Creating Synergy Podcast

#13 - Shayne Harris of Lenovo, on Modernising Today's Workplace Through Technology

September 02, 2020 SynergyIQ
Creating Synergy Podcast
#13 - Shayne Harris of Lenovo, on Modernising Today's Workplace Through Technology
Show Notes Transcript

Shayne Harris is the Asia Pacific Device as a Service Leader at Lenovo and has worked with customers throughout Asia and Australia while being in senior roles in HPE and Australian Cloud providers before continuing his career at Lenovo. Currently, he focuses on enabling customers to continuously evolve and transform by providing strategic direction and insight on how they manage the lifecycle of their technology. He is responsible for the Device as a Service business for the Asia Pacific and works closely with customers to help them transform into a modern workplace.

In this episode, Shayne Harris shares how Lenovo is helping businesses in today’s current environment to modernise the workforce through a new concept that many industries are adopting to become more productive and is a positive influence to employees.

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Daniel Franco:

So welcome to creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco. Today we have Shayne Harris, who is the Australian Pacific practice lead devices as service for Lenovo. Shayne has worked with customers throughout Asia and Australia while being in senior roles in HP and Australian cloud providers before continuing his career at Lenovo. Currently, he focuses on enabling customers to continuously evolve and transform by providing strategic direction, and insight on how they manage the lifecycle of their technology. Shayne is responsible for the device as a service business for the Asia Pacific, and works closely with customers to help them transform into a modern workplace. He's currently where he's based in Australia, currently based in South Australia. Welcome to the show, Shayne, lovely to have you, man.

Shayne Harris:

Thank you, Daniel. Great to be here. Good morning.

Daniel Franco:

So tell us a little bit about your journey to looking after. I mean, you're looking after the Asia Pacific for Lenovo in devices or services. It's a fairly substantial role. Yeah. How are you? How are you going? a? Well tell us how you got there and then be How you going in the current environment?

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, sure. So, you know, spent probably 15 years in the managed services part of the IT industry, so so you know, you're delivering services to customers, you're speaking to them on a regular basis, you become an extended part of their workforce. So you really start to understand in depth how different organizations work and how they deliver IT into their business, and then how they manage the lifecycle of the business. So I spent a lot of time working for some Australian cloud providers, you know, in over the last probably 15 years, and then came into Lenovo about five years ago to help set up a business that they acquired from IBM. And over the course of time. Over the last five years, they I think Lenovo strategically realized how important the services component of IT was, and helping organizations deliver and manage technology. So there was an opportunity to help kind of grow that part of their business. So I jumped straight into that, obviously a fantastic opportunity to get into a part of the industry that is growing and evolving really quickly. And you're helping organizations that, you know, focus on their, their particular market, while we focus on our particular market and our strength. So that's that's kind of how I jumped into it. And how I found myself here today, really,

Daniel Franco:

so device as a service, is that what's that look like? What is that all

Shayne Harris:

laptops, hardware, everything that's involved with that, what is pretty much it's so you just you take, say, as an example, a large organization, their traditional way of buying IT for their employees to use to do their work, and for them to be productive. So taking that really traditional model and applying the Netflix of how you do that to that traditional model. So delivering end user compute and technology and devices, laptops, everything to an organization as a service. So you know, the, from the procurement of that technology through to the delivery of it, and the management of the lifecycle, taking it away from the user and replacing it as well, refreshing it, you know, as an organization, you can imagine, as you as a new employee, it's never seamless, getting no, you know, a laptop into your hands that you can turn on and start working. Yeah. And then obviously, you know, as you as that technology gets old, you know, supporting it, so you can continue to be productive. So, so effectively, devices and services doing that on behalf of an organization, you know, getting getting a device into the hands of an employee that they can turn on and start working straightaway. And then delivering a really positive and productive support experience throughout the lifecycle of that device. So they can they get a positive user experience and so they can be productive, and then helping them retire that asset as well and replace it. You know, you can imagine after three years technology changes so much these days that you know, people want to Want to be using the latest technology all the time? So we help organizations replace and refresh that technology as well.

Daniel Franco:

So just in regards to assess really cool the Netflix, like Uber type service? Is it something that a lot of people a lot of businesses are looking into? Right? Yeah.

Shayne Harris:

And is there a size limit for these businesses? But not it's not really that there's not really a specific site? It's any any business really, that? You know, procures delivers and manages your end user devices? for their employees? We can do that on their behalf Really?

Daniel Franco:

So I'm a I'm a government organization in South Australia, Australia, we're anywhere in the Asia Pacific. Really? Yeah, we got a big corporate company, I come to you, Shayne, and say, Hey, mate, we were sick of buying our own computers and laptops and hardware and whatever. We don't want to look after anymore. Can you guys do it for us? Is that essentially how it Yeah,

Shayne Harris:

effectively, the other part of it is, it's an asset that sits on that organization's books, you know, and most, most organizations don't see any benefit in that asset sitting on on their p&l. Yeah, so so we will like a Netflix or, or an Uber or you know, that those those companies that are really evolving and leading the way the market is performing, any market is performing today, we're just delivering that as a service, instead of them buying the asset themselves. And using it, we'll just give it to them to use for the three years that they would traditionally use it, take it off and replace it, and then manage the, you know, manage the lifecycle of that device as well. So it just means that there's some really interesting options to come out of, you know, delivering that asset to an end user where they can turn around and start working straight away. Yeah, you can imagine the overhead internally to a large organization to procure something new. For a new employee, it never never happens on time, usually. So you can imagine the impact to an organization where a new employees potentially sitting around for a few days waiting for that to be ready. And then when they do turn it on, there's a whole lot of stuff they have to try and do to before they can actually start working and start being productive. So our goal really is we help organizations to become more productive by giving them say, a technology that the employees use, like when they turn it on, they can start working and start being productive straightaway.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. Is there a benefit in the end, like, you know, technology grows old, really quickly, I guess it's so it'd be a big benefit, that they could just upgrade consistently. And constantly,

