Category: Knowledge Base Economy

Digital transformation is one of the steps on the way to a business being able to adopt artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, augmented reality (AR) and other advanced technologies that provide it with a competitive advantage. It is also seen as necessary for survival.

According to two recent reports from Gartner, there are indications that digital transformation is a priority in 2019:

• “Growth is the number one priority for CEOs, and many see digital business as the primary means of achieving its growth objectives. Only 33% of enterprises have managed to reach the scaling stage of digital business.” Getting to the Details of the Digital Platform: A Gartner Theme Insight Report, Bill Swanton, December 7, 2018

• “Only 4% of organisations have no digital initiative at all, which signals a shift from digital as an option to digital as a mainstream platform.” Smarter with Gartner, CIO Agenda 2019: Digital Maturity Reaches a Tipping Point, October 16, 2018

Digital transformation is forcing organisations to look at IT from more perspectives than ever before, as an effective strategy spans many different, previously disconnected, technology disciplines and investments.

Leading organisations today are looking for complete sets of solutions to achieve greater speed and agility, supported by a high level of protection and an advanced analytics ecosystem, to balance managing the top and bottom lines without the added risk of starting from scratch.

Helping enterprises succeed with their digital transformation is a key opportunity for channel players.

Why digital transformation is hard

According to Harvard Business Review writers, Thomas H. Davenport and George Westerman: “Digital transformation is an ongoing process of changing the way you do business. It requires foundational investments in skills, projects, infrastructure, and, often, in cleaning up IT systems. It requires mixing people, machines, and business processes, with all of the messiness that entails.”

In other words, a digital transformation project is a massive, complex project one that affects the whole of an organisation’s business, and needs to be approached with precision and a clear change management plan.

An enterprise will first look to its technology partners to understand the business outcomes of the planned transformation project, and then work closely with them to develop a solution that meets the technology needs in a holistic manner. Often a transformation project requires resources to be pulled together from many different sources. Only a channel partner is equipped to architect such a complete solution and needs to take their customer on a linear and carefully structured journey.

The components of a successful transformation

The more that an organisation can source its transformation technology from a single vendor, the simpler the overall process will be, as components will already be operating harmoniously with one another.

By combining industry-leading software and domain expertise in four core areas Micro Focus is now uniquely positioned to deliver on all critical aspects of enterprise digital transformation to help customers innovate faster with less risk.

Micro Focus has built solutions that target the four areas most critical to lasting digital transformation success:

1. Enterprise DevOps — Build and deliver better software faster
Winning the race to innovate requires a high-speed approach. Micro Focus solutions unleash the power of DevOps across the hybrid IT landscape, quickly bringing innovative ideas to life at the pace of business to securely deliver high quality software and services faster.

2. Hybrid IT management — Run and transform
IT Infrastructure, services and even purchasing models are rapidly evolving.  Maximising business value and accelerating outcomes compels organisations to find new ways to extend existing investments and take advantage of new platforms – from containers to public clouds to Internet of Things (IoT). Micro Focus solutions help organisations run IT Ops at the speed of DevOps, delivering services on demand and generating operational and business insights, all while helping organisations address security, compliance and governance requirements.

3. Predictive analytics — Analyse in time to act
Data lakes are valuable only if the business can surface the insights hidden within its depths. Micro Focus helps leverage machine learning to transform unlimited volumes of data into accurate, actionable, automated insights at the speed of the business. Be in a position to make predictions and influence business outcomes quickly and efficiently with comprehensive and relevant real-time intelligence.

4. Security, risk, and governance — Secure what matters most
Cyber threats are escalating. Ageing apps and processes (along with new ones) are full of unforeseen risks. Privacy and compliance requirements are mounting. Micro Focus provides the industry’s broadest set of integrated security, risk, and governance solutions, with an analytics-driven approach to securing what matters most – identities, applications and data.

For the channel, the opportunity lies in taking customers on the transformation journey, providing consultancy and structuring hardware infrastructure to best leverage the software. Successful digital transformation needs the holistic oversight and cross-vendor capabilities of channel organisations. It’s for this reason that Micro Focus hired Lachlan Downing as NZ country manager – his specific remit is to support the local channel facilitating Micro Focus support and resources throughout the sales cycle.

