IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways to fast-track your next AI implementation
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August 20, 2019
Preparing for and implementing AI projects can be a multi-year journey. According to the latest figures, only 28% of respondents reported getting past the AI planning stage in the first year. This is due to several factors including the relative maturity of the technology (at least in the ever-ex
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation
Intelligent Spend Management And The Evolution Of Procurement
Disruption Hub
July 01, 2019
Organisations are taking a holistic approach to procurement with Intelligent Spend Management
In a recent article for D/SRUPTION, ‘Disrupting Procurement: AI, Predictive Analytics, Blockchain And IoT’, we examined some of the emerging technologies shaking up the traditional business function of procurement. These enabling technologies are rattling the status quo for traditional procurement organisations – should they choose to accept this mission – enabling them to transform their business processes, while unlocking substantial cost savings and operational efficiencies along the way.
As an example, robotic process automation (RPA) can typically drive up to 25 to 50 per cent in cost savings; advanced analytics, including should-cost analysis, can reduce the cost of component products or services by up to 40 per cent, and it’s estimated that blockchain for invoice processing could reduce cost per invoice by up to 60 per cent.
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, Procurement
IDG Contributor Network: The digital transformation debate: It’s about people AND technology
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May 03, 2019
In recent years, there have been a wave of articles professing that digital transformation is about people, not technology. The argument typically runs along the lines that it takes people to execute the strategy and without the right skills, culture and change management, any digital transformat
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Tags: Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: Introducing the “lazy economy” business model and implications for CIOs
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January 24, 2019
We’ve all heard of the sharing economy and the gig economy, but a new business model is quietly introducing itself across many consumer-facing industries. It’s an extreme form of the convenience economy that I like to term the “lazy economy.” The term is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but...
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Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: Why you don’t need a Chief [insert new tech name here] Officer
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November 26, 2018
In recent years, as each new emerging technology or trend has appeared, we’ve seen widespread calls by tech and industry pundits for organizations to create new CXO positions specifically for each technology or trend.We’ve seen this for roles such as Chief [Data, Data Visualization, Customer...
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: Taking a counterintuitive approach to business strategy and technology deployment
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October 30, 2018
As with other disruptive technologies such as augmented/virtual reality, blockchain, drones/UAVs and the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence (AI) has significant potential to transform business models, processes, products and services. According to McKinsey, it’s estimated that AI has t
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, Business Strategy
IDG Contributor Network: Digital transformation with purpose: Making the shift towards balanced business models
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September 20, 2018
While many companies are well into their digital transformation journey, it’s been widely reported that relatively few organizations are truly thriving or succeeding. Consultancy Inc.Digital, for example, cites only 18% of organizations as digitally thriving and consultancy ClearPrism has found...
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Sustainability, Climate Change
Digital transformation with purpose: Making the shift towards balanced business models
CIO.com
September 20, 2018
While many companies are well into their digital transformation journey, it’s been widely reported that relatively few organizations are truly thriving or succeeding. Consultancy Inc.Digital, for example, cites only 18% of organizations as digitally thriving and consultancy ClearPrism has found that “fewer than 12% of companies capture more than 85% of economic profit in any industry.”
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Sustainability, Climate Change
IDG Contributor Network: Drones in the supply chain: the evolving drone landscape and ecosystem
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September 11, 2018
According to Goldman Sachs, the drone market is projected to be a $100 billion opportunity between 2016 and 2020. Key markets include military ($70 billion), consumer ($17 billion), and commercial/civil ($13 billion) with the latter being the fastest growth opportunity.In recent years...
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Tags: Supply Chain, Autonomous Vehicles, Proptech
IDG Contributor Network: 5 design considerations for your design thinking workshop
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August 27, 2018
According to Forrester: “Design thinking is a creative problem-solving — and opportunity-finding — mindset and methodology with a bias toward action that puts the emphasis on empathizing with the customer, clearly defining the problem, collaboratively ideating solutions, and then ...
