Category: Blogs

Retailers are no stranger to the benefits of using technology either. Whether it is displaying the products to customers, providing information and the ability to pay for said product in an incredibly short process. Compared to travel to a brick and mortar store and trawling through the many options the store has to find out they don't have the product you want, to then visit another store and repeat the process again, you can't deny that technology has changed the way we shop. 

Retailers should factor in that customers have more means to buy online now than they use to and have the abililty to browse and buy no matter where they are or time of day.

Making the purchasing life of a customer easier isn't the only bright side to technology in retail. Retailers can use the information from their customers to work out current trends and behaviours. With this information they can react to the ever changing customer needs more quickly. Technology for retailers opens the doors for the use of Big Data. This source of data is seen to be extremely valuable and should be a tool that everyone in retail has in their arsenal which can help in discovering and analysing new information.

"Every enterprise needs to fully understand big data – what it is to them, what is does for them, what it means to them –and the potential of data-driven marketing, starting today. Don’t wait. Waiting will only delay the inevitable and make it even more difficult to unravel the confusion.

Once you start tackling big data, you’ll learn what you don’t know, and you’ll be inspired to take steps to resolve any problems. Best of all, you can use the insights you gather at each step along the way to start improving your customer engagement strategies; that way, you’ll put big data marketing to work and immediately add more value to both your offline and online interactions." Forbes

Therefore, if retailers are not currently doing so, they should embrace technology as a part of their strategy. 

For more information, read Tech is key player in retail strategy for 2016 from Raconteur. 

Source: Raconteur

Understanding big data, and utilising it can enable organisations to quickly identify actionable insights in real time, and enable employees to build meaningful solutions to business-critical issues and opportunities

The explosion of activity in the big data analytics sector is both undeniable and understandable.

Done well, big data can help companies realise valuable data and business insights that translate into business value.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, for example, has used big data analytics to underpin a strategy it calls “personology.”

This strategy is about delivering a more personable and personalised customer experience, using data to better understand, anticipate and service customer needs and queries.

This data-driven approach towards user experience has boosted customer loyalty and helped to improve activity and visibility across loans and insurance.

Supporting Big Data Success
However, simply investing money in technology is not enough to deliver big data success. Many big data projects have failed and usually for the same few reasons.

In their rush to jump on the big data bandwagon, many companies ignore the three key pillars that support successful big data analytics in business:

Desirability to define the problem that the business is trying to solve.

Feasibility in identifying the tools and skills resources to address the problem.

Viability in quantifying the business value of the problem for the enterprise.

For many organisations, ensuring these pillars are not overlooked requires a clear methodology and technical approach.

A design thinking methodology, leveraging open source and techniques like AI and automation can enable organisations to mine a range of big data assets in order to identify and leverage the valuable, actionable data within both structured and unstructured data sets.

At its core, big data requires at least three things to work: gathering disparate sources, storing and gaining insights from the data.

The problems of gathering and storing data has largely been solved (though both still present challenges).

Extracting useful signals from the noise in almost real-time, however, remains difficult.

Finding useful information from data stores is difficult for a lot of reasons, but the biggest problem is more fundamental and more common problem than most organisations realise: companies have not scoped out at the start what they intend to do with the data they are gathering.

A design thinking methodology can help in this regard.

The map – design thinking

Before starting on a big data journey we need to know the minimum viable problem that needs to be addressed.

For this, design thinking provides a critical method to getting to the root of a known problem, identifying an as yet unrecognised problem, or both.

It does this while staying as close to business reality as possible.

Essentially, it ensures that businesses focus on the right problems while developing viable solutions.

Discovering and defining problems is the most important part of any big data journey.

The reason is simple: design thinking helps to focus businesses on addressing customer pain points by looking for issues that aren’t always obvious.

Once the pain points that need addressing are identified, a company can define what data it needs to gather.

By focusing data on a particular issue, we can discover new actionable insights that we can execute on.

