The head of a leading travel management company forecasts that hybrid working arrangements and the need for employers to retain staff – while presenting ongoing challenges for businesses – are leading to the emergence and growth of new business travel trends.

Tom Walley is Global Managing Director of Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre Travel Group’s flagship SME travel provider. He says: “Most of our business customers in financial services, consulting, medical, and tech have hybrid working arrangements in place, yet we’re seeing a significant uptick in business travel this year – the perfect example being international flight bookings increasing by 988 per cent and domestically by 20 per cent between 01 February and 31 May 2022, and this just goes to show that face-to-face communication is still highly valued.

“Before the shift to remote work, business trips would be mostly site visits, conferences, FIFO work, sales meetings or growth-related stakeholder meetings. They would average around 1.1 days for domestic trips and 3.4 days for international trips. Now we’re seeing new travel trends pick up, reflecting the new environment of hybrid work and the embracement of an employee-first culture.”

Corporate Traveller is seeing trends that include working holidays whereby executives work remotely in one or more holiday locations for several weeks or months – even taking their families with them; bleisure, where holidays are tacked onto work trips; and executives travelling more frequently to multiple cities.

Tom says: “At Corporate Traveller, we’re seeing an increase in our employees extending domestic and international work trips to include holidays, including with their family members. Our travel advisors are also organising trips where our business customer covers the cost of just part of the trip, pointing to a bleisure arrangement.

“Another interesting trend is more frequent trips to more cities for some employees, indicating that, while people are maintaining the work-from-home arrangement, they’re meeting with stakeholders in multiple locations more regularly.

Tom says the current environment of talent shortages combined with the successful adaptation of work-from-home arrangements in many industries is driving much of these trends. “I think employers are using travel to retain people, and now it can be combined with work.

“Travel remains a sought-after perk for many Australian workers and the possibility of combining leisure with work will be invaluable to them and improve their work-life balance.”

Tom says there are benefits for businesses with such hybrid working arrangements. “For employers, there’s less risk of that employee taking large chunks of annual leave for an overseas trip. Working holidays enable employees to get their travel fix and remain online and do away with the need for a contractor to replace them while they’re away.

“If an employee is based in a market of interest for the business, a working holiday arrangement can help the business explore new markets more easily or set up supplier arrangements.”

These kinds of trips are also economically viable: employees foot the bill for their trip, while businesses would cover the cost only of the work portion of a bleisure arrangement.

Tom’s observations reflect other travel data. Airbnb, for example, has observed a tripling in bookings of 28 days or more from the US for remote-based work.

“The demand for such offerings is certainly present globally. In the US, workers are planning twice as many bleisure trips this year, with more than half adding three or more days to their leisure trips to include remote working.”

While some experts predict a complete recovery of the global business travel sector by 2024, Tom says that if businesses embrace these new trends as employee incentives, the recovery could occur earlier.

Being based at home is also motivating executives to travel more frequently to different locations to connect with other stakeholders. “Executives have been able to work remotely and travel to different cities when they’re required to be in-office, allowing them to connect with, and learn from, teams beyond their own city office.”

This reflects recent research by Deloitte in the US, in which one in four companies forecasted that working from home will lead to more travel to company headquarters. Office-dominant companies are twice as likely to reach 2019 travel spending levels by end 2023.

The research also found employees who plan to do some work while travelling planned twice as many trips and longer trips. Google is also allowing employees to ‘work from anywhere for up to four weeks a year.

These trends bring economic benefits for the country: frequent travel to different cities will help increase spending across hospitality and accommodation, industries that are still recovering from the impacts of the pandemic.“Hybrid working has largely been successful for employees, with many reporting an increase in productivity. If it brings benefits to the business, I encourage more SMEs to consider embracing new ways of incorporating travel into their employee retention strategies.”

A new study by SAP SE has found 84 percent of SMB in Australia are confident in their growth over the next 12 months despite workforce volatility, including the Great Resignation, having directly impacted the digital transformation plans of 89 percent of SMBs.

These insights have been revealed in new SMB research study released today, Transformational Talent: The impact of the Great Resignation on Digital Transformation in APJ’s SMBs’, which explores the impact of the Great Resignation on Australia’s SMBs and their growth plans.

Optimism abounds as SMBs move from resilience to focus on growth

Having managed significant challenges over the past two years, SMBs in Australia are looking beyond a focus on resilience.

Two-thirds (66%) of Australian SMBs say their organisation is highly or fully resilient in weathering the pandemic’s impact. Not one respondent said they are not resilient at all. That confidence has resulted in a feeling of optimism about their growth prospects.

