Category: Opinión

Tools of the future that will be at our disposition

On the verge of the new year and because of the vertiginous scenario of social restrictions fluctuations, new quarantines and new COVID variants that 2022 will bring, a high level of activity is expected for the telecommunications industry.

As usual, the pandemic keeps bringing changes in all aspects of our lives; economic, social and above all technological. For it is the modern technological infrastructure that has allowed the world to keep working in these times, adapting to the needs of companies, which were looking for rapid changes in the face of imminent needs.

It is important to point out the impact that the years 2020-2021 caused in the advancement of digitization and connectivity of companies to support the multi-systemic processes of consumers, companies and even state agencies.

Until July 2020, the digitization level of products and/or services in the world reached 55%, jumping 7 years in relation to the pace at which digitization was being adopted in pre-pandemic periods (according to this McKinsey report).

And since this increase in the digitization of products or services requires solid connectivity, telecommunications networks have become increasingly essential to ensure the operational continuity of many other multiple industries.

One of the most important technologies, which is rapidly making its entry into Latin American markets, is 5G telecommunications networks; a huge boost to connectivity and business transformation, as well as a leap in the quality of services for people. In fact, there are already several projects that also put the 6G network on the table: “…6G sixth generation in mobile connectivity, is a technology that is expected to use high frequency TeraHertz radio waves, which finally closes the gap between the digital, physical and human worlds,” as defined in an article on telecommunication trends published by Geotech Solutions on LinkedIn.

And in case any doubt remains, 7G is also being worked on. -British Telecom’s (BT) head of networks emphasized that initial research is underway for the 7G network that will be categorized into 7G base and 7.6G. According to analysts, 7G is intended to enable interaction between different systems worldwide, for example, the United States (GPS), China (Beidou), among others. According to the article “The future of networks: 6G and 7G” by LPS, “Telecommunications will remain globally competitive… maintaining competitiveness and labour production, taking advantage of emerging technologies that enhance the evolution of customer experience, network expansion and infrastructure management.

Constant connectivity and improved customer service, with the evolution and application of new technologies may become key elements for both the evolution of enterprises, as the backbone for telecommunications companies.

On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI and ML) solutions are consolidating in the market, backed up by greater consumer confidence.

With the arrival of new connectivity speeds such as 5G, the AI and ML technologies will operate hand in hand, able to handle even greater amounts of data, updating their prediction and analysis capabilities, improving the customer experience in an Omnichannel sense, ultimately generating great opportunities for business growth.

Another technological tool that is gaining strength, and of which we have already spoken previously, are cloud based services, a great solution that helps in the transfer of operations and maintain continuous flow for companies, becoming an essential ally when carrying out digital transformation processes.

With a close relationship between the aforementioned technologies, which promise greater integration, connectivity and communication between customers and companies, the omnichannel service and development of communication technologies will lead in the hyperconnected market of tomorrow.

If you found this content interesting and want to know more about Digital Transformation, Contact and communications solutions and how to integrate them into your organization, in Belltech we will be happy to support your Digital Transformation projects, offering you products, support and consultancy services you need to carry out your projects. We invite you to reach us out at http://belltech.la/en/contact-us and an agent will contact you in less than 48 hours.

Essential ally in digital transformation

Digital ecosystems grow at a tremendous pace. We are living in a world that-although we saw coming- advanced quickly and hastily. We have accepted it and settled into our new normal.

Although Cloud Computing has been around for many years, was not until the pandemic arrived that many businesses faced the necessity to continue their operations from a remote working mode, an option who many thought would not be successful, but has proven to come to stay with us.

However, the fundamental solution to face this changes for businesses, where to manage, classify and communicate operations was the critical goal, was the adoption of Cloud Based Services. An accessibility and storage solution that was up to the requirements and demands of the moment, just waiting to be implemented across organizations.

Cloud Computing is an information managing system that set a beforeand after in the way of working, either as an individual or as a company.

By definition it is: “A computer system that is hosted on one or more servers, which can be accessed from any device connected to the network, usually through a web browser. In this way, the resources of this system are kept on-demand, easing fast and secure access to centralized data from anywhere.

