Q&A with Wendy Lee, Director, Marketing - APAC at Blue Prism

Wendy Lee, Director, Marketing - APAC at Blue Prism, is a dynamic and energetic marketing leader, passionate about identifying new engagement opportunities and developing effective marketing and new business development strategies within the fast-changing digital economy.

Leveraging more than 20 years as a marketing executive across the international tech and telco sector, she takes pride in utilizing an innovative range of marketing resources to deliver effective and holistic marketing campaigns that consistently outperform marketing targets and KPIs.

It’s important to take time to build your network and nurture your contacts as you never know where a good network can take you and the opportunities it can give.



MEDIA 7: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing?
WENDY LEE:
For my first degree, I had the option of deciding between either computer science or business (marketing). I concluded that I’m much more of a people person, so marketing won! Since then I’ve attempted to stay within tech (which is very close to my heart) and continued to build my marketing experience across Asia Pacific – it’s the best of both worlds!

M7: How do you create a frictionless experience for tech buyers through automation and data analytics?
WL:
Blue Prism looks to create a frictionless experience for our team and the end-users/customers by practicing what we preach and automating our processes to link systems, make the best use of data and create a smooth end-to-end experience.

Take our marketing team, for example. We leverage our AI-driven digital workers to input requests into our project management systems; raise a PO, and manage our webinars, host them on our website and send out our posts across social media. There is such a huge range of ways to use intelligent automation and data to reduce our manual tasks and we as a company, and our end users, reap the benefits.

M7: What marketing channels do you use and which ones do you see as the most promising, given your target customers?
WL:
We use a huge variety of channels depending on our target audience’s needs and their sector. From traditional F2F events and virtual events like webinars to roundtables, experience events, digital media – all the way to PR, analyst relations, and content building.

It’s important to note that there isn’t one channel that is the silver bullet. Most of the time a combination of different channels will help drive a more powerful outcome. For example, when targeting the C-suite, we deploy social selling to “befriend” the different C-level persona, build our credibility with them via the content we post and share, followed by leveraging paid media to continue to build the brand mindshare with these personas before inviting them for 1:1 meetings/to one of our events.


It’s important to note that there isn’t one channel that is the silver bullet. Most of the time a combination of different channels will help drive a more powerful outcome.



M7: What do you see as the most noticeable change right now happening in the workforce, encouraged by the rise of digital technologies?
WL:
One of the most notable changes is around the use of intelligent automation within the workplace and using AI-driven digital workers to take on increasingly complex tasks that in turn create time for employees to undertake more strategic, meaningful work. By freeing up employees to concentrate on important tasks that cannot be automated, we help customers to reduce human error, increase employee happiness, productivity, efficiencies, and output within their organizations.

M7: What do you believe are the top three product marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
WL:
 1) Increasing digitalisation of the product marketing experience: COVID-19 has shifted our behaviour to be more accepting of online experiences and purchases. I expect that this behaviour shift will remain and that we will see an increase in customers expecting a fully digital product marketing and subsequent purchase experience. Companies have adapted to this well because of COVID-19 lockdowns but need to ensure that their ways of doing this are effective and future-proof.

2) Geography is no barrier – but what does that mean for your team?: Previously, we may have relied on in-country teams or those on ground in certain markets for the product marketing experience. Now, with increasingly low geographic barriers to product marketing as a result of the growth of online communication during COVID-19, in-country teams are becoming regional teams instead to ensure that they remain relevant. Marketers will be challenged to look with fresh eyes at how their team is structured and the roles that they play within the product marketing process.

3) A change from face-to-face relationship building: We have a real culture of face-to-face relationship building in Asia, which has been severely challenged by COVID-19. In a post COVID-19 era, marketers will need to manage customer preferences for both face-to-face and digital communications with clients. There’s a need to strike a balance between what works for the client, your business, and within the rules and restrictions of your market.


By freeing up employees to concentrate on important tasks that cannot be automated, we help customers to reduce human error, increase employee happiness, productivity, efficiencies, and output within their organizations.