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Tags: Design Thinking, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: How the Walmart-Microsoft partnership builds on the four strategic themes for digital transformation
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July 25, 2018
Walmart and Microsoft recently announced a five-year strategic partnership to further accelerate digital innovation in retail. This comes as a major announcement both for observers of the cloud wars as well as observers of the continuing digital transformation in retail.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, IoT, Retail
IDG Contributor Network: 4 ways artificial intelligence will shape the future of learning technology
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July 13, 2018
With the rapid pace of innovation continually disrupting business models, and in many cases entire industries, how will online learning keep up to provide the relevant courseware for today’s and tomorrow’s workforce? This will be essential for economic growth and to support a thriving ...
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, Edtech
The future of digital transformation – Insights from Thinkers360 global influencers and thought leaders (Part 2)
Thinkers360
June 27, 2018
Having recently published our Top 20 Global Thought Leaders on Digital Transformation – June 2018, we asked a selection of our Thinkers360 global influencers and thought leaders about their thoughts on digital transformation and what we can expect to see over the next three years.
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, IoT
The future of digital transformation – Insights from Thinkers360 global influencers and thought leaders (Part 1)
Thinkers360
June 20, 2018
Having recently published our Top 20 Global Thought Leaders on Digital Transformation – June 2018, we asked a selection of our Thinkers360 global influencers and thought leaders about their thoughts on digital transformation and what we can expect to see over the next three years.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: The 4 biggest cultural barriers to corporate innovation
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June 15, 2018
If you’re a regular reader of my column, you’ll know that I write a lot about best practices in corporate innovation and associated strategic themes, techniques and approaches for establishing world-class programs.While we can learn a lot from studying best practices, it’s also helpful ...
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Tags: Innovation, Leadership, Culture
The past, present and future of procurement: A discussion with Dr. Marcell Vollmer, Chief Digital Officer, SAP Ariba
Thinkers360
May 17, 2018
In recent years, the business function of procurement may not have been the first area to spring to mind when it comes to digital transformation, but today this is all changing. Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) are stepping into new, exciting roles where they can make procurement more strategic.
They now have the ability to influence 40-60% of an organization’s budget and to take a lead role in making choices that support corporate ethics and corporate social responsibility. In effect, they’re becoming Chief Collaboration Officers, Chief Purpose Officers and brand ambassadors for their organizations.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, Procurement
IDG Contributor Network: SAP Ariba’s platform strategy
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May 01, 2018
For most tech-company CEOs and entrepreneurs, having a platform business model and successfully taking it to scale is stuff of legend. Due to their network effects and ability to create a virtuous cycle where the benefit of a product or service increases as more people use it, platform business m
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Supply Chain, Procurement
IDG Contributor Network: Navigating artificial intelligence strategy in your industry
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April 17, 2018
While AI’s impact on the workforce is clearly top-of-mind for most organizations, executives have many additional questions which need to be addressed to clarify the impact of the technology on their business models, processes, products and services – and their market and competitive position
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Tags: AI, Digital Transformation, Innovation
Thriving in the Era of Digital Disruption - Part Two
ClearPrism LLC
April 04, 2018
For leading organizations, it’s about thriving in the era of digital disruption and innovating for growth and efficiencies. For many others, it’s about survival and developing strategic countermeasures to proactively avoid being disrupted by the competition.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
The future of influencer relationship management
Thinkers360.com
April 04, 2018
The social media “fake follower” crisis has created a compelling need to find authentic influencers as well as authentic thought leaders who are experts in their fields. For this reason, I believe that the future of influencer relationship management as a discipline will expand and diversify to include a focus on expert relationship management.
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Tags: Innovation, Social, Marketing
Thriving in the Era of Digital Disruption—Part One
ClearPrism LLC
March 21, 2018
The topic of digital transformation is one of the most talked about subjects in the business and technology arena today. According to data from Google Trends, interest in the term is at an all-time high since the term first gained popularity many years ago and a typical web search yields nearly 65M results.
