www.infotech.com
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52.211.119.173
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URL:
https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023
Submission: On April 19 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Submission: On April 19 via api from US — Scanned from DE
Form analysis 10 forms found in the DOM
<form __bizdiag="-141527348" __biza="WJ__">
<div class="form-group text-center">
<span id="slot-selected-start"> ### DATE START ###</span>
</div>
</form>GET https://www.infotech.com/search
<form action="https://www.infotech.com/search" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="get" __bizdiag="113" __biza="WJ__">
<input id="searchInput" size="20" name="q" type="text" autocomplete="off" aria-label="Search">
</form>POST https://www.infotech.com/session
<form class="Bizible-Exclude" autocomplete="off" action="https://www.infotech.com/session" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="authenticity_token"
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<input type="hidden" name="login_redirect" id="login_redirect" value="https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023" autocomplete="off">
<label for="username"><strong>Email:</strong></label>
<input type="text" name="login" id="username" placeholder="Email">
<label for="password"><strong>Password:</strong> <a tabindex="-1" class="forgot-password" href="/user/forgot">I forgot my password</a></label>
<input type="password" name="password" id="password" placeholder="Password">
<div class="clearfix"></div>
<label class="checkbox string optional" for="remember"><input type="checkbox" name="remember" id="remember" value="true" checked="checked">Remember Me</label>
<input name="Sign In" type="submit" value="Sign In" class="btn btn-cta btn-cta-blue ga-login">
<a rel="nofollow" class="btn btn-cta btn-linkedin-alt" data-disable-with="Please Wait..." href="/auth/linkedin_it?redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infotech.com%2Fresearch%2Fss%2Ftech-trends-2023">
<span class="fa fa-linkedin-square"></span> Sign in with LinkedIn
</a>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</form>GET https://www.infotech.com/search
<form method="GET" action="https://www.infotech.com/search" onsubmit="return set_search_button_status(this); return false;" __bizdiag="113" __biza="WJ__">
<input id="searchInput" size="20" value="" name="q" type="text" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
<button name="button" type="submit" id="main-search-submit" aria-label="Search">
<span class="fa fa-search"></span>
</button>
</form>POST https://www.infotech.com/session
<form class="Bizible-Exclude" autocomplete="off" action="https://www.infotech.com/session" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="authenticity_token"
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<input type="hidden" name="login_redirect" id="login_redirect_mobile" value="https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023" autocomplete="off">
<div class="landscape-phone">
<label for="username">Email:</label>
<input type="text" name="login" id="username_mobile" placeholder="Email">
</div>
<div class="landscape-phone">
<label for="password">Password: <a tabindex="-1" class="forgot-password" href="/user/forgot">I forgot my password</a></label>
<input type="password" name="password" id="password_mobile" placeholder="Password">
<div class="clearfix"></div>
<label class="checkbox string optional" for="remember"><input type="checkbox" name="remember" id="remember" value="true" checked="checked">Remember Me</label>
</div>
<div class="landscape-phone">
<div class="btn btn-form btn-sign-up">
<input name="Sign In" type="submit" value="Sign In" class="">
</div>
</div>
<div class="landscape-phone">
<a rel="nofollow" class="btn btn-form btn-linked-in" data-disable-with="Please Wait..." href="/auth/linkedin_it?redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infotech.com%2Fresearch%2Fss%2Ftech-trends-2023">
Sign in with LinkedIn
</a>
<div class="clearfix"></div>
</div>
</form>POST /prospects
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<style type="text/css" media="screen" scoped="scoped">
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<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_id" id="unlockable_id" value="99877" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_type" id="unlockable_type" value="SolutionSet" autocomplete="off">
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<input type="hidden" name="reason_override" id="reason_override" autocomplete="off">
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<input autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="lead[linkedin_public_profile_url]" id="lead_linkedin_public_profile_url">
<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_name">Full Name</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[name]" id="lead_name">
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<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_email">Email</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[email]" id="lead_email">
</div>
</div>
<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_company">Company</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[company]" id="lead_company">
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<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_phone">Phone</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[phone]" id="lead_phone">
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<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_job_role">Job Function</label>
<div class="select-dropdown dropdown-wrapper"><select class="formText" name="lead[job_role]" id="lead_job_role">
<option value="Applications">Applications</option>
<option value="Business Intelligence & Data">Business Intelligence & Data</option>
<option value="CIO/CTO">CIO/CTO</option>
<option value="Enterprise Architecture">Enterprise Architecture</option>
<option value="IT Consultant">IT Consultant</option>
<option value="Infrastructure & Operations">Infrastructure & Operations</option>
<option value="Project & Portfolio Management">Project & Portfolio Management</option>
<option value="Security & Risk">Security & Risk</option>
<option value="Vendor Management">Vendor Management</option>
<option value="Other">Other</option>
</select></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_title">Job Title</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[title]" id="lead_title">
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<div class="row standard-height js_terms_checkbox">
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<div class="modal-checkbox">
<input name="lead[terms_agreed]" type="hidden" value="0" autocomplete="off"><input type="checkbox" value="1" name="lead[terms_agreed]" id="lead_terms_agreed">
</div>
<label class="terms-text terms-space" for="lead_terms_agreed">Yes. I would like to receive email updates from Info-Tech Research Group that include advice and resources to help systematically improve my IT department. I may unsubscribe at any
time. By clicking the "Unlock" button, you are agreeing to the Info-Tech Research Group <a href="/terms">Terms of Use</a> and <a target="_blank" href="/terms/privacy">Privacy Policy</a>.</label>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row row-thin">
<hr>
<a id="customer-request-submit" class="btn btn-cta pull-right" href="javascript:void(0);"><span class="fa fa-unlock-alt"></span> Unlock Sample Research</a>
</div>
</form>POST /prospects
<form class="js-ga-completion-tracking js-lead-registration-form " id="blueprint-lead-registration-form" data-ga-identifier="unlock" action="/prospects" accept-charset="UTF-8" data-remote="true" method="post" __bizdiag="928055752" __biza="WJ__"
data-zi-mapped-form="">