Design thinking requires a large culture shift for many enterprises but offers significant benefits in return. It encourages teams to address challenges as a whole, rather than fixing individual problems in isolation.
 

The tools – data lakes and open source

Data lakes help to maintain data from various sources (internal, external and public) at the lowest granularity in a cost effective manner — from structured and semi-structured to unstructured — until they’re needed.

Anyone with data manipulation skills can access and use data within a lake as they need it, regardless of origin.

All data sources are accessed equally within a lake structure.

The structural flexibility of data lakes makes the incremental cost of adding new use cases marginal.

However, data lakes are not a panacea for big data issues. Additional tools are needed to channel them into something useful. That’s where open source tools come in.

Open source big data tools offer a variety of capabilities, ranging from insights and forecasting to predictive analytics and more, at an affordable cost.

These tools can also help to codify and automate operations — lessening the need for human intervention and processing at the most menial level. This frees organisations to identify better insights and make better use of the time invested in data analysis.

Solving even small problems can have a substantial bottom-line impact for a business. In one case, a 1% efficiency improvement delivered a $200 million return on investment for a large business.
 

The muscle – automation

Automation of data management can be transformational in the enterprise. Eliminating low-level manual processes frees up people resources, amplifying human potential to deliver more value and creativity further up the value chain.

Automation helps companies analyse data — and spot anomalies with greater accuracy and at a faster rate — in real time. Combined with machine learning, automation can grow and adapt, refining itself to deliver further efficiencies and insights.

However, automation doesn’t happen by itself.

Data sources need to drive automation. That invariably means breaking data out of existing silos so it can be fed into an automation engine, providing the engine with a complete view of the entire relevant data pile, rather than just a segment or snapshot.

Employees, too, will need access to data in the round so they can recognise contextual bias in data capture, among other things that require a broader view.

Living Up to the Big Data Dreams

The effort is worth it.

Automation, data lakes, open source tools and design thinking all play critical parts in any big data journey.

Each component represents a fundamental part of the process of extracting maximum value from data assets.

They enable organisations to quickly identify actionable insights in real time and enable employees to build meaningful solutions to business-critical issues and opportunities.

And that’s the big data dream: finding those hard-to-spot problems, solving them and automating them to free up time for bigger things.

Understanding big data, and utilising it can enable organisations to quickly identify actionable insights in real time, and enable employees to build meaningful solutions to business-critical issues and opportunities

Source: InformationAge

An Interview with Tony Michaels, Lead IT Business Partner at Skanska

Lead IT Business Partner Tony Michaels tells Certes how he established and developed the IT Business Partnering Function within Skanska and what the future holds for such functions in the UK market.

By James O’Driscoll BRMP®, April 2017
 

Overview of Skanska     

Skanska, established in 1887, is one of the world's leading project development and construction groups. The UK operation is one of the country's top contractors, known for major projects such as the Gherkin and Crossrail. It has 5,500 employees and in 2016 an operating revenue of £1.67bn.

Explain your role?

"I was recruited into the IT department from the operations side of the organisation in 2012, primarily to bring the customer experience and opportunities to improve, into the department. I am a member of the IT Leadership team reporting directly to our CIO. This says a great deal of the value the organisation places in the customer experience and focus. I lead a team of 6 IT Business Partners aligned with various parts of our Business."
       

What have been the most difficult aspects of this transition to date?

"Each area of the business has differing levels of requirements, balancing these diverse requirements with a need for enterprise consistency is an on-going challenge."

What tools, methods and resources did you find most effective to help with this transition?

"Clarity, expectation setting and communication are important ingredients in effectiveness. Teamwork within the IT department is also absolutely key, working together in lock step with our IT colleagues’ makes such a difference to good delivery and perception. The IT leadership team is made up of myself, Head of Infrastructure & Operations, Head of Business Systems and Head of Programs and Compliance."

What are your plans for the function in the short to medium term?