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Tags: Digital Disruption, Digital Transformation, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 5 ways for public sector leaders to accelerate innovation in 2018
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January 25, 2018
Leaders in public sector organizations are facing ever-increasing demands and expectations from their constituents to deliver services more effectively and efficiently, to streamline processes, improve productivity, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction all the while dealing with limited resources in terms of personnel and budgets. In this environment, innovation – and, more specifically, accelerating the pace of innovation – is both a necessity and a challenge in terms of keeping up with the pace of commercial innovation and applying it swiftly to modernize and transform existing systems and processes. With this in mind, here’s five ways public sector leaders can accelerate their innovation initiatives in 2018:To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Govtech
IDG Contributor Network: No more Post-It’s: The case for software in your digital innovation sessions
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January 12, 2018
With so much interest and activity around innovation workshops, design thinking workshops and other forms of event-based idea generation (ideation) sessions in support of digital transformation initiatives, it’s time to re-visit the age-old Post-It’s versus software debate.Of course, a well-r
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Tags: Design Thinking, Digital Transformation, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 4 strategic themes for digital transformation in 2018
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December 19, 2017
Last year, my predictions for digital transformation were focused on the core DNA that organizations needed to put into place to achieve world-leading performance and results in digital transformation.In addition to perennial themes such as leadership, people and cultural competencies, these new
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, Innovation
Why Your Board Is Critical To Digital Transformation Results
Disruption Hub
November 15, 2017
Taking it to the top yields better results.
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: How digital is helping the RNLI to save lives at sea
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November 01, 2017
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a UK-based charity whose mission is to save lives at sea. The charity was founded back in 1824 and their lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 140,000 lives to date. You might think that digital technologies lend little value to aid in at-
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, IoT
IDG Contributor Network: Platform business models: 4 key steps for implementation
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October 31, 2017
Platform business models allow enterprises to set up powerful industry-focused, cloud-based ecosystems for value exchange and innovation among participants. After their initial debut in the tech sector, they’re now appearing across almost all industry verticals, including finance, healthcare, manufacturing, public sector, telecom, transportation and utilities.In “Platform business models: A primer”, I wrote about how these models are fast becoming the dominant business model for companies with advanced digital transformation strategies. The business model is particularly compelling because it converts traditional, linear value chains into multi-dimensional value networks and ecosystems. Organizations employing platform business models are often seeing a 4x multiplier in terms of average valuation compared to more traditional business models and McKinsey noted recently that “companies pursuing offensive platform strategies yield a better payoff in both revenue and growth”.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Cloud, Digital Transformation, Innovation
Inventing the Buy Now Button
LinkedIn
October 10, 2017
In the tech-world there's a great quote by computer scientist Alan Kay that states "the best way to predict the future is to invent it". In today's fast-paced world of digital disruption, this simple yet powerful adage holds even truer.
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Tags: Customer Experience, Design Thinking, Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: The evolving role of the Chief Digital Officer
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September 14, 2017
With many organizations now three to five years into their digital transformation strategies, the role of the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) has been rapidly evolving and maturing alongside. What started as a role close to that of the Chief Marketing Officer, with a focus on the digital customer experience, has now evolved into something far-more expansive – reaching into corporate strategy, innovation, technology and operations. In this article, we’ll look at how the CDO role started, some of the latest developments in its continued evolution, the different types of capabilities that are needed to achieve transformational results, and some recommendations for organizations wishing to lead, rather than follow, in terms of digital disruption within their industries.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: Bitcoin lessons from the California gold rush
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August 18, 2017
With bitcoin crossing the $4K mark and the market cap for cryptocurrencies currently residing around $140B, there’s a definite sense of a gold rush in progress much like the dot-com era and the real California gold rush of the 1800s.While parallels with the dot-com era have been well reported,
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Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: Assessing your organization’s digital transformation maturity
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August 15, 2017
With most organizations now several years into their digital transformation journeys, many are looking to measure progress, gauge maturity, and benchmark against peers in their industry. The key questions are how to assess this maturity, what are the key pillars and elements of maturity, and which capabilities are new and different compared to business as usual.Digital transformation is a broad subject that requires competency across strategy and vision, people and culture, process and governance, and technology and capabilities, as show in following chart: Nicholas D. Evans
Key pillars of digital transformation (Source: "Mastering Digital Business", BCS, 2017)To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: Assessing your organizations digital transformation maturity
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August 15, 2017