That mindset can only be a positive thing for Australia, according to Sofiane Ainine, SMB Segment Lead, SAP Australia.

“Our small and medium-sized businesses are a bellwether for the wider economy, as the nation’s biggest employer. I firmly believe that when SMBs thrive, economies grow, and Australia prospers”, said Ainine. “By harnessing this optimism and putting it together with great innovation, a commitment to talent, and a strong partner ecosystem we can chart a course to the next decade of SMB success in Australia.”

The impact of the Great Resignation on SME digital transformation in Australia

Despite this optimism, businesses now face another challenge – the ‘Great Resignation’. Coined in 2021, the phrase refers to a worldwide trend of millions of employees across the world leaving their jobs.

SAP’s research found the Great Resignation is real and impacting SMBs in Australia today. Almost half (48%) of respondents agreed that more employees are resigning now compared to just 12 months ago, while 57 percent of SMBs said they are not finding it easy to cope with the impact of the Great Resignation. This is critical, given 94 percent of SMBs say digital transformation is very important to their organisation’s survival over the next year.

The talent crunch is impacting organisations’ ability to digitally transform their businesses. In fact, lack of skilled talent trails only understanding of available digital solutions as challenges to achieving successful transformation for Australian SMBs, ahead of traditional obstacles like cyber security or lack of budgets.

“This study reveals how the Great Resignation can be seen as an existential threat to many organisations,” said Mr Ainine. “Digital transformation is a fundamental way SMBs not only build resilience but how they create agile, innovative paths to growth. But without the right people, any transformation will struggle. Investment in talent must match investment in innovation to ensure SMBs in Australia both survive – and thrive.”

Investing in talent and training to mitigate the Great Resignation

SMBs in Australia are investing in their workforce to mitigate the effects of the Great Resignation and to bolster their organisations’ ability to deliver digital transformation.

Survey respondents said they were focusing on introducing flexible working arrangements (45%) and improving financial incentives (39%) to boost talent retention over the next 12 months. Yet, beyond those strategies, SMBs are also focusing on training. Over a third (36%) of SMEs said they would provide upskilling opportunities to retain key talent in the next 12 months.

The focus on training can’t come too soon. Over half (55%) of SMBs say upskilling to support digital transformation is urgent, leading to 82 percent of Australian SMBs who will focus on digital training throughout this year.

“The Great Resignation has often been misconstrued as employees leaving to pursue their purpose. That’s not the whole story,” said Mr Ainine. “Talent requires the right remuneration, flexibility, and a clearly communicated progression journey. Prioritising upskilling and career progression, and supporting it with access to the right technology and partners is proven to be a win-win for employees and for SMBs here in Australia.”

The full report of Transformational Talent study is available for download here.

About the SAP Transformational Talent study

SAP commissioned Dynata Research, an independent research services provider, to script and host an online quantitative survey of respondents in December 2021 to January 2022.

The research is based on a representative sample of small and medium business owners and decision-makers across the Asia Pacific and Japan. For the purposes of the research, we defined an SME as an organisation with between 11 and 250 employees based on OECD principles. The sample comprised 1,363 respondents across eight key countries – please see the full respondent breakdown by country below. Respondents were qualified to ensure they acted as either the key decision-maker or influencer in strategic organisational decisions and technology implementations. Countries included in the survey were Australia (n=105), New Zealand (n=101), Singapore (n=100), Thailand (n=207), Indonesia (n=210), Japan (n=207), India (n=212), and South Korea (n=221).

There’s no denying that ‘digital transformation’ has become somewhat of a buzzword over recent years, with COVID-19 accelerating the digitisation of business processes across the world to enable remote operations.

As we settle into the ‘new normal’, SMEs aren’t simply picking up the pieces and going back to “business as usual” – they’re going back to a different workplace.

However, many organisations are finding that the quick-fix digital transformation approach taken by some in recent years has left them with processes and systems that are not efficient and effective enough to deliver results in the long term.

Now is the time for SME leaders to consider how new technology solutions can be better integrated across their business and take proactive steps to get digitisation right.

Curse of the quick fix

In recent years SMEs needed to make rapid-fire decisions to keep their businesses afloat. Almost overnight, remote operations became critical to business survival, with new digital solutions rolled out in timescales previously thought impossible.

Although these technologies have undoubtedly delivered a range of business benefits, many SMEs opted for ‘off-the-shelf, quick-fix’ solutions that lack longevity and integration with the fundamental needs of individual businesses.

In fact, Iron Mountain research found that 57% of IT professionals believe their businesses will revert back to less-efficient, analogue means of accessing data post-pandemic.