"We are in the process redefining and communicating the role, positioning the value adding potential, and working within a defined framework for setting the expectations of delivery. We are all in the business of adding value to our organisation and the understanding of our business colleagues is essential. The support of all involved in this process has been invaluable. We are currently measuring ourselves against industry best practice and defining routes of development."

What tools, methods and resources are you considering to assist with these plans?

"BRM Institute has been fantastic source of tools and methods in our journey. We are benchmarking our skills in line with the BRMP qualification, assessing current and future states against maturity models as well as informing development streams."

Talking more generally now, how do you view the current maturity of IT BRM/IT BP model and market in the UK? 

"Although I think the model itself is maturing well, I believe the maturity of the application of the model is inconsistent. I see great examples where the model is working fantastically well and other examples where the Job title is given to a discipline that fulfils a somewhat different function. The BRM forums such as the one instigated by yourself gives this visibility as well as the opportunity to exchange examples and best practice. I do see a maturing and increasingly valued discipline."

Are you seeing any general themes and challenges when meeting peers outside of Skanska, and do you have any thoughts on how these challenges can be overcome?

"Absolutely, many of our challenges are very similar – my top 3? 

1) Make sure the role is clear to all stakeholders.
2) Really understand the business that you are working in.
3) Ensure you add value – and measure it.

But of course; 1) relationships, 2) relationships 3) relationships. "

What is the one factor, in your opinion, all IT BRM/IT BP functions need to in order to be successful?

"Support and understanding of the senior stakeholders in the business."

What does the future hold for the IT BRM/IT BP model?

"Excitement. Really, as the role is maturing and becoming more widely understood and valued, so the function becomes more important. What organisation has not suffered from the perception of IT and what it does? This function is a step in the right direction for the maturity of IT itself – as thought leaders and contributors to strategies, not simply reactive service providers."

What can be done by the IT BRM/IT BP community to help ensure the continued success of the model?

"Prove your worth, add the value and show it."

Finally some quick fire questions.

     1. Business Relationship Manager or Business Partner?

"I don’t think it matters – whatever fits for your organisation – just watch the Americanisms around the term ‘Business Partner’."

      2. Generally is it better to sit in the business or IT?

"In the business."

      3. Will the role ever become a pure “strategic partner?”

"Yes – but dependent on the business and provability of value add."

      4. What works best, vertical or location alignment?

"Both have to be taken into account – but ideally vertical."

      5. What are the top five most important stakeholders to an IT BRM/IT BP, in your opinion?

1. Business leaders – the customers we interact with and add value for
2. Their customers – the clients and ultimate consumers of the business service
3. I.T. – and all elements and people within it
4. Other BRMs/Business partners in our organisations (HR, Finance etc)
5. The outside references and the BRM community – we all draw on expertise and experience from industry bodies and each other.

According to REC/KPMG’s latest report, contractor availability is, declining at a rapid rate since October 2014 and nearly half of all SMEs across the UK are struggling to recruit the right IT staff. Even with a 0.3% growth in the beginning of 2015, the lack of skilled workers is affecting the speed of economic recovery.

Research published recently by CompTIA, an IT skills and training specialist shows that 45% of UK businesses have productivity issues due to an “extensive” shortage of IT talent. 27% of businesses believed that the IT skills gaps is slowing speed to market and 26% reported that it is impeding innovation and new ideas. The IT skills shortage shows no signs of abating as 28% of IT executives said that they plan to hire more IT staff this coming year, a figure that has doubled from 14% in 2014.

The skills shortage will be detrimental to the British economy unless action is taken. The five areas of recruitment that will suffer into 2016 will be:

• Project and Business Delays and Failure
• Wasted time RE: hiring, project completion
• Unfilled jobs due to lower skilled and under qualified candidates
• Re-training
• Increased wage inflation

For more information on the consequences of the skills shortage, visit Recruitment Training Group

click to enlarge

The event kicked off with Mike Restivo’s discussion on “Evolution of Recruitment”.