M7: How do you prepare for an AI-centric world as a Business Leader?
WL:
The key to success in an AI-centric world is preparation. Early investment into systems that automate and integrate pays dividends. Whether it’s freeing up time for your employees to concentrate on higher-value, more meaningful work or breaking down geographical barriers between customers and offices.

My advice to business leaders is to look at how automation and AI can really benefit their specific business and not delay such decisions. COVID-19 has changed the way that we work and do business, and these systems will be key to future-proofing and building resilience in the “new normal”.

M7: What is your advice for young women considering a career in marketing?
WL:
My advice is to be confident with yourself, work hard, be innovative but also take the time to pause. Also, it’s important to take time to build your network and nurture your contacts as you never know where a good network can take you and the opportunities it can give.
Finally, don’t wait for opportunities to come to you, be proactive to look for them or, even better, create them yourself.

ABOUT BLUE PRISM

Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done.  At Blue Prism, we have users in over 170 countries in more than 2,000 businesses, including Fortune 500 and public sector organisations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our digital workforce is smart, secure, scalable and accessible to all; freeing up humans to re-imagine work. Blue Prism’s vision is to provide a digital workforce for every enterprise. To learn more visit www.blueprism.com and follow us on Twitter and on LinkedIn.

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Ceridian a global leader in human capital management (HCM) technology, announced its upcoming retail product innovations, which highlight the company’s growing momentum in the sector. As the only solution that offers workforce management (WFM) and global payroll capabilities on a single platform, Dayforce – Ceridian’s industry-leading cloud software – helps retailers and the hospitality industry empower and retain frontline workers, increase operational agility when making staffing decisions, and enhance the employee experience. Ceridian helps more than 1,280 retailers around the world optimize their workforce and improve employee engagement, attraction, and retention, including American Dream, Buehler’s Fresh Foods, Costa Coffee, Sobeys, and SPARC Group LLC, which owns and operates leading retail brands including but not limited to Aeropostale, Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, and Reebok. “Today’s employees expect a personalized experience. Ceridian is an innovative, collaborative partner that is helping us shape the employee experience of the future,” said Julia Knox, Chief Technology & Analytics Officer, Sobeys. "Forward-thinking retail and hospitality organizations need to embrace modern technologies, like machine learning and real-time workforce intelligence, to tackle the staffing and compliance challenges their industries face,” said Jack Bennett, Vice President and Retail Solutions Advisory Lead, Ceridian. “Coupled with Dayforce Wallet, our award-winning, on-demand pay solution, Dayforce is a single holistic platform for workforce management, pay, and talent that unlocks quantifiable value and gives retail and hospitality leaders an edge to better compete - and win - with today's boundless workforce." Dayforce workforce management empowers frontline employees through schedule flexibility and a consumer-like experience, while driving agile retail operations by giving real-time workforce intelligence to managers. Continued enhancements include Forecasting Powered by Machine Learning: In an ever-changing economic landscape, retailers can reduce costs and improve productivity by leveraging the power of machine learning (ML) in its labor planning. Dayforce ML forecasting helps managers make better decisions and optimize workforce allocation by forecasting future labor requirements down to 15-minute increments and become more precise over time. Shift Marketplace: Modern workforce management provides organizations and employees with a simple, intuitive way of allowing stores and locations to share their workforce across their organization. With Shift Marketplace, employees can take on unfilled shifts at any location they choose, giving employees the flexibility to meet their financial goals while allowing managers to fill their labor demand needs without incurring additional costs to bring in outside resources. Next-Generation Labor Planning: With Dayforce, customers can bring finance and operations together during the budget and planning processes to ensure forecasting and scheduling align with corporate targets. This process is further enhanced through scalable data models, a unified experience for long- and short-term planning, and yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily workforce insights that can drill down to zone and position levels. Reimagined Time Experience: The Dayforce platform is improving the employee time experience with a human-centric user experience that prioritizes simpler workflows, simplified clocking in and out, and accessibility. For managers, the enhanced user experience highlights what is important, including unplanned labor costs, and time-sensitive insights such as no-shows, missed breaks, approaching overtime, and upcoming departures. “We are a special place to work because our engaged team members are a key differentiator for our business. With the Dayforce platform, we will be able to deliver a modern, mobile-first employee experience that enables direct communication, seamless shift bidding, and access to on-demand pay with Dayforce Wallet, which will help to differentiate Sobeys in a challenging labor market,” said Sandra Pasquini, SVP HR Operations & Systems, Sobeys. These features and enhancements will begin rolling out to customers on the Dayforce platform in 2024. About Ceridian Ceridian. Makes Work Life Better™. Ceridian HCM Holding Inc. is a global human capital management software company. Dayforce, its flagship cloud HCM platform, provides human resources, payroll, benefits, workforce management, and talent management functionality. The Dayforce platform is used to optimize management of the entire employee lifecycle, including attracting, engaging, paying, deploying, and developing people. Ceridian has solutions for organizations of all sizes.

