To say that blockchain (a shared, distributed, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions) is generating a lot of attention is a huge understatement. I don't think I have seen so much excitement around a new technology since perhaps the early days of the Internet of Things (IoT) or maybe big data.

This is the third Advisor in our series on combating the scourge of administrative evil. The first in this series examined three governmental IT systems — one each from the US states of Michigan, Washington, and Rhode Island — each experiencing operational failures that caused needless harm to their respective state’s citizens. In the second Advisor, we explored the idea of how poorly managed and executed government IT systems that inflict such needless harm on their citizens can rise to the level of being administratively evil. In this final installment, we discuss ways to mitigate administrative evil.

Agile methodologies, however popular they are, bring their own sets of “smells” and anti-patterns to the table, sometimes causing irreparable damage to the team. While the sources of these smells are many, one of the primary culprits is the mindset that treats Agile as “yet another methodology,” totally ignoring the cultural aspect. This article throws light on some of the prominent smells that are emerging of late in the Agile world.

Digital transformation and the new style of IT continue to evolve. How should the architecture realm then develop? More precisely, does it require us to change the way we architect solutions and interact with businesses? Are new skills required? Let’s answer these questions by considering the architecture function, discipline, and profession in that context.

With the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive automation (CA) tools, potential adopters of these new types of service automation tools remain skeptical about the claims surrounding their promised business value. Potential adopters want to know why organizations are adopting service auto­mation, what outcomes they are achieving, and what are the practices that lead to achieving multiple business benefits. To answer these questions, we conducted two surveys of 143 outsourcing professionals along with interviews of 48 people, including service automation adopters, providers, and advisors. From the inter­views, we identified 20 adoption journeys. This Executive Report documents the RPA “triple win” — for shareholders, customers, and employees — emerging from the successful organizations we researched. We also detail eight RPA and CA adoption cases to show how automation was carried out, and the multiple emerging benefits. Finally, we outline 20 action principles, which other organizations can enact, to deliver such outcomes.

With the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive automation (CA) tools, potential adopters of these new types of service automation tools remain skeptical about the claims surrounding their promised business value. Potential adopters want to know why organizations are adopting service auto­mation, what outcomes they are achieving, and what are the practices that lead to achieving multiple business benefits. To answer these questions, we conducted two surveys of 143 outsourcing professionals along with interviews of 48 people, including service automation adopters, providers, and advisors. From the inter­views, we identified 20 adoption journeys. This Executive Report documents the RPA “triple win” — for shareholders, customers, and employees — emerging from the successful organizations we researched. We also detail eight RPA and CA adoption cases to show how automation was carried out, and the multiple emerging benefits. Finally, we outline 20 action principles, which other organizations can enact, to deliver such outcomes.

There has been a big escalation in the media profile of service automation over the last three years. With the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive automation (CA) tools, potential adopters of these new types of service automation tools remain skeptical about the claims surrounding their promised business value. Potential adopters want to know why organizations are adopting service automation, what outcomes they are achieving, and what are the practices that lead to achieving multiple business benefits.

To answer these questions, we conducted two surveys of 143 outsourcing professionals along with interviews of 48 people, including service automation adopters, providers, and advisors. From the interviews, we identified 20 adoption journeys. The benefits include doing more work with fewer humans, improving service quality, executing services quicker, reducing service costs, extending service coverage to 24 hours without shiftwork, increasing work team flexibility, increasing compliance, and, most surprisingly, increased employee job satisfaction. 

There has been a big escalation in the media profile of service automation over the last three years. With the introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) and cognitive automation (CA) tools, potential adopters of these new types of service automation tools remain skeptical about the claims surrounding their promised business value. Potential adopters want to know why organizations are adopting service automation, what outcomes they are achieving, and what are the practices that lead to achieving multiple business benefits.

To answer these questions, we conducted two surveys of 143 outsourcing professionals along with interviews of 48 people, including service automation adopters, providers, and advisors. From the interviews, we identified 20 adoption journeys. The benefits include doing more work with fewer humans, improving service quality, executing services quicker, reducing service costs, extending service coverage to 24 hours without shiftwork, increasing work team flexibility, increasing compliance, and, most surprisingly, increased employee job satisfaction. 

The digital revolution has hit the insurance sector, with insurtech disrupting the entire value chain and customer lifecycle. New technology offers opportunities to redesign the customer experience, design new products and services, streamline processes, and increase effectiveness. The opportunities are huge; hence, they attract financial technology startups and drive investment.

Today’s organizations are constantly growing and reshaping as they implement new strategies and business model changes to react to the external world and internal pressures. While the ability to translate business direction into action is critical for any organization’s survival, most need to recognize there are significant opportunities for improvement. This Executive Update will cast a new vision upon strategy execution, an organizational capability that not only helps to ensure survival but can also be a source of competitive advantage.

In the first Advisor in this series, we examined three governmental IT systems from the US states of Michigan, Washington, and Rhode Island. Each experienced operational failures that caused needless harm to their respective state’s citizens. In this Advisor, we argue that a strong case can be made that these failures can rise to a level of administrative evil.

If you start changing an organization toward an Agile mindset, there’s no real end. Agile is about creating an organization of continuous learning and the transformation is done when there is nothing new to learn, which will probably be never. This puts an enormous challenge on middle management.