With most organizations now several years into their digital transformation journeys, many are looking to measure progress, gauge maturity, and benchmark against peers in their industry. The key questions are how to assess this maturity, what are the key pillars and elements of maturity, and whic
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Tags: Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: Assessing your organization’s digital transformation maturity
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August 04, 2017
With most organizations now several years into their digital transformation journeys, many are looking to measure progress, gauge maturity, and benchmark against peers in their industry. The key questions are how to assess this maturity, what are the key pillars and elements of maturity, and whic
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Tags: Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: Assessing your organizations digital transformation maturity
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August 04, 2017
With most organizations now several years into their digital transformation journeys, many are looking to measure progress, gauge maturity, and benchmark against peers in their industry. The key questions are how to assess this maturity, what are the key pillars and elements of maturity, and whic
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Tags: Digital Transformation
IDG Contributor Network: 4 key techniques for continuous improvement in corporate innovation
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May 11, 2017
If you're leading a corporate innovation program for your organization, or you're part of the core innovation team, one of the key considerations after it's been up and running for a while is how to continuously improve and refine the program over time.While there's a lot of attention paid to how to design and implement corporate innovation programs, as well as how to run ongoing and event-based ideation (i.e., idea generation) sessions with various constituencies, there's not so much written about how to effectively operate these programs and capabilities on a sustainable, year-over-year basis.A corporate innovation program clearly needs to evolve and adapt over time to incorporate the latest developments in innovation management theory and practice, and to fine-tune the sights around innovation as customer needs, business needs and overall market conditions dictate.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 4 considerations for navigating 'innovation antibodies' and 'innovation theater'
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May 03, 2017
In recent years, we've started to see terms such as "innovation antibodies" and "innovation theater" being used to describe some of the challenges in managing innovation, particularly in larger organizations trying to find their own innovation culture. Today, many innovation leaders must carefully navigate the waters between too much resistance to innovation from corporate antibodies and, conversely, too much enthusiasm for innovation from those wishing to put on theater.So-called "innovation antibodies" are well-known for their ability to stifle ideas or even kill off ideas completely. The antibodies are typically corporate departments and personnel that see new ideas coming from another part of the business as risk elements that need to be carefully managed and mitigated. Harvard Business Review published a useful article a few years ago about how to get the corporate antibodies on your side by making these departments and staff part of the solution.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 4 considerations for navigating 'innovation antibodies' and 'innovation theater'
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May 03, 2017
In recent years, we've started to see terms such as "innovation antibodies" and "innovation theater" being used to describe some of the challenges in managing innovation, particularly in larger organizations trying to find their own innovation culture. Today, many innovation leaders must carefull
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4 Strategic Themes For Leading Digital Disruption
Disruption Hub
April 03, 2017
...
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: Digital sustainability: Digital transformation’s next big opportunity
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February 21, 2017
Every business is now a digital business in one form or another.And in the spirit of "making IT good for society" (in the words of the British Computer Society), there's a tremendous opportunity for the technology community to make a difference. The scope of this opportunity now extends well beyond green IT to focus on using digital transformation to help all industries meet their sustainability goals and reduce their carbon footprints.While the concepts of green IT and sustainable IT were originally focused on IT operations and the technology product lifecycle, the new call to action as companies undergo digital reinvention is for them to give environmental factors early consideration in their planning and to extend the scope of their sustainability improvements beyond IT operations and across many of their digitally transformed processes.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, Sustainability
IDG Contributor Network: Digital sustainability: Digital transformations next big opportunity
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February 21, 2017
Every business is now a digital business in one form or another.And in the spirit of "making IT good for society" (in the words of the British Computer Society), there's a tremendous opportunity for the technology community to make a difference. The scope of this opportunity now extends well bey
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Tags: Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 6 ways the digital-physical blur is affecting your money
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January 18, 2017
When we think of digital disruption, while all industries are affected in one way or another, some of the largest disruptions ahead may well be experienced within financial services. Of course, bitcoin and blockchain come to mind right away, as well as A.I. for improved customer service and a competitive edge, but there are numerous other disruptions either already in play or poised to take effect very soon.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Mobility
IDG Contributor Network: 5 digital business predictions for 2017
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December 09, 2016
While discrete technology trends often get all the attention in New Year's lists, this coming year will be highlighted by organizations taking a more holistic focus on digital transformation that taps into platform business models, the power of technology combinations, mastery of digital services and leading practices in corporate innovation. There will also be an increasing number of "world-firsts" coming out from the corporate sector as vertical industries refine their mastery of digital business.