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<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_id" id="unlockable_id" value="99877" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_type" id="unlockable_type" value="SolutionSet" autocomplete="off">
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<input type="hidden" name="from_form" id="from_form" value="blueprint-lead-registration-form" autocomplete="off">
<input autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="lead[linkedin_public_profile_url]" id="lead_linkedin_public_profile_url">
<div class="form-fields-container">
<p>Get Instant Access<br> to This Blueprint</p>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="jane@company.com" class="js-zoominfo-field-blur" type="text" name="lead[email]" id="lead_email">
<label for="lead_email">Business Email</label>
<div id="email-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="Jane Smith" class="" type="text" name="lead[name]" id="lead_name">
<label for="lead_name">Full Name</label>
<div id="name-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
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<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="Company Inc." class="" type="text" name="lead[company]" id="lead_company">
<label for="lead_company">Company</label>
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<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="123-456-7890" class="" type="text" name="lead[phone]" id="lead_phone">
<label for="lead_phone">Phone</label>
<div id="phone-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column dropdown">
<select class="formText " value="" name="lead[job_role]" id="lead_job_role">
<option value=""> </option>
<option value="Applications">Applications</option>
<option value="Business Intelligence & Data">Business Intelligence & Data</option>
<option value="CIO/CTO">CIO/CTO</option>
<option value="Enterprise Architecture">Enterprise Architecture</option>
<option value="IT Consultant">IT Consultant</option>
<option value="Infrastructure & Operations">Infrastructure & Operations</option>
<option value="Project & Portfolio Management">Project & Portfolio Management</option>
<option value="Security & Risk">Security & Risk</option>
<option value="Vendor Management">Vendor Management</option>
<option value="Other">Other</option>
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<label for="lead_job_role">Job Function</label>
<div id="job_role-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
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<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
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<input autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="lead[company_revenue]" id="lead_company_revenue">
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<div class="row standard-height js_terms_checkbox">
<div class="col-sm-12">
<div class="modal-checkbox">
<input name="lead[terms_agreed]" type="hidden" value="0" autocomplete="off"><input type="checkbox" value="1" name="lead[terms_agreed]" id="lead_terms_agreed"> <label class="terms-text terms-space" for="lead_terms_agreed">Yes. I would like
to receive email updates from Info-Tech Research Group that include advice and resources to help systematically improve my IT department. I may unsubscribe at any time. By clicking the "Unlock" button, you are agreeing to the Info-Tech
Research Group <a href="/terms">Terms of Use</a> and <a target="_blank" href="/terms/privacy">Privacy Policy</a>.</label>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="submit-tag-green-container">
<input type="submit" name="commit" value="Unlock This Blueprint" class="button-unlock-form-top submit-tag-green" data-disable-with="Unlock This Blueprint">
</div>
<a id="linkedin-autofill-cs-modal" rel="nofollow" data-disable-with="Please Wait..." href="/auth/linkedin_it?autofill=true&redirect_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.infotech.com%2Fresearch%2Fss%2Ftech-trends-2023">
</a>
</form>POST /prospects
<form class="js-ga-completion-tracking " id="lead-registration-form" data-ga-identifier="unlock" action="/prospects" accept-charset="UTF-8" data-remote="true" method="post" __bizdiag="-1732499615" __biza="WJ__">
<div id="middle_name_hp_1681929072">
<style type="text/css" media="screen" scoped="scoped">
[id='middle_name_hp_1681929072'] {
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</style><label for="middle_name">Do not fill in this field</label><input type="text" name="middle_name" id="middle_name">
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<div id="surname_hp_1681928463">
<style type="text/css" media="screen" scoped="scoped">
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</style><label for="surname">Enter no text in this field</label><input type="text" name="surname" id="surname">
</div>
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_id" id="unlockable_id" value="99877" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_type" id="unlockable_type" value="SolutionSet" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="requested_url" id="requested_url" value="https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="redirect_url" id="redirect_url" value="https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023" autocomplete="off">
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<input type="hidden" name="from_modal" id="from_modal" value="true" autocomplete="off">
<input autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="lead[linkedin_public_profile_url]" id="lead_linkedin_public_profile_url">
<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_name">Full Name</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[name]" id="lead_name">
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<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_email">Email</label>
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</div>
<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_company">Company</label>
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</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_phone">Phone</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[phone]" id="lead_phone">
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</div>
<div class="row standard-height">
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 right-padding">
<label for="lead_job_role">Job Function</label>
<div class="select-dropdown dropdown-wrapper"><select class="formText" name="lead[job_role]" id="lead_job_role">
<option value="Applications">Applications</option>
<option value="Business Intelligence & Data">Business Intelligence & Data</option>
<option value="CIO/CTO">CIO/CTO</option>
<option value="Enterprise Architecture">Enterprise Architecture</option>
<option value="IT Consultant">IT Consultant</option>
<option value="Infrastructure & Operations">Infrastructure & Operations</option>
<option value="Project & Portfolio Management">Project & Portfolio Management</option>
<option value="Security & Risk">Security & Risk</option>
<option value="Vendor Management">Vendor Management</option>
<option value="Other">Other</option>
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</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 col-md-6 left-padding">
<label for="lead_title">Job Title</label>
<input type="text" name="lead[title]" id="lead_title">
</div>
</div>
<div class="row standard-height js_terms_checkbox">
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<input name="lead[terms_agreed]" type="hidden" value="0" autocomplete="off"><input type="checkbox" value="1" name="lead[terms_agreed]" id="lead_terms_agreed">
</div>
<label class="terms-text terms-space" for="lead_terms_agreed">Yes. I would like to receive email updates from Info-Tech Research Group that include advice and resources to help systematically improve my IT department. I may unsubscribe at any
