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Best Practice Collaboration Technology

Stop it being about the tech – it’s about people

As a company, we have just moved completely to the Office365 suite, mostly driven by a desire to improve our email (though it was pretty good before) and also from a desire to start using Lync (even though we are big users of Skype already) for our internal communications because of the way it looks at our diaries and indicates whether we are free for conversation or not (which is called presence).

One of the things we struggled with for a while was how to add photographs to our O365 profiles (all sorted now).  Most of us already had nice photographs in our Skype profiles and I was struck, when using Lync, by how much less involving it felt before we worked out how to add pictures to it.  Then it dawned on me…  I couldn’t see the person I was talking to.  Even though it was just a static picture the absence or presence of it made a big difference to how I felt, how engaged in the conversation I remained and whether I became distracted and tried to do other things instead of listening.

It’s only a little thing, but this small personal picture made it about the person and not the technology.  When there is no picture my mind wanders; when the picture is there so, in my sub-conscious, is the person.

I noticed the same thing on my mobile phone; integration with LinkedIn and Facebook means that at least half of my contacts in my contact list have pictures of the people concerned.  I can find those people much more quickly when I need to call them as a consequence and interact with them more strongly when I’m using my mobile.

Human beings are programmed genetically to be brilliant at face recognition; activities involving faces engage the deeper, older parts of our brains.  Last week I re-tweeted a comment from the good chaps at Bliss-Systems “User interfaces need to be intuitive because, like words and sentences, people don’t really read them.” On reflection there is more to it than this, user interfaces need to engage people at a primal level not just at the cognitive level; they need to make it feel like we’re interacting with a person not a machine; they need to provide visual cues and social touch points that make it feel like we are interacting with people.

So… make it about people, not tech. We have added pictures all over our solutions now. Personalisation means more than we realise…

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By Simon

Simon Hudson is an entrepreneur and health sector specialist. He formed Cloud2 in 2008 following a rich career in the international medical device industry and the IT industry. Simon’s background encompasses quality assurance, medical device development, international training, business intelligence and international marketing and health related information and technology.

Simon’s career has spanned both the UK and the international health industry, with roles that have included quality system auditing, medical device development, international training (advanced wound management) and international marketing. In 2000 he co-founded a software-based Clinical Outcomes measurement start-up in the US. Upon joining ioko in 2004 he created the Carelink division and, as General Manager, drove it to become a multi-million pound business in its own right.
In 2008, Simon founded Cloud2 in response to a need for a new way of delivering successful projects based on Microsoft SharePoint. This created the first commercial ‘Intranet in a Box’ solution and kickstarted a new industry. He exited that business in 2019, which has continued to grow as a leading provider of Power BI and analytics solutions.

In 2016, he co-founded Kinata Ltd. to enable effective Advice and Guidance in the NHS and is currently guiding the business beyond its NHS roots to address needs in Her Majesty’s Prisons and in Australasia.

In 2021, Simon founded Novia Works Ltd.

In 2021 he was invited to become Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Hull.

In 2022 he was recognised as a Microsoft MVP.

In 2025 he founded Sustainable Ferriby CIC, a community energy not-for-profit to develop energy generation, energy & carbon reduction, and broader sustainability & NetZero projects in the West Hull villages.

Simon has had articles and editorials published in a variety of technology, knowledge management, clinical benchmarking and health journals, including being a regular contributor to PC Pro, as well as a presenter at conferences. He publishes a blog on areas of interest at noviaworks.co.uk. He is a co-facilitator of the M365 North User Group. He is a lead author and facilitator on the Maturity Model for Microsoft 365. He is the author of two patents relating to medical devices. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physical Science and a PGCE in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Hull.

Simon is passionate about rather too many things, including science, music (he plays guitar and octave mandola), skiing, classic cars, narrowboats, the health sector, sustainability, information technology and, by no means least, his family.

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