On Technology In Business

Please see below selected recent intelligence about technology. Please contact Dominic Kelleher with any questions.  

 

June 2015

 

• MIT Technology Review published its lists of the 50 Smartest Companies in 2015. Massive solar panel factories, fertility treatments and friendly robots are among the companies reshaping the technology business.

 

• The majority of organisations fail to have a uniform process for archiving data types, according to analysis by the Computer Business Review. Businesses are failing to capture potential revenues due to poorly managed data archives. Large volumes of data are resulting in many organisations being unable to successfully leverage the value in their data archives. However, a subset of organisations which are successfully leveraging the data are making as much as $10m more in revenue due to streamlined IT and customer service operations. Research published by Iron Mountain, "Mining for Insight: Rediscovering the Data Archive", an IDC white paper, showed that organisations with a well-defined data archive process stand to realise value from cost savings and added revenue from monetising the archives.

 

• The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) is demanding new initiatives toward enterprise architecture, data services and integration, according to a survey of 675 application developers, which finds broad support for IoT initiatives, but a lot of work ahead. The study, conducted by Harbor Research and underwritten by Progress, found that at least 45% of developers are working on IoT initiatives, and 75% felt IoT is going to deliver positive results. However, at this point, only 50% of developers say they have the skills, resources and technological tools to deliver on IoT expectations, the survey finds. That's because there are many new moving parts that will need to be added to already complex IT infrastructures.In fact, nearly a third experience data overload and feel overwhelmed trying to manage it all when managing data sets for contextualised IoT apps,

 

• The Era of Living Services report from Accenture and Fjord, described how brands will use the Internet of Things and powerful data analytics to create services that come to life; predicting and reacting to consumers’ changing needs and circumstances. In other words, branded services that are personalised and change in real-time for every individual wherever they are and whatever they are doing. It looked at the effect Living Services will have on most aspects of our lives – from our homes, finances and work; to our health, shopping and the future of travel.

 

• By 2020, 62% of organisations will be running 100% of their information technology in the cloud. But younger startup companies are already close to that point. That’s the prediction from BetterCloud, which surveyed 1,500 of its customers to determine what direction they will be taking cloud in the next few years. Currently, 12% of companies run all of their IT in the cloud, so it looks like this number will quintuple over the next five years.

 

• London is the technology capital of Europe, with more than 1,000 “tech investment projects” started between 2005 and 2014 based in London, while only 281 are in Paris, the next most popular city in Europe, the data from professional services firm EY2 reveals. Below Paris were Dublin with 162, Madrid with 139 and Amsterdam with 126 start-ups. According to a report by Oxford Economics, London's digital technology sector has grown by 46 per cent since the Tech City UK programme was launched, with tech companies based in the capital now employing almost 200,000 people.

 

• Deloitte predicts that in 2015 one billion wireless Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be shipped, up 60% from 2014, and leading to an installed base of 2.8 billion devices. The IoT-specific hardware (which could be a more expensive cellular modem, or a much cheaper Wi-Fi chip) is likely to be worth $10 billion, and the associated services enabled by the devices worth about $70 billion. Services include all of the data plans that may be necessary to connect a device over a network, the professional services (consulting, implementation, or analysing the data) and then things like an insurance policy discount for a telematics device in a car or a wearable device for health purposes.

 

• Ventana Research recently completed what it claims is the most comprehensive evaluation of analytics and business intelligence products and vendors available anywhere. Analytics and business intelligence is now a fast-changing market and Ventana scrutinised 15 top vendors and their product offerings in seven key categories: usability, manageability, reliability, capability, adaptability, vendor validation and return on investment.

 

• The Internet of Things is rapidly building connections between devices, starting with wearables, cars and appliances. A recent report from Gartner forecast that, “4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30 percent from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020.” Breakthroughs have been made with regard to processing chips and internet speed that are making IoT a reality. 20 years ago, the cloud technology that is current driving these changes did not exist, but today the Internet of Things is being compared to the Industrial Revolution.

 

 

 

May 2015

 

 

• Intense competition continues to be the most prevalent risk in the technology sector, particularly amid constant innovation and improvement. For example, according to the eighth annual report from BDO, all of the 100 largest public tech companies in the US cite risks related to competition and consolidation in their annual filings. Increasingly, competition is flowing into employment trends as hiring becomes a top priority for many managers at leading tech firms. As such, 95% of companies mention concerns over their ability to attract and retain key personnel, up from 89% in 2014.

 

 

• The technology sector is not ready to hit the pause button on M&A, even after record-setting dealmaking over the past five quarters. Rather, a growing sense of confidence amid global digital transformation should continue to drive technology M&A through 2015, according to EY's Technology Capital Confidence Barometer. 60% of technology executives surveyed see the M&A market growing over the next 12 months, and 57% expect to complete more deals than last year. That would come on top of post-dotcom-bubble records for deal volumes in every quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2015.