In order to fast-track more-efficient best-practice digital workplace transformation, leaders must recognise that reverting to outdated methodologies, systems and processes is not an option. Instead, technology should be leveraged to remove roadblocks. By assessing what worked well and creating space for new processes, organisations will be better able to adapt, modernise, build resilience and thrive.

Doesn’t mean digitalise everything

With 73% of employees expecting some form of flexibility in the future of work, it’s neither desirable nor practical to consider a return to paper-based files, analogue processes and physical data access.

Ensuring data accessibility is a key component of digitisation efforts, helping to create ease for people working from home and streamline business processes.

Not only do paper documents in filing cabinets take up valuable space, but they are also difficult to share with team members working remotely. Often little is understood about the information stored and finding out can be both time-consuming and expensive.

However, adopting a ‘digitise everything’ paperless strategy is not always the right approach. Many business-critical documents still arrive in paper form that requires physical signatures, particularly for highly regulated industries such as healthcare, finance or legal. Beyond that, it can often be the case that employees prefer to work with hard-copy documents that are more effective for group presentations, notetaking and overall readability.

SMEs must lead with a tailored approach that best suits their business needs – the question is, where to start?

Getting transformation on track

Digitisation can be complex, and every organisation will have a different transformation journey. As SMEs look from response to long-term resilience recovery, six key steps can be taken into consideration to get digitisation right:

1. Set goals – Identify the reasoning behind why you want to digitise, and get all relevant stakeholders, partners and vendors on board before proceeding.
2. Don’t save everything – Conduct an in-depth audit to understand what data your organisation has on hand, and decide what needs saving and what doesn’t. There’s no use in wasting time and money digitising documents you’ll never need again.
3. Outline procedures – Clearly set out digitisation processes from the onset. For example, what happens to paperwork after it is digitised? How long can items be stored digitally? What is a safe process for disposing of physical and digital assets?
4. Plan for security needs – A cybersecurity blueprint must be developed concurrently with your business’s digital plan, to protect online data from hackers. For safeguarding extremely sensitive physical data, an off-site storage option can be valuable in ensuring an air gap security measure.
5. Know the law – With increasing regulation being introduced to protect consumer privacy, the days of being lax with data are over. Keeping information unsecured isn’t just a poor security choice, you’re also exposing your business to hefty penalties.
6. Implement training – Ensure employees are trained, tasks are delegated, and allow time for staff to get comfortable with new systems. This includes promoting an understanding of how digital solutions can help them do their jobs, not hinder them.

Although digitisation may have accelerated due to an unprecedented global event, it has forced us all to see the digital workplace in a new light, providing a roadmap for data to travel. As barriers to transformation come down, it is vital that SMEs lock in a robust digitisation plan that safeguards long-term recovery. With the right approach to the digitisation journey, leaders will find a post-COVID world that isn’t just normal, but better.

by Garry Valenzisi, Vice President and General Manager ANZ at Iron Mountain

If it seems like there are QR codes on everything these days, you’re right. In the contactless era, these little black and white grids emerged from relative obscurity to replace everything from restaurant menus to train station ads. The Australian government embraced them wholeheartedly to facilitate contact tracing and vaccination status verification.

More than two years of pandemic-fuelled cyber-crime has made many small businesses more cautious about their digital activity. Emails, calls and even texts are scrutinised closely, forcing many attackers to step up their phishing games. And yet, QR codes haven’t really registered as potentially dangerous, and most people still scan them without a second thought.

What is a QR Code?

Short for quick response codes, QR codes are a type of two-dimensional barcode that contains data, often for a locator, identifier or tracker. They can be easily read by a smartphone or other camera-equipped device and converted into useful information for the end-user, such as a URL for a website or an application. QR codes are accessible, easy to produce and, seemingly, here to stay. They’re also a perfect way for cyber criminals to snag your personal information.

Last year, the private key used to sign the European Union’s Green Pass vaccine passports were reportedly leaked or forged. Within days, fake QR code-laden passes signed with the stolen key were up for sale on the Dark Web. In China, scammers have been caught placing fake parking tickets — complete with QR codes for easy mobile fine payment — on parked cars. And in Texas, criminals hit the streets, pasting stickers of malicious QR codes onto city parking meters and tricking residents into entering credit card details into a fake phishing site.

QR code attacks are happening everywhere with alarming frequency. Here are seven ways to protect yourself and your business:

1. Don’t scan it! If anything feels off, don’t scan the QR code. Just go to the actual website directly. Any legitimate QR code should have an associated URL under it, giving users the option to navigate there directly. If it’s missing, beware.

