The Secure Connected Worker - Start Small

💭FREE Charter Engage: Know IT Podcast Series – The Secure Connected Worker - Solve Smart

This podcast series highlights new innovations, developments, and technologies in the IT Industry. In the last episode of this 3-part series, we hear from Roland Plett, the Global Lead of the Energy and Mining industry solutions group for Cisco; Tim Workman, the Principal and Strategic Business Consultant for Presagient solutions; Ronnie Scott, the Chief Technology Officer, and Mark George, the Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets for Charter as they discuss the Secure Connected Worker and how companies can start small by building the right product roadmap and by proving these solutions to build sustainable momentum so that organizations and their workers can see the tangible benefits in adopting new technologies and moving forward.

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Transcript

Charter Engage: Know IT – Podcast lll – Start Small – Transcript

[Victoria, BC, Canada – March 13, 2023] 

[0:07] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

Welcome to our third episode of Charter Engage: Know IT. I'm your host, Mark George, the Director of Energy, Resources, and Industrial markets for Charter. 

 I'm again joined by our three industry executives. Roland Plett, the Global Lead of the Energy and Mining industry solutions group for Cisco. Tim Workman, the Principal and Strategic Business Consultant for Presagient solutions. And, Ronnie Scott, the Chief Technology Officer for Charter.

All three have worked extensively across the globe helping customers enhance operational performance, productivity, and safety to improve bottom-line results and successfully transform their businesses.

This is our third episode focused on Secure Connected Workers and highlighting solution elements that address workforce productivity, worker safety, and worker quality. We've been discussing the various pros and cons of different technology options that are available to provide enhanced dissymmetry, site management, hazard management, and emergency response. But more importantly, we've been working on, and thinking through, and talking about the real-life customer scenarios, or the integration of people processes and technologies, provid[ing] real value in transforming the business while delivering on corporate ESG initiatives. 

[In] Episode 1, we started looking at “Thinking Big.” Episode 2 built, then, on looking at how to position solution options and “Solve Smart.” Today, in Episode 3, we're going to focus on Starting Small.” 

Tim, maybe you could kick us off and talk about where we should start?

[2:01] Tim Workman, Presagient Group, Principal and Strategic Business Consultant

Yeah, thanks Mark. One of the things that people often talk about is, you know, is “I'm thinking big.” And, the momentum says, “We’ve got to think big; we’ve got to build big.” And the reality of it is building big in an organization that has established patterns of working is really hard. You've got a lot of governance to work through, building big is expensive, building big conflicts with other corporate priorities, and it's really hard to convince people to do something that they've never seen done before. So, part of the challenge is if you're thinking big, if you start by wanting to build big, you've already stacked the deck as a much more complicated way to get through it. 

 As Ronnie [Scott] mentioned in the last episode, there's a great way you can start to build a sequencing of your value cases. As we talked about, [with the] connected worker, we’ll have more than one. You're doing it because it'll likely address 6, 7, [or] 8 different micro cases that collectively aggregate into your connected worker-use portfolio. And what we always talk about with our customers is, let's map those out, let's rank them in terms of an effort and value perspective, and then let's figure out which is the right best place to start. In some cases, it's a balancing act because the cases that are the easiest (the lowest-hanging fruit) generally aren't ones that had much business value. And so, there's a risk sometimes of starting too small, in that you'll prove the technology works, but you won't actually convince anybody that the business value is worth pursuing. So, you really have to find that Goldilocks-use case that says we can leverage the existing investments in technology, we can engage a small subset of our users to prove it, but then when we do prove it, we can actually measure a value return that is meaningful enough to then solicit executive attention and validate continuation of the program.

 As you build out these road maps it's important to note that you need to have the way that they stack upon one another, so that you're not trying to build disparate cases. Again, you're trying to find the most efficient and effective way to slowly build additive capability with added investments as we go. Ideally, you get to a place where you can also show how that incremental investment in this road map of use cases is, in fact, used to offset that operating or investment cost to get through the next use cases. In a lot of these circumstances, we don't do a good enough job of accurately measuring the value outcomes, and then further validating for the senior executives how this case continues to build against even those original investments in the infrastructure. 

 So, when you can build the right product roadmap and prove these things it can really build sustainable momentum - both for the approvals to continue, but also for the workers who see the tangible benefits in adopting new technologies and moving forward. 