Shayne Harris:

we see a lot of benefits like that for organizations that start to use this model. First off, there's a significant overhead in our business that gets taken away from procuring, delivering and managing that technology. So it means that, you know, those those internal people that are have that overhead that gets taken away from them can then start to use all of that additional time and resources that they potentially have on something that's relevant to their business. Yeah, something that potentially is revenue generating for their business or is more motivating for staff as well. So one, they become a more of an asset to the organization they work for, because they're focused on something that is relevant to that organization. But secondly, we find the the other kind of indirect benefit is that those those employees are more motivated, they're, you know, their cx scores are higher, because they're doing something that is interesting to them, they're doing something that is related to the business that they work in, as well. So they find themselves, they see higher value in themselves, because they're delivering something that's important to the business.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, there's nothing worse going into a new business, you'd like to get a new job, you get one a new computer, and you get given this old recycled thing, it comes from three or four years again,

Shayne Harris:

and technology, new technology is being released faster and faster. You know, and so, so people want to use the latest technology. And so this this model actually helps organizations refresh their technology in a more consistent manner. But it means that they have the ability to to consume new technology more regularly as well. So it it becomes a a talent acquisition piece for a business to say, Hey, we, you know, we, we refresh our technology on a more regular basis, we're able to give you better technology more consistently. So it becomes a talent acquisition piece, but it also becomes a talent retention piece as well. You know, people enjoy working there because they get they get access to great technology, they also get access to proactive support of that technology as well. If something goes wrong, you know, they can they can be continuously productive is a term that we use, you know, and that that becomes really important to organizations that have employees that can work consistently. Ongoing, even when their technology fails, and anything that has power in it, we know will fail at some stage but see ability to replace that technology or properly support it so they can continue working.

Daniel Franco:

So interesting situation is when we talked about the management of that device and how those people the labor, I guess, that are working with those devices can now concentrate on new things. Yeah. Is it removing that job altogether?

Shayne Harris:

That's that's so the the biggest challenge that we have in in talking to organizations about how this works, reduction, they think it's it's a it's an it's an outsource, and it's not really an outsource at all. It's it's about realigning that organization, so they can be more focused on their core business and not not a back office function that adds no value, because

Daniel Franco:

it's a mundane role looking after low value tasks,

Shayne Harris:

sometimes highly manual that don't, that are not meaningful to that particular business. So whether the the technology manufacturers so you know, we have a very good understanding of that technology, how it works, the loss cycle, and so forth. So, and we can do it at scale on behalf of that organization. So what we see happens is that those people that are currently doing those tasks that are low value, they stopped doing them. And it means that they can effectively you can almost say, turn 180 degrees and start being an asset to their to their business doing something that's meaningful and relevant to their business.

Daniel Franco:

When you say you can do it on large scale, whether you keep or like, let's say you sign up every major corporate in Australia, for example, everyone's using Netflix, I guess that's a goal for you guys, you'd have your KPIs. Let's say you meet your KPIs. Where's all this stuff coming from? Is it all from overseas? Is it Do you have a warehouse aware is Lenovo in Australia?

Shayne Harris:

So Lenovo in Australia is effectively what we would say is a sales and marketing organisation in Australia. We don't, then no, there's no manufacturing capability here. But there's a large sales and services. Part of our organization resides in Australia to service Australia and New Zealand effectively. Lenovo is is the number one device manufacturer in the world. Currently,

Daniel Franco:

for beating up on Samsung,

Shayne Harris:

number one. HP is the number two HP Dell number three. Yeah, well, yeah, so it worldwide we're number one in Asia Pacific, we are close to just behind hp. But a lot of a lot of people probably don't know, Lenovo. But as soon as you as soon as you say you talk about the ThinkPad branding with the red dot, and that's when everyone recognizes who they are. So very, very, very long history. A lot of people would think it's a Chinese business and large heritage in China, and a lot of our manufacturing is from China, but it's very much a global organization headquartered out of so

Daniel Franco:

it is a Chinese started business.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it was started probably 3030 plus years ago, it was the the device or the end user technology of the laptop technology was acquired off of IBM about 15 years ago. And that's, that's when they truly become a became a global organization. So headquartered in about 170, companies, countries around the world. Yeah, so really fantastic reach, we've got about 56,000 employees around the world. So you know, a true global organization, to going back to the businesses with the device as a service product. So I'm an everyday employee within a business typing away on my computer blue screen, right? Yeah, who

Daniel Franco:

do I call do I call you guys or do you manage that piece as well? Or do we can or does it is that where the IT within the business still comes into play

Shayne Harris:

definitely still can come into play, I think the one of the great things that I love about how we we do this is that we work really closely and seamlessly with IT to understand where the value is. So, in a lot of cases, what we do with organizations is turn their their IT divisions into more of a customer service facing component of the business. So traditionally, you know, IT is thought of as the sitting in the backroom and and, you know, fixing things and keeping the lights on what we do do is help organizations or the IT part of an organization become that that customer centric component of technology within their business and we just provide that support function behind them. So it really does shine a light on the IT people within their organization that you know, back to that call that someone would make it potentially will come straight through to us. You know, we've got a lot of capability in most countries around the world where you can, you can we can provide that Support direct to the end user. But in most cases, we will, we will make the internal IT organizations that frontline. So they become that that, you know, first point of contact and we shine a light on and we provide that support behind them.

