Project MiPasa: Integrating, Verifying, and Sharing Data for Early COVID-19 Detection

Curt Hall
“MiPasa” is an important new blockchain project to assist healthcare providers, government health agencies, public health departments, universities, and other organizations manage and analyze COVID-19 data. MiPasa is a collaboration between many of the world's major health organizations, tech companies, and research institutions to build a blockchain-based, open, “global-scale control and communication system” to facilitate fast and early detection of COVID-19 carriers and infection hotspots via accelerated information sharing among individuals, authorities, and health institutions.

Leading Businesses through the COVID-19 Crisis: First Learnings from Hong Kong, Italy, and Singapore

Richard Eagar, Tom Teixeira, Karim Taga, Saverio Caldani
In this report, you'll find interviews, conducted by several partners from Arthur D. Little, with 25 CEOs from Hong-Kong, Singapore, and Italy who shared how they’ve been responding to the COVID-19 crisis. All represent firms that operate critical infrastructures in their respective countries. Their advice is very valuable to CxOs in all industries across the globe.

A Trifecta for Finding Product-Market Fit

Pavankumar Mulgund, Deepti Tadala
In this Executive Update, we provide a detailed introduction to the design thinking and Lean Startup paradigms. We also explore their interplay with Agile and how this trifecta can enhance product-market fit by focusing on customer delight.

Purposeful “Self-Disruption” in the Time of a Pandemic

Gustav Toppenberg
As the world comes to terms with this “new normal,” it is easy to resort to a mindset of how things will be materially different following this worldwide management and, ultimately, recovery from a significant disruption to how we live our lives. As executive technology leaders, we have a choice to make about how we react to this disruption and how we prepare for future disruptions from a data and digital technology platforms standpoint.

DevSecOps Red Flags: Avoid These Implementation Mistakes

Sridhar Jayaraman
Too many companies rely on a solo approach to handle data security management. With one team working on getting data software out as quickly as possible and another team tasked with testing software and probing system vulnerabilities (tasks that require patience and discipline, and that can’t be rushed), too often the result is missed deadlines, missed opportunities, and missed outcomes. 

Getting the Customer Journey Right

Kai Karolin Huppe, Nils Niemeier, Michael Kruse
In this Update, we make the case for stronger customer involvement, clearer governance, quantification of value, and a sharper focus, as we find these elements are the four main reasons implemen­tations of customer journeys fail.

Getting the Customer Journey Right

Kai Karolin Huppe, Nils Niemeier, Michael Kruse
In this Update, we make the case for stronger customer involvement, clearer governance, quantification of value, and a sharper focus, as we find these elements are the four main reasons implemen­tations of customer journeys fail.

Want Happy Customers? Make Your Employees Happy — An Introduction

Robert Scott
While often neglected, initiatives aimed at improv­ing the employee experience can have an immediate and positive impact on customer satisfaction and, ultimately, the bottom line. Customer experiences do not just happen; they are the direct results of activ­ities by the employees with whom customers come in contact. What can companies do to increase employee engagement in order to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, business results?

Digital Shift and EA: What Does It Take?

Samuli Pekkola, Maija Ylinen

Digitalization may be defined as using IT to improve the performance of people in organizations. These improvements may take place, for example, in business operations, the customer interface, employee experience, informed decision making, or in the form of new business models, products, and services. The digitalization of business operations involves improved business processes, cost savings, and faster lead times.


Blockchain’s Value Proposition

Pavankumar Mulgund, Ankit Sharma, Adarsh Srivastava, Lavlin Agrawal

The business value of blockchain technologies emerges in the form of business metrics, such as transaction efficiency, cost savings, and reduction of fraudulent activities, among others. In this Advisor, we explore some of the main drivers of value and potential applications beyond cryptocurrencies.


Separating Myth from Reality in Software Projects

Danette McGilvray, Masha Bykin
Historically, many projects concentrated their efforts on people, process, and technology. However, a vast amount of projects still fail to fully address the data and information aspects of their efforts. Many projects have failed due to this oversight, while others have left a wake of data quality issues that put long-term burdens on business processes and subsequent projects. It is useful to understand some of the common yet erroneous beliefs associated with projects. Believing such myths has caused many projects to fail because project teams did not account for the reality in their plans and budget. In this Advisor, we examine some of these myths and realities, along with their solutions.

Getting the Most Out of Corporate/Startup Collaboration

Richard Eagar, Philip Webster, Gonzalo Libano
We all know that businesses are being disrupted faster than ever before — and innovation launch and adoption cycles are dropping; entrepreneurial startups are one of the main driving forces for this acceleration. Big businesses are hurting — and in the face of a period of economic uncertainty hindering growth — they want in on the act.

