Latest / The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers / “Work Time Is Lifetime”: Why DEX Must Make Work Better | Nina Kohl-Haefke

Transcript

“Work Time Is Lifetime”: Why DEX Must Make Work Better | Nina Kohl-Haefke · The DEX Show: A Show for IT Change Makers

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, IT Changemakers, and welcome to The Dex Show with
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Tom McGraw. Let's get into it.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: It is beginning, everybody, to look a lot like experience.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We are heading towards the world's greatest digital employee experience
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: event at a rate of knots. If you didn't already know,
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: it takes place October the 5th to the 7th at
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the JW Marriott Grand Lakes Hotel. in Orlando, Florida, this,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: and you probably heard me say this before. This is
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the first time experience only takes place in the USA.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: So if you're waiting for news on the London event, still,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: if you're waiting on the news for the German event, still,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: we next thing still do decks events in, in other
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: countries around the world, but for experience for the real deal,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: you've got to, you've got to cross the pond. Uh,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that's a note for my European friends. And of course,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: if you, if you're in the U S and you're
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: yet to book your tickets, don't panic there are still
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: some tickets left everybody and you will find a link
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to the show notes and in order to to whet
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: our appetite even more it gives me great pleasure to
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: to welcome a guest onto the show for the first
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: time representing um an organization who are always just a
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: fantastic phenomenal presence at experience they bring so much to
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: every event um and always always uh They're always there
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: in style, I would say, and that's Computer Center. And
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: we're lucky enough to have Computer Center Solution Manager with us,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Nina Kolhafke. How did I do with your name, Nina?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the show.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: You did so great. It's right, yeah. You did really,
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: really great. Thank you, Tom.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. And welcome. It's an absolute delight
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: to have you on. Just begin, introduce yourself a little bit.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Tell us about your role at Computer Center and the
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: work you're most passionate about that it entails.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah. First of all, Good morning, Tom, and thank you
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: for having me on the DAX show. I'm really excited.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Excited for this podcast today and, of course, for the
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: experience taking place in October because I'm going to be
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: there as well. So, yeah, really excited. Good to have
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: this talk today. Maybe to introduce myself. So, yes, I
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: am a solution manager at Computer Center, or at least
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: I have been recently. So for the last four years,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I've spent time helping shape our digital experiences. portfolio, developing
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: services around adoption and change management, future of work, digital
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: employee experience, and workplace analytics. And actually, on September 1st,
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: I'm starting a new role within Computer Center, of course,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: and I'm joining as an enablement lead in our European
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: Technology Office. So I'm going to do lots of what
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I have done before, but also shaping our overall portfolio,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: and I hope with lots of good experience there as well.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Outside of Computer Center, I am also, as you, a
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: podcast host because together with my co-host, Anna-Maria Schwerber, I'm
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: running a German podcast called Work It Out, where we
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: speak with fascinating people about the future of work. And
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: I think that what connects everything I do. In Germany,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: we have a saying that is Arbeitszeit ist Lebenszeit, which
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: you can translate into work life or work time is
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: lifetime life. Because we spend so much part of our
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: lives at work. So my personal and professional mission is
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: to help create workplaces where technology supports people instead of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: frustrating them. And where work feels more productive, human, and
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: last but not least, human. And that's probably why topics
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: like employee experience, tax, and adoption have always fascinated me.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, it's all about
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: the same question. How can we make work work better
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: for people?
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: That is a beautiful saying. I like that a lot.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And yes, it sounds a lot like our podcast. I'm
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: glad we don't have to compete in the same language.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: I'm sure you would fare extremely well if we did.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: But here's a question for you then, Nina. Predicate it
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: on the podcast. And how long have you been running
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: that podcast now, Work It Out?
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: For a little bit over three years. So we started
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: Work It Out during the COVID pandemic. Yeah.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: So it's very well established. And I'm curious, during that
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: period of time, before we get into the technology itself,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: what are the biggest shifts you've seen in the world
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: of work precluding tech to some degree that you're able to?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: So I think the biggest shift I've seen since we've
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: started that podcast, because it was during the COVID pandemic.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: In Germany, we say Corona, not COVID. Yeah.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny. I forget that it was Corona for
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: a while. I think the beer company managed to.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: I know.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Everybody's phrasing of it.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: So since then, the world of work has been shaken.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: So everything kind of, at least for our knowledge workers,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: changed in the way we were used to it before.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: So I see the biggest shift around expectations, I guess.