In a short period of time the nature of how recruitment operates has seen an exponential change. As Mike explained, these use to be a recruiter’s best friend.

The biggest change to ever grace the recruitment industry is moving towards software to create a database of clients and candidates. Long gone are the days of scouring through multiple filo-faxes or in worst cases, scrap pieces of paper looking for the contact details of ‘John Smith’ with the credentials that match what an employer is looking for. Technology has developed in such a way that with a few button presses here and a couple keywords, any and all candidates with the desired qualifications are at your disposal.

Throughout Mike’s discussion, he returned to the number one cause of how the recruitment industry is evolving. The catalyst and biggest influencer being technology, from what use to be a telephone only industry many years ago is seeing a massive boost in technology usage. Whether it is for storing clients and candidates details to communicating with candidates, technology is playing an important part in the growth of the recruitment industry.

The recruitment industry is seeing major growth in revenue with “85% of respondents meeting or exceeded their revenue goals in 2014, continuing a steady rate of growth from 2011 to the present. 93% expect a revenue increase in 2015, including 31% who expect an increase of 25% or more” explained Mike.

Dominic Harvey, agreed with Mike findings and with the notion that technology is pushing the industry forward, especially in the IT sector stating there has been a “1.7% annual increase in IT salary over 2008 to 2014…there is a high demand for IT specialist skills”. With the increase in technology it is a no brainer that there would be an increase for skills to cater for the new technology.

Dominic also brought some intriguing details with him regarding where people are working and explaining that there is now more people “working outside of London and becoming more of a reality for permanent employment”. This can be seen by 41% of recruitments being placed in the South East of England compared to 28% being placed in London. We could deduce that many IT sector workers can complete a large majority of their tasks remotely, working from home without the need to consider travelling to and from their place of work, giving more flexibility on where an employee can work. Another factor that has been raised is the expected salary in locations. Using permanent Web developers as an example, Dominic explained that the “expected salary [for a web developer] is £41,000; excluding London which is £40,000 but the London premium has gone down so the impact of working in London is not as strong.” Overall, the expect salaries for position outside of London are increasing.

As technology changes so do the desired skills. IT sector skills seem to fluctuate at a rapid speed and a desired skill a few months ago can be overshadowed by new technological needs. Dominic addressed the current growing skills are web developing skills in:

• PHP
• HTML
• Agile
• Python
• IOS
• Android

Previous years saw Oracle, SAP and Unix as the desired skills for web developers but they have dropped considerably. It is no surprise that IOS and Android skills have skyrocketed as more people are using mobile technology. But the ever evolving IT industry will change that.

What is interesting and what Mike pointed out is that the UK was slow to adopt mobile technology compared to the rest of the world.

Dominic also states the benefits that the IT sector has gained from technology, which are:

• Optimised recruitment efficiency and effectiveness
• Optimisation and growth in mobile recruitment – as more people are using the Internet for search for their next role and more convenient methods of browsing the Internet are at our fingertips such as Tablets and Mobile Phones.
• Optimisation for CRM

It is clear to see that technology and the IT sector go hand in hand. The development in technology has enabled a more effective and efficient way for consultants to working with clients and candidates allowing for a more streamlined and quick process to meet specific needs. The IT sector is extremely success even despite the economical downturn, seeing a year on year rise in revenue and an increased demand in IT skills. With quicker and more powerful technologies, employees are no longer hindered by geographical locations for their next role and remote working give employees more options for employment.

The one aspect that has remained the same is monetary incentive but for permanent candidates extra benefits could be the deciding factor as they want to feel looked after. Contractors on the other hand would like new opportunities to improve their skills.

As we become more dependent on technology, the IT sector will see a fruitful future.

This means organisations that previously would not have required security clearance are now expecting at least Basic Checks (BC) as a minimum and a Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) or Security Check (SC) for those working on what are deemed to be more sensitive projects. 