 

 

• According to HP, today’s CIOs sit at the centre of a seemingly endless maze, surrounded by twists, turns, and winding corridors, each offering a potential pathway to a constantly shifting goal - IT transformation. The company believes that there are five critical factors below can make the difference between success and failure: changing user expectations; time to value; workforce change; aligning the evolving IT organisation and confronting agility and basic modernisation challenges.

 

 

• Mergers and acquisitions related to the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to shatter records. Buyers so far this year have spent $14.8bn to purchase 39 IoT-related companies, surpassing the $14.3bn spent for 62 such companies in all of 2014, which itself was a record-breaking year.  emiconductor-related acquisitions have driven the bulk of spending so far in 2015.

 

 

• 3D Printing Moves from Hype to an Innovative, Disruptive Force, is a new IDC presentation on how the market is shaping up for 2015 and beyond.

 

 

• According to Boston Consulting Group, digital disruption is not a new phenomenon. But the opportunities and risks it presents shift over time. Competitive advantage flows to the businesses that see and act on these shifts first. We are entering the third and most consequential, wave of digital disruption. It has profound implications not only for strategy but also for the structure of companies and industries. Business leaders need a new map to guide them.

 

 

• The European Union outlined its strategy to create a digital single market. The thrust of the proposals include establishing standard rules for buying goods online, pruning cross-border regulations on telecoms and reducing the tax burden on businesses. But the plan also calls for a “comprehensive assessment” of whether Google, Facebook and other internet platforms distort competition. Still, the strategy was broadly welcomed. The EU expects it will generate €415 billion ($468 billion) a year for the economy and produce 3.8m new jobs.

 

 

 

April 2015

 

 

• Forbes argued that we’ve had software as a service, platform as a service and data as a service. Now, by mixing them all together and massively upscaling the amount of data involved, we’ve arrived at Big Data as a Service, or BDaaS. It might not be a term you’re familiar with yet, but it suitably describes a fast-growing new market. In the last few years many businesses have sprung up offering cloud-based Big Data services to help other companies and organisations solve their data dilemmas. Some estimate that the portion of business IT spending that is cloud-based, x-as-a-service activity will increase from about 15% today to 35% by 2021. Given that it is estimated that the global Big Data market will be worth $88 billion by that point, we can see that the forecast value of the BDaaS market could be $30 billion.

 

 

• Techfuture Ambassadors argued that, for those CIOs who are willing to embrace the change, digital transformation can provide the opportunity to rethink how they use technology at the most fundamental level. This can help businesses to improve their service offerings while also building a more meaningful relationship with the new generation of customers. For some business leaders, however, the idea of transforming their organisation remains a deeply worrying thought. Instead of adapting, these organisations would prefer to bury their heads in the sand and hope that digital will pass them by without disruption.

 

• Strategy& published a strategist's guide to the Internet of Things.

 

 

 

March 2015

 

• A new report by Verizon predicted that the Internet of Things is poised to transform virtually every major market sector, growing to more than 5.4 billion connections by 2020.

 

• According to Forrester, with challenges increasing - new touchpoints to measure, new technologies to master, and skills in short supply - professionals face a real challenge in increasing their firms' analytical maturity. Yet robust metrics are critical to driving digital transformation, so today's digital leaders must plot a path to deliver the skills, capabilities, and technologies their firms need.

 

• Data is the new natural resource that will fuel economic growth in the future, and analytics is the key to refining it, according to an IBM Europe vice-president, who claimed that four billion people already use a smartphone - more than the 2.5bn who use a toothbrush - but technology only had a value when it was integrated into our personal and working lives.  Analytics had reached a new peak with Watson, IBM's cognitive computer which and it has also devised a "spoken web" for low literacy users of the internet in developing countries.

 

• Big & Fast Data: The Rise of Insight-Driven Business, Capgemini's study of 1,000 senior business leaders, demonstrated the extent to which big data sources and technology are being adopted across different sectors and regions of the world. It explains the impact on businesses and markets and how the acquisition of data is breaking down traditional industry boundaries, and identifies how businesses are adapting to deal with this and what organisations need to do to make big data work for them.

 

• Organisations are seeing measurable benefits from Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and the number of overall IoT connections will more than quadruple between 2014 and 2020, according to a Verizon Enterprise Solutions report, which delves into adoption trends and predictions for the future of the IoT market and guidance for business and public-sector leaders on developing an IoT strategy.

 

February 2015

 

• The Times examined how companies are increasingly turning to big data to improve productivity. Many are treating every action made by an employee as a data point that can be measured, analysed and then potentially modified – with some examining top performers to see what they are doing differently, before encouraging other employees to be more like their star players. However, this can demoralise employees, it is noted.

