November 06, 2014

Nationwide launches smartwatch banking capabilities
Nationwide customers are now able to check their bank balance on smartwatches if they have already downloaded the building society’s mobile banking app. The firm partnered with IBM to develop a system to allow Android Wear users to perform banking tasks on their wearables. The smartwatch will connect to the mobile banking app to provide users with real-time updates of their balance. The new features were developed in the Front Office Innovation Centre, which was set up by IBM and Nationwide to find new ways to provide customers with the building society's services.


Apple unveils new enterprise support plan
As outlined on the site, AppleCare for Enterprise generally fits what industry analysts were told during summer briefings. Apple and IBM unveiled their alliance on July 15. Apple will assign a liaison -- an AppleCare account manager -- to companies that purchase support, and replace damaged or lost iPhones and iPads. Apple said it would exchange devices within one business day in most cases, and capped that part of AppleCare at 10% of a company's devices registered under the plan. IBM Global Technology Services, an arm of the Armonk, N.Y. company, will provide next-day onsite service, which is available for either two-year or three-year stretches.


Business transformation considered essential, but the enterprise struggles
Business transformation is about more than efficiency -- innovation is also a key theme. In order to stay ahead, executives said changes in client expectations, technological advances and rising competition must be considered. In order to do so, new business models must be developed, portfolios improved, and processes have to be streamlined. In total, 82 percent of executives cited the need for innovation as an important driver of the need for business transformation.


IDC To CIOs: 60 Percent Of You Will Be Supplanted By Chief Digital Officers By 2020
“By 2020, 60% of CIOs in global organizations will be supplanted by the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) for the delivery of IT-enabled products and digital services.” In its presentation, IDC added that “some CIOS will find an opportunity to expand their role leveraging their experience in setting strategy, innovation, and relationships.” But why only 40% will be able to expand their role and the others “will be challenged to fill the growing gap for the CDO role”?


Enterprise Architecture Practice - Capabilities
Though Enterprise Architecture is not a very new practice, the maturity level is still not the optimal in most enterprises. Seeing the benefits that the EA function can bring to the table, many enterprises are attempting to setup the EA practice within, but are in fact struggling to get it right. EA not just science and not just art as well. It is a combination of art and science. Successful EA practice has been found to being able to demonstrate certain key capabilities. In the EA world, there is no such thing as 'one size fits all', as it is highly dependent on the enterprises' business, its objectives, goals, strategies and priorities, which is never the same across enterprises.


2014's Hottest IT Certification
With more than half of 2014 behind us, it's that time of the year where we look at IT certifications standings in real world IT. The right certifications can help earn tech workers premium pay or land the job they've been aspiring to. That's why knowing what is "hot" with employers is important when considering your professional development. Every quarter Foote Partners compiles their data in the IT Skills Demand and Pay Trends Report, and they speak with over 2600 employers to bridge the disconnect between job titles, job content and compensation. Read on to find out where the heat is in regards to IT certifications, salaries and employer needs.


Predicting the Role of Healthcare CIOs in 2020
Steele describes that as a feat of "clinical reengineering," one that required baking best practices into Geisinger's EHR system so they could be accessed at the point of care. The program, known as ProvenCare, is served to up in a variety of high-frequency care episodes, including perinatal care, COPD, hysterectomies, and hip and knee replacements. Add to that Geisinger's ProvenHealth Navigator, an advanced version of the patient centered medical home, and its participation in OpenNotes, which opens clinical progress notes to patients,


CIO interview: Glenn Murphy, London & Capital
CIO Glenn Murphy says that, as the global economy picks up, London & Capital’s IT department has had to shift focus. “We are moving away from the national economic uncertainty of the last five years, where cost-appropriate solutions were foremost on everyone’s mind,” he says. “There is more confidence in moving towards systems that add business value and deliver real-time value to our clients and front-office staff.” He says the IT department is underpinning the growth in business, creating systems to improve client reporting and management.


Facebook releases C++ libraries to ease Internet communications
The library, called Proxygen, could also help Internet-facing organizations prepare for the next-generation Internet data communications protocol, HTTP/2. "Even if they are not using C++, anybody who is following modern protocol development like HTTP/2, we are hoping they could look at Proxygen as a reference design," Matheny said. C++ programs most often use external Web server modules, such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface), to supply a connection to the network, which can be cumbersome and slow to set up and run.


Java 8 for Financial Services
Streams are a new way to work with data, as the name would suggest, as streams. Again like lambdas there is nothing you can do with Streams that you can’t do without them. It does however make your code a lot simpler and, as long as you understand it, easer to read and maintain. Lastly using these new constructs gives a lot more information to the compiler and JVM so further improvements can be made at runtime giving you better performance. There are a few gotchas like exception handling, debugging and infinite streams but we’ll cover those as we go along.



Quote for the day:

"The secret of managing is to keep the five guys who hate you away from the four guys who haven't made up their minds." -- Casey Stengel

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