In light of those impending developments, here are five digital business predictions for 2017 that C-levels need to consider when planning for the year ahead.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: Platform business models: A primer
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October 26, 2016
Platform business models are gaining a lot of attention lately, but not everyone knows precisely what they are. These business models, which allow enterprises to set up powerful ecosystems for value exchange and innovation among participants, can be used across industries and are fast becoming a dominant business model for the digital economy.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
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Tags: Cloud, Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption
IDG Contributor Network: The future of innovation management software
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September 07, 2016
If you're involved in managing innovation for your organization, you're likely working with some form of enterprise innovation management software, or you're in the process of selecting a solution that can best support your needs.
To help you think about future needs with regard to managing innovation, I have identified five areas where I believe today's innovation management software needs to evolve to support the ever-expanding needs of the business with regard to digital transformation.
Before we explore how the software needs to evolve, it's worth noting that the first step for any organization is to define a program that addresses the five critical pillars of innovation management capability and then to fine-tune and adjust this program for the needs of digital transformation.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: The IoT past, present and future
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June 02, 2016
Professor Sanjay Sarma is best known for his ground-breaking work in co-founding the MIT Auto-ID Center, the predecessor of today’s MIT Auto-ID Labs, and developing many of the key technologies behind the EPC suite of RFID standards now used worldwide. He was also the founder and CTO of OATSystems, which was acquired by Checkpoint Systems in 2008.
The Auto-ID Center was first created, it was chartered with creating the infrastructure, recommending the standards and identifying the automated identification applications for a networked physical world. It was during this period back in 1999 that the term “Internet of Things” was coined and “things” truly started to get connected to the Internet.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Innovation, IoT, Mobility
IDG Contributor Network: Blockchain’s split personality: Digital disruption or digital distraction?
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May 13, 2016
Even if you’re working in an industry outside of the financial services sector, it’s more than likely you’ve come across blockchain, the cryptographic technology that underlies bitcoin, and you’re exploring its strategic significance for your business. According to The Economist, “blockchain has applications well beyond cash and currency. It offers a way for people who do not know or trust each other to create a record of who owns what that will compel the assent of everyone concerned. It is a way of making and preserving truths.”To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: Blockchains split personality: Digital disruption or digital distraction?
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May 13, 2016
Even if you’re working in an industry outside of the financial services sector, it’s more than likely you’ve come across blockchain, the cryptographic technology that underlies bitcoin, and you’re exploring its strategic significance for your business. According to The Economist, “blo
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Tags: Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: Digital business ecosystems and platforms: 5 new rules for innovators
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March 21, 2016
Just as there's a dominant technology platform for digital business, comprised of a set of foundational emerging and disruptive technologies, there's also a dominant new business model emerging in the form of digital business ecosystems.
In fact, digital business ecosystems and platforms are fast becoming the go-to business model for the digital economy. According to Accenture, "Ecosystems are the new bedrock of digital" and "The top 15 public platform companies already represent $2.6 trillion in market capitalization worldwide." To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 3 steps to a lean innovation workshop
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February 12, 2016
As I've discussed previously in "Multi-modal innovation: 5 best practices for setting the rhythm of innovation," innovation workshops are a valuable technique for event-based ideation which can complement ongoing enterprise ideation processes.