It is also know as Virtual Cloud. Users can access all kinds of information quickly and efficiently without the need for dedicating own resources to data storage. All the information, data, documents and even operational processes are kept in a diversified external server, which is independent in a structural level, therefore, users can access information easily from anywhere, thus eliminating the storage concerns and allowing to redirect resources to other business aspects, for example, e-commerce, as well as saving in infrastructure and assets.

We must understand that digital transformation is not just about technology itself, but also the way organizations implement and manage said technology on an organizational culture level, having an agile disposition to drive the necessary changes within the organization and foresee customer needs.

Cloud based services can help improve operations, collaboration and data mining, throught a centralized and reliable way, available on demand. This technology provides a solid outsourced infrastructure to understand customers based on data, in synchrony with both business and consumer needs.

The large amount of data generated today is the basic for understanding and improving processes and Cloud Computing infrastructure preserves and manages said data and processes, such as: RPA, CRM and others, most of them often a fundamental ally for the development of new strategies throughout the company. The key is to scale processes to generate and obtain more and better quality information.

Finally, in this way we can observe that Cloud Computing platforms become an essential tool to carry out digital transformation processes, being a universal solution for all type organization, from the smallest to the largest. When used with creativity and ingenuity to establish omnichannel solutions that meet the needs of each consumer niche.

If this content was interesting for you and you want to know more about how we can help you implement cloud based services at your organization, at Belltech we will be happy to support your Digital Transformation projects, offering you the support and advice you need to accomplish a solution like this. We invite you to submit your contact information at www.belltech.la/contact/ and an agent will contact you in less than 48 hours.

The age of CX opportunities in LATAM

After the strong effects caused by the pandemic and in some cases social movements throughout the americas, we are experiencing a period of profound change. One of the most important regarding in consumer industry is the consumer itself; they experienced the full might of the pandemic and its restrictive measures, from an initial shock caused by the uncertainty and confinements to a quick adaptation to new channels offered by the market in these everchanging circumstances.

Is in this context, and mainly due to imposed social distance measures resulting from the necessity of protecting both consumers and workers that purchase flows through self-service kiosks -which many thought would be adopted fully in a long-term basis- have consolidated as a safe, efficient and easy way to interact with customers in the “new normal”.

The uncertainty caused by the pandemic led to a rapid transformation of consumer habits, prioritizing the use of credit and debit cards and e-wallets as payment methods, encouraging most businesses to adapt and provide a solution, often deploying the aforementioned self-service-kiosks. This is because after the evolution of consumer habits, most of them want fast, hassle-free services, without queues and as clean as possible, both from a health and experience perspective.

In this regard, self-service alternatives growing may be related to more than just the pandemic factor itself but for the recommendations to not handle cash, as it can help spread the virus, thus also demonstrating the grow in card or e-wallet payments.

Likewise, having limited capacity in stores, and the customers desire to avoid queues and crowds has also influenced the preference of consumers for stores that offer self-service checkout, since this payment method can provide a much faster purchase flow for payments o requirements, specially considering that avoiding crowds may be a key aspect for encouraging purchase decision.

Another important point is customization and customer experience; self-service purchases have improved tremendously in their capabilities, not only in hardware capabilities, but also in the overall experience that can be delivered through this terminals, most commercial self-service kiosks will offer the possibility to pay or schedule services in a nicely crafted, easily navigable interface.

According to America-retail.com: “Emerging technologies such as data analytics or artificial intelligence, applied to payment systems, allow us to better understand users and make proposals increasingly adapted to new consumer habits.”

In this way, many opportunities have been created for businesses to implement and promote self-service systems, improving customer experience as a key factor for success today.

Continuing to improve and update self-service systems will be most important to consolidate a digital culture of commerce and consumers, generating in this way new possibilities for brands to connect to their customers and discover new sale opportunities. Without a doubt, the new age of self-service will be one of better relationships between customers and brands, and continuing to pursue this development will be key to achieve success in Customer Experience.