Daniel Franco:

So if I'm if I'm getting five new starters next week, what does that look like from from your perspective? Is it something that does the stock on hand that you give these these businesses to stock already? Or is it something that they need to order in? And what's the turnaround times? How does that sort of work? Because, you know, delays, currently, especially with shipping at the moment and the way things work? Absolutely,

Shayne Harris:

yeah. So we, obviously we work really closely with with organizations we're delivering and managing this, this technology for them. So, you know, we become an extension of, of not just their IT, part of their business, but their whole business. So we're, we're consistently working to understand rolling forecasts for them. So really important part of what we do for some large organizations today is manage manage their their graduate intake programs. And sometimes they're into financial year requirements as well, where it's a really short term requirement that a business has to be able to scale up quickly, with a lot of people coming in to perform a really specific function for that business. And the challenges that traditionally these businesses have is that how do we, how do we give them a piece of technology to effectively do their work for a short period of time, without wasting a lot of money on technology unnecessarily, because that person is going to come into the business and work three or six months, and then and then leave again, you know, the business scales back down. Same with a graduate intake room. So what our model allows organizations to do is, is kind of flex up their technology to be able to meet those requirements for new people coming into the business, whether it's graduates or seasonal workforce or otherwise. And then when those when those people exit the business, they hand the technology back to us, and they effectively stop paying for it as well. So it really becomes but you know, almost that consumption model, you know that that Netflix model where you're just paying for what you use when you use

Daniel Franco:

it, it's brilliant, how business is taking a lot of companies working with it at the moment is going well for you guys. It's going for well, for them, I should say,

Shayne Harris:

yeah, look, especially in the current climate, with with COVID organisations are seeing huge benefits in it, because a lot of organizations are needing to right size their business on the back of the impact of COVID

Daniel Franco:

whether it is a reduction in headcount, is it? Well,

Shayne Harris:

it's not we're saying some we're seeing some organizations blow up. Yeah, that's true. You know, it's been growing really significant in both directions. You know, fortunately, for some businesses, unfortunately, for others, but I think this model allows organizations, you know, the result of COVID is some workforces have had to be reduced. So those organizations that are under this model already have been able to hand back technology and effectively stop paying for, for that technology. So it's, it's, it's been a positive part of, you know, a negative situation for for organizations where they've had to make some workforce reductions because of the current climate, but you know, they've been able there, because they're under this model, they've been able to respond to that changing climate, you know, and that the financial implications of doing so have been reduced as well. So it's, it's not ideal that that had to happen to some organizations, but the positive part of it is that you know, we've helped them get through that a little bit easier as well, which is, which is a great thing to be able to do.

Daniel Franco:

Taking like Lenovo or putting Lenovo aside and any other sort of it based company. device company, Netflix when you looked at Netflix 10 15 years ago, you might have looked at it and you know, the video is he was around which is probably the current model Yeah, of the way we work in in the Netflix then took off away seeing that happen now with device as a service as a product around the world. Companies is thinking, actually, this is the future I'm gonna get on board is if fast movers, slow movers all that or is it is it generally well received? I guess,

Shayne Harris:

it's we're seeing it in every in every industry starting to deliver, you know, traditionally what they've always gone to market with, they're looking at how they, how they apply a consumption model to that or how they deliver it as a service. And so the businesses that have successfully been able to do that they've transformed themselves already and I've identified the the things that are core to their business so they should keep doing and things that aren't core to their business like delivering and managing technology. They will, they won't outsource they will they'll let someone who is you know, very good at doing it. And focused on that they will let that let them do that on their behalf. And it means that they, they free up resources to be able to focus on what is core to their business. And it means that they can become more successful. So we're seeing a really interesting transformation in different markets where in order for them to be delivering what is core to their business as a service, they also need to transform themselves to be able to do that. And those they start consuming things that aren't core to their business, as a service. So it's, it's having a lot of flow on effects to a lot of different organizations, to help them continue to be successful in the market.

Daniel Franco:

So you think this is going to this will be the way of the future?

Shayne Harris:

Definitely. That's, you know, the the the industry analysts saying it, and it's not just specific to our industry, you're always delivering what we get as a service, it's

Daniel Franco:

going in the direction of, there is no reason why you couldn't do this on an individual level. Why would anyone spend $2,000 on a laptop when they could just hire it for 30 bucks a month? You know, they already are rentals, type it lease out whatever it might be, is that something that companies are looking to as well? Or is that then just become such a behemoth of management and to manage that scale is

Shayne Harris:

it becomes it becomes easier at scale, at that, at that level becomes a little bit more complex to be able to individually be able to properly support, but it's definitely at scale where it makes a lot of sense.

Daniel Franco:

So that there is an opportunity to move into that space. So recently,

Shayne Harris:

I think so definitely. You know, we definitely have that opportunity to deliver technology as a service to consumers, everyone. Yeah, it's just the level of flexibility around what they want, what they want, and how it's managed. And whether you can hand it back or not at a particular time.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. What do you do with the product after when you get it back?

Shayne Harris:

Well, that the reality is, technology is relevant for it becomes relevant for a longer period of time, because it's very when it's well manufactured. And I think that's that's the key component for us is we work closely with other parts of the industry where they see value in refurbish technology, that you know, there's there's

Daniel Franco:

don't just chuck it in the bin. Absolutely. recycle it.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, definitely. There's, there's, there's a lot of laws, not just in Australia, but around the world around how technology is disposed off.