As with any enterprise initiative or capability with the word "innovation" in its title, innovation workshops are also subject to the usual -- and appropriate -- scrutiny, evaluation and questions from various parts of the organization, from senior leadership to managers and employees. Commonly asked questions may revolve around the efficiency and effectiveness of the workshop in terms of its methodology, duration, cost, resource commitments, objectives and outcomes -- and are often inspired by the latest management approach such as "lean," as well as (for obvious business purposes) to ensure and confirm a healthy return on investment.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Design Thinking, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: How the Industrial Internet builds on the new platform for digital business
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January 15, 2016
In a recent article, “Beyond SMAC: The new platform for digital business,” I addressed how eight foundational disruptive technologies -- some mature, some emerging -- are serving as key elements of a new master IT architecture for digital business ecosystems.More than just the Internet of Things and big data/fast data/data analytics, the real potential of the Industrial Internet and Industry 4.0 (aka Industrie 4.0) -- the German vision for the future of manufacturing -- will be realized by the holistic combination of this full set of technology enablers to deliver “dynamic, real-time optimized, self-organizing value chains.”To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, IoT
IDG Contributor Network: 9 key questions to ask of your next digital business initiative
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January 14, 2016
In my last article, "5 digital business predictions for 2016," I highlighted that this year we'll see digital disruptions in the form of innovative industry business models, processes, products and services hitting the marketplace in full force. Much like a seismic event, market activity will become stronger and more frequent this year with ever more digital services -- with compelling new value propositions -- entering the market.As these digital services roll out, there will of course be winners and losers. Armed with a vision for a new digitally enabled product or service, as you get ready to seek internal or external investment, it's important to do the upfront strategic homework. This homework needs to be not just on the vision, value proposition and differentiation of the product or service itself, but on your entire business model and how you intend to go to market.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Startups
IDG Contributor Network: Digital business predictions for 2016
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December 14, 2015
In 2016, as the race to digital transformation progresses, we’ll start to see the leaders separate themselves from the rest of the pack and set a firm pace that’s fueled by five essential ingredients: a deep understanding of digital disruption, the art and science of the customer experience, the next wave of enabling technologies, a mastery of digital services and continuous innovation from ideation to execution.
Correspondingly, with predictions season in full force, here are five digital business trends which I expect to shape 2016, their implications for business and technology leaders and recommendations for how to prepare for and maximize these trends to your advantage.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: Digital business lessons from the world of Formula One
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November 23, 2015
In addition to the blistering excitement of race day, the world of Formula One is well known for its technology innovation and advancements that later find their way into the consumer auto industry. Examples include a multitude of innovations related to engines, transmission, braking and safety.With all the interest in digital transformation in the business world, what can the world of Formula One, where results are measured in thousandths of a second, teach us about emerging technologies and how to manage, combine and optimize them to deliver competitive advantage?According to Matt Harris, head of IT at the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team, there are a number of business objectives his team has to address. Firstly, the goal of IT is to support and improve the business as a whole. The Formula One team doesn’t sell anything since the “product” in this case goes around the track. IT therefore focuses on providing and operating the core, car-enabling technologies for race performance as well as for the team’s website and worldwide fan base.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Analytics, Big Data, IoT
IDG Contributor Network: The 5 critical pillars of innovation management capability
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October 13, 2015
Every three to five years the map of the world in terms of innovation is redrawn as organizations change strategic direction, bring in new leaders and/or respond to market threats and opportunities. Three important considerations when repositioning or reevaluating a corporate innovation program include its mission, goals and objectives, where it’s located within the organization and the key capabilities it provides to the organization and its extended set of employees, partners, customers and stakeholders.In prior articles, I’ve addressed how to think about where innovation programs reside within the business, and about fine-tuning an existing corporate innovation program for digital transformation in order to readjust the sights squarely on digital business. In this article, I’ll cover the third consideration in terms of the key capabilities a corporate innovation program should provide.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Open Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: 6 steps for digital transformation
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October 01, 2015
In terms of digital transformation initiatives, there’s a lot of talk right now in terms of strategy and less emphasis on practical execution. Everyone wants to advise the CEO and the board, but these discussions often only take the conversation so far.So how should an organization think beyond the strategy and get to transformative execution and outcomes? It’s important to develop an approach that can span this divide between strategy and execution so that once the transformation objectives have been selected, there’s a clear path to a unified architectural approach for IT and subsequent agile execution.Here are six steps for digital transformation that you can take to progress from innovative strategy development, to an architectural framework, to practical execution:To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation
IDG Contributor Network: How digital business disrupts the five forces of industry competition
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August 26, 2015
Exactly why is digital business so disruptive to traditional business models and traditional notions of industry competition? A useful way to analyze the situation is by looking at Porter’s model of the five forces of industry competition and exploring how digital business is impacting each of the various forces.