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: So people experience different ways of working, more flexibility, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: work-life balance has become much more important now. And at
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: the same time, I've seen a much stronger awareness around
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: mental health and what I would call like healthy and
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: sustainable performance, not just how much can I get done,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: but also like how can I perform well without burning
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: myself out? So I think that is really important. But
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: what I also find really interesting that just like recently
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: we see kind of a backlash Especially over the last year,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: it feels like some of the old rules are coming back.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: So we're seeing stricter return to office mandates, more discussions
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: around control and presence, and even models like part-time working
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: being questioned again. And I think that has a lot
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: to do with the pressure many companies are under right now.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: So we're dealing with multiple crisis, economic uncertainty, and an
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: enormous cost pressure. So I do get where the desire
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: for more control comes from. But at the same time,
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: employee engagement is extremely low. So according to Gallup, only
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: like 10% of employees are really highly emotionally engaged with
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: their employer. And Gallup points out to some very basic
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: things that are missing. Clarity around expectations, opportunities to develop
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: and use your strengths, feeling valued and listened to. basically
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: like the quality of everyday employee experience. So I think
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: we are at a really interesting tipping point right now.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: So on the one hand, employees are asking for more autonomy, flexibility,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: and healthier ways of working, while many organizations are under
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: pressure and moving back towards more control. So I think
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: one of the biggest questions for me right now is
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: how do we resolve that tension?
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm going to ask you to answer your question
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: because it's a fascinating one. How do we resolve our tension?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: You know, what do we do?
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: Uh, if it would be that easy, I think we
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: wouldn't have a job, but I think it would be, um,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: like a good bridge into decks and what we're talking
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: about today, because, um, I think dealing with what do
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: people actually want? How can they thrive? How can, how
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: can they work? Well, it's something we have to solve.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: So, um, Okay, so it is, as you say, a
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: great bridge into DEX. And I've been in the DEX
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: space for around seven years. Throughout that time, Computer Center
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: has been talking about digital employee experience very consistently. Looking back, however,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: how do you think your own understanding and Computer Center's
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: own understanding of DEX has evolved during that period? And
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: what's changed most in the conversation during the time that
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: it's been so engaged with the topic?
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: So to be honest, when I started working with DEX
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: or even before that, when I just heard like DEX,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: maybe it was named like workplace analytics and maybe DEX
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: was mainly seen as an analytics tool answering questions like
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: how are my devices performing? Where are the technical issues?
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: How can we reduce ticket volumes, lower costs and make
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: IT more efficient? And yes, I still think those questions
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: are super valid. But more and more when I talk
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: to customers, they are asking different questions or additional questions
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: at least. How satisfied are our employees with their digital workplace?
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Does the technology actually help them to do their job?
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: And where is it creating friction? So I do have
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: a current customer example that really shows that shift. It's
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: a manufacturing company. And their business goal is to improve
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: their time to market. So ultimately how to get their
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: products to customers as fast as they can. And of course,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: IT knows they play a part in that. So the
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: IT organization has set itself a really interesting goal. They
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: say they want to turn their customers, so their internal customers,
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: meaning their employees, into fans of IT. Because IT isn't
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: always perceived as an enabler. Quite often it's perceived as
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: something that maybe gets in the way. So this IT
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: organization wants to understand their actual contribution of the digital
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: workplace to their value creation. Where does technology help people
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: move faster? Where does it slow them down? So, and
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: then preventing getting product out faster and what do employees
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: actually need and how ideally IT can solve problems before
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: employees even experience them. So I often compare like DEX
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: to healthcare. So you can go to a doctor and
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: the doctor can tell you whether your heart rate is fine,
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: but that doesn't necessarily mean you are healthy. And in
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: the same way, a healthy device alone doesn't automatically mean
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: that you have a healthy employee experience. And I think
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: that helps to understand how people are actually experiencing work,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: not only just how the technology is performing. And I
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: think that is the biggest shift in Dex to me.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: There's almost a paradox I'd like to explore if you're
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: a little related to this you know which is that
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Dex has always been about putting employees at the center
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: of technology decisions like that's been its defining ethos but
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: and you just kind of alluded to this, Computer Center
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: and others are increasingly approaching DEX less as just a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: technology category and more as an operating philosophy for the
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: digital workplace at large. What does that represent in DEX itself?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Is DEX growing up, would you say? Has the industry
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: that we work in had to catch up with the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: very principles we've been promoting for so long?