2. Slow down. Before you scan any QR code, ask yourself: Do I know who put the QR code there? Do I trust that it hasn’t been tampered with? Does it even make sense to use a QR code in this situation?

3. Inspect QR code URLs closely. After scanning the QR code, check out the URL it directs you to before proceeding. Does it match the organisation associated with the QR code? Does it seem suspicious, or include strange misspellings or typos? For instance, in the Texas parking meter scams, part of the URL used was “passportlab.xyz” — clearly not an official city government website. You can also do a quick web search of the URL to confirm that the QR code is legitimate.

4. Look for signs of physical tampering. This is especially important in places where QR codes are commonly used, such as restaurants. If you spot a QR code sticker adhered to a page over another code, be very sceptical.

5. Never download apps from QR codes. Bad actors can clone and spoof websites easily. Always go to the official app market for your device’s OS and download your apps from there.

6. Don’t make electronic payments via QR codes. Use the native app or direct a browser to the official domain and log in there.

7. Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA). This will help protect your sensitive accounts, such as banking, email and social media apps. With another authentication layer in place, a cyber-criminal cannot access your data with just your login and password.

When it comes to QR codes, the best piece of advice is to always use common sense. If it was an email, would you click on it? QR codes are becoming one of the attackers’ favourite phishing methods — and the same rules apply. Proceed with caution and apply the same security scrutiny as you would with anything in the digital realm.

Scan safe out there — or better yet, don’t scan at all!

By Len Noe, technical evangelist and white hat hacker at CyberArk

Brother International Australia has announced the launch of five new A3 multi-function inkjet printers designed for modern businesses.

As Australian workers’ preference for hybrid working continues¹ and with the cost of doing business set to increase², investing in the right tools and technology has never been more important, especially as we enter a new financial year.

Built for the hybrid workplace, the new range allows users to print and scan from wherever they work via the Brother Mobile Connect app. Users both at home, and in the office, can collaborate effectively and work confidently thanks to a rich feature set including scan to email³, cloud storage³, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

To help boost productivity and keep your business moving, each printer in the range boasts a fastest-in-class first page out time of 4.4 seconds⁴, print speeds of up to 28 pages per minute (ppm)⁵ and single-pass, 2-sided (duplex) scanning on selected models. With both single and dual paper trays supporting versatile print handling up to A3, all five printers deliver a fast, smooth, consistent user experience and professional-quality colour documents.

Providing great value for businesses and helping to reduce the cost of overheads, the new range utilises high-yield print cartridges, providing up to 3,000 pages of black ink and 1,500 pages of colour⁶. What’s more, a one-year return-to-base warranty*and free Australian-based customer support for the lifetime of the product means business owners can be confident that their printer will always deliver when needed.

On the new range, Stefanie Matthews, Marketing Manager (Printing, Labelling & Mobile Solutions) at Brother International Australia said:

“In our research into the practices of Australian hybrid workers, we found that nearly a third (29%) of respondents said their employers could have been more supportive in the transition to working from home. Additionally, one in five workers said that not having all of the necessary equipment was one of the biggest challenges when working from home.⁷

“These new Multi-Function Inkjet printers help to alleviate these concerns and more, providing the perfect printing and digitisation solution for the modern workplace.” 

Key features of the new Professional A3 Multi-Function Inkjet printers include:

• Designed for mobile: Experience the cleverly designed Brother Mobile Connect app, designed to connect to your Brother device so printing, scanning and managing documents on your smartphone is at your fingertips

• Made for business: New ‘MaxiDrive’ Inkjet technology provides a premium long-life print head, fastest-in-class first page out time of 4.4 seconds⁴ and print speeds of up to 28 ppm⁵. Combined with versatile paper handling up to A3, it provides a fast, smooth and consistent user experience that every business needs

• Large page yields and low-cost printing: When it’s time to replace your ink supply, keep running costs low with high-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

• Intuitive one-touch cloud connect: Print-from and scan-to popular cloud apps³ directly, including Dropbox™, Google Drive™, OneDrive and more. Help save time by creating custom shortcuts directly on the LCD touchscreen for your 
  most-used features

• Print with confidence: Help take the guesswork out of when to replace ink with Page Gauge technology – see the amount of ink you’ve used and the amount of ink you have remaining

• Simple to connect your way: Versatile connectivity options with dual-band (2.4 GHz/5 GHz) Wireless Network support, Ethernet, Wi-Fi Direct or connect locally to a single computer via USB interface

• Brother at your side support: Free Australia-based support for the lifetime of your Brother device

Product overview Brothers A3 Multi-Function Inkjet printers :

