It has been a long time since a blog update but during the blog hiatus there has been so much research and report writing under-way in the Longhaus camp. Seventeen new reports have been added in the past few weeks to bolster the Longhaus research library. And just to prove that we have been busy! Here is a list of the reports that have been most recently added:
Connected workers more productive
The shipments of smartphones will exceed those of PCs by 2012 and with Information Workers becoming equipped with multiple Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) the dominance of desktop PC-centric productivity and workflow is now passed. Social network usage has already exceeded that of email, and it has even been reported that well over 50% of workers believe that the technology tools used in their personal lives make them more efficient and productive than those provided as work productivity tools. For CIOs the mobility trend presents new opportunities to exploit productivity gains across the enterprise.
Enterprise must embrace social strategies – now
Three things have defined the internet’s role within the hierarchy of human needs. The first is its establishment as the foremost library of all knowledge, content, and information. The second is its leading role as global marketplace and financial hub. Finally, validation of its integral standing in human existence also came from the United Nations in 2011 when internet access was declared a basic human right.During its evolution the internet has enabled numerous phases of killer technologies. These have included email, eCommerce, Web 2.0, Cloud, Mobility and now Social Media (SM). And with the socially interlaced internet rapidly gaining on telephony as the primary enterprise tool of trade, any enterprise that fails to develop strategies for exploiting this latest next generation platform will as a minimum experience similar isolation to that of a retailer without an online store.
Enterprise risk in failed ICT projects
Recent research highlights the alarming annual costs of failed ICT projects occurring around the globe. One study that focused on the world’s 500 largest companies revealed total annual costs of $14billion USD. More concerning are findings that more than half of all ICT projects are failing to meet the expectations of the business.Wide-spread failures also reach deep into the public sector. The 2011 failure of the Queensland Health Department to implement a new payroll system is known nationally. The project failure had a high human and social impact and resulted in intense public criticism of the government. Resulting project remediation costs currently stand at $220 million, while brand reputation damage is immeasurable and enduring. Some estimate the global enterprise losses from all enterprise ICT project failures can now be measured in trillions of dollars
Enterprise preparedness for street commerce
The digital media industry is developing the next generation of customer engagement technologies with the arrival of Interactive Digital Displays and Signage (IDDS). Along with the prolific adoption of mobility, next generation technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC), Kinect and Transparent LCD are combining to revolutionise the consumer interaction and buying experience with the use of street deployed IDDS. While previous advertising innovations may have had little impact on the CIO, in contrast, IDDS will have far greater impact on the CIO than the internet or its e-Commerce by-product ever did.
A snapshot of the ICT labour market
ICT salaries have not increased in unison across the board, senior and experienced ICT people, particularly Analysts and Project Managers are at a premium in many markets and demand has pushed up salaries for a selected few. Competition for these roles will particularly impact projects. The ICT labour market is likely to remain at existing levels or increase slightly in late 2011 and early 2012 however an important indicator will come in mid-2012.
The Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) is Australia’s largest retail bank and has been a leading adopter of cloud computing. The bank’s stated drivers for cloud adoption are not technology centric but firmly grounded in the ambition for delivering strategic business value right at the balance sheet. Whilst much of the discussion within the ICT industry on cloud computing has focused on the technical benefits of provisioning, elasticity, and capacity management, CBA describes the benefit from its transformation to cloud computing as the shifting of investment in heavy backend infrastructure to improving customer service.
Trusted cloud brokers are the future
The partnership announced this week between Ingram Micro Australia (IMA) and UltraServe (US) is expected to deliver a significant boost to the Australian cloud computing market. It represents a substantial insight into things to come, with other providers expected to follow. The model of trusted cloud broker will see more companies assist their channel partners by facilitating the right choice of cloud platform and negotiating the processes for positive client on-boarding.
According to the latest Longhaus ICT Adoption and Priority Study 2011, rationalisation and consolidation will remain an enduring topic for Australian big business in the coming 12-months. While this research itself may be unsurprising, the challenge is how to do this in conjunction with improving customer experiences, increasing interoperability of existing investments, and improving the cost effectiveness of operations.The data tells us that within the complexity of today’s business environments, business issues are no longer isolated. One of the results of this evolution has been the rise of multi-modal infrastructure, more commonly known as the software appliance.