Daniel Franco:

because it'd be all information, especially government augs. Very, very strict. Yeah. And that's, that's

Shayne Harris:

a, that's a really interesting point that you raised is the way that technology is retired, there's such a significant overhead to organizations around how they retire and asset you because there's so much confidential data on these things. You know, how does a business effectively make sure that that data doesn't get exposed when that device gets sold, or retired or sits in a cupboard? gathering dust? Yeah, you know that it's an asset that sits on the business's books. So, you know, when when a business attempts to try and retire an asset, there's, you know, there's impacts to business finance NIT, there's so such a significant overhead to doing it? And then how do they make sure that they securely destroy all of the data that's on there that's highly confidential for that business and they definitely don't want that getting out. So that's a really important part of what we do we help organizations retire and refresh their technology and retiring it. So properly destroying the data that's on there, so no one else has access to it. And then to, you know, to your point, as well, what do you do with that technology? When there's no, there's no value to using it anymore? It has to be properly disposed of efficiently disposed of and, and done in a in a green manner as well? Yeah, there's a fairly significant cost.

Daniel Franco:

That was where I was going with the question is environmentally, you're doing the right thing.

Shayne Harris:

That's that's a, you know, there's there's a, you know, sustainability and, and making sure that we are environmentally meeting all of, you know, the world's requirements is is really high on our list of priorities. And I think that's, that's a really important part of what we do. There's, you can't work with organizations today, unless you you're doing the right thing. Yeah. from an environmental perspective, and from a sustainability side,

Daniel Franco:

as well. You'd be all over your website, your policies and everything like that, and people will hold you to account or I would dare say so. Definitely. And

Shayne Harris:

even though we're delivering this as a service organizations want to know what's you know that what is happening to that technology when it is retired?

Daniel Franco:

Or if especially if it's got their confidential I mean, this day and age with cloud? Is it as simple as that?

Shayne Harris:

It's funny because a lot of it's interesting you mentioned that because most organizations have moved towards storing organization data. Out in the cloud, but we find, and I'm guilty, and I'm sure you're probably guilty of it as well, you know, you still use your device, you've got your kids photos on there, you've got sports photos, you've probably got videos you watch on the plane, you've also still got worked out of it's local to your device as well. So there's still an element of managing how you move that from your old device to a new device as well, which is a fairly significant overhead that you don't think of at the time until it's time to, you know, replace your device. All these little things end up becoming costs that businesses don't recognize

Daniel Franco:

Worst, full time employees that they need to manage this sort of thing, as opposed to, and then with that, you get your annual leaves and your sick leaves and your time offs, and long services and all that, whereas you can kind of remove that with one I'm an advocate, advocate for creating jobs, but the way the world's going, it's those lower, more mundane work jobs that we're going to see that are going to get taken over. And this is probably just one of those examples, isn't it Really?

Shayne Harris:

Well, you know, it's, it's predominantly because we can do it at scale? Yeah, we do very well. So we're finding, So small business, is this an option? for them? there's some really interesting things that happen. On the back of delivering this to two organizations, they, they get a really consistent experience from their from their technology. So we're seeing organizations under this model, they have their internal cx scores, or NPS scores or, you know, the, I guess the motivation levels and cx customer experience, customer experience mpsa internal customer experience, NPS is just a way to, to score that. So that we're finding that organizations under this model, their internal cx scores are really high. Now, as an example, one of our, you know, large customers in Australia, when they first went onto this model, their internal cx scores were around about 77 78. And now they consistently sit at 92 93. And a lot of that is because of the consistent way that technology good technology is delivered into their organization to keep them productive. And that's the second part of where they're seeing some significant changes is the level of productivity in, in their organization, you know, it's increased substantially, because I've got good technology that they're using. But secondly, we can help them be continuously productive, if if it breaks, we can replace it, we can fix it really quickly, they can hand it back and stop using it and stop paying for it. So some really good side effects of this model that organizations don't take into account when they first go down this path, you know, the, the primary objective is removing some overhead from the business and removing a level of cost from the business. And they soon find that there's some, you know, some qualitative factors that, that come into delivering the second solution to organizations. Yeah. Definitely, definitely.

Daniel Franco:

And when I say small, I'm talking 10 plus 510. Plus? Or is it? Are you talking 100? You know, 100? Plus?

Shayne Harris:

No, I think that there's definitely opportunity to for this to be delivered as a service, you know, we find that the smaller companies of that size, usually have a really close relationship with a local it business that's doing some of some of this already. So in most cases, we will, we'll just work with those it businesses to help them help support. You know, I think it's really important. We, you know, Lenovo is a partner organization. So we support, you know, it partners around the world. And I think it's really important for those it partners to be servicing, you know, small and medium business around around Australia around the world. So we we provide us, what's the product we

Daniel Franco:

have, we're always thinking about, should we keep on buying computers? What are we doing? Actually, this is not one that we want, you know, you buy one, and then it doesn't suit the person that it's using? Yeah, they need something with a bit more grant and you've just spent two grand on his laptop. And so yeah, even for us as a, you know, relatively very small business. It's

Shayne Harris:

something that Yeah, pricked my ears out when we were talking about it the other day, I was just like, hang on this this could be very useful for us growing as a growing business to it is I mean, if you think about a lot of things that all organizations, whether they're large or not, don't take into consideration is the amount of change in the the technology during you know, during the life of it, I employee might leave after 12 months, you know, what, what do you do with the technology that we're using there? There's an overhead to the business managing that internally. Yep. So you know, where is that asset, who's got it, what's on it? So we do that on their behalf and again, all that is doing is removing an overhead unnecessary overhead from the business and helping them become a little bit more efficient.

Daniel Franco:

So you give the devices that come loaded with all the bells and whistles, or is that something that the business will need to take care of?

Shayne Harris:

No, that's, that's, that's a really key part of what we're doing for organizations. So the goal is to, for us to be able to deliver a, say a laptop and any kind of device to the their employee that is ready for them to use straightaway. So effectively, we deliver the device to them, they turn it on, and they can start working straightaway.

Daniel Franco:

Okay, with all the company's encrypted stuff. Yeah.