MFC-J6940DW

Available: July 2022

RRP: $549

Retailers: Available via B2B channels, Harvey Norman, Amazon and Officeworks (October launch for Officeworks)

Product features:

• Up to 28 ppm print speed⁵
• Automatic 2-sided (duplex) A3 print, scan, copy and fax
• 8.8cm colour touchscreen
• Wired and wireless connectivity
• 2 x 250 sheet paper trays⁸
• 100 sheet multi-purpose tray⁸
• 50 sheet 2-sided (duplex) A3 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)⁸
• NFC (Near-Field Communication) mobile print
• High-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

Website: visit here

MFC-J6740DW

Available: July 2022

RRP: $419

Retailers: Exclusively available from Officeworks

Product features:

• Up to 28 ppm print speed⁵
• Automatic 2-sided (duplex) A3 print
• A3 scan, copy and fax
• 6.8cm colour touchscreen
• Wired and wireless connectivity
• 2 x 250 sheet paper trays up to A3⁸
• 1 sheet manual feed slot up to A3⁸
• 50 sheet A4 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)⁸
• High-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

Website: visit here

MFC-J6540DW

Available: July 2022

RRP: $399

Retailers: Available via Officeworks, The Good Guys, B2B channels and Amazon (October launch for B2B channels)

Product features:

• Up to 28 ppm print speed⁵
• Automatic 2-sided (duplex) A3 print
• 1-sided (simplex) A3 scan, copy and fax
• 6.8cm colour touchscreen
• Wired and wireless connectivity
• 1 x 250 paper tray up to A3⁸
• 1 sheet manual feed slot up to A3⁸
• 50 sheet A3 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)⁸
• High-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages of black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

Website: visit here

MFC-J5740DW

Available: July 2022

RRP: $419

Retailers: Available via B2B channels, Amazon and Officeworks (October launch for Officeworks)

Product features:

• Up to 28 ppm print speed⁵
• Automatic 2-sided (duplex) A4 print, scan, copy and fax
• 8.8cm colour touchscreen
• Wired and wireless connectivity
• 2 x 250 paper trays up to A3⁸
• 100 sheet multi-purpose tray up to A3⁸
• 50 sheet 2-sided (duplex) A4 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)⁸
• High-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

Website: visit here

MFC-J5340DW 

RRP: $299

Retailers: Exclusively available from Officeworks

Product features:

• Up to 28 ppm print speed⁵
• Automatic 2-sided (duplex) A4 print
• A4 scan, copy and fax
• 6.8cm colour touchscreen
• Wired and wireless connectivity
• 1 x 250 paper tray up to A3⁸
• 1 sheet manual feed slot up to A3⁸
• 50 sheet A4 Automatic Document Feeder (ADF)⁸
• High-yield replacement ink cartridges that provide up to 3,000 pages black and up to 1,500 pages colour⁶

Website: visit here

Global real estate communications platform, Home Live, has announced it has teamed up with leading technology company Zoom Video Communications, Inc, leveraging Zoom’s underlying infrastructure to power its live-streamed property inspections, auctions and market updates.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Luke Watson, said: “Zoom’s Developer Platform provides the immense scale and stability we need to continue delivering the next evolution in global real estate.

“Real estate is a fundamentally human-powered industry. It is critical we are able to offer a remote communication solution that spans marketing, inspections and transactions without sidelining the agent or sacrificing human connection. While Home Live has had a robust live streaming solution in place for a number of years, this is a game-changer.

“The alliance will really accelerate Home Live’s growth, allowing us to focus on meeting the unique needs of the world’s real estate professionals and providing an unforgettable experience to the real estate buying public,” he said.

Zoom Head of Australia & New Zealand (ANZ), Michael Chetner, said: “This collaboration with Home Live presents a real opportunity for Zoom to continue to bring rich and seamless video-based experiences for Home Live’s customers, who use the interactive platform to connect with agents and properties anywhere in the world.”

“Home Live is a leading real estate-specific live-streaming platform, with an exciting view for the future of the space and a real understanding of the added value remote communications can deliver for both agents and prospective buyers. We’re delighted to work with Home Live and look forward to seeing this collaboration grow further in the coming months.”

Home Live is the world’s leading video-first property discovery experience, offering a purpose-built live-streaming solution to attend cinematic live and interactive open inspections, auctions, market updates and more. Streams are viewable across Home Live’s global network of websites, agencies, portal listings and social media, with integrations into leading CRMs to provide seamless data capture and reporting for agents. Home Live currently lists 583,000 residential and 17,160 commercial properties globally.