automated channels, leaving agents with more time to handle complex tasks. www.genesys.com/en-gb