When Scott Strickland interviewed for his job as CIO of Wyndham Hotel Group in the spring of 2017, the executive committee was focused on standardizing processes and technologies across 20 brands (including Ramada, Super 8, Days Inn, and Howard Johnsons), which had been operating fairly autonomously. So, Strickland took the job and spent the…
One of the more challenging aspects of emergency department (ED) healthcare is determining which patients to admit for observation and which patients to send home. One healthcare system is tackling that challenge with predictive analytics. Unnecessary hospitalizations cause numerous problems: longer wait times, a lack of beds for the patients that really need them, wasted…
Parcel delivery is a cutthroat business in the U.K., with margins of just pennies per parcel. “If you can charge an extra penny for a little bit of enriched technology or an enriched customer journey, or if you can take a penny out, you can really turn the dial on your profit,” says Chris Ashworth,…
The moment typically arrives without warning. An IT career that showed every sign of success — steady promotions, salary increases, a better office — suddenly slams to a halt. You’re fired, demoted or involuntarily plateaued. What happened? It’s impossible to rebuild a broken career without first understanding how it was derailed. The “Success Express” frequently…
Industrial manufacturers have long led the way in adopting augmented reality (AR) solutions, with engineers and service technicians leveraging wearables to access information hands-free. But extended reality (XR), the catch-all phrase for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality and mixed reality (MR), is emerging in retail, consumer packaged goods and other sectors as a tool to…
Data science definition Data science is a method for gleaning insights from structured and unstructured data using approaches ranging from statistical analysis to machine learning. For most organizations, data science is employed to transform data into value in the form improved revenue, reduced costs, business agility, improved customer experience, the development of new products, and…
After exposing personal information of more than 650,000 customers, pub chain Wetherspoon decided to delete almost all the customer information it had been storing to reduce risk. After all, the data you don’t have doesn’t need to be checked for compliance, disclosed in a GDPR subject access request or apologized for after a data breach.…
Waste is a big concern for organizations large and small — especially when it comes to time or money. Lean Six Sigma combines two methodologies, Lean and Six Sigma, to help accelerate specific processes so organizations can solve problems faster, while creating more value for customers. Lean methodology is aimed at reducing waste to improve…
As IT departments walk the tightrope between boosting business outcomes and managing costs, it’s become more crucial than ever for CIOs to gauge the productivity of their staff. How did Bob and Jill perform in the value stream while delivering product X to the business? There’s just one catch: CIOs have long lacked efficient mechanisms…
Recently there’s been a spate of articles and white papers on “future proofing” IT organizations, which, in the end, is another way to talk about talent risk management. One good example is an ebook from Gartner, aptly named Future-Proof the IT Workforce. The authors argue that CIOs should first look inside their own organizations to fill critical roles because it will lead to more predictable outcomes given…