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, I would say yes for both questions. And to
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: explain why it is that way, I'd like to come
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: back to my healthcare analogy. Because I think in the past,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: IT operated a little bit like emergency medicine. So something broke,
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: somebody raised a ticket, and IT stepped in to fix
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: that issue. But today, with DEX, IT has the opportunity
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: to become more like preventative healthcare. And I'm wearing an
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Aura Ring. Maybe you have kind of the same device
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: as well, maybe a SWAT watch or something like that. So...
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Having this device is not about that this device tells me, oh, Nina,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: you are sick right now because I want this device
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: to help me detect patterns, habits, lifestyle issues maybe, and
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: to help me to understand why that might be not
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: as healthy as I have supposed to and help me
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: change my behavior and take action before bigger health issues occur.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: And I think like Dex could do the same to
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: an organization. And that's also like a shift in thinking,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: you know, do something when it happens, do something before
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: it happens. And so from moving from reacting to incidents
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: to proactively designing healthier, more productive digital workplaces, this is
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: what Dex is for me. And so Dex is becoming
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: much more than just a technology category. Yes, my aura
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: ring is the technology. But it's more around the whole ecosystem, environment, habits, culture,
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: and so on and so on. So it's not only
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: a technology category for me, it's looking at the whole
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: system around the digital workplace for me. Because in the end,
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: you can't improve the experience without changing the system behind it,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: like the technology, the processes, and also the culture, of course.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: And that is the reason why we developed also our,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: what we call DEX ops readiness model. It helps organization
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: structure and scale DEX across five dimensions. So technology of
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: course is one of them, but you also have to
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: take into consideration and focus on people, processes, adoption, communication,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: and value creation because improving employee experience isn't only, as
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: you said, a technology initiative, it's also an organizational capability. Hmm.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: And there's another paradox of sorts that just occurred to me,
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: which is that, you know, we see this decline of
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: its reaction against employee power to some degree. And yet
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: we have seen corresponding in that same timeline, DEX only
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: grow in significance and appeal and popularity. It's gone from
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: a very niche talking point to a fairly ubiquitous one
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: in most large organizations. What is making digital employee experience
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: such a big strategic priority in 2026, despite perhaps the
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: decline in employee experience centrality per se? Why is this
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: resonating so strongly with business leaders today?
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: I think right now, of course, cost efficiency is a
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: big driver because particularly with increasing device and infrastructure costs,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: companies can't simply solve everyday experience problem by using or
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: buying even more technology. So they need to understand where
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: friction actually exists and where an investment will have the
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: greatest impact. And I think another major reason is complexity
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: because over the last four years, we have added more tools,
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: more applications, more ways of working. And now AI comes
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: on this on top, but more technology doesn't automatically make
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: work better. So one of the big questions for businesses
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: today is also how do we make this increasingly complex infrastructure, yes,
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: and world of work actually work for people. And I
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: think that also leads directly into productivity because I think
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: the productivity discussion, especially around AI, is huge right now.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: So we talk a lot about doing more with less.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: But I think we underestimate how much productivity we are
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: already losing through fragmentation and constant interruptions. So there's a study,
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I think it's from Microsoft, and they found out that
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: employees are interrupted by a meeting, email or notification or
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: just some friction within your workplace every two minutes during
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: your regular workday. And I think that is huge. And
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: that comes to the last piece, why it's such an
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: important topic for IT leaders is technology adoption and ROI.
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: So because I'm seeing also with AI and an interesting
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: shift there. So in previous workplace or even though technology transformation,
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: adoption was often something we had to push and to say,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: please do it, please consider it. Now with AI, I'm
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: seeing almost the opposite. So customers are actively asking us
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: how they can enable their employees faster, how can they
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: improve adoption and how can they create the right experience
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: around AI. So I think to sum that up, I
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: think you can imagine how it's to drive a car
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: with like a handbrake on. Do you know what happens?
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: So you can still move maybe a little bit. I
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: sure do.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: I'm afraid to say anything. Many times I've come quite
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: far with a handbrake on, to be honest with you.
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: But it takes you more effort, more energy, and more fuel.
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: So it's much more effort you need to take for this.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: And I think a lot of workplace friction is exactly
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: the same as well. And I think DEX can help
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: us identify and remove those hidden handbrakes.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. So given those evolving digital workplace circumstances, which have
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: been so congenial to the further growth of DEX as
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: a category, how has Computer Center's own DEX offering evolved
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: to meet those changing needs?