For IT professionals, this means that obtaining security clearance can prove very useful, especially for contractors, as it can lead to a wealth of additional job opportunities. Having security clearance in advance of applying for jobs will greatly enhance your prospects and open up a wider variety of roles for you to choose from.

There are a range of security-cleared IT roles available in both the public and private sector, from developers to project managers and using skills such as  Java, Oracle, Cisco and J2EE. The increase in national security as a result of terrorist threats means that there is notable demand for security-cleared personnel in sectors such as defence and government.

However, while government departments may be the biggest employers of security cleared IT personnel in the UK, there are still a number of vacancies within the private sector particularly for financial institutions.

Addressing the skills gap is often focused on coding and computer programming, software is being prioritised over hardware, and it shouldn't be

Rhetoric around skills and education has positioned the skills gap as a challenge facing the software coding and data analysis fields, with both areas expected to power the future startups of TechCity.

However, there are other areas of IT impacted by the skills gap, namely hardware support.

With cloud technology cementing its position as the future of IT, predicted to grow on average 19.4% each year until 2020, the speed of technology uptake has not been seen since the emergence of the internet.

Fewer SMEs have any system hardware, and the days of a data centre in the basement of every company building are slowly disappearing. The perception to the end user is that, on-premise IT and hardware investment is on the way out.

Cloud adoption trends

This perception and the wide availability of the cloud has itself developed a somewhat blasé attitude to technology.

Always-on cloud solutions are easily accessible, fuelling the idea that the cloud is independent of hardware. Despite most organisations having less hardware on-site than they did five years ago, physical hardware is actually still essential to maintaining system uptime.

The disconnect between cloud and hardware has developed as by nature, the cloud is seen as a connection to a network that is often wireless and without the need to connect to a physical platform in the same location.

In actual fact though, platforms are run via mass data centres, rooms full of server, networking and storage components, all of which require maintenance.

Just this month Microsoft launched three new data centres in London, Durham and Cardiff, with Amazon’s AWS expected to follow with its own locations in the coming months.

The emergence of AI and VR

It is in the startup space where technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) are really starting to take off and are emerging in the latest business and consumer products and solutions.

However, again these often operate in the cloud and require masses of computer power that are so are heavily reliant on servers, networking and storage hardware and skills somewhere down the line.

Despite this, the focus of skills training, particularly from Government has been more on coding and computer programming, prioritising software over hardware.

The intention is to develop the UK into a future-proof high-tech economy. Although a positive move, the singularity of the approach fails to acknowledge necessary supporting technologies and the skills required to maintain them.

At the same time, groups of MPs have been particularly critical of the Government’s efforts to counter the gap.

A report by the Commons Science and Technology committee alleges that as little as 35% of computer science teachers have a relevant qualification, while just 70% of the required number of teachers have been recruited into UK schools.

Reducing the skills gap

Fostering high-quality technical skills is essential to supporting cloud and the new emerging technologies like AI and VR that the modern IT industry needs to develop to grow.

Interestingly our own independent research examining the opinions and future concerns of the IT reseller community revealed that despite the rise of the cloud, AI and VR, the vast majority (78%) believe that hiring and training more data centre technical skills will help to ease the skills gap by 2020.

The research suggests that hardware and technical skills should not be regarded as a challenger to the growth of the new digital age, but rather the enabler.

When a data centre goes offline today, it is unlikely to impact just one company, but hundreds storing information at one site. The stakes are higher than ever before.

To secure the future of our infrastructure and data, skills investment needs to be consistent across both hardware and software.

The latest technologies still require a data centre backend situated somewhere, even if it is hundreds of miles away.

The trend of decreasing on-premise hardware may have created an attitude of out of sight, out of mind, but the reality is that focus must still be given to maintaining a skilled engineering function to manage and maintain hardware infrastructure.

Only by broadening the focus on skills development within the IT sector as a whole will prevent significant and disruptive skills gaps occurring in the future.

Source:InformationAge