time. By clicking the "Unlock" button, you are agreeing to the Info-Tech Research Group <a href="/terms">Terms of Use</a> and <a target="_blank" href="/terms/privacy">Privacy Policy</a>.</label>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row row-thin">
<hr>
<a id="customer-request-submit" class="btn btn-cta pull-right" href="javascript:void(0);"><span class="fa fa-unlock-alt"></span> Unlock Sample Research</a>
</div>
</form>POST /prospects
<form class="js-ga-completion-tracking js-lead-registration-form " id="unlock-long-content" data-ga-identifier="unlock" action="/prospects" accept-charset="UTF-8" data-remote="true" method="post" __bizdiag="928055752" __biza="WJ__"
data-zi-mapped-form="">
<div id="middle_name_hp_1681928954">
<style type="text/css" media="screen" scoped="scoped">
[id='middle_name_hp_1681928954'] {
display: none;
}
</style><label for="middle_name">Do not fill in this field</label><input type="text" name="middle_name" id="middle_name">
</div>
<div id="surname_hp_1681928176">
<style type="text/css" media="screen" scoped="scoped">
[id='surname_hp_1681928176'] {
display: none;
}
</style><label for="surname">Enter no text in this field</label><textarea name="surname" id="surname"></textarea>
</div>
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_id" id="unlockable_id" value="99877" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="unlockable_type" id="unlockable_type" value="SolutionSet" autocomplete="off">
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<input type="hidden" name="redirect_url" id="redirect_url" value="https://www.infotech.com/research/ss/tech-trends-2023" autocomplete="off">
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<input type="hidden" name="utm_medium" id="utm_medium" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="utm_source" id="utm_source" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="utm_content" id="utm_content" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="utm_term" id="utm_term" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="from_modal" id="from_modal" value="false" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="long_content_form" id="long_content_form" value="true" autocomplete="off">
<input type="hidden" name="from_form" id="from_form" value="unlock-long-content" autocomplete="off">
<input autocomplete="off" type="hidden" name="lead[linkedin_public_profile_url]" id="lead_linkedin_public_profile_url">
<div class="form-fields-container">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="jane@company.com" class="js-zoominfo-field-blur" type="text" name="lead[email]" id="lead_email">
<label for="lead_email">Business Email</label>
<div id="email-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="Jane Smith" class="" type="text" name="lead[name]" id="lead_name">
<label for="lead_name">Full Name</label>
<div id="name-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="Company Inc." class="" type="text" name="lead[company]" id="lead_company">
<label for="lead_company">Company</label>
<div id="company-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column">
<input placeholder="123-456-7890" class="" type="text" name="lead[phone]" id="lead_phone">
<label for="lead_phone">Phone</label>
<div id="phone-error" class="js-error-div field-error"></div>
</div>
<div class="col-sm-12 form-column dropdown">
<select class="formText " value="" name="lead[job_role]" id="lead_job_role">
<option value=""> </option>
<option value="Applications">Applications</option>
<option value="Business Intelligence & Data">Business Intelligence & Data</option>
<option value="CIO/CTO">CIO/CTO</option>
<option value="Enterprise Architecture">Enterprise Architecture</option>
<option value="IT Consultant">IT Consultant</option>
<option value="Infrastructure & Operations">Infrastructure & Operations</option>
<option value="Project & Portfolio Management">Project & Portfolio Management</option>
<option value="Security & Risk">Security & Risk</option>
<option value="Vendor Management">Vendor Management</option>
<option value="Other">Other</option>
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<label for="lead_job_role">Job Function</label>
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TECH TRENDS 2023
ATTACK NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND PROTECT THE ORGANIZATION FROM VOLATILITY.
Webinar: Tech Trends 2023
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* CIOs must be prepared for a volatile business environment in 2023, mitigating
risks while simultaneously pursuing new growth opportunities with the right
strategies and tactics.
* CIOs need to adopt technological trends that help the organization deliver
value better and faster to compete in the digital economy.
* CIOs must build a structure to protect the organization from volatility and
lay the foundation to thrive.
OUR ADVICE
CRITICAL INSIGHT
* Like a chess grandmaster, CIOs must play both sides of the board. Emerging
technologies present opportunities to attack while protecting from a volatile
board state is a requirement.
* It’s the role of the CIO to push the organization harder. While maintaining
existing technology, they must set goals for technology to support the
business to move faster and perform better. To enhance existing capabilities
and create new ones.
IMPACT AND RESULT
* Use the data and analysis from Info-Tech's 2023 Tech Trends report to inform
your digital strategy.
* Discover the seven trends shaping IT's path in 2023 and explore use cases for
emerging technologies.
* Hear directly from leading subject matter experts on each trend with in-depth
case study interviews.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TECH TRENDS 2023 RESEARCH & TOOLS
1. TECH TRENDS 2023 – USE THIS REPORT TO CONSIDER HOW TECHNOLOGY LEADERS CAN
ATTACK OPPORTUNITIES WHILE PROTECTING THE ORGANIZATION FROM THE RISKS POSED.
Last year’s Tech Trends report focused on the capabilities organizations would
need to compete in a digital economy. We are continuing that theme this year
with four trends that are focused on helping the organization deliver value
faster and better. At the same time, we're considering the volatility of a world
dealing with several major crises simultaneously. Organizations need to protect
themselves from that volatility to thrive. So, we have three trends focused on
the risks all organizations will face in the year ahead.
Understand the seven trends shaping IT’s landscape in 2023:
Opportunities:
- The Metaverse
- Generative AI
- Industry-Led Data Models
- Sustained Digital Processes
Volatility Risks:
- ESG Analytics and Reporting
- Zero-Trust Security
- Recession Preparation
Tech Trends 2023 Report
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TECH TRENDS
2023
THINKING LIKE A CHESS GRANDMASTER
Upon being defeated by IBM’s Deep Blue computer in a multi-game chess match in
1996, reigning world-champion and highest-ranked chess player in history Gary
Kasparov cried foul. He accused the IBM team of cheating, saying that Deep Blue
was in fact a Mechanical Turk of sorts, that humans were performing the job and
not a machine. A documentary, Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, was made
detailing Kasparov’s accusations in 2003. But more than a decade later, Kasparov
reflected on his experience differently in his 2017 book Deep Thinking. He
retracts the cheating accusation and instead asserts that the moment was a
watershed for artificial intelligence. In choosing to not reject technology’s
capacity to beat him, he also embraces its potential to augment his capabilities
when used as a tool.
“If we feel like we are being surpassed by our own technology it’s because we
aren’t pushing ourselves hard enough, aren’t being ambitious enough in our goals
and dreams,” Kasparov writes in the book. “Instead of worrying about what
machines can do, we should worry more about what they still cannot do” (MIT
Technology Review, 2017).