In February this year, Micro Focus also announced the launch of its new, unified partner program, which includes access to all products across the Micro Focus portfolio on a global scale. In conjunction with the new program, a new partner portal was introduced that streamlines and simplifies the ways partners engage with Micro Focus and customers.

Lachlan Downing said, “This year Micro Focus New Zealand has transitioned to a channel-centric model and we have also fine-tuned our partner program, which will streamline access to marketing development funds (MDF) for Gold and Platinum partners and will help accelerate turnaround time for deal registration, quotes and orders as well as build skills and capability through full access to our training and certification content.

“The announcement of the new Micro Focus partner program and portal demonstrates our continued commitment to providing an easier path for our partners to confidently generate predictable revenue, build pipeline and do business with us.”

Todd Parsons, Channel Director – Australia and New Zealand, Micro Focus, said, “The new partner program and portal brings together the full Micro Focus product portfolio and allows full access from one system and program. Leading up to this we were still working with multiple partner programs and systems as we completed the acquisition of HP’s software business.  The new program will allow greater efficiencies but also ensure our customers and partners can more effectively utilise our portfolio of solutions and products.”

Source: https://www.reseller.co.nz/brand-post/content/658810/overcoming-the-challenges-of-digital-transformation/

Artificial intelligence is key to the future of the American economy, and investments need to be made now to ensure that the workforce is prepared, said members of Congress during a panel at a Washington Post Live event on Thursday.

When asked if artificial intelligence would put people out of a job, Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, cofounder of the Congressional AI Caucus, responded that AI will lead to different, but better-paying jobs. He pointed to examples at companies like IBM and Amazon of retraining and reskilling existing employees to fill AI-related roles.

In retraining local workers in his district, Olson noted that “AI is a big part of that, because it makes that worker better, more viable, more efficient. It drives down costs, drives up productivity, which is just great.”

Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., shared Olson’s sentiments on needing more technology talent. She noted that in the rural, suburban, and urban areas of her district, the demand for skilled workers is a common theme.

Megan Smith, a former Federal CTO and CEO of digital experience agency Shift7, noted that AI could be used for more than economic benefit.

“Why would AI and data science not be for poverty and justice?” she asked. “I believe that the opportunity is about collective genius, and the surface area of participation, that…the more of us who can be included in the conversation, the more likely we are to succeed.”

However, all acknowledged the changes and potential hardships from the rise of AI.

Olson acknowledged that people are likely to experience job transitions and face changes, but he urged people to not be afraid of the change, and embrace it.

Source: https://www.meritalk.com/articles/congress-looking-to-ai-and-education-for-future-economy/

Ever notice how images of robots almost always accompany AI propaganda? It’s certainly an effective tactic. Robots conjure up images of highly intelligent solutions poised to create far more efficient and profitable businesses. Yet there are rarely details available about how these AI technologies work. And as a result, many AI solutions are a ‘black box’ to users.

What’s in the box?

Software developers and marketers often lead customers to believe there’s a robot in the box, when in fact it may be just an artificially intelligent zombie dressed up in a robot costume.

A zombie is a little like a robot. It’s self-sufficient. It doesn’t need a lot of guidance or direction to do the things it does. But it’s not truly intelligent.

And a zombie AI system operates independently, with no human interaction. On one hand, a lack of interactivity is positive as it can mean ease of use; on the other, there’s no way to train a zombie to do something else, or to do its job better. Users are not only unable to apply changes but are shielded from the decisions and logic used in creating the system. With no awareness or understanding, there can be no accountability, nor hope for progress.

While most organizations employ talented developers and technicians capable of ‘teaching’ AI systems to overcome weaknesses, the absence of transparency precludes their ability to do so.

True AI

Among the throngs of zombie AI systems, though, exist a few quality AI systems. These systems are highly intelligent, and though they have some minor human dependencies, they produce incredibly reliable results. The developers of these systems want customers to have a good grasp of the ‘magic’ behind the intelligence – ‘magic’ that really amounts to specific settings, mechanics, controls, even known limitations.

