Why You Need a Strategic IT Roadmap
Unfortunately, they work in a cycle of reaction that manages to short-term needs rather than strategic priorities and many cannot find a way out.Enterprise software is a victim of this cycle. Since it’s complex and pervasive it requires constant feeding by the IT department. Because it’s used to support fundamental business functions users frequently request new functionality. This makes it difficult to adopt the newest, most exciting technologies available because the immediate priorities are always fixing what exists. CIOs themselves recognize this. Steven Norton at the Wall Street Journal summarized the Top 5 priorities for CIOs this year. Two of the five are directly related to strategic vision
The internet of things and big data: Unlocking the power
The IoT and big data are clearly intimately connected: billions of internet-connected 'things' will, by definition, generate massive amounts of data. However, that in itself won't usher in another industrial revolution, transform day-to-day digital living, or deliver a planet-saving early warning system. As EMC and IDC point out in their latest Digital Universe report, organisations need to hone in on high-value, 'target-rich' data that is (1) easy to access; (2) available in real time; (3) has a large footprint (affecting major parts of the organisation or its customer base); and/or (4) can effect meaningful change, given the appropriate analysis and follow-up action.
5 Emerging Themes for 21st Century Business
User experience will continue to be a critical requirement for enterprise software adoption. Consumers today have high expectations from their technologies, as they are accustomed to modern, engaging, personalized and intuitive experiences. Those expectations don’t change at the workplace. Millennials will demand it. Customers will require it. And thanks to the cloud enterprise software providers we will finally be able deliver modern, innovative and elegant user experiences. No longer will long enterprise software upgrades get in the way of investment in user experience. The cloud allows vendors to deliver at the pace of change that we all have grown to expect.
Enterprise Portfolio Management - Getting Started
The enterprise portfolio management process consists of two main phases. First, there is a design phase in which the process is tuned to the specific requirements of the organization. The organization’s goals and stakeholders are investigated, suitable portfolios are defined and valuation criteria are chosen. This phase is repeated regularly so that the EPM process is up to date with the business strategy, addresses actual concerns of the stakeholders and reflects lessons learned. The execution phase is a continuous process in which first the assets or change initiatives are inventoried, then the portfolios are analyzed, decisions are based on this analysis, and these are input to the realization. This is repeated regularly, with a rhythm that depends on the portfolios’ characteristics.
Software robots for process automation: fudge or strategic solution?
The name “robotic software automation” was coined as an illusion to the use of robots in manufacturing to replace humans on the factory line. The idea is more subtle than it might first appear. Robotic software is designed to be used by business users to allow them to build and deploy new processes across systems that were never designed or intended to work together. Suppose you are the manager of a BPO unit or call center operation. You are being asked to do more with less. You are facing targets for head count reduction. Or perhaps your business is growing, and more customer interactions need to be supported yet the business cannot afford to increase front-office capacity. With the right tool, perhaps a software robot could offload repetitive work from humans?
Break Me If You Can: 4 Rugged Tablets Put to the Test
Rugged tablets offer reinforced frames, tough skins, watertight seals, hardened glass, soft corner bumpers and major components that are shock-mounted. In other words, if ordinary consumer tablets can be considered sports (or economy) cars, rugged tablets are tanks. To see what the current state of the art is for rugged tablets, I gathered together three of the newest Windows-based worker-proof slates: the Mobile Demand xTablet Flex 10, the Getac F110 and the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1. I also tried out Samsung's Galaxy Tab Active, a reinforced Android tablet.
The rise of systems of intelligence: Rethinking your enterprise data strategy
The sheer amount of data being created is staggering. According to IBM, 2.5 exabytes of data was generated every day in 2012. The importance of data is becoming so big, even the US Government has launched an initiative to help access and analyse it. It is no longer sufficient for organisations to have a strategy around legacy data. Instead, they need a plan that considers the evolving enterprise data landscape and transforms their existing systems of records into systems of intelligent information.
Fail fast, but learn quicker: How to take chances without risking tech disasters
IT leaders, therefore, need a more nuanced approach to experimentation. And Cohen says the concept of 'succeeding fast and learning fast' should resonate strongly with CIOs. "Failing fast without learning is absolutely useless," he says. "There's much more to the process than just throwing money at something and thinking you can afford to fail quickly." ... "Ensure you have a deliverable in terms of experience and lessons going forwards," he says. "The prototype might cost your business £50,000, but you won't have spent the £500,000 the full project would have cost, and you'll have learnt some valuable lessons along the way. "
Who ‘owns’ an investigation into a security breach?
The general principle is what the name implies: An effective investigation cannot be fragmented. It has to be unified, with a clear leader, clear lines of responsibility and comprehensive lines of communication. And the chances for fragmentation are high. The SEC found that organizations, “may be responsible for up to 67 different types of investigations and up to 13 different business functions could be engaged in these investigative activities.” Those business functions range from audit to business conduct and ethics, corporate security, compliance, crisis management, environmental health and safety, governance, government affairs, HR, information security, legal, privacy and risk management.
Qualcomm and Intel to Introduce New Biometric Security Technology
Both announcements are expected to be made at the World Mobile Congress, a technology industry event in Barcelona, Spain. While the Intel product will be on the market first, the Qualcomm technology may be the more compelling over the long term, and not just because Qualcomm wants the fingerprint to replace passwords altogether. For one thing, the sensor that does the sonar work operates independently of the computer’s operating system, and its functions can be stored within a phone’s hardware. Those things make it hard to hack. A phone using the sensor can also be set to take more than one fingerprint, while restricting individual access to particular apps. In other words, you can share a phone with your mother, but she can’t get into your Snapchat app.