 [4:45] Ronnie Scott, Charter, Chief Technology Officer

So, if I was to add on top of that, thanks, Tim. One of the things that Charter has seen as being a very practical way of doing this, is to build some structure about how we do that discovery, and how we take that information and then map that to your business problem. And a common model for that is known as Business Architecture. You could use the TOGAF model. Actually, Cisco has a very, very good model that we use extensively in Charter, ourselves, for doing just that. 

 And we come back to these models again, as I alluded to in the previous session, being able to identify what the business outcomes you want are. Being able to then determine which ones of these are high cost, high effort versus low cost and effort, and marry that against the benefits, so that we can create very simple matrixes of “Here's a good place to start.” 

 But it should be done in the context of a bigger picture. “Where am I going to?” If I haven't invested in something that can grow, as Tim is alluded to, to grow, and scale, and add value, or have additional components that work alongside it, then all these silos end up just reinforcing that siloed mentality. We really want people to build out those pictures and that's where the Business Architecture roadmap comes in. 

 One of the things I most love about the Business Architecture model is that you start with, what we refer to, as personas. You pick a few people in your organization, whether they be your fuel people, the line managers, the executives, the customers, and we say “What is their need?,” “What did they have to achieve?,” “What are the outcomes they want?.” And that becomes a really interesting place upon which we can build that roadmap. And it gets us from “Here’s where we start,” to “Here's where we want to be.” And we can then have a strategic plan for that, rather than a piecemeal “Oh, here's a problem. Let's solve that.” And then we get on to the next problem. 

 So, thinking bigger, starting at the beginning, then leads to a really nice structure of starting small. And so, I think that's a great strategy and roadmap that we love to work with our customers on.

 [7:00] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

So, Roland, our topic in this session is Start Small. What are some of the opportunities and risks that you've seen in selecting where to start?

 [7:10] Roland Plett, Cisco, Global Lead for Energy and Mining

I really like how you set the stage, Tim and Ronnie. Just in terms of a methodology for going from this big idea, kind of, how to really systematically break that down into “OK, what are we focusing on?” to start with. So, I think that's really, really important methodology to go through. 

 One thing that I'd like to add to the mix, here, is when you get that idea - that small idea of what adds the most value for the least amount of cost, then what? How do you actually start that process - actually executing? And this is where kind [I’ve] kind of seen two paths or two approaches that our customers have taken. For us, as a manufacturer, it doesn't really make much difference. They buy some stuff from us and then they do things. But we've seen substantially more success when people really weave this into the way that they're operating at a small level.  

 The temptation is that you give this to an innovation team that goes off and creates a conceptual environment and then puts this technology into place, in this sort of copy of what might be happening in the real world and proving out some concepts. And a lot of people call this proof of concept. The difficulty comes in when you try to make the leap from that conceptual environment into what's actually happening in the field. And so, where we've seen a lot more success is an idea that some people have started calling proof of value. So they’re actually inserting these starting points of what they're building right into the operational environment, at a really small level. Maybe it's a subset, maybe a small location, maybe it’s a small part of a larger location and one group in a larger location, implemented there, but in a real-world setting, so that you can make it the first step in multiple steps to get to the goal. Because, if you disconnect it too much from the actual operation, it's really, really hard to make that leap into the operation. And that would be where you can instantly see the value in terms of how it connects to how you operate. 

 I'll give you a great example. Even in terms of connected workers. Say you want your workers to be able to access inventory, to be able to - maybe you have a fairly comprehensive workflow or service ticketing, work permitting, those kinds of applications – all things that are being done right now online. But when the workers get out into the field, they’re going to be carrying paper or they’re documenting things when they get back into the admin trailer. If we’ve got a deal, do we actually have to put wireless coverage in this whole area for this to actually work? And a lot of times I’m like “You know what, you don’t have to start – you don’t have to go for the whole thing right off the bat. Why don’t you put a hotspot over here?” And now, instead of people walking all the way back to the admin building, they’re walking over to this hotspot, and doing their thing there. Yeah, they're still doing some transit involved and you're not getting all the efficiencies, but you're able to do it in a really small kind of way - but it's actual real operations that's happening. 

 And so, you're able to see the value of people not having to come all the way to the admin building. So, you can tangibly identify the value. You’ve made a small investment. You can say “Oh, well, if that continues, well maybe now we put more hotspots in, or maybe we do make the leap to pervasive coverage.” So, you're putting it right into the operation and you're able to pave a path to further incremental value. Does that make sense? 