Security in the mobile enterprise
Information Workers have established a clear link between work productivity and mobile internet devices (MID) stocked with applications. Social networks have become the new hub for relationship management elevating socialware to a tool of trade. And whatever the location, the MID has become an obligatory portal into the employee world. The mobility revolution is now challenging the desktop PC for market dominance and CIOs need to find the right balance between dealing with valid concerns of security and data leakage, and leveraging the business value that the mobility revolution presents.
The Business Intelligence Data Scientist
The emergent role in big business is as equally valid as the EA. It is being credited with helping companies translate the rise of the Big Data trend. This role is the Data Scientist and is already a favourite talking point of vendors including SAS and IBM.At the critical point that many organisations are beginning to exploit exceedingly strong technical solutions to derive corporate information for key strategic intiatives, the role of the Data Scientist is at risk of being de-valued and will be inappropriately applied to generalist information workers that will rely on COTS functionality to deliver analytical insights. Enterprises unprepared to invest in continuing professional development of key business intelligence or data management staff will fail to reap competitive benefit from the Data Scientist role.
Critical concerns for data warehousing
Traditional approaches to Information Management have seen enterprises investing heavily in data warehousing. This approach was designed for stockpiling data for future use. Longhaus believes that this traditional approach will struggle to meet the information needs of the business in this emerging world of abstracted devices and data. With abstraction occurring at both ends of the ICT supply chain CIOs will be forced to focus less on infrastructure, less on the appliance, and more on the information assets of the organisation.
Planning for network demand and contention
With computing networks representing the vital circulatory system of the digital age, consumers now expect high-‐speed ubiquitous connectivity. The National Broadband Network (NBN) is an initiative of the Australian Government that aims to deliver high-‐speed broadband to all Australians. The NBN will see a new, open access, high-‐speed broadband network designed to connect 93 per cent of Australian homes, schools and businesses to a high-‐speed fibre network. With both the mobility trend and Bring Your Own IT (BYO IT) generating a proliferation of Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), existing networks will face new demands for connection and capacity. Enterprise CIOs will subsequently face increasing pressure to ensure that their own enterprise networks meet the rising expectations of their corporate information workers and need to ensure that they are ready to deliver their own equivalent of the NBN – the Enterprise Broadband Network (EBN)
Australian enterprises selected business growth, cost optimisation and customer service and experience as the top three priorities for the coming year. mCommerce is fast becoming a mandatory strategy for the fulfilment of these three business objectives. mCommerce improves customer interactions, enables richer just-in-time marketing campaigns, generates increased revenues to grow the business, captures return data and provides a lower operational cost per transaction.
Entry points for Enterprise BYO IT
A familiar tale is the enterprise IT professional carrying the corporate device in one pocket and a personal iPhone in the other. They are as compelled by the new smartphone gadgetry and novelty of the application store as their non-IT peers, yet continue to refuse requests from employees for network access to their own personally selected mobile internet devices. The consumerisation of IT means employees believe they are gaining near-equivalent technology awareness as the ICT staff. Budget is now the only barrier to self-procuring across a full spectrum of technology services. As a result the service catalogue of the internal ICT department is being compared to the standard of service that an employee can speedily source and provision directly from the consumer market.
Mobility – the battle of the devices
As mobile users become increasingly spoilt for choice the CIO tasked with enterprise device procurement will face significant challenges meeting the evolving requirements of the technology aware workforce. Staff will challenge enterprise ICT service delivery at every turn on support for constantly evolving features and functionality. All the while the debate amongst the gadget obsessed continues to rage about device platform dominance: Android, Windows, BlackBerry or the iPhone iOS?
Data sovereignty: a wrinkle in the cloud fabric
Australian ICT executives continuously aim to improve the value that ICT provides their businesses. The Longhaus 2011 Adoption and Priorities study revealed the top in-demand strategies to achieve these goals in the coming year. Out of a possible twenty focus areas, Information Security was the leading priority by a 13% margin. This year’s results highlighted security as a very important priority for 42% of ICT executives. By comparison, data sovereignty was prioritised by 19% of ICT executive.
The cloud hype has failed to deliver the right strategic thinking for how cloud computing is the enabler of an overdue ICT and business transformation. The reality of the complexity of 30+ year old ICT environments has started to slow the adoption of cloud computing. The cloud bubble is bursting. This research report introduces the Longhaus 2-page report: an easy to read format for the time-poor ICT executive.
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