Technology leaders can sympathize. Like chess grandmasters, CIOs must strategize
to defeat their opponents. Emerging technologies present opportunities to
attack. Move your pieces the right way and you might establish a dominant
position to support a victory. Defending the king is a constant concern, as the
competition is constantly threatening to defeat you. Protecting from a volatile
board state is a requirement.
Move the right pieces in the right way and win the day. Make a mistake and you
risk toppling the king. Tech leaders must be prepared to respond to a range of
different scenarios in a volatile business environment.
It’s the role of the CIO to push the organization harder. While maintaining
existing technology, they must set goals for technology to support the business
to move faster and perform better. To enhance existing capabilities and create
new ones. They must test the limits of what machines still cannot do.
MAKE YOUR MOVE
Last year’s Tech Trends report focused on the capabilities organizations would
need to compete in a digital economy. We are continuing that theme this year
with four trends that are focused on helping the organization deliver value
faster and better. At the same time, we’re considering the volatility of a world
dealing with several major crises simultaneously. Organizations need to protect
themselves from that volatility in order to thrive. So, we have three trends
focused on the risks all organizations will face in the year ahead.
In Tech Trends 2023, we consider how technology leaders can attack opportunities
while protecting the organization from the risks posed. We’ll consider which
capabilities will help organizations respond to each trend in our CIO Priorities
2023 report to be published later this year.
CIOs would do well to heed Kasparov’s advice. If they fail to protect their
organizations, crying foul play won’t help lessen the impacts of defeat. Better
to focus instead on how to work with the machines and push harder toward
achieving goals in collaboration. CIOs need to be ambitious and ready to make
their move to push their organizations ahead.
METHODOLOGY
The research effort for Tech Trends 2023 is driven by our Trends and Priorities
survey receiving 813 total responses from IT professionals between August 9 and
September 9, 2022. See our methodology section for a full demographic breakdown
of the survey. Each trend features a case study with an expert that is on the
cutting edge of the trend, with Info-Tech conducting the interviews directly.
DESIGN
Info-Tech’s design team created the visual elements of this report using
AI-image generator Midjourney. See our generative AI trend to learn more about
the creative potential of this emerging technology.
> “Like a chess grandmaster, CIOs must play both sides of the board. Emerging
> technologies present opportunities to attack, while protecting from a volatile
> board state is a requirement.”
ATTACK NEW OPPORTUNITIES
THE METAVERSE
GENERATIVE AI
INDUSTRY-LED DATA MODELS
SUSTAINED DIGITAL PROCESSES
PROTECT FROM VOLATILITY
ESG ANALYTICS AND REPORTING
ZERO-TRUST SECURITY
RECESSION PREPARATION
THE METAVERSE
A PLATFORM THAT COMBINES MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES TO ENABLE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
ACTIVITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD THAT IS CONNECTED TO THE PHYSICAL WORLD.
A METAVERSE BY ANY OTHER NAME
In science fiction, the metaverse is envisioned as a unified and singular
immersive digital platform that is separate but parallel to the real world. For
next year, value is more likely to be found in less holistic expressions of the
metaverse. Info-Tech views the metaverse as best understood from a technological
perspective. A convergence of mixed reality, artificial intelligence, immersive
digital space, and real-time communications stack together to create metaverse
experiences. Depending on the use case, not all technologies may be necessary to
produce value.
The term “metaverse” exploded into buzzword territory in November 2021 when
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook was renaming to Meta, making its
future ambitions clear. Shortly thereafter, Microsoft used its Ignite conference
to recast several of its product lines as metaverse technologies, including
Microsoft Mesh, a mixed reality collaboration platform that includes 3D avatars
and object models. Neither Facebook nor Microsoft explicitly defined the
metaverse as a concept. But their demonstrations of people interacting through
digital identities in an immersive virtual world that’s connected to the real
world harken back to the vision of Neal Stephenson, who coined the term in his
1992 novel Snow Crash.
In 2022, many technology firms adopted the term or amplified their use of the
term. Builders of decentralized virtual worlds such as Decentraland and Sandbox
had been talking about their “metaverse” even before Zuckerberg’s announcement.
Their use of the term conflates the concept with “Web3,” which describes the
next generation of the internet that’s built on blockchain. Other major vendors
are relating to the term, most notably NVIDIA with its Omniverse product line,
which it calls “the metaverse for engineers.” Ireland-based ENGAGE XR Holdings
bills itself as “the professional VR platform for leading Fortune 500 companies
globally,” and has clients including BMW, 3M, and HTC.
> “For next year, value is more likely to be found in less holistic expressions
> of the metaverse. Info-Tech views the metaverse as best understood from a
> technological perspective. A convergence of mixed reality, artificial
> intelligence, immersive digital space, and real-time communications stack
> together to create metaverse experiences.”
While it continues to escape definition, an effort to create open standards
around the metaverse is underway. The Metaverse Standards Forum combines
standards organizations with industry players. The work is necessary if
Stephenson’s vision of a truly universal metaverse is to ever be realized.
Today, the early metaverse is fractured across multiple different private and
public platforms, with limited portability between the worlds.
THE METAVERSE MADE BY MICROSOFT AND META
Marketing pitches and media headlines leave IT leaders wondering if they should
be running a proof of concept on VR collaboration in 2023 or perhaps staking a
claim to virtual real estate. For this reason, Info-Tech projects that value in
the metaverse will more likely be found in less holistic versions of itself,
allowing for customization and adaptability for companies based on each use case
to produce value.
Despite renaming the company to Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook
isn’t seen as defining the metaverse space by IT professionals. Instead,
Microsoft and industry analysts were trusted to give an accurate picture of
what’s coming in five years’ time.
WHEN IT COMES TO ENVISIONING WHAT THE METAVERSE WILL LOOK LIKE FIVE YEARS FROM
NOW, WHOM DO YOU MOST LOOK TO FOR AN ACCURATE PICTURE?
Microsoft 35% Industry analysts or consultants 35% Meta (formerly Facebook) 9%
Creators of blockchain-based virtual worlds 6% Other 5% Nvidia 4% Authors of
science fiction 3% Epic Games 3%
SIGNALS LET’S JUST STICK TO ZOOM
The metaverse as a solution to hybrid work is still a far-off concept for most
firms, with 63% of organizations having no plans to collaborate in virtual
reality (using headsets that totally block out the real world). Only one quarter
of firms are conducting a proof of concept or planning to do so. Slightly more
than one in ten say they're either scaling up or already seeing widespread
organizational adoption.
