In terms of dealer’s income, the market grew by approximately 20.6 per cent, year-over-year, in Australia and almost 20.4 per cent, year-over-year, in New Zealand during the first half of this year.

As the pandemic forced us to remote work, the collaboration applications segment has led the charge, claiming the greatest annual growth rate of the entire software market,  reaching around US$257.8 million across A/NZ.

According to IDC, businesses continue to invest in team collaborative applications in order to support productivity, effective communications with clients and partners, and promote engagement among employees in a new hybrid environment.

At the same time, a huge number of organisations are launching their digitisation journeys and influencing digital technologies.

Artificial intelligence platforms showed the second strongest year-over-year increase of any segment in the software market, after collaboration apps, growing by almost 35 %across A/NZ and reaching  approximately US$111.5 million. This rapid growth means strong demand from A/NZ organisations in modernisation and the streamlining of core business processes, according to the analyst firm.

Moreover, the fulfilment of AI software services and intelligent knowledge discovery tools is on the rise, supporting decision-making and forecasting, and improving business outcomes.

According to Anastasia Antonova, who is a senior market analyst at IDC A/NZ, organisations across Tasman are investing in intelligent process automation tools and leveraging AI capabilities. In that way, they modify operational processes and improve customer and business data analysis in their collective bid to meet individual customer needs.

The third strongest annual growth during this period of time is about 31%, reaching approximately US$164.6 million and it belongs to the integration and orchestration middleware software. The rapid growth of integration software has been largely driven by legacy modernisation, hybrid integration, workflow and process automation and application programming interface (API)-led innovation initiatives, according to IDC.

Research by Gartner,suggested that global AI software spending will grow roughly 21.3% to about US$62 billion during the next year.

The analyst firm indicated that knowledge management, virtual assistants, autonomous vehicles, digital workplace and crowdsourced data would make up the top five use cases for AI software spending in 2022. Gartner senior research director Alys Woodward said:

“Use cases that deliver significant business value, yet can be scaled to reduce risk, are critical to demonstrate the impact of AI investment to business stakeholders.”

The report also noted that the demand for AI technologies and associated market growth is closely tied to organisational AI maturity levels.

Several factors make the return to work more challenging. For employees, it will be a staggered, disjointed process marked by uncertainty. Workers will return to unfamiliar surroundings, with masks, plexiglass screens and hand sanitiser, wondering if their coworkers are vaccinated and how they should greet them.

This is anything but a unifying experience, and it comes at a time when many people are mentally and physically drained after more than a year of lockdown. A study by the University of Chicago showed that employees worked 30% more than normal during the shutdown, and Microsoft found that work-related messages sent between 6 p.m. and midnight jumped 52%. No wonder people are burned out.

The result is a fatigued and fragile workforce that in many cases will collide with a senior leadership team that is keen to get back on track and resume a trajectory of rapid growth. This is a recipe for disaster, and it’s critical that senior leaders, managers, and HR teams build a plan to address the vulnerabilities in their teams.

So, here are five steps that senior leaders, managers, and HR teams should carefully consider before returning to the hybrid office.

SET REALISTIC PERFORMANCE GOALS

With the exhaustion and uncertainty, people are feeling, if you ask your teams to operate at 110% out of the gate, you will be let down and they will feel they have failed. Setting realistic goals can take many forms. It may be reducing sales quotas or production targets, but it should be meaningful and expressed clearly from the outset.

LEAD WITH COMPASSION, NOT EMPATHY

People need compassion. Empathy is saying, “I know you’ve had a tough year.” Compassion is saying, “I know you’ve had a tough year—and here’s how we’re going to help.” Give people the space to get their heads back in the game. Pay attention to their needs.

CLOSE THE EMOTIONAL DISTANCE

The return to work is about more than physical distance and ensuring that desks are properly spaced apart. It’s about finding ways to close the emotional distance between your employees. Managers should organize moments of small-scale, concentrated human connection—virtual water coolers, game nights, kicking off a meeting by asking about a teammate’s weekend. These personal moments help teams stay connected, combat burnout, and work together effectively when they’ve been physically apart for a long period.

SET A DATE TO REASSESS YOUR PLANS 

Many companies will need to change plans and revise protocols after welcoming employees back to the office. When you make unexpected changes, people think the plan’s not working and get anxious. A better strategy is to say, “We will try this system for two months and then see what needs to be changed.” When people expect change, they handle it far better because they can see it coming.

ONE SIZE WILL NOT NOT FIT ALL

A one-size-fits-all “hybrid plan” is not going to fix the exhaustion or lead to a sustainable work environment. Consider what hybrid work means at the team and the individual levels. The right approach for your sales team may be very different from the right approach for your engineering team. Look for tools and approaches that enable you to offer the kind of personalized support to managers and teams that enable them to figure out the best ways of working together.

Getting back to a predictable pattern of work will be a relief for many employees, but they need your compassion and support to do their best work. The companies that succeed will be those where leaders prioritize their employees’ well-being by addressing the exhaustion of the past 12 months, and who recognize this as a “printable moment” in which to reassert their company’s values and the purpose of their work. This will not only make the return to work a smooth one but also strengthen your business in the long run.

The telecom gave a chance to 20 young people to immerse themselves in a real business environment and work on a practical business case, supporting the traditional Junior Achievement Bulgaria initiative.

What is it like to be a Telenor manager, what qualities and knowledge do managers need to have? How to create a software robot, what criteria determine successful sales – these were some of the questions to which the young people who chose to visit Telenor as part of the initiative received the answers.

“I congratulate you for your interest and courage to participate in the Manager for a Day initiative. This proves that you understand that your future development is associated with work and challenges. I can share from personal experience that a lot of efforts will accompany your career development path, but you will also achieve a lot of success. Along with that, new ideas and various development opportunities come, so don’t be afraid to look for them. Do not stop learning, this is for life.”

That’s what Spas Velinov, Chief Technology Officer at Telenor advised in his greeting to the young people.

After the general introduction, the participants in the initiative were divided into two groups. They were hosted by Rozalia Pandauzova – Senior Expert Digital Solutions and Transformation and Svetlana Polonova – Trade Channels Management Results Manager. The participants in “Manager for a Day” worked on real business cases and received practical knowledge and advice for their future careers.

“The rapid development of technology and the situation over the last year have challenged us to be more adaptable to educational models in a physical, virtual or hybrid environment and to rethink the professional skills of the future. At Junior Achievement, we support young people in this process through programs and initiatives that build entrepreneurial and managerial attitudes, and teamwork skills, flexibility and a mindset for continuous improvement. In this context, we see a huge interest in this year “Managers for a day” in the field of technological innovation. We thank our partner Telenor that they managed to challenge young managers and to show them the real business environment in a leading telecommunication company.”

This is what Irina Ilieva, Director Organizational Development, JA Bulgaria said.

Telenor’s participation in the Manager for a Day is part of the company’s long-term strategy in support of early-career guidance. The company makes sustained efforts to identify talented young people and ensure appropriate conditions for their realization. One of the long-term sustainable initiatives in this regard is the internship program Hub by Telenor.