 

• After decades of development, 3D printing is now ready to revolutionise manufacturing, claimed China Daily. For example, the southern Chinese city of Changsha has launched a new industrial park and what sets it apart is that it is China's first hub for 3D printing technology, and was established with an immediate goal to produce 100 3D printers, and to triple the number of devices by 2016. Taking Changsha's lead, the cities of Wuhan and Zhuhai have announced plans to develop similar industry hubs.

 

• Technology companies in the UK are set to be at the centre of a wave of takeover activity over the next two years. A survey published by law firm Pinsent Masons in conjunction with Mergermarket, identified UK & Ireland as the most active target region for technology acquisitions, while London has been identified as the technology start-up hub of Europe. A total of 80% of those questioned anticipate an increase in both the volume and value of deals in Europe over the next 12 months, building on the record year for deals in the sector in 2014. A third of those surveyed said they expected the value of deals to increase "significantly", with a continued rise of cash-rich bidders.

 

• In its annual organisational and staffing survey of eBusiness and channel strategy professionals, Forrester found that while eBusiness budgets have grown by more than 10%, finding the skills and capabilities to execute on a digital strategy is becoming harder and harder.Staffing is most painful for technology, customer experience, and business analytics roles - all critical functions for driving digital transformation.

 

 

• The Internet of Things - the concept that objects can be connected to the internet and communicate with us - promises much, argued a Financial Times special report, but, before it can take off, problems such as security, cost and interconnectivity need to be resolved.

 

 

• Still, organisations are already seeing measurable benefits from Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and the number of overall IoT connections will more than quadruple between 2014 and 2020, according to a Verizon Enterprise Solutions report, which delved into adoption trends and predictions for the future of the IoT market and provided guidance for business and public-sector leaders on developing an IoT strategy.

 

 

• Meanwhile, technology companies in the UK are set to be at the centre of a wave of takeover activity over the next two years. claimed a survey published by law firm Pinsent Masons in conjunction with Mergermarket, which identified the UK and Ireland as the most active targets for technology acquisitions, with London identified as the top technology start-up hub of Europe. A total of 80% of those questioned anticipate an increase in both the volume and value of deals in Europe over the next 12 months, building on the record year for deals in the sector in 2014.

 

 

• In its annual organisational and staffing survey of eBusiness and channel strategy professionals, Forrester found that while eBusiness budgets have grown by more than 10%, finding the skills and capabilities to execute on a digital strategy is becoming harder and harder.

 

January 2015

 

• The Internet of Things - the concept that objects can be connected to the internet and communicate with us - promises much, argued a Financial Times special report but, before it can take off, problems such as security, cost and interconnectivity need to be resolved.

 

• Globally, mobile technology has emerged as a primary engine of economic growth, stimulating enormous private-sector spending in both R&D and infrastructure, and profoundly changing daily lives everywhere, argued the Boston Consulting Group, which believes that dramatic performance improvements in mobile communications standards have propelled mobile to become the fastest adopted technology of all time.

 

 

• A new survey of companies by Forrester Consulting for Zebra Technologies revealed that 96% of businesses feel prepared for the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the coming years. Almost all of the 600 companies surveyed said they were ready to, or already taking the appropriate steps, towards being able to implement the IoT into their business, reports BizReport, with more than three quarters already making use of the solutions and a further 26 per cent planning to within a year. The majority (80%) of respondents agreed that using the IoT is important in terms of smart business strategy over the next 10 years.

 

• Forrester argued that, as CIOs prepare and manage their 2015 tech budgets, they can confidently push for increases of 4% to 6% in their purchases of tech goods and services, depending on their country. Tech spending in the US, China, India, the UK, and the Nordics will be at the high end of this range; in the rest of Europe and Latin America, growth will be at the low end. Demand will be strongest for software — especially for analytics and cloud apps — and related services but weaker in hardware and outsourcing, creating savings opportunities.

 

 

• According to Euromoney, investment banks have been laggards with big data and analytics, but there are signs that they are now throwing more resources and capital at a field that has the potential to transform the industry.

 

• A leading futurist outlined emerging challenges regarding digital transformation.

 

 

• The industrial Internet of Things market could be worth $319.62 billion by 2020, according to a  report by MarketsandMarkets, which believes that the market is poised for tremendous growth. Sectors such as transportation and manufacturing have already begun adopting the same for their operations.

 

 

• Boardrooms all over the world are excited by Big Data, but the collection of masses of information could lead to a legal mess for companies in the EU that suffer a serious data breach, warned the FT. And now there has come a warning that all companies need guidance about what all the data they collect can be used for. Europe’s advisory body on data protection and privacy, the Article 29 Working Party, has said there are legal and ethical questions about how big data fits within the law.