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"Saving for retirement is the No. 1 financial priority for employees surveyed, which validates that access to workplace benefits and financial wellness programs is helping Americans save for retirement and achieve better financial outcomes,” Littlefield said. “Going forward, increased personalization as well as tailored savings and investment strategies that take into account an individual’s financial goals, lifestyle, health care needs, dependent care obligations, retirement income expectations, and other unique factors will help achieve improved financial security in retirement.” Retention and recruitment of older employees critical for business success Employee interest in phased retirement has added value for employers. Most employers (77%) agree that the knowledge older employees have about their company is crucial to their business’s success. Employers concerned with “having valuable employees retire” are more likely to take actions to either retain them or hire employees who previously retired from other companies. Despite this, not all employers have experience with offering phased retirement. Only 11% of small and midsized businesses4 reported they offer phased retirement job opportunities on a regular basis compared to nearly one quarter of large businesses5. However, interest is there, as 61% of businesses that don’t offer a phased retirement still receive questions from employees about the options. See all results and insights from the latest Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM (PDF). According to the Alliance for Lifetime Income This wave included a survey of 137 individuals between the ages of 50 and 75 who consider themselves retired or have previously fully retired and gone back to work. In order to be included in the survey sample, employees must work full-time, and their employer has to offer either health insurance or retirement as an employee benefit. Businesses with 2-499 employees Businesses with 500-10,000 employees About the Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM The Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM surveys business owners, decision makers and business leaders aged 21 and over who work at companies with 2-10,000 employees and offer either health insurance or retirement as an employee benefit. The nation-wide survey, commissioned since 2012, examines the financial well-being of American workers and business employers. In 2020, the Well-Being Index was transformed from an annual survey to a regular pulse, offering three waves, revisiting questions and measuring sentiment regarding timely issues in the small and midsized business marketplace. In the first pulse of the Well-Being Index in 2022, the employee audience was added to the survey to compare and contrast key sentiment from employers. The survey was commissioned by Principal® and conducted online by Dynata from November 6-13, 2023, with a total of 500 business owners, decision makers and business leader participants and a total of 200 employee participants. This wave included a survey of 127 individuals who consider themselves retired or have previously fully retired and gone back to work. The research report focuses on providing a holistic perspective on key trends and timely issues in the small and medium business market. About Principal Financial Group® Principal Financial Group® is a global financial company with 19,500 employees1 passionate about improving the wealth and well-being of people and businesses. In business for more than 140 years, we’re helping more than 61 million customers1 plan, protect, invest, and retire, while working to support the communities where we do business, and build a diverse, inclusive workforce. Principal® is proud to be recognized as one of the 2023 World’s Most Ethical Companies® by Ethisphere2, a member of the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and a “Best Places to Work in Money Management3.”