When survey takers were asked individually about their interest in collaborating
in VR, about one in four said they were interested. That’s equal to the number
of organizations that are at least planning a proof of concept, showing that on
average, organizations are demonstrating the right amount of enthusiasm for the
metaverse.
Organizations show slightly more interest in adopting augmented reality headsets
(which are transparent, allowing the real world to be seen) over virtual
reality. Thirty-five percent of organizations are at least planning a proof of
concept or are more advanced in using AR headsets, compared to 32% that can say
the same of VR headsets.
Two industries are showing more interest than others in collaborating in VR. The
media, information, telecom, and technology industry (n=75) is most enthusiastic
with 34% at least already conducting a proof of concept. The professional
services industry (n=93) is the next-most interested, with 29% already
conducting a proof of concept or an initiative that’s progressed even further.
WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT APPROACH FOR COLLABORATING IN A
VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENT?
No plans to use - 63%
Planning to run a proof of concept - 18%
Conducting a proof of concept - 7%
Scaling up collaboration - 7%
Widespread organizational usage - 5%
HOW INTERESTED ARE YOU IN USING A VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSET TO COLLABORATE WITH
YOUR COLLEAGUES?
Not Interested - 56%
Interested - 24%
Neutral - 19%
DRIVERS MEETING ON EQUAL FOOTING
> “...tech firms focused on digital collaboration solutions see interaction in a
> mixed reality environment, involving avatars and shared virtual spaces, as a
> way that everyone can collaborate on equal footing in a more natural way.”
METAVERSE COLLABORATION IS A RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED AROUND
REMOTE WORK DURING THE PANDEMIC
The concept of “Zoom fatigue” describes the exhaustion due to the mental effects
of engaging in videoconferences all day long (IFRI, 2022). With most
organizations moving to a hybrid model of work, it can be difficult to
facilitate meetings between employees who are in the office and those working
remotely. Colleagues limited to participating through a screen tend to be
ignored. For this reason, tech firms focused on digital collaboration solutions
see interaction in a mixed reality environment, involving avatars and shared
virtual spaces, as a way that everyone can collaborate on equal footing in a
more natural way.
THE PANDEMIC ALSO DISRUPTED BUSINESS TRAVEL
Industries that rely on specialized experts to travel to different locations to
maintain complex machinery had to find ways to adapt. Rather than having the
skilled technician travel to the location, they can connect with an onsite
employee wearing an augmented reality headset like Microsoft HoloLens. Using the
camera and speakers on the device, the expert can effectively see through the
eyes of the non-skilled employee and give them step-by-step instructions on how
to complete a task. This type of interaction is being enhanced with recorded
sessions, digital models and animations of complex machinery, and even digital
twins of entire environments.
WHILE FRICTION IN THE WORKPLACE IS BEING RESOLVED, THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS HAVE
SEEN A BOOM OF TIME SPENT ON DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT
Meta is estimated to have sold 8.7 million Quest 2 VR headsets in 2021, rising
to 15 million by mid-2022 (Android Central, March and June 2022). Meanwhile,
gaming platforms that invite users to build their own experiences, such as
Roblox and Fortnite, are demonstrating the viability of business models that
allow free access to a virtual world and drive revenue through
microtransactions.
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISK PURSUE DIGITAL TWINS, AVOID VENDOR
LOCK-IN
OPPORTUNITIES
ENHANCE FIELD WORKER PRODUCTIVITY
Workers that typically work with their hands can benefit from accessing an
enterprise knowledgebase and collaborating with experts through an augmented
reality headset. This type of solution is more mature than full-on virtual
reality use cases for the enterprise. There are a variety of manufacturers
making headsets at different price points, solution providers to deploy them to
your workforce, and systems integrators to tie them into enterprise systems.
PLAN COMPLEX LOGISTICS BETTER
Digital twins are proving useful to plan out changes to manufacturing lines,
airports, and warehouse facilities. If you operate an environment with a lot of
moving pieces and a lot can be gained from optimizing it, building digital twins
is a capability worth pursuing.
RISKS
PLATFORM LOCK-IN
Early platform providers have paid lip service to the idea of portability across
metaverse environments, meaning you can take your data from one vendor’s
platform to another’s. But how interoperability will work is unclear. A company
could build out a customized metaverse experience on a private platform, only to
later have the terms changed.
EVAPORATING MARGINS
Initial revenue-sharing schemes released by Meta for Horizon Worlds have been
aggressive, claiming almost half of the pie from developers (Ars Technica, April
2022).
LEGAL QUAGMIRE
If a harassment lawsuit is filed based on an interaction that took place in the
metaverse, in what jurisdiction should it be brought to court? What rights does
one have to virtual real estate or digital goods registered to the blockchain?
There are many opinions to be found on these questions but not a lot of clarity.
The early metaverse experience may feel a bit like the Wild West, with platform
providers playing the role of sheriff.
CASE STUDY MOOTS IN THE METAVERSE
> “We’re looking into 3D recreations of a crime scene. Can we transport the
> judge and jury virtually to the scene of the crime?” Ritesh Kotak
> Juris Doctor Graduate
> University of Ottawa
SITUATION
The University of Ottawa’s Common Law Section holds a moot competition for its
students annually, requiring teams to prepare written submissions on a legal
point and then argue their case in front of a panel of judges. It’s meant to
simulate the feeling of being in a courtroom and is typically hosted in a real
physical courtroom. Pandemic restrictions made that impossible and the
competition was to be held using Zoom videoconference. Seeking to improve upon
the virtual experience, third-year Juris Doctor student Ritesh Kotak worked with
peers, Tech Fellows Ayushi Dave and Ryan Mosoff, on a metaverse moot initiative.