Your Path to BaaS: To Build or Buy?

Timothy Virtue
Adoption of innovative business models is essential for new market entrants. In the build-versus-buy debate, I vote for buy, but it’s important that the BaaS provider be a trusted partner, not simply a commodity supplier.

Grooming the Path to Data Governance and Quality

Danette McGilvray, Masha Bykin
When effective data governance and quality processes are paired with Agile methodologies, data definitions and quality measures can help produce clear and complete user stories.

Successful Digital Transformation: Q&A with Johan Treutiger

Johan Treutiger

In the Cutter Consortium on-demand webinar “4 Key Questions: What You Need to Consider for Successful Digital Transformation,” Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Johan Treutiger addresses four key questions over four key transformational areas your organization should consider to successfully achieve a digital transformation. In this Advisor, we share four questions asked at the end of the webinar that may help you in your transformation efforts.


Service Providers Need a Reality Check

Aluru Chandra
In this Advisor, we examine the first two levels of a maturity continuum — customer dissassifaction and customer satisfaction — and discuss the associated behaviors on the part of the service provider.

Want to Improve Employee Engagement? Remove the Boss!

Jorge Silva
Jorge Silva presents a radical departure from conventional wisdom. He documents his own experience with his software company to suggest that the historical structure of organizations is outdated and needs to be replaced with a new construct, one with minimal hierarchy and no “bosses.” Silva suggests that this new construct releases creativity and innovation, allows organizations to become nimble and adaptable, and engages employees as leaders and owners.

The Workplace Culture You Want

Steve McMenamin, Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, James Robertson, Suzanne Robertson
Culture is defined by the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular social group. Workplace culture is the environment that you create for your employees. This includes the mix of organizational leadership, values, traditions, beliefs, interactions, behaviors, and attitudes that contribute to the emotional and relational environment of the workplace. The authors define six drivers that determine the culture of a workplace and provide insight on how these drivers interact to create an environment that is either enabling and energizing or toxic and debilitating, with an extended discussion of the perceived value of people and teams.

Lacking and Longing in the Workplace: What Undermines Employee Happiness?

Bill Fox
Bill Fox explores why so many employees are disengaged in the workplace. Fox has been exploring this for several years, engaging business leaders on their thoughts on what employees lack and long for in their work environment. From his research, he defines several themes that may provide new, untapped avenues for greater employee happiness, engagement, and, ultimately, customer satisfaction and business results.

Lacking and Longing in the Workplace: What Undermines Employee Happiness?

Bill Fox
Bill Fox explores why so many employees are disengaged in the workplace. Fox has been exploring this for several years, engaging business leaders on their thoughts on what employees lack and long for in their work environment. From his research, he defines several themes that may provide new, untapped avenues for greater employee happiness, engagement, and, ultimately, customer satisfaction and business results.

Use a Common Language to Break Down Silos

Christian Kaul, Lars Rönnbäck
The process of continuous siloization found in many organizations, and in almost all organizations above a certain size, means that the data that employees need to do their work is distributed over a large number of nonintegrated IT systems within different intracompany jurisdictions. We’ve come to the realization that the solution could be to put data modeling front and center. It just has to be done a bit differently than it has been done in the past.

Want Happy Customers? Make Your Employees Happy — Opening Statement

Robert Scott
This month’s CBTJ addresses the following question: what can companies do to increase employee engagement in order to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, business results?

Want Happy Customers? Make Your Employees Happy — Opening Statement

Robert Scott
This month’s CBTJ addresses the following question: what can companies do to increase employee engagement in order to increase customer satisfaction and, ultimately, business results?

Moving Forward in 2020: Technology Investment in ML, AI, and Big Data

William Jolitz, Lynne Greer Jolitz
Instead of moving from technology to key customers with an abstracted total addressable market (TAM), we must instead quantify artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) benefits where they specifically fit within business strategies across segment industries. By using axiomatic impacts, the fuzziness of how to incorporate AI, ML, and big data into an industry can be used as a check on traditional investment assumptions.

Moving Forward in 2020: Technology Investment in ML, AI, and Big Data

William Jolitz, Lynne Greer Jolitz
Instead of moving from technology to key customers with an abstracted total addressable market (TAM), we must instead quantify artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) benefits where they specifically fit within business strategies across segment industries. By using axiomatic impacts, the fuzziness of how to incorporate AI, ML, and big data into an industry can be used as a check on traditional investment assumptions.