If this content was interesting for you and you want to know more about how to implement Self-service solutions for your business, at Belltech we will be happy to support your Digital Transformation projects, offering you the support and advice you need to accomplish a solution like this. We invite you to submit your contact information at www.belltech.la/contact/  and an agent will contact you in less than 48 hours.

Strategy and vision towards customers

BELLTECH WOMEN LEADERS TELL US ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE.

These are the last days of March and Belltech wishes to end this Women’s month by commemorating this date showcasing its female leaders who have driven growth in the business and commercial planning area of the company. 

On this occasion, we invited Dayana Villalón, Marta Serna, Natalia Armand Pilón and Alejandra Günsche, leaders in the HR, Business and Marketing areas, to tell us about their experience and professional vision within the technology industry, as well as how being a woman has been far from being a negative differentiating element, and has been, on the contrary, a value within the company.

We asked them about the value of women in the area of Business and Commercial Strategy within companies. Dayana Villalón said: “working together with my colleagues has been very enriching. In my role in the HR area, it is important to empower fellow leaders and develop their soft and emotional skills”. In addition, Marta Serna tells us that she has not experienced any gender stereotypes during her professional career “…despite the negative figures in terms of female participation in Latin countries”. She points out that her contribution, just like any other employee’s, it’s based on her personal and professional experience. She has been working in the technology market for 28 years in different roles, which has allowed her to experience business situations from various perspectives. All of them are part of her experience and contribution to the business and strategies of Belltech.

Natalia Armand Pilón adds that: “in a dynamic world that evolves every day and where not only technology is important, but also empathy, I believe that women contribute to companies in general, whether they are from the technology industry or not. Businesses that understand diversity has benefits for the organization achieve greater progress, and I am not saying this myself. There is a lot of research and studies that prove it, and this does not only imply that there is parity in the number of men and women; I am referring to women who are part of the decision making, of the definition of the processes. Belltech in particular is a company that values talent more than gender, and I can say that based on my own experience. What the female presence brings is the ability to empathize, to have a different view, the ability to be in several areas at the same time, and the sensitivity for dealing with particular issues. In terms of negotiation, women go through more stages before closing a deal, I am convinced, and the question concludes, that organizations that understand the value of diversity have tangible increases in productivity, innovation and strengthening of team dynamics. In terms of negotiation, I’m convinced that women go through more stages before closing a deal. So, to summarize, organizations that understand the value of diversity have tangible increases in productivity, innovation and strengthening of team dynamics. Alejandra Günsche concludes: “from a team and management perspective, I believe that we have also been able to contribute to the search for multidisciplinary relationships, by encouraging work with all areas of the company, listening to different positions, points of view, and building consensus strategies without losing sight of the customer. In this way, we have built an area that broke down the base and grew through the value of collaboration”.

Dayana adds that according to Chilean Association of Information Technology Companies (ACTI, according to its acronym in Spanish), “in Chile there is only 5% female participation in IT, and worldwide, according to UNESCO studies on the education of girls and women in STEM (Science – Technology – Engineering and Mathematics), only 35% of students enrolled in these areas of study are women”.

This, in her opinion, “is related to the stereotypes that are still deeply rooted in our Latin American culture”, and she concludes by saying that “many of the jobs of the future that will be incorporated as a result of technological advances will require people that work motivated by objectives and that can mix both technical skills and soft skills. That is why women, who will obviously be part of this transformation as well as men, cannot be left out and will have many possibilities to be successful in these new roles”.

Alejandra shares her vision on the contribution of women in the technology industry: “I am convinced that the complementary thinking structures and skills possessed by men and women are an element of value within enterprises, making it possible to form high-performance teams regardless of the gender of the collaborator. In the technology world in particular, the inclusion of visions from different perspectives will only help to generate more creative processes, to better represent users, and understand the consumer in a better way. By analyzing all the possibilities, we are moving away from gender biases and towards a vision based on professional capabilities”.

Belltech, in this sense, has been incorporating concrete actions and hiring policies that promote gender equity within an industry that has historically been dominated by men. As a result, currently 19% of the company’s payroll is made up of women, of whom one third occupy senior positions within the company.