 [10:43] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

But ultimately, starting small. 

 [10:46] Roland Plett, Cisco, Global Lead for Energy and Mining

Ultimately, starting small.

 [10:48] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

And then focusing on where's the value being created.

 [10:51] Roland Plett, Cisco, Global Lead for Energy and Mining

Exactly. 

 [10:52] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

And then extrapolate that into the broader organization.

 [10:55] Roland Plett, Cisco, Global Lead for Energy and Mining

That's where I see it taking hold and moving forward. It's not disconnected from operations - it's right in there.

 [11:03] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

And Tim, I suspect as you've been working in the market you've seen some of the tangible results where the customer really has looked at proof of value versus proof of concept.

 [11:15] Tim Workman, Presagient Group, Principal and Strategic Business Consultant

Yeah, it's a great perspective, Mark. It’s a fundamental part of what we weave into our business process. At the end of the day, these challenges are complex because they will have impacts. To Ronnie’s point last episode, they will be disruptive - whether positively or negatively. And we always want to make sure that we're honoring the complexity of these challenges. The business environments in which these companies operate are complex. The technology elements are interesting, but arguably not as complex. The organizational challenges around behavior, and leadership, [and] worker performance are complex. And the opportunity that we’re just trying to share, both through this podcast and working with our customers, is to say (we talk about sort of theme here,) this technology might be new to your organization, the concept might be new to your organization, but the technology has been around for over 25 years. We've been delivering it to our clients for more than a decade. Charter’s got a great history. Cisco has an amazing track record. And so, part of what we want to do is just have the conversation that says it might be new to you, but through partnerships with organizations, that you will find that the expertise is out there. You don't have to relearn the lessons that we've already learned. And that's why we're trying to share through this conversation.

 [12:36] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

Tim thanks for those tremendous insights. Anything you'd like to add Roland, as we get ready to conclude our podcast today?

 [12:46] Roland Plett, Cisco, Global Lead for Energy and Mining

Yeah, I would just like to underscore what Tim was just saying, in terms of don't get too bold about doing this by yourself. Can you do it yourself? Maybe, but it's going to take you a lot longer than if you bring in people who have done this before. You can still be in the driver’s seat but leverage the resources out there. There are lots of people who can help. 

 [13:07] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

Ronnie.

 [13:08] Ronnie Scott, Charter, Chief Technology Officer

Well, [there’s] so many other things we could say. But I did just want to close with a couple of things. So, first of all, I want to reflect on what Roland was just talking about with these proof of values and starting small, and the practicality of that. It's really important that you do practical things that allow you to move forward. And I think that model is very, very powerful, and one that we highly encourage. And in fact, it reflects very much how the industry has changed from the old development methods to the new, agile development methods, where we start small, we grow along with the customer, and we learn together - rather than just putting things into this little science lab and hoping it'll work out.

The last thing I do want to add is that hopefully, you'll have heard, that this conversation we've had doesn't just apply to Energy, Resources, and Industry. It could apply to any business. We could just as easily be having this conversation with a hospital or a university, or any large industrial company, or manufacturing, or retail. All the same problems apply. And all the same opportunities are ahead of us. And so, we do encourage you to think about how your business can be improved, [and] how you can transform your business, regardless of what specific vertical you exist in. And thanks for the opportunity, Mark, to come and share these last few weeks.

[14:32] Mark George, Charter, Director - Energy, Resources & Industrial Markets, moderator

Well, this has been an amazing opportunity to be able to bring together Roland [Plett,] Tim [Workman,] and Ronnie [Scott] and focus on the last three podcasts on the notion of what Cisco, Presagient, and Charter can bring to the table to help customers deal with Secure Connected Workers. 

If this is a topic that resonates with you, we'd invite you to reach out and join our conversation. Because ultimately, as we work together in the marketplace, the three organizations have the experience, the creativity, the knowledge, and the ability to help you start to Think Big, Solve Smart, and Start Small.

The Charter team is already working on the next episode of Charter Engage: Know IT. So please watch the social media channels for further details. Thank you very much!

Source:

(n.d.). The TOGAF® Standard, 10th Edition. The Open Group. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.opengroup.org/togaf