Shayne Harris:

All the all the required application requirements that that business has

Daniel Franco:

even even low 365. But just the basics,

Shayne Harris:

yeah, yeah, just absolutely everything, they need to start working immediately and start being productive in that organization. So that's the goal. And the goal is to do that without any overhead to their business in delivering in and that that asset. So it's removing, it's removing an overhead to the business, and it's it's helping that employee become productive straightaway.

Daniel Franco:

That's brilliant. What are you seeing in the current environment? With COVID? how businesses are responding with with their IT technology and, and even just trying to modernize their businesses and reduce costs? Are you seeing really big shift? In thought process?

Shayne Harris:

definitely seeing a big shift we're seeing the the beginning was that when that year, probably February, March, organizations really had to figure out how to mobilize their workforce, how do we get people working from home and being able to be productive while they're working from home? So a fairly significant challenge for most organizations to be able to do that, because it's not something that most organizations have really taken too seriously. There are some people that in industries that work from home, but you know, the lion's share, go into an office and work? Yeah, so we're the beginning of it, we're helping organizations to try and mobilize their workforce. And then I guess, future proof that concept, so then they could have that workforce, you know, working from somewhere ongoing, and I think a lot of organizations have got to the point where they've realized most of our workforce is going to be working from one of three locations ongoing in the future, either from home from the office, or from a customer site that so what we've been doing is trying to help organizations mobilize their workforce, so they can more effectively work from anywhere, at any time. So that that's that was the initial key, I think, the second wave was really the impact of mobilizing the workforce that really kind of wet came back into the, the more of the central functions of it, you know, the data center side of it, how what's the impact of that workforce now being, you know, remotely distributed? I think organizations really had to try and get a handle on that pretty quickly. And, you know, technologies such as Microsoft Teams, and zoom, you know, those, those things are quite easily to start using. But then do you have all the underpinning technology to be able to support that so, you know, your employees can effectively use it from home as well. So a lot of organizations had some challenges I had to solve really quickly. And I think that was that was our goal was to try and help them solve saving challenges.

Daniel Franco:

working from home. Just a simple thing. Some people have less equality internet connections, right. So trying to deal with teams call that just legs as opposed to someone else in the team and the frustrations that come with their it. What do you think the future outlook looks like for for the workforce? I guess, especially when it comes to technology?

Shayne Harris:

I think most most organizations will do exactly that set up their workforce so they can they can effectively work from home

Daniel Franco:

maybe a couple of days a week. Is it as if they are working from home then is it the work? Is it the business's responsibility to upgrade their internet connection? Put them on NBN or whatever it might be? Or is it up to the individual? to do that?

Shayne Harris:

It's a good question. I think you know, there's got to be a level of support from the organization and we're seeing the demand for a lot of what we manufacture shift as well. So a lot of supporting technology to second screens or your you know devices that they can effectively what you would have historically seen in a meeting room at your office. A lot of people are looking for webcams yeah basic device that they can set up at home to to turn their to turn their living room or their dining room or a spare bedroom into a you know, into a meeting room during the day. So we're seeing a huge shift in The way people consume technology but the type of technology that they want to use as well. So they can be effective. Yeah. From heart. Absolutely. It's a massive paradigm shift. And I think that's organizations are going to be letting their employees work from home ongoing into the future. So we, you know, organizations need to be able to support and empower their people to be able to work from home.

Daniel Franco:

Yeah, even the other day I was, I was, I got told that my camera wire or my Surface Pro, sorry, I don't use Lenovo. Was was wasn't the best, which is interesting, because I thought it was supposed to be good. But anyway. And I had that comment come through a few times and I went down to the office works, I'll buy a webcam, it's better anyway. Because I can change change camera angle, people don't want to see that sort of thing. And the place was completely wiped out, wiped out all the all the webcams were gone. Yeah. All the extra screens was so everything was just sold out. Like it's amazing. These retailers, I guess, they they're selling so and everyone is now adopted, I've got friends who are saying we don't even think our businesses even like we're talking Westpac is, we don't even need to consider going back anytime soon, when they're happy for us to work maybe even to the end of the year. Right. Yeah, I don't know that for if it's gonna say the end of the year, but there are companies that are doing it, where's that yet work for home till this is all sort of boiled over? Yeah. By then. I don't actually believe that people will be going back into the offices, I think here like when I when I say that, I don't think there'll be, there will be an expectation to come back into the office, unless they're, you know, mandatory meeting or whatever it might be.

Shayne Harris:

I don't think so I think people will want to go back into the office, though not not full time. But I think this one even going positive out of this is that there'll be more of a balance between home and the office. Most of your most employees will just go back into the office when they need to or when they want to as well, because that's the that's the missing element for me in in all of this is that you know that face to face. We even interact with your customers or with with your fellow employees as well. There's only there's only so many teams or zoom meetings you can do before you start to get registered, some fatigue meeting fatigue. So I think

Daniel Franco:

last minute personal chat, it doesn't really feel like me, because you can just go up to someone's desk, have a chat, general conversation, hey, what do you think about this call, whereas if it's a team's it's generally scheduled, you don't know me, although I call Gabs, I just push the button and I just say, Gabs, we just chat all day long. But it's, yeah, for most people, that is a registered meeting. Yeah, on that, though, moving back. So we are all going back, let's take the take the idea that we are moving back to the office and paper businesses, and they're gonna bring their people back to three days a week, whatever it is, even if it's five days, now they're going to have these businesses have been forced to buy or all this excess stuff, extra screens, mouse pads, whatever it might be for home, then all of a sudden, they're going to come back to the office, and there's also extra stuff there as well. There's gonna be double up and all this extra hardware or is there is it more than they took whatever was in work? And I took it?

