The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has compelled IT leaders to consider their costs even as they secure new capabilities to carry their organizations through uncertain times. For this, taking a look at existing service contracts can be beneficial. “Now is a critical time to get in front of immediate needs and potential long-term changes to IT…
DetailsCompanies all over the globe are experiencing the impacts of the current pandemic first-hand, including service providers. Beyond their focus to protect their workers, service providers are now further challenged to meet support commitments to their clients. Unlike the stock market crash of 1929 or the financial bust of 2008 where the economy was drastically…
DetailsShelter-in-place orders around the world are forcing more and more employees to work remotely. And while flexible workplace strategies have gained traction of late, for many teams, the pandemic’s push toward full-team remote work and collaboration has presented challenges. Agile development teams, in particular, often lean on processes undertaken largely in-person, leaving many team leaders…
DetailsCompanies are always looking for ways to operate lean by reducing waste and redundancies in business processes throughout the organization. Value stream mapping (VSM) found its start in manufacturing, but it’s proved equally as helpful in the enterprise as a visual mapping technique to optimize and improve systems and processes. By implementing value stream mapping…
DetailsIn a previous blog post, I discussed the less evident short-term impact of COVID-19 on your digital transformation programs, but there are so many longer-term implications. Will the current economic crisis have an impact beyond 2020? I believe the answer is yes, and it could be significant. To understand the long-term impact of COVID-19 on…
DetailsOn March 31, Jim Swanson had been EVP and Group CIO at Johnson & Johnson for six months. In any other year, he would be executing on a transformational business technology strategy designed for efficiency, innovation, and growth. This year, however, Swanson faced a challenge that eclipsed all of that: Manage a global pandemic that…
DetailsSAP remained profitable in the first quarter, with the COVID-19 pandemic only beginning to hit cloud bookings and software license sales in the last two weeks of March, executives said in a call to discuss its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday. The company expects the second quarter to be rougher, with the economy gradually improving in…
DetailsIn the wake of shelter-in-place mandates around the world, non-essential brick-and-mortar retailers are forced to shut their doors until social distancing measures ease. As a result, e-commerce demand is soaring. According to a new “Global Shopping Index” report published by Salesforce, the number of unique digital shoppers rose 40% year-over-year (YoY). Digital shoppers drove 20%…
DetailsOrganizations steeped in text documents have an ally in their quest to streamline business processes. Natural language processing, a branch of AI focused on communication, is helping companies such as Accenture surface high-value information and cut costs by bringing text-based, unstructured communications into the machine learning age. With more than a million contracts in…
DetailsAs organizations around the world are adjusting to working from home, leaders want to know how they can look after their teams. Ultimately the goal is to get to full productivity as soon as possible but that isn’t likely to happen without a plan. My team has been operating 100% virtually for 15+ years. I’ll…
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