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ADP® Assist with Generative AI Features Makes HCM Decisions Easy, Smart and Human

ADP | February 02, 2024

ADP®, a leading global technology company providing human capital management (HCM) solutions, announces the availability of ADP Assist, a cross-platform solution powered by generative AI (GenAI). ADP Assist enhances HR productivity, aids decision-making with data-driven insights, and streamlines day-to-day tasks for practitioners, managers, employees and executives with simple, human-like conversations. It harnesses the power of ADP's unparalleled data and expertise along with GenAI to simplify the world of work. ADP Assist builds on ADP's current AI capabilities and is currently in early release with some ADP clients today with a planned rollout for all clients. "For 75 years, ADP has been at the forefront of payroll and HR innovation. With ADP Assist, we're providing an intelligent platform that simplifies HR tasks, leaving time for people leaders to be more strategic," says Maria Black, president and chief executive officer of ADP. "It's not just another technical solution; it's a comprehensive experience that combines ADP's unmatched HCM dataset and expertise to empower HR professionals, leaders and employees." Data Drives Innovation Data is at the core of all ADP products and solutions, informing and driving ADP's approach to innovation and AI technology. ADP has the industry's largest and deepest HCM dataset with over one million clients spanning 140 countries and 41 million wage earners globally. ADP's extensive and unique dataset is used to train ADP's AI to anticipate what users want and need. ADP Assist turns unmatched data into highly credible and actionable insights so that clients can make smarter decisions. Easy, Smart and Human "In a constantly changing workplace, innovation must keep up and meet people's real-world needs," says Sreeni Kutam, president of global product and innovation at ADP. "ADP Assist is the next step in our vision to create an HR ecosystem that is not only efficient but empowers employees and HR professionals alike. We've created a platform that understands the complexities and dynamics of modern HR management and offers smart, user-centric solutions. And, as always, we are committed to the secure and ethical use of data to support these technologies." ADP Assist seamlessly integrates with ADP products across multiple ADP platforms. It anticipates what users want and proactively delivers actionable insights in plain language. Using an intuitive, conversational interface, ADP Assist provides valuable and contextual insights which touch every aspect of HR – payroll, time, talent, benefits, recruitment, analytics, reporting and compliance. ADP's portfolio of currently available GenAI- and AI-powered tools deliver the following capabilities Easy payroll. ADP Assist validates payroll information. It checks for payroll anomalies and uses GenAI to identify and help resolve missing tax registrations and answer questions by drawing on ADP's large, up-to-date dataset of compliance information. This saves HR effort and helps clients to ensure employees are paid accurately and on time. Smart analytics. ADP Assist uses GenAI to dramatically simplify report creation by understanding context and generating insightful reports in an easy-to-understand format. HR practitioners and leaders can easily access internal, national and global workforce data from ADP's deep HCM dataset to analyze compensation, turnover, candidate profile relevancy and talent market insights. Human insights. Intelligent and AI-based HR support for employees and clients can anticipate and solve common employee problems across HR, payroll, time and benefits. This reduces frustration for employees and eliminates certain low-value tasks for managers and HR practitioners. ADP Assist can send personalized, proactive notifications to employees on their mobile device or desktop to help resolve HR issues quickly, keeping them productive. AI-powered conversational interface makes it easy for employees to get the information they need without involving HR. Search by Intent. The RUN Powered by ADP payroll and HR solution features an omni search bar that understands intent behind the search terms and uses GenAI to mine ADP's deep knowledge base to deliver easy-to-use and effective content. "In the age of AI, the better the data, the better the artificial intelligence," says Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst for Constellation Research, Inc. "ADP is uniquely well-positioned in the field of HCM vendors given the breadth and depth of its data. ADP is using that data to make AI more human, focusing on customer success in a worldwide space. This really makes a difference not only for HR practitioners but for leaders and employees." About ADP Designing better ways to work through cutting-edge products, premium services and exceptional experiences that enable people to reach their full potential. HR, Talent, Time Management, Benefits and Payroll. Informed by data and designed for people.

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