Shayne Harris:

No, I think I think a lot of organizations had already got to a relatively modern workplace over the last five years where, you know, that traditional model where everyone has a desk in the office, where they work he has has mostly gone it's it's, you know, the I guess the old term is hot desk, which is where anyone can work walk in, and you know, and

Daniel Franco:

work at your mouse and everything.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, so I think the the, the what, what's happened is the the home, your home has become an extension of that. And I think that that's what's going to be the norm ongoing is that, you know, you can work in potentially one of three places, either home, the office or customer site. And the ability to be able to do that is the most important thing. And I think that's where the technology that you're using and you've got in your hands, that becomes really relevant and really important to be able to, you know, roll up to any one of those three places and be productive, ongoing, that's, that's effectively Our goal is to is to support the employee to be productive and to make sure that they're you know, they're they're happy doing their job with the technology that they've got in their hand.

Daniel Franco:

How has this affected you as in in your role in Asia Pacific role travel and all Yeah,

Shayne Harris:

obviously, obviously, my roles in Asia Pacific one so I you know, spend a bit of time traveling throughout Asia, that's non existent at the moment. So again, for me, the biggest The biggest challenge has to really is one that that human connection, you between, between my colleagues around Asia, you know, you really need that, especially in Asia, I think there's so many different cultures. And we're all very different as well. And I think most language barriers disappear when you're face to face, it's a lot easier to effectively communicate with people face to face when you from different from different backgrounds in different cultures. So I think doing that over, you

Daniel Franco:

get the mannerisms, then from there,

Shayne Harris:

absolutely, you know, the nonverbal communication part of it, it's so important, and you know, you just this, it's made me realize how important that human connection prior to working with different people is. So that's, that's the challenge. The second, the second challenge for me really is that that meeting fatigue part, you know, I find that, that that bit, that's become a real thing. And interestingly enough, I've got a friend that lives and works in Melbourne, who is also an Asia Pacific resource. And he, he gave me a really a really interesting tip that I'll share. So historically, before this all came into play, you would you would book a meeting to see a customer and you know, you would have traveled time, 30 minutes before, 30 minutes after. And so most people would block that out in their calendar. So now that everyone's working from home, most people don't block that out. And that that is a really legitimate way that people starting to see meeting fatigue, because they just have back to back meetings all day. So he's continued to do that blog 30 minutes out for before and after each meeting, and it gives you a time a chance to, you know, to, to prepare for the meeting, first and foremost. And then, you know, like a self debrief after the meeting, and it gives you an opportunity to prepare, so for the next meeting, as well and give yourself a bit of a buffer. So I just thought that was such a good team. Awesome tip.

Daniel Franco:

I use that. We use HubSpot as CRM, yeah. And we have the meeting bookings, and you can kalindi in an office do their own version of as well, yeah, you know, you can put your book your times I've set I've actually set that by meeting times with 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after. So doing that already, but unconsciously, because it was like that before. And it is it is amazing how much need even if you just want to you know, toilet break, you know, go for a quick walk outside, get some breath of fresh air, you know, have a coffee, whatever it might be dog outside a quick phone call, whatever it might be. Yep. It is definitely, definitely God's in the extra break before and after.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah. And again, it leads into productivity as well, the amount of meetings that you you're on where people run into the meeting five minutes late, and it's not their fault. It's just the fact that meetings have become back to back or one they're not prepared to they haven't had a chance to, you know, to debrief from the last meeting, I haven't had some personal time to get a drink or go to the toilet or anything. So they're not, when when people are coming into the meetings late, they're not focused on the known topic. So you just end up wasting time. So I think it's such a great idea to do. And you're almost not present in the sense that if you've come off a relatively difficult meeting, and you're moving into the next one, you're probably still thinking about so you know that just that debrief time Yeah, is huge. Yeah, we

Daniel Franco:

also we haven't done a previous podcast with a guy by the name of Roy Parlier, where he's a return to work specialist and the exercise physiologist where he helps people with their movement and whatnot, it gets him back into work. He does a lot of work with return to work essay, and yada, yada, yada. He was saying that that 30 minute, just get up away from your desk, go for a walk, do something has to be every two hours, you have to get up for half an hour, a few days, because you wouldn't do that anyway, within the Office. Generally, when you get up, go for toilet breaks, visits, for coffee go down. So I get a coffee. Some people go for the smoke, not that we're promoting or promoting that. But it's the actual fact that you actually just get up and you're moving. Yeah. Whereas when you are at your desk, and you get the back the back team meetings all day long. It's you have a lot of problems with your body and your posture and everything when you get when we're done with this. And he was sort of saying that's what we're going to see. Yeah, going back to the businesses amazing conversation, most people haven't actually really thought about it.

Shayne Harris:

Now I agree. And the other piece that I think is really important is the balance between work and life with most people having to work from home. It's a it's already a challenge or you know, just injecting yourself into your traditional home life. But a really important part of that is making sure that you can try and keep that balance and not all of a sudden be working another 10 or 15%. And we're seeing that a lot but we're seeing organizations are really proactively supporting their workforce to make sure that they do have a work life balance and yeah, and that That's a really important part of making sure that, you know, people continue to be, you know, work positively. Yeah. Life part two,

Daniel Franco:

one of the absolute keys to productivity is rest. Yeah. And sleep. And people just think that needs to happen. And rest doesn't need to mean, you know, kick your feet up and watch a Netflix movie can mean you know, going for a walk, doing going, you know, if I know you, they're 45 doing 45 or you're doing some exercise program or anything that you can just get up and get that blood moving and flowing. Yeah. Like, that's also rest, because it's, it's rest from your everyday thinking the monotony of the work life, I

Shayne Harris:

guess. Yeah. And it's and it's, it's mental rest as well. It is stopping and doing something else. Yeah, it's Yeah, it's it's the it's the it's really important.