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: So our DEX offering covers like the entire journey from
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: inside to impact. Excuse me. So we help our customers
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: to understand, first of all, how employee experience is right
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: now in their digital workplace through analytics, employee insights. We
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: can also help them with design improvements through deck strategy,
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: user experience, and of course, adoption services, and then also
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: help our customers to operationalize those improvements through our managed
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: service capabilities. Because having the insight, yes, is good and
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: one thing, but acting on it consistently is is another,
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: so because customers don't want just another dashboard, it's good
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: to have this insight, but they want to operationalize stacks,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: how to prioritize improvements and how to continuously improve the
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: entire employee journey and employee experience over time. So, um,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: and I think we have, um, a good experience for,
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: or like a good experience example for this. So imagine
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: of an onboarding journey. So when you start. Um, at
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: an organization for the first time, you often say like
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: first impressions count. And I think the same is with
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: the organization. So for a new employee, the onboarding experience
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: is often like the really first real glimpse into that organization.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: And you don't want to disappoint as an organization. You
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: want to make this first experience right. Um. But what
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: happens if it's not that what you have expected? So
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: you can use Dex for getting more insights to build
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: a really great new starter experience program. And so we
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: did that like through incident analysis, the organization. So we
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: discovered like what new starters actually do when they step
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: on their onboarding journey. And we identified like that new
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: status generated like a disproportionately high number of IT incidents
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: within the first three months. And many of those issues
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: could have been prevented or resolved very early on and
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: with the right guidance and support. So it's a journey
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: and we can help customers like go on that journey
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: and help them from inside to offer relationalization. Yeah. Absolutely.
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Measurement has always been central to Dex. but are the
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: questions we need to be asking changing? Certainly they're evolving, right?
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: So beyond traditional IT metrics, what do you think organizations
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: need to be measuring today if they genuinely want to
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: be improving employee experience? And are there examples where you've
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: seen customers successfully connect purpose, measurement, and that kind of
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: whole theme of continuous improvement you've been kind of returning
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: to here?
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. So... For a really long time, IT focused on
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: traditional metrics such as uptime, device health, or ticket resolution times.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: And those metrics are still important, but they only tell
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: us how systems are performing, coming back to my healthcare example.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: So yeah, you can have a good sleeping score, but
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: is your sleep actually really good? That doesn't indicate that
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: at a first glance. And I think that is the
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: same with like those traditional metrics, because they are down
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: telling us how employees are really experiencing work. Are they happy?
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Are they satisfied? Can they do the work they want
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: to do it the way they wanted to do it?
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: So that's why we're seeing a shift there. We're moving
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: from SLAs to XLAs and more experienced orientated measures. So
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: the question is no longer was the service available, for example,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: but rather were people able to do what they needed
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: to do successfully and without unnecessary friction. And coming back
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: to the onboarding example, what I really love about that
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: example is that it connects purpose. You want to attract
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: talent to your organization and you want to retain it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: So it connects that purpose with measurement overall. You're seeing
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: how are the devices running, how is the process and
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: the workflows overall. And you combine it also with continuous
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: improvement because the purpose was not to improve an IT
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: metric itself. The purpose was to help employees feel welcome, productive,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: and confident from day one on. So measurement helped us
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: identify where the friction occurred and continuously feedback allowed the
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: organization to keep improving the onboarding journey over time, including
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: sentiment-based feedback. You don't only look at IT metrics, you
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: ask the people, you talk to them. And I think
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: that is really important. When it's about people, you need
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: to engage with them to really understand what they are experiencing.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: You already mentioned AI. We're going to get to it inevitably,
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: of course. But before we think about AI and Dex specifically,
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I was able to see that on your podcast, you
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: have explored AI through the lens of new work, right?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Working styles rather than just as a technology trend. And
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: a bit like my first question, you know, I'm interested
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: in how do you see AI changing the nature of
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: work itself?