ACTION
With funding from LeClair and Associates, the students engaged Ireland-based
ENGAGE XR to help create a virtual courtroom. Using the company’s virtual
reality platform, an existing American courtroom was modified to suit the moot
competition style of three judges and no jury. After initial rounds of the moot
were completed over Zoom, the finalists held their moot contest on the VR
platform in March 2022. A former Supreme Court justice and a current Ontario
Court justice helped judge the event. Participants were shipped Meta Quest 2
headsets to use for the experience. They uploaded photos of themselves to create
avatars with their likeness. “It felt real, it felt like we were in a
courtroom,” Kotak says. “No one thought we would ever do trials over Zoom until
the pandemic happened. To me, that was a bandage approach to create some
continuity. It wasn’t the be-all and end-all.” An in-world videographer created
a recording of the virtual event that was suitable to stream on YouTube.
RESOLUTION
Funding from LeClair and Associates for the project lasts through 2026. Even
though the moot competitions can now be held in person again, Kotak says there
are plans to take a hybrid approach to them and still include a VR component.
Kotak has now graduated but plans to volunteer his time for the project. Their
aim is to introduce a new element that hasn’t previously been done in a trial
every year. For next year, they are looking at introducing a recreation of a
crime scene to serve as evidence in a trial. “Can we transport the judge and
jury, virtually, to the scene of a crime?” Kotak says. “They could walk around
and see that scene virtually, with real evidence.” Also of interest is to expand
on open court principles, to allow the public to have access to trials that are
taking place. Kotak says some members of the public were invited to sit in the
virtual gallery at this year’s moot competition.
WHAT’S NEXT? A METAVERSE THAT MOVES YOU
Holographic communications systems are being created by several vendors. With
enterprises already testing prototype products, we could see some of these
solutions come to the market in general availability in 2023. These solutions
focus on projecting photorealistic 3D images of people into a remote
environment. Users wear augmented reality headsets to see the holographic
content and interact with it. Capturing the hologram-quality 3D image also
requires special equipment and cloud-based rendering of multiple video feeds.
Some solutions in this space use volumetric video to capture the holograms.
Cisco is developing a light field capture method with Webex Hologram that it
says offers a more realistic representation of people and objects. “We bring a
glass of water into the scene, and you can see the reflections bounce off the
water,” says Edel Joyce, product manager for Webex Hologram at Cisco. “Our goal
is to make it as real as possible so you can get that emotional feeling of the
presence.”
It’s still in prototype mode, but Cisco has several early customers testing out
Webex Hologram across different industries. McLaren Racing is the one publicly
stated partner, but other users include two hospitals, two universities, a
manufacturer, an apparel design firm, a medical device maker, and other
technology firms. Companies investing in the system are seeing value in a few
different scenarios, Joyce says. Companies that require expert trainers to
travel onsite to demonstrate complex equipment can save on the airfare for their
trainer and instead have them do several sessions a day in different locations
by appearing holographically. Companies that want to accelerate a design process
around a physical object find the technology brings them to consensus more
quickly. And then there’s the mental health benefits of feeling the presence of
another person despite their distance. Cisco is talking to defense forces about
arranging for deployed overseas troops to have a holographic family visit, Joyce
says.
Cisco is learning how to refine its product from its early customers.
Improvements to the interface are made iteratively and paring back the
requirements for the capture system will help bring down the cost. “People don’t
need to see the back of your head during a meeting,” Joyce says. “So, we’ve
narrowed down the number of cameras we need on a device.” Cisco is not sharing
any pricing or roadmap information on Webex Hologram at this time.
> “We’re tricking the brain to make you think the person is present. It’s as
> real as you can get.” Edel Joyce
> Product Manager for Webex Hologram
> Cisco
WHAT WILL BE THE HTML OF THE METAVERSE?
Hypertext markup language (HTML) made the web possible by setting a standard for
how web browsers rendered content. If a future metaverse is going to be equally
seamless and accessible, a similar standard is necessary. NVIDIA and Pixar are
championing the Universal Scene Description (USD) standard developed by Pixar
and released to open source in 2016. It defines not only the visual
characteristics of an object in 3D but its behavioral attributes as well, such
as weight, density, and whether it has an interactive component (NVIDIA, 2022).
RECOMMENDATIONS MANAGE 3D CONTENT AND IMPROVE HYBRID ENGAGEMENT
WATCH AND WAIT AS THE METAVERSE DEVELOPS
The vision of the metaverse as a universal digital space where people interact
at scale and spend money is still a distant vision. It’s OK to stay in learning
mode for now and not rush into a proof of concept using virtual reality headsets
or blockchain-based digital real estate.
CONSIDER HOW TO MANAGE 3D OBJECTS
Digital 3D objects are becoming more useful in a number of different work
settings to facilitate collaboration around complex machinery or environments.
Consider how you will create the digital twin of your environment and how you
will manage the inventory of 3D objects.
IMPROVE THE HYBRID WORK EXPERIENCE
The metaverse is proposed as a way to facilitate more engaged collaboration
between colleagues who are split between working in the office and working in
remote locations. But it’s not the only way. Think about how to improve your
conferencing facilities and procedures to get the most out of hybrid meetings.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
INTO THE METAVERSE
Understand the definition of the metaverse and the technologies involved.
Examine the risks and benefits implied for IT.
DOUBLE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S EFFECTIVENESS WITH A DIGITAL TWIN
Understand what digital twin is, including the unique characteristics of this
transformative technology. Articulate both the value and constraints of digital
twin technology. Formulate a use case and validate its alignment with your
organization.
MODERNIZE COMMUNICATIONS AND COLLABORATION INFRASTRUCTURE
Make the case for your communications infrastructure modernization project and
be prepared to support it.
GENERATIVE AI
AI CAN BE TRAINED BY FEEDING CONTENT INTO GENERATIVE ADVERSARIAL NETWORKS,
TRANSFORMERS, AND VARIATIONAL AUTOENCODERS TO CREATE NEW CONTENT THAT’S
MEANINGFUL TO PEOPLE.
AI INVESTMENT ON THE RISE
Generative AI is a type of semi-supervised machine learning that uses neural
networks to create new content or interpret complex signal information. By
training the models with a large amount of content, they can be made to generate
new works like what people would create.
The uses for generative AI go beyond creating imagery. It could help businesses
with predictive maintenance or improving cybersecurity analytics. It could help
generate new ideas for drugs or assist in quality analysis and medical
diagnoses.
