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Lead story – Microsoft 365 raises the stakes of the workforce surveillance debate

MyPOV: I’ve been railing about the fork-in-the-remote-work-road for a while. On the one side, we can change work to outcome-based metrics. On the other, we can turn remote tools into workforce surveillance, driven by dehumanizing, volume metrics.

Up until this week, most of the workplace surveillance companies receiving their well-earned social media disdain are what you might call startups nobody asked for fringe players. Not anymore. Now, Microsoft 365 has entered the mix.

Phil takes up the issue in We benchmark, you score productivity, they surveil – the good, bad and ugly of teamwork analytics. He writes:

A new feature in Microsoft 365 that quietly went live earlier this month has aroused a storm of indignation this week. Productivity Score is a set of analytics dashboards and reports in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center that shows aggregate metrics on how teams are using the various components of Microsoft’s productivity and teamwork suite.

No big deal, or…

Trouble is, managers can also dig down into the behavior of individual employees, for example to check up on whether they’re sharing cloud files instead of emailing attachments, or how much time they’re spending in Teams instead of their Outlook inbox.

The verdict is not simple to reach. As Phil points out:

Collecting and analyzing teamwork data can be a good thing. What’s important is to collect and manage that data in a way that respects the participants’ rights to privacy and self-actualization.

Phil goes on to cite the example of Asana, which has specifically designed its measurement tools to focus on task completion, not productivity-volume metrics. Sounds right – but I’d be willing to bet an overzealous employer could appropriate Asana’s tools for work surveillance also. Same with Microsoft – though I’d bet that’s not Microsoft’s intent. And that’s where I come down. Demonizing productivity vendors is entertaining, but not helpful. We vendor-by-vendor analysis and accountability:

• How well are your productivity tools designed? What user activities do they measure, and why? And:
• Are you educating companies on how to use your tools for the collective uplift of the workforce, not for punitive surveillance?

As for the companies bragging about how their tools monitor time-on-video-calls, and other invasive tactics, let’s see if we can vote them out of business, shall we? One thing I won’t waver on, and I’ve told vendors as much: it’s not enough to provide supposedly neutral tools, cash the checks, and cite your spectacular user adoption. Your obligation extends to customer education – and your own “ethical productivity” stance.

Diginomica picks – my top stories on diginomica this week

Retail omni gut-check with Stuart – three pieces to give you a retail status as the holiday shopping season hits high gear:

• Nordstrom heads into the Holidays as a born-again “digital majority” retailer…but will it last?
• Customer engagement as the new currency for customer relevance – Gap’s latest omni-turnaround plan relies on better understanding us all
• Best Buy’s digital and workforce investments pay off as profits soar during COVID-19

Other standouts:

• Revisiting ethical AI, part two – on data management, privacy, and the misunderstood topic of bias – Neil continues his scorching/instructive review.
• FutureGov CEO – thinking radically to transition to 21st Century public services – Derek calls our attention to a worthy talk on digital public services, with communities at the center.
• Huawei, 5G and the Eastern ‘new normal’ that is already underway – When it comes to the so-called new normal, we have plenty to learn from the east. Martin’s on the case. Bonus: 5G their isn’t just marketing bag pipes actually works.

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. Here’s my three top choices from our vendor coverage:

• Does Slack need Salesforce or is it Salesforce that needs Slack? – Why didn’t Phil’s sterling analysis get top billing? Well, because this ain’t anywhere near a done deal yet. But – informed speculation is fair game, especially with Phil’s twist: why would Salesforce need Slack? Phil: “Salesforce was in danger of losing users to the likes of Slack and Teams, with chatbots making it possible to access Salesforce functionality without even having to visit the CRM app.”
• Norwegian chicken producer Norsk Kylling moves from Excel to Infor CloudSuite – Derek digs into a fresh Infor use case: “The company is making a big push to the cloud, as it believes that software development isn’t – and shouldn’t be – its area of expertise.”
• Hand sanitizer production? Salon support? No problem. How John Paul Mitchell Systems turned setbacks into a new way of working – One of the most inspiring use cases I’ve had a chance to delve into this year – via Workfront.

A few more vendor picks, without the quotage:

• How Safety Management Group kept their project pace during the pandemic – an Acumatica use case – Jon
• Two surveys among SAP UK customers indicate trouble ahead as skill shortage bites – Den
• A different Higher Education view of ERP and COVID – Brian (SunGard HE profile)

Jon’s grab bag – Mark filed a nifty tech-for-good use case from a philanthropic firm supporting vaccine research, and more (Wellcome has a new trust in technology). Meanwhile, Chris utters the dreaded “B” word, with an eye towards data privacy implications (Data Protection – adequacy and the Brexit dimension). Den wraps up our diginomica week by putting my video show with Brian in the oven for a nice roasty (A Thanksgiving gift – Jon and Brian chewing the ERP fat).

Best of the enterprise web

My top seven

• As IBM shifts to hybrid cloud, reports have them laying off 10,000 in EU – As Ron Miller notes, these layoffs were probably inevitable given IBM’s massive transformation. But yeah, he’s right – the timing is still tough.
• Overcoming pandemic fatigue: How to reenergize organizations for the long run – Ah, pandemic fatigure – sound familiar? “75 percent of employees in the United States1 and close to a third in the Asia–Pacific region2 report symptoms of burnout,” notes McKinsey. But smart businesses will (creatively) deal with this. How? Not by bouncing back, argues McKinsey – but by transforming into something else entirely.
• No Matter How You Look at it, B2B Tech has a High Quality Deal Problem – Gartner’s Hank Barnes has been spending considerable time looking at the ongoing elusiveness of a “high quality” software deal. Here’s another wake-up call.
• Security Researchers Sound Alarm on Smart Doorbells – Looks like “you get what you pay for” has a particularly nasty edge for consumer IoT – no pun intended.
• The way we train AI is fundamentally flawed – “It’s no secret that machine-learning models tuned and tweaked to near-perfect performance in the lab often fail in real settings.”
• A Progress Check on the SAP Digital Access Adoption Program (DAAP) with Matt Angell – ASUG with a useful update on a program that’s been extended for SAP customers, but probably for the last time.
• Wall Street needs to relax, as startups show remote work is here to stay – Ron Miller returns, this time to push back on investors who are eager to return to a world that no longer exists.

Whiffs

Shall we start with some silly stuff? Three-way-race for headline of the week:

• Culture secretary to ask Netflix to play ‘health warning’ that The Crown is fictional
• Mayor of Novosibirsk defends decision to shape city’s main ice rink like a penis for 2nd consecutive year
• Wizard coming back from coven meeting crash lands on rooftop

(I’m not linking to these last two as the web sites don’t seem like the most reputable – go figure!) On a more serious note of whiffery:

As of now, I don’t see an explanation from TechCrunch on why they pulled a potentially explosive story, one that doesn’t pass the smell test either… Look, the chaotic leadership transition in the U.S. is clearly confusing for any companies with perceived ties to China, however strong (see: extended TikTok fiasco). Still, TechCrunch has accomplished a rare media feat: made the act of publishing/pulling a story temporarily more interesting than the story itself…

It’s about time someone called out these types:

If I read one more thing about “mindfulness” I’m going to lose mine… I think Josh Greenbaum feels the same, don’t you?

Finally, I’m about set to blow a gasket with the fresh wave of “my 2021 crystal ball” burnt offerings guru credential rattling:

And yes, Brian Sommer and I are plotting our cathartic revenge, via our annual un-predictions. Yep, they are in the oven… See you next time.

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses – in a good or bad way – let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. ‘myPOV’ is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.