Daniel Franco:

So one last question. In regards to that. I've I'm interested in the future of what the IT will looks like. We're very much future. So I guess I'm thinking is that if you guys got anything, you just think on the books is there? What do you what are some big changes? Like I know, this ITC, devices or services is great to growing thing? Is there anything else that sort of that you've sort of, you've been wowed? I mean, you travel the world. And you see some of the best technologies, what's something on the horizon that you've been wowed by?

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, there's everything, everything that the we're doing is which our love is is focused on smart. So as an example, smart IoT, smart, retail, smart cities, smart infrastructure, so better connections between people and technology, and a more, making sure that the businesses that we're working with, we're trying to help them solve their problems. So that that's a really important part of what we do. I think, as an example, we're really strong in in the space of supercomputers. And effectively, all a supercomputer is is a large computer that can crunch a large amount of data in near real time. Now, the reason that's important is for people that are doing research in trying to solve particular problems around it could be droughts or health. Yeah. Trying to find a solution for COVID. You know, how do we how do we properly support that? So a lot of what Lenovo is doing is working closely with organizations to understand the problems they're trying to solve, and then coming up with a technology technology to support that. So I think that that, for me is a really important part of what we're doing the IoT piece.

Daniel Franco:

So internet of things for those Yeah, Internet of Things, you know, what can you explain that, you know, in a nutshell,

Shayne Harris:

so it's it's basically providing getting devices, anything and everything to be connected to the internet, so you can share that data and make your last or potentially a little bit easier, a little bit more efficient, a little bit fuller,

Daniel Franco:

make your life easier, everyone we think I was gonna, that has a power cord is going to be

Shayne Harris:

a really, really simple example is say, a fridge. You know, most fridges now have an internet connection where they they understand to a certain level, what goes into the fridge and they can connect back into your local supermarket to potentially for you know, food or anything that is running out, you know, so whether you go to the supermarket and just collect what has been ordered on your behalf by your fridge, or, or it gets delivered

Daniel Franco:

by the fridge like that. get burned out pretty quickly.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's a that's a it's a simple example. But you know, cars as well. Oh, yeah, that's, that's another really, really

Daniel Franco:

you can turn someone was telling me I've got won't go into it. But you can turn on an app in the app, you can just turn on like that. I know, this might sound a bit bit flippant, but you can turn on the steering wheel heater through your app. I didn't know you

Shayne Harris:

turn the heat on your seat. Yeah, exactly. Before you get in the car, when you wake up as an early morning exerciser, definitely, you can turn the engine on for your car from from your app. So there's so many real world applications, either helping the consumer with, you know, with their life or or helping large organizations solve some of the, you know, serious challenges that they have as well. So I think the smart component of of what we're doing is really interesting. And it's evolving really quickly, I think,

Daniel Franco:

yeah, well, and so the supercomputers that AI as well as to help. Yeah,

Shayne Harris:

artificial intelligence is a really important part of it. I think the for me, where I see so much of the benefit is in that the research part, you know, a lot of research organizations and universities that do such an important part of, you know, finding cures for different challenges that we see around the world that that I think is the really interesting piece. How we're helping them, you know, find those cures a little bit quicker, and a little bit more efficiently. So I think that that's, that's where we, we have a catch line internally that says we were helping. We're helping customers solve humanity's greatest challenges. And I think a good purpose. Yeah, it it sounds a bit fluffy, but it's definitely real. And it's such a lot of amazing examples where Lenovo is supporting with, say,

Daniel Franco:

your client of yours comes up with the cure for COVID. Right, your technologies help them develop that. That's, that's exciting. Yeah. Is that are you working with companies that are you?

Shayne Harris:

know, I mean, in the US we're working with, with a couple of universities to help solve significant drought issues that they have. So predicting weather patterns, and overlaying that with farming methodologies around where they plant their crops, and when they plant their crops as well. So again, bringing data from different industry verticals, and merging it together to understand how they can, how farmers, as an example, can avoid plant planting where there's going to be a drought, you know, so it's helping industries become a little bit more sustainable and a little bit more efficient and effective as well. And again, I think it makes make sure that, you know, the farming industry as well, you know, they can continue to do what they love doing. And that's, you know, being a farmer. So I think there's so many examples like that, where, you know, the collection of data at large scale, and then merging it together for, you know, a real outcome is, is is becoming an important part of what we do.

Daniel Franco:

So cool.

Shayne Harris:

Yeah, there's a million examples. Yeah.

Daniel Franco:

Well, we won't keep you much longer now you've got to shoot off to meaning after this. So good. There's been great joy. Thank you. I do like to ask a few little quickfire questions at the end. Okay. Yeah, I did. You don't know. You don't know to be consumer of podcasts, you may not have heard something you may not have be prepared for this, which is kind of cool. Are you a big reader? And if you are, what is your favorite book? Like? We talk a lot about books on these podcasts. And people are sharing ideas about what they can read what they can't read fiction, nonfiction, that doesn't really matter. But what is something that you you look on to and go? Yeah, that's, and if it's not a book, or a documentary, or a TED talk, or something like that, but you've gone well, I've learned, or I've gained from experience, definitely.

Shayne Harris:

I'm a big, big, big book reader. Great. I've, I've kind of moved from not really the self help books, but you know, the motivational how to how to kind of consistently improve, yeah, how you're doing things. So I've moved from that. And I found myself reading books, where it focuses on interesting people in history and how they changed industries or change people's thinking disrupted and why they did why they did that specifically. So I found myself the last couple of books that I've been reading have been focused really on, on history. And yeah, those disruptors in history and how they've changed the legal ones. Off the top of my head, I can't think of the book that I'm reading the name of the book that I'm reading at the moment, but it's, I should I should, I should I should have come prepared. Yeah.

