A Customer-Centric Approach Must Drive Digital Transformation
While digital transformation failures don’t make the headlines as much as their successful counterparts, they do contribute to some troubling statistics. According to a survey from Unisys and IDG Research (via TechRepublic), 72 percent of chief experience officers think it’s important for an organization to implement a digital business model, but only 15 percent feel their own companies have the ability to fully build and leverage such a model. This can likely be attributed to inadequate communication between IT teams and the rest of the business.
Apple Previews iOS 11.3 With ARKit Improvements
Apple announced a bevy of new features coming to iOS when version 11.3 drops this spring, including a significant upgrade to ARKit and the launch of a new Business Chat feature in the Messages app. The ARKit update will enable augmented reality (AR) apps to detect walls and other vertical surfaces, and more accurately map non-linear surfaces like circular tables. The AR experience will also appear more sharp, as the real-world view now supports auto-focus and has 50 percent greater resolution. In big-picture terms, the ARKit update will greatly expand the kind of app experiences that developers can build for iOS.
‘Digital Transformation Hype Not Reflected By Reality’
The reality of digital transformation is that organizations will face a wide range of organizational, technical and operational barriers to change. According to a Claranet report, if IT leaders are to successfully generate value for their organizations they must focus on iterative change, putting their applications and increased automation at the heart of IT strategy.
Office 365, Jamf Win Distinctions In ‘Most Popular Apps’ Survey
So which applications are the hottest ones now used in enterprises around the country and world? You might take a wild guess that Microsoft Office 365 is the most popular enterprise app as measured by total customers and monthly unique visitors, and you would be right. Not a difficult presumption to make, considering Microsoft’s longstanding relationship with the business community. However, there are some other surprises in Okta Research’s fourth annual Businesses @ Work survey, released Jan. 24.
Fewer Than Five Percent Of Enterprise Apps Will Move To The Cloud In 2018
A new study of over 160 IT directors and chief technology officers at companies with more than 1,000 employees shows that while 78 percent are planning to upgrade their enterprise applications, the cloud doesn’t feature in many plans. The survey by digital experience platform Sapho reveals that fewer than five percent of enterprise apps will migrate to the cloud from on-premises in 2018, mainly because of security and compliance issues, but also because many of these apps are so ingrained in daily business processes, they can’t be moved.
Microsoft Improves Azure Cloud Disaster Recovery Visibility
Microsoft Azure Site Recovery now gives users more visibility into the service and how it can help businesses bounce back if trouble befalls their servers, courtesy of the general availability release of a new monitoring and troubleshooting user experience for the cloud-based disaster recovery service.
Intel Will Soon Stop Being A PC-Centric Company
It’s a struggle for most established IT companies to change their core businesses, as IBM has found. Intel is trying hard, and in its latest financial results, released on Thursday, only 53 percent of revenues came from its PC business. The rest came from data-centric operations, including the IoT (Internet of Things). This includes autonomous driving. In a statement, Intel’s chief financial officer Bob Swan said: “Intel’s PC-centric business continued to execute well in a declining market while the growth of our data-centric businesses shows Intel’s transformation is on track.”
Lloyd’s Estimates The Impact Of A U.S. Cloud Outage At $19 Billion
As organizations around the world increasingly rely on the cloud, the impact of a public cloud failure is something that insurance companies are now concerned about. A 67-page report released on Jan. 23 from Lloyd’s of London and AIR Worldwide provides some insight and estimates on the potential losses from a major cloud services outage-and the numbers are large.
Why Improved Authentication May Stop The Online Fraud Epidemic
It is readily apparent that IT security at the outset of 2018 isn’t making a lot of headway in stopping thieves in the murky world of online fraud. The bad actors always seem to be a lap or two ahead, while security providers appear to be running in place. Consumer credit reporting agency Experian’s “Global Fraud and Identity Report,” released Jan. 24, bears this out. The new research shows that fraud trends and patterns continue to grow across the globe in all sectors, finding that most businesses-72 percent, in fact-cited fraud not as simply a continuing concern, but one that is increasing.
CEOs Must Help Their Workforces Seize AI-Driven Growth
Businesses risk missing major growth opportunities unless CEOs take immediate steps to pivot their workforces and equip their people to work with intelligent technologies, according to new research by Accenture.
