More automation and AI capabilities are coming to business process management (BPM) in the form of robotic process automation (RPA). By automating rules-based business processes, RPA can help streamline business operations. In some ways, however, RPA represents incremental progress rather than a revolutionary breakthrough. Moreover, many RPA tools still rely on significant upfront human effort…
Salesforce certification is becoming increasingly important as a mechanism for vetting SFDC consultants and prospective employees. While there’s no reason to overdo it with certifications on parts of the system you actually don’t work on, Salesforce admin certification is really your first essential step no matter what your role. SFDC’s certification program has grown significantly,…
Training and development programs offer win-win advantages for employees and employers alike. They provide means for IT pros seeking to keep their skills sharp, and help CIOs address skills gaps, while improving employee engagement and retention. According to a recent CTA survey, technical and high-skills training is viewed as a very important tool for employee…
Each year most of us look back at the same time as we project forward. In the act of projection, it is natural to want to compare within an industry or even across industries. For this reason, it came as no surprise when several CIOs asked for a #CIOChat focused on 2019 priorities. Here is…
Most IT leaders like to believe they have a complete grasp on data center management, operation and planning. Actually, they don’t. There’s no way any IT leader or team of IT experts can exert second-by-second (or even more granular) control over essential data center tasks. Humans — even highly educated and trained ones — also…
Artificial intelligence (‘AI’) is more and more sneaking up into our daily activities. Anyone using Google, Facebook or a Microsoft product knows this. It’s far from perfect, but it’s improving at a quick pace. Not every enterprise is using AI at the same pace. Has your organization started looking into using AI yet? Do you…
The skill gap is growing fast. Seventy-five percent of organizations are going to experience visible, risky business disruptions thanks to skill gaps by 2020, says Gartner. That’s an increase of 20 percent from just two years ago. Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) are creating obvious gaps in hard technical skills, but companies are…
SWOT analysis is a planning methodology that helps organizations build a strategic plan to meet goals, improve operations and keep the business relevant. During SWOT analysis, organizations identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (the four factors SWOT stands for) pertaining to organizational growth, products and services, business objectives and market competition. CIO.com A two-by-two matrix…
Everything about your job has changed. It’s time your metrics did too. Craig Williams, CIO of telecommunications networking company Ciena, knows exactly how his IT team will be evaluated by the company’s leaders in 2019. They will look at a wide range of metrics that include things like talent management (days to fill open position,…
Certifications for business analysts are still emerging, but there’s already a handful of organizations offering exams to certify your business analytics skills. Business analysts help organizations make the most of the data they collect by finding trends, patterns and errors that might otherwise go unnoticed. Successful business analysts have the skills to work with data,…