Often overlooked as financial filings to meet regulatory requirements, company annual reports provide an endless well of insight about how and how well companies articulate and integrate business strategy with risk management and performance measurement.

Unless an organization pursues a strategy of innovation for its own sake, then digital era products and services are still subject to the marketing lifecycle with profitability and reward appearing in the market growth and maturity stages. This means that organizations need to create structures and a culture within which they can simultaneously innovate and deliver the new inventions. There needs to be a marriage of innovation expense control and revenue generation. So how does a modern leader engender such a culture?

In this Advisor, we take a look at how COVID-19 is affecting automation efforts, based on findings from an ongoing Cutter Consortium survey on intelligent process automation.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a bold global agenda helping the world move beyond traditional indicators such as GDP growth and per capita income to a broader set of objectives that include well-being, environmental sustainability, and social fairness. In this Executive Update, we describe the individual and organizational benefits of contributing to the SDGs as well as how organizations can leverage business architecture to achieve these goals.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a bold global agenda helping the world move beyond traditional indicators such as GDP growth and per capita income to a broader set of objectives that include well-being, environmental sustainability, and social fairness. In this Executive Update, we describe the individual and organizational benefits of contributing to the SDGs as well as how organizations can leverage business architecture to achieve these goals.

In nature, apparently robust systems can be disrupted by a single new invasive species, while other systems can retain their resilience despite a sustained assault. The behavior of such sys­tems can be explained by the interdisciplinary theory of complex adaptive systems (CAS). This Advisor describes how we can use CAS theory to support organizational change.

Discuss the challenges and considerations of data and digital architectures and how they can help facilitate value stream enablement and the customer journeys that companies are building to stay in touch with changing client expectations and user experiences.

This edition of The Cutter Edge: how to leverage low-code/no-code (LC/NC) solutions to accelerate the pace of digital innovation and transformation, why we can't have diversity without both equity and inclusion, and more!

This edition of The Cutter Edge: how to leverage low-code/no-code (LC/NC) solutions to accelerate the pace of digital innovation and transformation, why we can't have diversity without both equity and inclusion, and more!

Our findings indicate that 2021 looks to be the year that organizations really get serious with their IPA efforts. Consequently, we should expect to see more organizations move beyond the experimentation stages and start developing and deploying new IPA applications into production environments.

Many classic change management models fail to consider the significant dimensions of technology and innovation. This Advisor shares a case study involving a bank that devel­oped key performance indicators to track all dimensions of change, enabling the bank to constantly improve its capability to implement change.

In this issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal (CBTJ), we examine the role that fintech will play in facilitating economic recovery and growth.

In my last Advisor, “Using Heat Maps to Better Drive the Rationalization of Your IT Landscape,” I introduced the use of business capability heat maps to better focus on business areas that require attention. This Advisor further illustrates the approach and offers next steps in sharing your organization’s evolution with stakeholders.

Luke Merriman discusses the accelerated growth of e-commerce, which has been brought about due to COVID-19. Specifically, Merriman focuses on online classified marketplaces and looks to identify the changes required by these marketplaces to capitalize on the growth in e-commerce. He presents detailed results of a survey carried out by Trustap, an Irish startup specializing in escrow-style payments for online marketplaces.

Luke Merriman discusses the accelerated growth of e-commerce, which has been brought about due to COVID-19. Specifically, Merriman focuses on online classified marketplaces and looks to identify the changes required by these marketplaces to capitalize on the growth in e-commerce. He presents detailed results of a survey carried out by Trustap, an Irish startup specializing in escrow-style payments for online marketplaces.

The authors focus specifically on the potential of cryptocurrencies by asking the timely question, “Are Americans nowadays more willing to use Bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies?” Specifically, they want to know whether Americans would be more willing to use cryptocurrencies over credit cards to complete different e-commerce trans­actions. To answer the question, they surveyed 195 US participants about their willingness to use a hypothetical cryptocurrency called “DIGIcoin” to pay for 11 different products and services.

Blockchain is often criticized as being a solution looking for a problem. The authors seek to address this issue by providing readers with an understanding of blockchain-enabled technologies and the gig economy, and how blockchain can be harnessed to develop innovative business models to facilitate growth post-COVID-19. They touch on several exciting opportunities blockchain affords, including crypto­currencies, tokenization, decentralized applications, and smart contracts.

Denis Dennehy examines how AI can power a sustainable recovery for the Irish economy following COVID-19. He addresses common concerns associated with AI and shows that it will not just eliminate jobs through automation, but rather will create many new roles in specialized areas to support AI. Additionally, Dennehy discusses how AI can be used for social good to address several societal issues. In this thought-provoking discussion, he focuses on four strategic areas that he believes AI can support, namely: (1) agriculture, (2) smart manufacturing and supply chains, (3) education, and (4) smarter products and services.

Denis Dennehy examines how AI can power a sustainable recovery for the Irish economy following COVID-19. He addresses common concerns associated with AI and shows that it will not just eliminate jobs through automation, but rather will create many new roles in specialized areas to support AI. Additionally, Dennehy discusses how AI can be used for social good to address several societal issues. In this thought-provoking discussion, he focuses on four strategic areas that he believes AI can support, namely: (1) agriculture, (2) smart manufacturing and supply chains, (3) education, and (4) smarter products and services.

Joseph Byrum provides a unique perspective on how investment managers can use AI tools based on the US military’s OODA loop to assist in their decision making in periods of uncertainty in the market.

The key research question the authors seek to answer is whether technological advancement facilitates or complicates the banking industry. Their insightful discussion examines a range of changes in banking. However, the benefits of these technological developments also bring challenges, including cultural and infrastructural barriers, as well as information security concerns. While COVID-19 has accentuated the importance of digitalizing our banking systems, the associated challenges must also be given due diligence.

The key research question the authors seek to answer is whether technological advancement facilitates or complicates the banking industry. Their insightful discussion examines a range of changes in banking. However, the benefits of these technological developments also bring challenges, including cultural and infrastructural barriers, as well as information security concerns. While COVID-19 has accentuated the importance of digitalizing our banking systems, the associated challenges must also be given due diligence.

Although the financial services industry has become increasingly digitized with the emergence of new technologies, Bhavik Pathak argues that we have yet to see disruption in financial services parallel to what we have seen with Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb to the entertainment, transportation, and lodgings industry, respectively. The contrast is primarily due to restrictive regulations and infrastructure that favor the incumbents and limit the potential of emerging fintechs to niche product/service offerings. Pathak discusses how COVID-19 has disrupted this constraint by forcing governments to relax certain regulations.

Although the financial services industry has become increasingly digitized with the emergence of new technologies, Bhavik Pathak argues that we have yet to see disruption in financial services parallel to what we have seen with Netflix, Uber, and Airbnb to the entertainment, transportation, and lodgings industry, respectively. The contrast is primarily due to restrictive regulations and infrastructure that favor the incumbents and limit the potential of emerging fintechs to niche product/service offerings. Pathak discusses how COVID-19 has disrupted this constraint by forcing governments to relax certain regulations.

The articles within this issue of CBTJ cover multiple areas of financial services, including e-commerce, banking, and investment management. Additionally, this issue offers a broad geographical scope, taking a global perspective in several articles, while also focusing on specific regions and economies, including the US and Ireland.