Daniel Franco:

Is there a book that you've gifted? So if someone has come to you in a lot of people would come to you and say, Shane, you know, grow my career, I want to move up the ranks a little bit. what's what's the general books that you might recommend to them too?

Shayne Harris:

Good. It's a good question. Well, Nova has actually got a book on culture. Yeah. That our chief culture officer wrote, she's been she's been in the Lenovo for 15 plus years. And it's literally a book as when you start in the organization is good. Yeah, and it's not, it's not really specific to Lenovo. It's more around what you know, what is culture? And why is culture so important to a business? And, you know, what, what makes culture? What makes a business successful based on on culture? So I think that's been a good one for me, you know, in I've been in Lenovo for five years and the managing people in various parts so that and most people potentially roll their eyes to begin with, because I think it's a it's a, it's a it's a one novo book, and it's not it's just it's a cultural book. And it's a really interesting read.

Daniel Franco:

Your culture is culture, really, it's not. However, it

Shayne Harris:

is the most important part. Absolutely. The success of any organization without doubt. Thank you for that. We

Daniel Franco:

didn't pay you to say that either. So that's great. So if I'm gonna ask you a question, are you I see you've got is that that's a ThinkPad. And what's that phone?

Shayne Harris:

That is? That's a very worn out Samsung an x one Yoga is

Daniel Franco:

x one yoga, if if Lenovo wasn't around, what would you buy?

Shayne Harris:

That's a good question. I'd probably, I mean, any one of our competitors make great products as well. And I guess that's, and that's the challenge. And that's why we, you know, we've been evolving and other industries are evolving because that this is really well made by us and our competitors. So this is highly commoditized. And, and, and there's, you know, there's, I mean, everyone makes it slightly differently. And that's what makes it so valuable. So

Daniel Franco:

you're deflecting here,

Shayne Harris:

I'm not, I'm not too fussy. Maybe an apple?

Daniel Franco:

Yeah. Okay, there you go. Well done. because you want the little logo on the back, so I can see you've got an apple. You know, I'm convinced that's the only reason why people buy now, it is a good product. So if you had one superpower, what would it be?

Shayne Harris:

That's a good question.

Daniel Franco:

It's the it's the best. I love it. I'm a massive Marvel fan. So I'm a bit of a game you know.

Shayne Harris:

I think flying flying. Yeah. Yes. I would love to be able to, you know, have free would you feel? Absolutely. I mean, the expenses, you can say?

Daniel Franco:

just the beginning. Well, now, especially now who needs planes? Yeah, can fly.

Shayne Harris:

And then just how quickly he'd get from A to B as well.

Daniel Franco:

Well, so that's, uh,

Shayne Harris:

but then just, you know, also you see drone footage today have you know, looking down yeah, bird's eye 40. June, it's so amazing. To be able to do you know, to be able to be in the air and, and like seeing that with your own two eyes. So you got so fast, you can

Daniel Franco:

find whatever the

Shayne Harris:

speed limit

Daniel Franco:

is like lightspeed. Superman has failed. Brilliant. So if you had like this one, too, and again, this is showing my little sci fi street geek this here, if you had access to a time machine, where would you go? Where would I go? Yeah, where would you go?

Shayne Harris:

I think I'd probably go back and visit, say, my grandparents when they were around my age. That'd be cool. You know, just to because you don't you don't

Daniel Franco:

get to see and you'd be shocked.

Shayne Harris:

It would be to see whether you became friends. Yeah. Or you know, so but I it would be so interesting to see because you hear the stories. You know, growing up, the hear them tell the stories are all always great, but you've never experienced it yourself. So it'd be great to go back. Even your parents, you know, at your age to go back as well.

Daniel Franco:

That would be interesting. My grandfather. Well, so my background culturally is Italian. Yeah. And my grandfather was involved in some in some rather interesting work over in Italy, if you can sort of understand where I was going, so yeah, it would be tomatoes. Exactly. It would be it would be really interesting. Now he fled to Australia to get away from that. Yeah, that's great. But you know, back when he was over there, and you know, young 18 year old so that's a wild west that would be really interesting. Yeah. All right. Last question. And one of my favorite what Tell me your best dad joke. Now you are dead, so you should have plenty of these.

Shayne Harris:

Oh, that's a tough one. Sure.

Daniel Franco:

Surely is a shit joke where you tell quite often

Shayne Harris:

when the other day as well I'm I'm terrible at remembering jokes. I bet I'm so good at coming up with you know, Dad jokes on a regular basis. I get called out for it all the time, but I don't have one. I definitely should have prepared something.

Daniel Franco:

I've got those stress. We can't we've got like nothing x rated here either.

Shayne Harris:

I'm disappointed. I do not have

Daniel Franco:

to do one opportunity to shine. Yeah, now. Oh, good. No worries. Thank you very much for joining us today, Shayne. It's been lovely having you. It's been really awesome actually hearing about the way businesses can move forward and think about the device as a service. I know for me, I'm definitely going to be thinking about hitting you up for Somalis in the in the future as we grow bigger and bigger. But yeah, the I think yeah, I think anyone listening to this there might actually really gain something You might not have thought about it, you know, it's it's it's, look, it's

Shayne Harris:

a it's a concept that every every industry is adopting not just not just technology or it, I think it's really relevant that most most organizations are going, how can we? How can we become more productive? How can we help our employees become more productive? How can we introduce something that that is a positive influence to our employees as well. So that's, and that's what we're saying is happening is as as part of delivering the service.

Daniel Franco:

Beautiful. All right. Well, thank you for joining us, and we'll catch you thank you. Thank you, sir. Thanks. Cheers. Bye, bye. Bye.

Synergy IQ:

Thank you once again for joining us here at creating synergy. It's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the Synergy IQ Facebook page where the discussion continues after the show. join our mailing list, so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.