IDG Contributor Network: A crash course in understanding the relationship economy

The business world has shifted over recent decades from the consumer economy (where price and savings drive customer decisions) to the relationship economy (where customer service and brand loyalty drive customer decisions). In addition, between smartphones, smart appliances, Bluetooth and data networks, daily life is becoming more integrated with each passing day. That means the…

The future of ERP is AI

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have been shaking up many areas of business, from cybersecurity to market analytics, bots and self-driving cars. But when it comes to core corporate functions, especially those where the risks of making bad decisions are substantial, the use of artificial intelligence is still in its early stages. Take, for example,…

IDG Contributor Network: The ultimate guide to digital transformation and its impact on software development

Industry Week recently reported that two-thirds of the top 2000 Global CEOs will have digital transformation at the core of their corporate strategy by the end of 2017. More ominous, Gartner predicted at this year’s annual Data Center Infrastructure and Operations Conference, that enterprises risk falling behind their competition, unless they implement digital transformation projects…

IDG Contributor Network: 4 strategic themes for digital transformation in 2018

Last year, my predictions for digital transformation were focused on the core DNA that organizations needed to put into place to achieve world-leading performance and results in digital transformation. In addition to perennial themes such as leadership, people and cultural competencies, these new strategic themes for digital transformation included disruptive technologies, platform business models, digital…

How to assemble a highly effective analytics team

Effective data analytics can be a competitive differentiator today, giving companies keen insights into customer preferences, product development and usage trends, and market gyrations that others don’t see. To get the most out of their analytics efforts, businesses need to assemble a highly talented team to make sense of all the data that’s coming in…

How to kill a dead project

What do the zombie apocalypse and many businesses have in common? Answer: dead things that refuse to lie down and be still. The dead, brain-eating things businesses have a hard time killing are shambling, resource-eating projects. You know the ones. They’re projects where the meetings continue, team members still charge their time, but not only…

MetLife renovates legacy IT for the cloud era

Many enterprises have embraced cloud computing to fuel digital transformations, launching initiatives that range from new mobile applications to analytics for gleaning insights from customers. Yet due to concerns about security, regulations and data governance, enterprise adoption of public cloud services remains less than 50 percent and won’t cross that mark until 2018, according to…