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Enterprise Mobility Bytes | Week of – April 23 – 29, 2018
Digital Transformation In The Real Word
Forward-thinking organizations are realizing that they require greater operationally agility to successfully meet ever-rising customer expectations. With customers also demanding easier businesses engagement – and across a wider spectrum of channels, this is forcing businesses themselves to enact internal change more quickly. These factors are putting increasing pressure on IT and business leaders to respond by undertaking ‘digital transformation projects.’
Apple Has Become An HR Issue For Enterprise IT
If you want to attract and retain the very best employees, you let them use a Mac and iPhone, that’s the message of the latest employee choice survey from Jamf.
Digital Transformation Gut Check: Sorry State Or Natural Selection?
A Forrester survey of 1,559 business and technology decision makers found that digital transformation efforts are running into roadblocks amid confusion, delusion and resistance to change. Analyst Ted Schadler in a research note said the findings reveal the sorry state of digital transformation. Here are some high level takeaways.
Samsung Flags Weak Mobile Market As Chip Business Booms
Samsung has said that weakness in the global smartphone market would slow earnings growth, as it reported record quarterly profit on Thursday thanks to strong demand for semiconductors used in servers. The world’s biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and television sets also flagged softer demand for smartphone OLED panels as a challenge for the second quarter, while its cash-cow chip business should remain strong.
Amazon Gives Alexa A Memory, Better Conversational Skills
Aiming for more natural, frictionless interactions with Alexa, Amazon is rolling out three big enhancements to its voice-activated assistant: Alexa can now store any information you want, and she can engage in more natural, multi-part interactions. Additionally, Amazon is making it easier to naturally discover new Alexa skills.
Microsoft To Retire Enterprise Chat Apps For Windows Phone
Microsoft’s efforts at bringing Windows onto mobile has been somewhat stagnant as of late, which is why it doesn’t really come as a surprise to learn that Microsoft has recently announced that they will be ending support for some Windows Phone enterprise chat apps come 20th May 2018.
Transport For London’s Contactless Payments System Will Be Adopted In America
Transport for London (TfL) was the world’s first public transport provider to enable contactless payments using bank cards. The TfL system – developed in house – was introduced on London buses in December 2012, and extended to tube and rail services in September 2014. In 2016, TfL signed a deal “worth up to £15 million” with America’s Cubic Transportation Systems, “allowing them to adapt the capital’s contactless ticketing system worldwide. Since then, New York, Sydney, Miami and Boston have all announced that they plan to introduce contactless payments in the coming years,” says TfL.
Why Well-Known Digital Transformation Plans Fail
World Economic Forum estimates that digitization could deliver $100 trillion in value to businesses across the next decade. From basic services like healthcare and education to asset-intensive industries like Energy, every organization has a digital transformation initiative and footprint. Yet well-known organizations like BBC, Lego, Nike and many others have found digital transformation as a challenging transformation.
First ZTE, Now Huawei: In The Age Of Paranoia, No Chinese Smartphone Is Safe
In an unprecedented move last week, the US Commerce Department announced that ZTE — one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones and telecommunications devices in China and a primary supplier of mobile devices to US wireless carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — is banned for seven years from purchasing components from US manufacturers.
Connectivity To Drive The Future Of Banking
The future of banking is connectedness. Brett King, author of Bank 3.0 pointed out that “5G will push the bank to be real-time. By 2025, more people will transact and interact with their money on a computer, smartphone, voice and augmented reality every day, than those that visit the world’s collective network of branches on an annual basis.” So announced King during the Huawei Global FSI Summit in Beijing held on April 25, 2018.
T-Mobile, Sprint Propose Merger To Create Second Largest U.S. Carrier
Mobile Carriers T-Mobile and Sprint announced their plans on April 29 to merge in a $26 Billion all-stock deal that will create the second largest wireless carrier in the U.S. The surviving company would be T-Mobile and John Legere would remain as CEO of the combined companies. Deutsche Telekom would own about 40 percent of the combined company with Softbank owning slightly less than 30 percent.
Early AI Apps Seen Generating ‘Business Value’
The rise of AI is reflected in recent market forecasts that predict it will help enterprises develop new products and services around applications like automated decision making. Market analyst Gartner Inc. forecasts that global “business value” derived from artificial intelligence will reach $1.2 trillion this year as major players and nation-states invest heavily in AI development. The bullish forecast represents a whopping 70 percent annual increase in AI business value.
Windows Application Management Software Comes To IT’s Aid
Application management software is a necessity for organizational continuity and security. Without any such software, absent patches threaten end users’ applications. Managing enterprise apps manually presents increasing logistical challenges, so organizations turn to Windows application management software for help.
The Three Core Components For Digital Transformation Success
Big data, cloud and IoT are all firmly established trends in the digital transformation sphere, and must form a core component of strategy for forward-looking organizations. But in order to maximize the potential of these technologies, companies must first ensure that the network infrastructure is capable of supporting them optimally.
IBM And IFTTT Bring Together AI And Automation For IoT
IBM is bringing its enterprise artificial intelligence assistant to IFTTT, paving the way for intelligent services that can do much more than tell users the weather or answer trivia questions, the companies announced on April 26.
Digital Transformation Underway For Half Of Companies
Only 37 percent of organizations’ digital transformation is led by their CIO, according to a 2018 Forrester report. A chief digital officer often takes the place as the transformation leader because they are “the best outside thinker.” But CIOs have the ability to see where technology can “unify the changes” the enterprise wishes to make.
Google Unveils Tasks, A New To-Do List App
Tech giant Google announced the launch of a new standalone app called Google Tasks, which will enable users to create their own to-do lists, thereby improving productivity. Alongside the rollout of the new version of Gmail, Google’s web service, the company announced the introduction of a dedicated place to create, view and edit one’s task list, including those created from within the new Gmail or from Google Calendar, reported TechCrunch.
Five Steps To Prepare For Digital Transformation
One of the secrets to long-term success and reaching full production capacity can be found in incorporating innovative technology into production methods. Recent findings from the MIT Centre for Business show that companies which have embraced digital transformation are 26 percent more profitable than their average industry competitors and enjoy a 12 percent higher market valuation.
Microsoft Rides The Cloud, Digital Transformation To Strong Quarter
Microsoft reported better-than-expected earnings and revenues in the fiscal third quarter, with CEO Satya Nadella telling investors that cloud computing and digital transformation of corporations drove results. “The intelligent cloud and intelligent edge era is already upon us,” Nadella said during the earnings call, naming Coca Cola as a recent win for Microsoft’s cloud products.
Lack Of Cybersecurity Safeguards Among Fintech Prevalent
Unencumbered by legacy technology and lack of strict oversight by regulations has enabled Fintech companies to build products that consumers find appealing. However, a general lack cybersecurity safeguards among Fintech companies have raised serious concerns around data protection and compliance, especially with the implementation of EU’s GDPR in May 2018. The recent spate of global cyberattacks has also emphasized the need for application security and cloud protection.
Microsoft Office 2019 Client App Preview Now Available To Business Users
Microsoft is rolling out test versions of a number of its Office apps for x86-based Windows devices in phase one of its Office 2019 preview program.
Gmail Update Helps Protect Businesses From Phishing, BEC Threats
The new release of Gmail, released April 25, is aimed primarily at Google’s G Suite customers, but individuals with Gmail accounts will see the same improvements. The changes include a refreshed interface along with side panels that offer access to other features, such as the calendar and a to-do list.