Day: February 4, 2021

Microsoft outlines plans for Viva, an employee-experience platform anchored in Teams

Microsoft’s Viva Insights provides personal and managerial analytic data.

Microsoft is jumping into the employee-experience space in a big way today, February 4, with its announcement of Microsoft Viva. Viva packages together some already available and some new Microsoft technologies, ranging from Yammer and SharePoint, to its analytics and additional “Project Cortex” knowledge-management elements.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was on hand to roll out Viva during a virtual event today focused on “Reimagining the Employee Experience.” Viva marks Microsoft’s entry into the category of tools for employee onboarding, ongoing work-related education and knowledge discovery. Providing these kinds of employee resources virtually/remotely has become especially challenging during the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. 

I believe Viva is one of the first deliverables from Microsoft’s MetaOS/Taos work, though I doubt anyone at the company will say this publicly. In writing last year about MetaOS — Microsoft’s foundation aiming to make Microsoft

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Amazon wants you to have an erotic relationship with Alexa

She dreams of getting intimate with Alexa.


Screenshot by ZDNet

While you’re nibbling your tortilla chips on Sunday, Amazon will be wanting you to expand your nibbling possibilities.

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That’s the only thing one can conclude from the company’s latest attempt to create intimacy between you and its intrusive artificial intelligence.

The company has just released its Super Bowl ad that so bathes in steaminess that some might find it unseemly.

Why, it even includes the line: “Things are getting way too wet around here.”

We begin with a woman claiming the Amazon Echo is “flawless.” She waxes that she couldn’t imagine anything more beautiful.

And then she remembers Michael B. Jordan.

The “Creed” and “Black Panther” actor isn’t quite my idea of infinite pulchritude. Yet we’re here faced with our woman fantasizing that Alexa is actually embodied in him, rather than, say, Amazon’s innate creepiness.

The

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BT counts cost of Covid-19 in third quarter

The stark fundamental dynamics of the post-Covid world have been revealed in BT’s third-quarter results. For the nine-month period to 31 December 2020, the telco reported a 7% drop in revenue year on year to £16.058bn, mainly due to the impact of Covid-19 on its consumer and enterprise units, ongoing legacy product declines and divestments of domestic businesses in Spain, Latin America and France.

Revenue for BT’s enterprise division fell by 8% on an annual basis to £4.086bn. BT noted that enterprise revenue was down predominantly due to the continued impacts of Covid-19 and ongoing declines in legacy products. Excluding the divestments of Fleet and Tikit in the previous year, revenue fell by 6% year on year and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was down by 11%.

BT’s overall adjusted EBITDA was £5.603bn, down 5%, driven by the fall in revenue, but partially offset by sports

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