Earlier this month Pierrette de Leeuw Koumans referred to comments on the annual CIO survey of CIO.com, stating CIOs are gaining stature as business strategists. The comments seemed to show a less rosy picture of the involvement of IT and the CIO in the overall business strategy. And, indeed, unfortunately IT is not looked upon as a skilled and respected partner in the business. [Read more...]
BT: a leader in the Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant again
We’re at it again, and just four months after being positioned in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant for Gartner’s Asia-Pacific Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant*, BT is delighted to have been positioned in the ‘Leaders’ quadrant for the Global Network Service Providers Magic Quadrant* for the ninth time.
Magic Quadrants provide a graphical competitive positioning of four types of technology providers, where market growth is high and provider differentiation is distinct: [Read more...]
Why do we need business governance for SharePoint?
SharePoint experts are an eclectic bunch – drawing on ideas, style and standards from a wide variety of sources. This is partly because the technology is so versatile allowing SharePoint to be deployed for myriad business purposes. The result is that SharePoint experts have a wide range of opinions of what is best, what works well and what works badly.
However, the one thing they have strong agreement on is the need for business governance. To put it bluntly business governance is what makes the difference between success and failure especially at the corporate level. [Read more...]
Helping customers help themselves
The option to self serve is increasingly creeping into our lives. What started with pick ‘n’ mix soon moved on to those checkout systems in supermarket aisles. And now as we find ourselves more connected than ever — with phones, tablets and computers offering an incredible range of functionality and consumer expectation — self service is taking off in a big way.
Just think of any holidays you’ve booked online, or even online shopping, which is essentially a self service function. And then there’s self service as a problem solving option, where we interact with the companies we deal with via a range of devices, making complaints or resolving issues. [Read more...]
Welcome to the omnichannel generation
Technology has come so far in recent years that it’s hard to remember life without tablets. But not much more than a decade ago even mobile phones weren’t the norm.
The unprecedented connectivity we all enjoy these days, coupled with the access choices we have — email, text, video, voice, IM and social media — have changed our expectations of life. And one of the big upshots of this is that in just a few years the ways businesses have traditionally interacted with their customers have started to look in serious danger of redundancy. [Read more...]
Connectivity is the answer
Our chief sustainability officer, Niall Dunne, asked an interesting question on the World Economic Forum’s blog. Talking about how Africa can benefit from being connected, he asked: Are we talking about connectivity because we’re a telecoms company? Surprisingly for some perhaps, his answer is “No”.
Here are a few examples to help us explain his logic. [Read more...]
World Economic Forum: on digital business, math (wo)men and the CIO
Many business strategies, processes and models are based upon old paradigms that aren’t fit in this digital economy anymore. It’s probably one of the most heard messages at the World Economic Forum, on top of economic and political issues. New business models are needed and organisational changes impact the role of the CIO and IT in general. The same applies for other strategic business functions such as marketing. In this regard, Sir Martin Sorrell’s words at the World Economic Forum left no room for doubt.
Sorrell, who heads the global marketing and advertising network WPP, yesterday joined a talk about, among others the UK, the EU and the global economy in Davos. Sorrell also talked about big data and the evolutions in ‘his’ advertising industry. [Read more...]
Get in gear for Cisco Live
The annual Cisco Live event is rapidly approaching, and once again it will bring together leading IT professionals and technical innovators from across the globe to discuss the technological developments that are changing the way we live and work.
Taking place at London’s ExCeL Centre from January 29 to February 1, the event will provide a forum for people to learn about the vital technologies that will be the bedrock of tomorrow’s economy. [Read more...]
BT completes the PSN jigsaw
By Neil Mellor, Business Development Director, PSN, BTGS
A significant milestone was achieved this week in BT’s delivery of PSN compliant services. With our GCN service, BT Connect WAN connectivity services and IL3 management services already PSN Certified, BT’s DNSP (Distribution Network Service Provider) service has also been granted PSN Certification.
The DNSP service provides the critical link between our broader portfolio of PSN services and the GCN, which itself provides onward connection to other service providers and their customers. [Read more...]
Supplying expanding demand with shrinking resources.
The End to Limitless Resources has been acknowledged for some time. Now, business must rise to the challenge of growth without fatal depletion of scarce or non-renewable materials. As our recent Istanbul Big Conversation discussed, the Supply Chain has a major role to play.
The End to Limitless Resources is one of the Big Four issues of our Global Services Big Conversation. So far, as the Conversation engages with audiences of business and technology leaders around the world, it is also the issue that has seen one of the greatest spreads of reaction and opinion. For example, in resources rich Colombia, our Bogota Summit ranked it as the least of their current concerns – at just 8 per cent of the audience. This compares quite closely with the 6.8 per cent of the Istanbul delegates who, today, put resources pressure as their first ranked Big Issue. [Read more...]