AI is picking up steam with more organizations adopting it in 2023. According to
our survey, AI will receive the most net-new investment by organizations by the
end of 2023. While 35% of organizations say they have already invested in it,
44% of organizations say they plan to invest in it next year. With a 9% change
between committed investment and planned investment, AI leads all technologies,
followed by data lake at 5% and data mesh at 5%.
THE CHANGE BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE PLANNING TO INVEST IN AN EMERGING
TECHNOLOGY AND THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IN IT.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning Data Lake / Lakehouse Data Mesh
/ Data Fabric Blockchain Quantum Computing Next-Gen Cybersecurity Mixed Reality
(Augmented or Virtual Reality) 5G Robotics
9% 5% 9% 4% 3% 3% 2% 1% 0%
-1% -1% -2% -2% -5% -16% -23% -24%
Internet of Things (IoT) Biometrics Edge Computing No-Code/Low-Code Platforms
ESG Metrics Reporting Workforce Management Solutions Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) Cloud Computing
SIGNALS AI USED TO UNEARTH INSIGHTS AND HANDLE REPETITIVE TASKS
By the end of 2023, most businesses plan to use AI for business analytics or
intelligence, with 65% saying they will do so. Also, 63% of businesses say they
will use AI to automate repetitive and low-level tasks. Other uses feature a
clear drop-off after that, but the next-most popular use for AI is to identify
risks and improve security.
BY THE END OF 2023, WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING TASKS WILL INVOLVE AI AT YOUR
ORGANIZATION?
Business analytics or intelligence 65% Automate repetitive, low-level tasks 64%
Identify risks and improve security 43% Monitoring and governance 34%
Conversational AI or virtual assistants 33% Augment operational staff in their
decision making 28% Sensor data analysis 27% Financial planning and analysis 20%
Content creation 16% Define business strategy 12%
Generative AI can play a role in enhancing each of the top three use cases of
AI. Many businesses struggle with making use of unstructured data for analysis.
Generative AI can interpret that data and transform it into structured data.
That not only renders it usable in analytics but trainable for robotic process
automation (RPA). Generative AI can also detect anomalies in network and
application behavior, aiding security systems in identifying threats.
We also asked what AI governance steps organizations have in place today. New
legislation in various jurisdictions, including Canada and Europe, are defining
new rules around when and how AI can be applied. Organizations that are using AI
in situations that governments determine to be high risk will be required to do
more to mitigate risks. Yet today, 55% of organizations are doing nothing to
govern AI. As more organizations invest in AI and start applying it to more
decision-making processes, IT leaders should be putting governance structures in
place before they’re made to do so by new regulations.
DRIVERS DATA NEEDS TO BE COLLECTED AND SYNTHESIZED
THE NEED TO MANAGE UNSTRUCTURED DATA
In the age of data collection in hope of becoming more data-driven in their
processes, organizations are grappling with how to manage unstructured data.
Unstructured data is the majority of data collected, describing everything from
written communications to images to presentation decks. Basically, everything
that’s not in a database or spreadsheet. Without AI to make sense of it,
businesses can’t search this information and turn it into actionable insights.
NOT ENOUGH DATA
In some areas of business, the problem is a lack of the specific data they need
to train an algorithm. The medical field often faces this problem because of the
sensitivity of patient data. One solution to this problem is to create synthetic
data: data that is generated by AI that closely approximates a real example of
that data. Synthetic data is being used today to train various AI algorithms,
from models that will detect brain tumors on an MRI scan to self-driving cars.
DESIRE TO COMPETE
Organizations are increasing their spending on AI because of the potential
benefits it offers. It can augment workers to do more work more quickly,
reducing costs by automating away more tasks. It can help discover new products
more quickly and increase revenues. With more commercialized options available
to deploy generative AI and more organizations investing, those that don’t
invest may fall behind.
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISK HARNESS UNSTRUCTURED DATA, STAY AHEAD OF
REGULATORS
OPPORTUNITIES
AUGMENT YOUR WORKFORCE
Some workers may fear that AI tools will replace them. Send the message that
like any other tool, AI is meant to augment the work of people. With the
availability of AI tools to consumers through the web, workers will start
tapping into them for help with their work whether IT is involved or not.
Consider how to help support a plan that is best aligned with the business and
avoids potential risks.
USE SYNTHETIC DATA TO IMPROVE YOUR OWN AI MODELS
If training specific models could be useful for your business for tasks like
quality control or building customized marketing campaigns, then generating
synthetic data could help accelerate the training of those models.
MAKE SENSE OF UNSTRUCTURED DATA
Turn the volumes of unstructured data you collect and store into a useful asset.
Use AI to read data stored in images, communications, and other content and
translate it into a format that can be properly deciphered.
RISKS
BEWARE OF BIASED RESULTS
Society has ingrained biases, and since AI is trained on data from the real
world, it will be biased as well. Being intentional about the data sets that
train algorithms can help with this, and testing should be employed to uncover
biases.
PUT GOVERNANCE IN PLACE NOW
New legislation being developed in Canada and the European Union focuses on
mitigating risks for high-risk AI applications. Draft legislation suggests
requirements to use AI models that are explainable, to monitor deployed AI to
ensure it’s behaving as expected, to conduct impact assessments on AI, and to
publish clear explanations of how AI is intended to be used and what predictions
it makes.
CONSIDER ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
Adopting a commercial AI tool that was trained on data of unknown origin may
prove problematic. After image generators became popular in 2022, some artists
complained that they’d never given permission to have their art used to train
the AI models and that their own work was being devalued as a result of so many
people using their style to produce new images. Getty Images banned the sale of
AI-generated images on its service due to concerns about the legality of the
images and their copyright (Ars Technica, Sept. 2022).
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISK HARNESS UNSTRUCTURED DATA, STAY AHEAD OF
REGULATORS
GENERATIVE AI CAUSES CONTROVERSY
When considering the risks of adopting AI, consider some of these AI
controversies covered by the media in 2022. How could your organization avoid
receiving unwanted attention like this?
In April, OpenAI releases its DALL-E 2 image generator, which produces biases
that reinforce stereotypes. For example, women were more likely to be depicted
as nurses, and men were more likely to be depicted as builders. OpenAI releases
a fix to improve its image diversity, but then users find it is less accurate at
turning their prompts into useful images (NBC News, 2022).