Facebook Details Multilingual Embeddings To Ship AI Products To New Languages
Facebook’s AI research team has detailed how it plans to use a new technique of multilingual embeddings to scale AI tools on the social network to more languages and ship AI-powered products to new languages faster.
Digital Transformation: Four Growing Trends In 2018
As digital transformation’s importance has continued to grow, CIOs have been asked to focus on one goal: Delivering exceptional digital experiences to customers. It’s a number one CIO priority in 2018. To embrace this, companies are migrating towards faster and more flexible development pipelines, and exploring new technologies like AI. More organizations across diverse vertical markets are adopting DevOps practices and principles to outstride their competition and meet the demand for customer obsession.
10 Companies That Are Spearheading Digital Transformation In Their Industry
Most enterprises are in the midst of a digital business transformation meant to keep themselves competitive in an expanding digital market. However, many are not as far along in the process as they think, and several challenges remain. “It’s not easy to find a lot of examples of true success in digital transformation,” said Gianni Giacomelli, senior vice president and business leader for digital solutions at Genpact. Some common issues arise: Lacking front to back office transformation, ignoring necessary change management, focusing solely on the technology instead of the operational improvements.
Windows 10’s Distraction-Reducing Feature Is Now Called Focus Assist
Microsoft’s Quiet Hours is getting a new name befitting its role as a distraction-reducing feature for the Windows 10 operating system. In preview build 17083 of the operating system, available to members of the Windows Insider testing and feedback program, Quiet Hours is now called Focus Assist. The new name evokes Microsoft’s ethos of boosting both professional and personal productivity through its products, in this case with a feature that helps users concentrate on the task at hand in Windows 10.
Apple Adding Battery Monitor, Performance Controls To iOS 11.3
Frustrated users who found that their iPhones and iPads had been slowed down by Apple are about to get some relief. In an unusual action for a point release update to a mobile operating system, the company announced details on iOS 11.3, set to be released in the spring. The new features include the much-demanded battery and performance monitor app that will show battery health, recommend service if it’s needed, and show whether the power management system has slowed down the device to prevent unexpected shutdowns.
What Enterprises Will Focus On For Digital Transformation In 2018
Up until this year, organizations could often afford to overlook the bigger picture for various digital upgrades, improvements, and modernization. In 2018, these threads will now become so connected that increasingly holistic digital transformation efforts will focus on more customer and worker-centric models for better organizing how they function to avoid disruption while creating value faster and more effectively.
Windows 10’s New App: Microsoft’s Ink To Code Turns Sketches Into Working Code
Microsoft’s latest app from the Garage Project takes its cue from those great ideas that start life as a sketch on a napkin or scrap of paper. The prototype Windows app, dubbed Ink to Code, helps developers export hand-drawn wireframe sketches into Visual Studio. The tool is meant to accelerate prototyping of UWP and Android interfaces.
Global Smart Cities IoT Technology Revenues To Exceed US$60 Billion By 2026
According to ABI Research, a market-foresight advisory firm, IoT technology revenues across 12 key smart city technologies and verticals will grow from around US$25 billion in 2017 to US$62 billion in 2026 at an average growth rate of 11 percent.
2018 Public Cloud Capital Expenditures Set To Top $160bn
Adoption of public cloud architectures shows no signs of slowing down as the latest market forecasts suggest the sector is set to grow 23.2 percent in 2018 from 2017, reaching $160bn in revenues. According to International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, expenditures are, however, expected to slow somewhat over the 2016-2021 forecast period, with the market forecast to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate of 21.9 percent with public cloud services spending totaling $277bn in 2021.
IBM, Mendix Announce Cloud Sales Partnership
IBM and Mendix have announced a global reseller agreement to increase the reach of cloud technologies in the low-code platform market. Mendix said the partnership will bring the firm’s low-code development platform to the IBM Cloud, together with native integration for AI, data analytics, and IoT services.
Novarica Says Emerging Tech Deployment Among Insurers Rare
A new Novarica study titled “Emerging Technology in Insurance: AI, Big Data, Chatbots, IoT, RPA, and More” suggests that insurers are slow at adopting emerging technologies. Novarica groups artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, big data, blockchain, chatbots, drones, mobile, predictive analytics, robotic process automation, sensors and telematics, smart home, and wearables as emerging technologies.