Quote for the day:
"To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult." -- Friedrich Nietzsche
Unfortunately, they work in a cycle of reaction that manages to short-term needs rather than strategic priorities and many cannot find a way out.Enterprise software is a victim of this cycle. Since it’s complex and pervasive it requires constant feeding by the IT department. Because it’s used to support fundamental business functions users frequently request new functionality. This makes it difficult to adopt the newest, most exciting technologies available because the immediate priorities are always fixing what exists. CIOs themselves recognize this. Steven Norton at the Wall Street Journal summarized the Top 5 priorities for CIOs this year. Two of the five are directly related to strategic vision
The internet of things and big data: Unlocking the power
The IoT and big data are clearly intimately connected: billions of internet-connected 'things' will, by definition, generate massive amounts of data. However, that in itself won't usher in another industrial revolution, transform day-to-day digital living, or deliver a planet-saving early warning system. As EMC and IDC point out in their latest Digital Universe report, organisations need to hone in on high-value, 'target-rich' data that is (1) easy to access; (2) available in real time; (3) has a large footprint (affecting major parts of the organisation or its customer base); and/or (4) can effect meaningful change, given the appropriate analysis and follow-up action.
5 Emerging Themes for 21st Century Business
User experience will continue to be a critical requirement for enterprise software adoption. Consumers today have high expectations from their technologies, as they are accustomed to modern, engaging, personalized and intuitive experiences. Those expectations don’t change at the workplace. Millennials will demand it. Customers will require it. And thanks to the cloud enterprise software providers we will finally be able deliver modern, innovative and elegant user experiences. No longer will long enterprise software upgrades get in the way of investment in user experience. The cloud allows vendors to deliver at the pace of change that we all have grown to expect.
Enterprise Portfolio Management - Getting Started
The enterprise portfolio management process consists of two main phases. First, there is a design phase in which the process is tuned to the specific requirements of the organization. The organization’s goals and stakeholders are investigated, suitable portfolios are defined and valuation criteria are chosen. This phase is repeated regularly so that the EPM process is up to date with the business strategy, addresses actual concerns of the stakeholders and reflects lessons learned. The execution phase is a continuous process in which first the assets or change initiatives are inventoried, then the portfolios are analyzed, decisions are based on this analysis, and these are input to the realization. This is repeated regularly, with a rhythm that depends on the portfolios’ characteristics.
Software robots for process automation: fudge or strategic solution?
The name “robotic software automation” was coined as an illusion to the use of robots in manufacturing to replace humans on the factory line. The idea is more subtle than it might first appear. Robotic software is designed to be used by business users to allow them to build and deploy new processes across systems that were never designed or intended to work together. Suppose you are the manager of a BPO unit or call center operation. You are being asked to do more with less. You are facing targets for head count reduction. Or perhaps your business is growing, and more customer interactions need to be supported yet the business cannot afford to increase front-office capacity. With the right tool, perhaps a software robot could offload repetitive work from humans?
Break Me If You Can: 4 Rugged Tablets Put to the Test
Rugged tablets offer reinforced frames, tough skins, watertight seals, hardened glass, soft corner bumpers and major components that are shock-mounted. In other words, if ordinary consumer tablets can be considered sports (or economy) cars, rugged tablets are tanks. To see what the current state of the art is for rugged tablets, I gathered together three of the newest Windows-based worker-proof slates: the Mobile Demand xTablet Flex 10, the Getac F110 and the Panasonic Toughpad FZ-G1. I also tried out Samsung's Galaxy Tab Active, a reinforced Android tablet.
The rise of systems of intelligence: Rethinking your enterprise data strategy
The sheer amount of data being created is staggering. According to IBM, 2.5 exabytes of data was generated every day in 2012. The importance of data is becoming so big, even the US Government has launched an initiative to help access and analyse it. It is no longer sufficient for organisations to have a strategy around legacy data. Instead, they need a plan that considers the evolving enterprise data landscape and transforms their existing systems of records into systems of intelligent information.
Fail fast, but learn quicker: How to take chances without risking tech disasters
IT leaders, therefore, need a more nuanced approach to experimentation. And Cohen says the concept of 'succeeding fast and learning fast' should resonate strongly with CIOs. "Failing fast without learning is absolutely useless," he says. "There's much more to the process than just throwing money at something and thinking you can afford to fail quickly." ... "Ensure you have a deliverable in terms of experience and lessons going forwards," he says. "The prototype might cost your business £50,000, but you won't have spent the £500,000 the full project would have cost, and you'll have learnt some valuable lessons along the way. "
Who ‘owns’ an investigation into a security breach?
The general principle is what the name implies: An effective investigation cannot be fragmented. It has to be unified, with a clear leader, clear lines of responsibility and comprehensive lines of communication. And the chances for fragmentation are high. The SEC found that organizations, “may be responsible for up to 67 different types of investigations and up to 13 different business functions could be engaged in these investigative activities.” Those business functions range from audit to business conduct and ethics, corporate security, compliance, crisis management, environmental health and safety, governance, government affairs, HR, information security, legal, privacy and risk management.
Qualcomm and Intel to Introduce New Biometric Security Technology
Both announcements are expected to be made at the World Mobile Congress, a technology industry event in Barcelona, Spain. While the Intel product will be on the market first, the Qualcomm technology may be the more compelling over the long term, and not just because Qualcomm wants the fingerprint to replace passwords altogether. For one thing, the sensor that does the sonar work operates independently of the computer’s operating system, and its functions can be stored within a phone’s hardware. Those things make it hard to hack. A phone using the sensor can also be set to take more than one fingerprint, while restricting individual access to particular apps. In other words, you can share a phone with your mother, but she can’t get into your Snapchat app.
Quote for the day:
"To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult." -- Friedrich Nietzsche
No comments:
Post a Comment