True AI can be recognized by its interactivity and trainability. These systems combine intuitive interfaces with algorithms, instructions that tell the robotic brain what logic to use. And with a little coaching along the way, true AI gets smarter and learns to differentiate right from wrong.

Compared to zombie systems, true AI systems require more time investment initially but are typically more sustainable in the long run because the coaching continually improves them over time.

Robots will reign

Any investment in a zombie system is a waste of resources. Businesses that venture down that path will eventually want more control. They will want the ability to coach. When variables require adjusting or errors occur, they’ll want to be able to make fixes and modifications. At the very least, they’ll want a basic understanding of how the system works.

What they’ll really want is the robot they thought they were getting the first time.

Many business leaders who are disappointed in the outcome of their zombie are focused on the exorbitant amount of time they invested into making the system ‘fit.’ Often, they’ve gone so far as to change their business processes to accommodate the zombie brain. And sadly, they continue to sink money and resources into a solution that will never do what they expected.

Don’t make that mistake. Bury your zombie AI system before it’s too late. Look for true AI. Seek out the system in the ‘glass box,’ or at least one with an access panel into its robotic brain. It’s the AI frameworks that effectively balance transparency and trainability with performance and ease of use that will deliver the highest ROI – and separate the zombies from the robots.

Source: https://venturebeat.com/2018/11/03/make-sure-youre-not-investing-in-zombie-ai/

The product serves a public good—keeping diabetics safe—and the community offers the plans to build it for free online. But until now, such clear examples of innovation haven’t been counted as such under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s definition. That changed on Oct. 24: The organization’s new edition of the Oslo Manual, the guidebook for collecting and using data on industrial innovation used by most nations, now includes a revised definition of an innovation, removing the requirement that one must first be commercialized to be counted.

MIT Sloan economist Eric von Hippel, in his book Free Innovation, argues that household or “free” innovations—those developed by people on their own time and dollar—aren’t receiving enough support. That’s because they aren’t being recognized for what they are by public policymakers, even though they’re responsible for a significant proportion of new ideas and innovation.

Under the previous OECD definition, an innovation only qualifies as an innovation if it has been introduced to the market. That definition of “onto the market” means that innovators in the household sector—representing tens of millions of people spending tens of billions of dollars on product development and modification per year—don’t get credit for innovations because 90 percent of them simply give their innovations away.

In mountain biking, for example, participants in the sport—who are now the consumers of the mountain bike industry—designed and built the first mountain bikes, but didn’t receive any credit in the statistics, von Hippel said.

“Basically, the end result is a distorted system where businesses get a lot of credit for a lot of innovations they didn’t do. This, in turn, biases public policy toward the needs of companies and their intellectual property rights,” von Hippel said. “Now, finally, with a better OECD definition and better data we’ll be in a position to allocate innovations to the people who actually develop them. That in turn will make household sector innovation visible to government policymakers, and induce people to make a more level playing field where both consumer innovators and producer innovators are acknowledged and supported.”

The new OECD definition reads:

An innovation is a new or improved product or process, or combination thereof, that differs significantly from the unit’s previous products or processes and that has been made available to potential users (product) or brought into use by the unit (process). (This general definition uses the generic term “unit” to describe the actor responsible for innovations. It refers to any institutional unit in any sector, including households and their individual members.)

Tinkering leads to tech breakthroughs

Research by von Hippel and colleagues into consumer innovation across 10 nations found that the phenomenon was both very general and very important—generating a research and development capital stock of about $250 billion in the U.S. alone. These consumer hacks addressed all product areas of interest to consumers from new medical devices to sports and software hacks.

“If there is nothing out there, consumers will build it for themselves,” he said. “Ninety percent of these people just give [innovations] away for free, and the other 10 percent is where a lot of entrepreneurship comes from. That means 90 percent of innovation occurring in the household sector hasn’t been counted.”

That means efforts to support household innovators, like building more maker spaces, aren’t being carried out, von Hippel said. “If the household sector is developing many generally valuable innovations, this increases social welfare just as producer innovation does, and society ought to level the playing field and support both household sector innovation and producer innovation,” he said.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-10-small-distortion.html