According to Michael E. Porter, in one of his landmark books, titled Competitive Strategy, “In any industry, whether it is domestic or international or produces a product or a service, the rules of competition are embodied in five competitive forces: the entry of new competitors, the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers, and the rivalry among the existing competitors.”To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Emerging Technology
IDG Contributor Network: Instrumenting the human and socializing the machine
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August 12, 2015
When it comes to the digital workplace, the popular opinion, and fear, is that machines are encroaching upon human work activities and taking an ever larger percentage of this work away for good — from the dirty and dangerous, to the dull, to decisions. Fortunately, this doesn’t take into account the realm of possibilities created when work processes are reimagined in the context of mutual human-machine collaboration.By instrumenting the human and socializing the machine, we can redesign business processes to optimize the blend of human-machine participation and interaction — and complete tasks far more efficiently than either could individually. Machines are stepping out from behind the cage, and humans are stepping into their worlds.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: AI, Autonomous Vehicles, Future of Work
IDG Contributor Network: The wild, Wild West of IoT security
Import from cio.com
August 03, 2015
In the case of Internet of Things security, it’s the Wild West out there. Drones with firearms attached, connected cars remotely sabotaged — the potential for trouble seems to be endless. Even popular culture’s been getting into the act. Witness HBO’s Silicon Valley episode where the self-driving “Hooli” car abruptly changes its destination and enters a shipping container, taking Jared to a man-made island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (“I’m sorry, what? Mister car? Excuse me?”).To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Cybersecurity, Emerging Technology, IoT
IDG Contributor Network: It's time for a Digital Customer Experience Bill of Rights
Import from cio.com
July 28, 2015
In this age of digital disruption, some companies — Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Uber and Airbnb, among them — are doing things right. A highly positive digital customer experience drives customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased revenues and ongoing customer loyalty for businesses. Consumers now expect and even demand the same kinds of digital experiences from any company they deal with, regardless of industry.The unfortunate truth, however, is that many organizations are harming their customers' digital experience — and in some cases their safety — on a regular basis. Customers can find themselves with limited access to personal data, discover that their connected vehicle can be digitally sabotaged or experience a wide range of cellular service quality at U.S. airports.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Customer Experience, Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption
8 classic (digital) business strategy moves from Apple Pay
CIO.com
June 09, 2015
Apple’s recent announcement at its Worldwide Developers Conference of giving shoppers even more ways to pay via its Apple Pay service is an interesting example of a set of eight classic (digital) business strategy moves the company has executed over the course of launching its service.
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Tags: Customer Experience, Mobility, Business Strategy
The Internet of Things meets disruptive technologies
Import from computerworld.com
April 21, 2014
The Internet of Things (IoT) will be everywhere. According to Gartner, by 2020 the IoT will be more than a $300 billion market, with over 26 billion devices installed. In contrast, today we use 7.3 billion smartphones, tablets and PCs.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, IoT
Mobile Next.0: Five business scenarios for the wearable, augmented-reality era
Import from computerworld.com
September 09, 2013
As mobile computing evolves, two of the most interesting developments now emerging are wearable devices and augmented-reality applications. And if mobile computing has taught us anything, it's that the old consumer/enterprise technology divide is disappearing. If users buy a device that they can use for business, they will use it for business. With that in mind, I want to review five business scenarios that are compelling for the combination of wearables and AR.First, though, it seems like a good idea to consider the likelihood of wearables and AR becoming broadly adopted at all. We can't know this, of course, but there's good reason to believe that the trajectory of mobile computing over the past decade will carry over to wearables and AR.To read this article in full, please click here
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Tags: Digital Transformation, Innovation, Mobility
Why Wal-Mart Had to Deploy RFID
RFID Journal
November 29, 2004
If the retailer didn't move to use RFID in its supply chain, it risked allowing upstarts to use the new technology to erode Wal-Mart's competitive advantage.
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Tags: Emerging Technology, IoT, Retail