A corporation has various business goals, many of which involve profit expectations and ROI. Lapses in the development of a corporate architecture and security risks to data storage and processing can stifle business profit goals. Although there are a few industry and government regulations intended to strengthen a corporation’s information security posture, no regulation should be considered a one-size-fits-all solution.

While other strategies can to some extent be seen as alternatives, information superiority is different; it should be implemented in combination with any of the other options, serving as a “booster” of competitive advantage. In this Executive Update, we propose possible scenarios for the implementation of information superiority strategy, which provides relatively high sustainability without introducing too much complexity.

While other strategies can to some extent be seen as alternatives, information superiority is different; it should be implemented in combination with any of the other options, serving as a “booster” of competitive advantage. In this Executive Update, we propose possible scenarios for the implementation of information superiority strategy, which provides relatively high sustainability without introducing too much complexity.

In this Update, we explore a firm that adopted decoupling as a strategic principle and discovered not only the advantages of this approach but uncovered yet another underutilized capability of data visualization: response redirection.

We are constantly reminded via media coverage of data breaches and other hacking incidents just how important it is for organizations to protect their sensitive data. Naturally, this brings up the key question: where do organizations see the biggest threats to their sensitive data emanating from? A Cutter Consortium survey that asked 50 organizations about their data-centric security and protection practices helps shed some light on this question.

The articles in this issue present perspectives and ideas on business transformation in the digital age. We hope they will inspire and encourage you to visualize the likely future of business in your domain and to explore the opportunities it presents. Finally, we hope their insights will help you identify suitable transformation strategies and plans and, if needed, choose viable collaboration models for partnering with startups and other firms in your digital business efforts.

The articles in this issue present perspectives and ideas on business transformation in the digital age. We hope they will inspire and encourage you to visualize the likely future of business in your domain and to explore the opportunities it presents. Finally, we hope their insights will help you identify suitable transformation strategies and plans and, if needed, choose viable collaboration models for partnering with startups and other firms in your digital business efforts.

The financial services sector was one of the first to be impacted by digitization, and for many years, banks (and also insurers) have been innovating their offerings to respond to the increasing demands of customers, changing regulations, and heightened competition. But the real disruption — which has changed banks’ business models and the way they interact with consumers — began with the emergence of fintech. Increasingly, small, nimble, technology-savvy companies are unbundling the offerings of traditional banks; consider online lenders that provide loans to customers who, due to strengthened credit criteria, have lost access to conventional bank loans, or remittance companies that allow customers to send money abroad at the fraction of the cost charged by banks. In recent months, the trend has been observed even more strongly in the insurance space with the rise of insurtech, which impacts the whole insurance value chain, from customer onboarding, through risk assessment, to selling the products, and finally to claims processing. Digital transformation has become inevitable, and banks and insurers are looking for the most efficient strategies for the digital age. 

The financial services sector was one of the first to be impacted by digitization, and for many years, banks (and also insurers) have been innovating their offerings to respond to the increasing demands of customers, changing regulations, and heightened competition. But the real disruption — which has changed banks’ business models and the way they interact with consumers — began with the emergence of fintech. Increasingly, small, nimble, technology-savvy companies are unbundling the offerings of traditional banks; consider online lenders that provide loans to customers who, due to strengthened credit criteria, have lost access to conventional bank loans, or remittance companies that allow customers to send money abroad at the fraction of the cost charged by banks. In recent months, the trend has been observed even more strongly in the insurance space with the rise of insurtech, which impacts the whole insurance value chain, from customer onboarding, through risk assessment, to selling the products, and finally to claims processing. Digital transformation has become inevitable, and banks and insurers are looking for the most efficient strategies for the digital age. 

Big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the cloud are technological innovations that need to demonstrate corresponding business value. While the aforementioned technologies have distinct identities of their own, they are also interdependent. Innovating with these technologies at a business level demands a multidisciplinary, holistic approach that also incorporates an understanding of how to manage risks. The Big Data Framework for Agile Business (BDFAB) provides a basis for fostering innovation and managing the risks associated with it in the big data, IoT, and cloud space. This article discusses the nature of innovation in the context of big data, IoT, and the cloud and its application in practice.

Big data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the cloud are technological innovations that need to demonstrate corresponding business value. While the aforementioned technologies have distinct identities of their own, they are also interdependent. Innovating with these technologies at a business level demands a multidisciplinary, holistic approach that also incorporates an understanding of how to manage risks. The Big Data Framework for Agile Business (BDFAB) provides a basis for fostering innovation and managing the risks associated with it in the big data, IoT, and cloud space. This article discusses the nature of innovation in the context of big data, IoT, and the cloud and its application in practice.

The business environment is changing at a faster rate than ever before. One of the drivers of change is clearly technology, which is disrupting business at multiple levels. Within the organization, technology is disrupting business processes and the roles people play. Outside the organization, technology is enabling new business models, leading to new forms of competition. Today’s customers have much more access to technology and devices, and they expect to use those to interact with businesses. They also expect businesses to offer more sophisticated, smarter products and services tailored to their needs and preferences.

The business environment is changing at a faster rate than ever before. One of the drivers of change is clearly technology, which is disrupting business at multiple levels. Within the organization, technology is disrupting business processes and the roles people play. Outside the organization, technology is enabling new business models, leading to new forms of competition. Today’s customers have much more access to technology and devices, and they expect to use those to interact with businesses. They also expect businesses to offer more sophisticated, smarter products and services tailored to their needs and preferences.