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: So what I think is interesting is that AI can
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: lead us into two possible futures. So one option would
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: be it can help us make the work we're doing
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: right now faster and more efficient. Yes, we can do this.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: Or the second option would be it can help us
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: unlock potential we haven't been able to access before. And
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: I think that second future is much more interesting. And
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: there is one thought. or like conversation from my podcast
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: that really stayed with me. So we talked about the
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: demographic shift we are facing right now. So people who
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: have spent 20, 30 or 40 years in organization are
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: now retiring. And with them, we are losing decades of
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: knowledge and experience. And on the same time, right now,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: we have a second discussion, whether AI might automate some
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: of the tasks that younger professionals traditionally learn from at
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: the beginning of the start of their careers. So we
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: are losing experience and knowledge on both ends, so at
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: the entry level and at the exit level, so to say.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: And what I think what AI can do is like
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: building bridges and like with the possibility of connecting those
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: two challenges, because AI can help us preserve and make
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: organizational knowledge more accessible, not just for the organization itself
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: but also for the next generation so it is not
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: replacing experience but it could help people benefit from the
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: collective experience of those who came before them and i
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: think that is what is really exciting about ai it's
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: not helping us making things more simply or faster it
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: really gives people capabilities they didn't have before.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: It um It not only sort of reflects your capacity,
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: it also reflects your ambition, doesn't it? Do you know
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: what I mean? As a tool.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, right. So it's not just, yes, you can have
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: it just as a tool or as a capability, which
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: just like what we call like the, like it can
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: prolong your skills, what you haven't had before. So it
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: can make you also better or like help organizations be
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: better in that case. Yeah.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: And what do you think this means primarily for IT
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: as a trend as it changes how people work? How
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: is DEX best able to help IT maintain or strengthen
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: its role as a strategic partner or leader in the business?
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: Maybe just to step one step back. I think the
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: first thing is AI shouldn't be received as just give
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: employees the next tool. I would say start with the
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: work itself. Talk to people and understand where are they
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: struggling today? What is creating friction? And where could AI
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: actually enable something that wasn't possible before? And I think
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: combining that now with DAX can be incredibly valuable because
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: it gives IT the data and the insight to understand
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: how people are actually experiencing their digital workplace rather than
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: just assuming it and assuming what your people need. And
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: then the second part is enablement. You can't roll out
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: an AI tool, offer one training session or a prompt
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: library and expect people doing completely other work the next day.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: So if we really want people to use AI differently,
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: we need to invest in proper change and enablement, helping
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: them to understand where AI creates value in their specific
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: role and how their way of working might change. And
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: then we need to measure, of course, whether that is
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: actually working. not just how many people are using the tool,
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: but is it helping people to do work better? And
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: is it creating value for the business? And so for me,
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: DEX can help with both of this. So understanding workflows,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: work processes, work patterns, and also understanding the enablement journey itself.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: And if IT can do that with DEX, I would
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: say that it doesn't just maintain their role as a
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: strategic partner, it can also strengthen it.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Absolutely agree. Finally, let's talk a little bit about experience directly.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: Are you going to be a first-timer experience?
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be a first-timer, so it's going to
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: be my first experience experience, yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Your first experience experience.
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: Are you experienced?
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: No, not yet, is the answer. What are you most
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: looking forward to about the event? What are Computer Center
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: going to be doing there more broadly? Who are you
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: looking forward to talking to? Who are you excited to meet?
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. So yeah, first of all, now that we are
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: in our virtual podcast studio, I'm hoping to meet you
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: there personally. So we're stepping out of our virtual podcast studio.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: And more broadly, I'm really excited to connect with all
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: the people from across the DEX community. Colleagues from like
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: computer center, of course, from the next thing, team partners,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: customers and practitioners from like different industries, because I think
• 27:01
  Speaker 3: that is what is most important about the future of
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: work and for DEX that we bring people together to
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: jointly develop new solutions, have good discussions and see how
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: we can learn from each other. And I think I
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: truly believe that this collaboration helps us to shape a
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: better future of work.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: And what European listeners shouldn't be thinking about getting some
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: October sun as well, Nina, right? I mean, you know,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: it's not the sunniest time of year, is it? You know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: it might be nice to get out to Orlando and
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Maybe take a little trip to Disney, maybe just relax
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: by the pool for a day or two either side
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: of the event. Just a suggestion, listeners. And if you
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: do want to follow that suggestion up, be you in
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: the US or in Europe or anywhere else in the
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: world listening to this show, follow the links in the
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: show notes once again, where you will also find a
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: link to the fantastic podcast, New Work, by Nina, that
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: all German-speaking listeners should certainly enjoy. think about subscribing to, right? Nina,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: it's been an absolute pleasure. We'd love to have you
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: on again. And we look forward very much to meeting
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: you out in Orlando in person.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Tom. And I'm really looking forward
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: for the experience.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: That's it for this week's Deck Show. We'll be back
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: next week. And if you don't already, be sure to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: follow the show so you don't miss an episode. Until
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: next time.