“…Nowadays we have seen that there are areas with equal numbers of men and women or even a female majority… On the other hand, there are countries in which we have recruited women for the technical area with excellent results, such as Colombia and Uruguay. As part of the process, we measure the personal skills and technical knowledge of the candidate, leaving completely aside whether they are a man or a woman, and we evaluate their fit with our values and their commitment to Belltech. We have equal pay policies, and we developed our salary scales by comparing the same positions in different high-tech companies. Among our values is Respect, as we promote and encourage collaboration, respecting and appreciating the diversity of our team. Our success is based on our teamwork, and thus we achieve common goals. This is where we at Belltech declare our interest in promoting not only diversity, but also inclusion, concepts that go far beyond being a man or a woman”, explains Dayana.

We also asked Marta and Natalia about the main challenges they had had to face in their professional careers, and both told us that they had not experienced great difficulties just because they are women, but rather due to some emotional vicissitudes or external factors. Marta explains that “breaking the glass ceiling”, which are the invisible barriers that must be overcome to ascend to high positions when someone is a woman, is, so to speak, the only impediment she has encountered to achieve her goals and successes so far, with constant and persistent work, ethics, honesty and planning.  Meanwhile, for Natalia, adapting to change is one of the main challenges, “…the speed of technological advances in business models and business paradigms forces you to be in a constant learning mode.” She also tells us about an article she recently read in the New York Times, which said “the speed of technology runs over our brains” …  “thus, artificial intelligence, ML, quantum computing, IOT, blockchain, Business Intelligence, are terms that 5 or 10 years ago seemed only theoretical models and today are a reality present in our daily lives, from deciding the route we will take to go to the office every morning with our smartphones, and the e-commerce shopping catalogs, to the lighting in our cities”. Another challenge is to understand the change in consumers. Today they are more informed, they ask more specific questions, and we must have an omnichannel approach to be able to bring the information to the consumer. Finally, the challenge of achieving a balance between personal and professional life is fundamental. The impact of motherhood on the professional career is a very important factor. Fortunately, more and more companies are creating conditions to reduce these impacts, and understand how important it is for women to achieve a balance between both roles.”

Regarding the challenges we talked about, since the opening of Belltech towards the incorporation of women in the area of technology industry, we asked Marta and Natalia how they perceive the growth and intervention of women in leadership areas in the technology sector. Marta emphasizes that gender equity is an issue that is increasingly addressed in all areas. “When we ask someone to mention leaders in the world of technology, we hear names such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, for example, and we do not hear about Ada Lovelace, who created the first computer program, or Hedy Lamar, co-inventor of WIFI, so we still have a lot to develop and position”. Natalia adds: “the empowerment of women and girls will contribute decisively to progress, so it is essential to support and expand the involvement of women in leadership areas in all types of companies, specifically in the technology sector, which will undoubtedly contribute to generating simpler, more humane and empathetic organizations.”

To conclude this interview, we asked all our leaders to give some advice for the new generations that are beginning to make their way into the world of work, specifically into the area of Technology and Science. Alejandra’s recommendation is that: ”passion and dreaming big are key elements, as well as maintaining determination towards the objective; never taking the dedication factor out of the equation; and finally, living the process to the fullest, by learning from mistakes and enjoying every step forward”. Meanwhile, Marta reminds us of a famous ’80s movie called “Fame”, and draws an analogy between both situations, saying that the message would be: “fame costs’ and if you are really passionate about the world of technology, you must study, learn, and practice persistently, because in the end, the play will be a success”.

Natalia, who also points to the same key elements as Alejandra, namely dreaming and being passionate about work, urges them to go ahead and investigate, specialize and be curious. Natalia adds that: “… it is important to specialize because there are more and more robots that are going to do routine and repetitive jobs, or jobs that provide little value, so it is crucial to learn to do something niche.” “…we should always have an accepting attitude towards technology, so be prepared for constant evolution; and specifically, to women, I would like to say that they don’t have to be perfect, they have to be happy”.

To conclude, Dayana’s recommendation is to ”trust in your skills. This industry is extremely interesting, innovative and is growing by leaps and bounds, therefore, success will not be possible if we do not all work collaboratively”.