In June, Google engineer Blake Lemoine claims that chatbot LaMDA is sentient and
publishes an existential conversation he had with the bot to the web. He is
later fired (Washington Post, 2022).
In August, Jason Allen won Colorado State Fair’s fine arts competition with a
piece generated using AI image generator Midjourney, titled Théâtre D’opéra
Spatial, stoking controversy among artists (The New York Times, 2022).
CASE STUDY FROM EXISTENTIAL CRISIS TO EXCITING COLLABORATION
> “I asked myself ‘How can I have authorship in this process when the rendering
> is done by a computer?’ The answer was that I viewed it as a collaboration
> with the AI.” Rob Sheridan
> Art Director, Co-Founder
> Glitch Goods
>
> on his experience testing AI image-generating bot Midjourney
SITUATION
AI lab Midjourney launched its first product, an image-generating bot only
accessible through Discord, to private beta in the first quarter of 2022.
Similar to other AI-powered image generators like OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, it took any
text prompt and produced an array of images. Midjourney’s illustrative aesthetic
made it eye-catching, and it was soon featured on the June cover of The
Economist.
While it was in private beta, the Midjourney team reached out to established
visual artists to invite them to try the tool. Among them is Rob Sheridan, an
American graphic designer best known for his work with the Nine Inch Nails,
producing album cover art and other accessories for projects like Year Zero. In
his first weekend of using Midjourney, Sheridan found himself in an existential
crisis pondering what it meant for his role as an artist. “How can I have
authorship in this process when the rendering is done by a computer?” he asked
himself.
Sheridan responded by probing the limits of the AI image generator tool, testing
the boundaries of where it would take his preferred genre of horror. After
sharing some attention-getting results of his efforts to Twitter, Midjourney
responded by banning terms like “body horror” from the platform. Sheridan
doesn’t agree with the censorship. “Art is not just about beauty, that’s not a
unilateral thing,” he says. “Beautiful is horror imagery to me. But it’s their
platform so they can decide.”
ACTION
Despite the disagreement, Sheridan moved on from his initial reaction to
Midjourney and used it for a new project, Volstof Institute for Interdimensional
Research. A graphic story told on Instagram and Twitter, it’s a found materials
narrative that’s firmly in the horror genre, with visuals of dilapidated
laboratories, tentacles, and skulls. As Sheridan created more of the work, he
began to appreciate the tool. “I love the flawed, messed-up aesthetic of it,” he
says.
The project helped him come to terms with the implications of AI-generated
imagery. He viewed the Volstof project as a collaboration between himself and
the AI. He let the boundaries and parameters of Midjourney help guide his
process and take the idea in new directions. The project has a modest following
on social media but has been covered by the media, and some observers suggested
the narrative would be fitting for a video game.
Sheridan also used Midjourney to produce elements for designs he sells on
T-shirts and paraphernalia on his e-commerce store. While Sheridan doesn’t allow
the AI to design everything on a new t-shirt, he did use it to create some
characters that he incorporated into the design. “It’s exciting and I feel I can
take some authorship of it,” he says. He points out that having the tool opened
the door to him creating the designs on a whim, when otherwise he might not have
invested time into following through on the idea.
RESULT
Sheridan’s advice to other artists is to adapt to the new set of tools. Art
directors should be excited because they can now prototype designs more quickly,
he says. “I can prototype something like Volstof without having to hire a team
of artists or investing the time it would take me to do it manually.”
Illustrators can use the new tools as an extension of their own brains, he says,
and eventually even train algorithms to mimic the style of their own work.
Don’t just look at all the problems with the new technology and dismiss it or
demonize it, he advises. Film photographers that reacted that way to digital
photography and photoshop were quickly pushed out of the market for the new
standard that customers expected. While there will no doubt be problems to solve
with Midjourney and other similar tools, it’s better to discuss how to solve
those problems and work with technology providers. After all, in Sheridan’s
view, the medium is not the message. “Having a good vision is more important
than owning an expensive piece of equipment,” he says. Likewise, having a good
vision will serve artists well as the unimaginative churn out volumes of banal
imagery.
WHAT’S NEXT? EVERY CREATIVE FIELD WILL BE IMPACTED BY AI
SPEECH RECOGNITION
OpenAI’s stated mission is to pursue artificial general intelligence. As a
result, it has several types of AI projects in progress. On Sept. 21, 2022, it
released to open source Whisper, a neural net that can recognize English speech
with human-level robustness and accuracy. It encourages developers to use
Whisper to add voice interfaces to their applications (OpenAI, 2022).
FRAUD DETECTION
Identifying a user through digital data minutiae of how they move a mouse or
what network their smartphone is connected to at the moment is now possible with
AI-developed fraud prevention algorithms. The smallest details can be added up
in an algorithm that predicts the risk of fraud on any given transaction and
flags it for further inspection by a human (IT Business Edge, 2022).
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Non-technical workers will be aided in creating new applications with AI-powered
tools that write the code for them. GENIO is one example, described as a
low-code software development program. It can generate code in both modern web
architectures and back-office solutions. In a Facebook post, Meta CEO Mark
Zuckerberg wrote, “It’s much harder to generate video than photos because beyond
correctly generating each pixel, the system also has to predict how they’ll
change over time.” Currently no one is allowed access to the model outside of
Meta (The Verge, Sept. 2022).
> “It’s much harder to generate video than photos because beyond correctly
> generating each pixel, the system also has to predict how they’ll change over
> time.”
VIDEO
Meta unveiled its Make-A-Video system on Sept. 29, which allows users to type in
words to describe a scene to generate a video several seconds long that matches
the prompt.
Also important to watch will be the progress of new legislation to regulate AI.
Bill C-27 is currently scheduled for a second reading in the House of Commons
and could progress into law by the end of 2023. The EU-proposed regulation on
artificial intelligence is expected to take longer to pass into law. So Canada
may end up being the first jurisdiction to pass AI regulation to law in the
world (McCarthy Tétrault, 2022).
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCES TRAIN YOUR OWN AI AND EXPERIMENT WITH IT
EXPERIMENT WITH NEW GENERATIVE AI TOOLS
Whether it’s using Midjourney to render the art of your entire flagship content
piece, as Info-Tech has done with Tech Trends 2023, or using Github Copilot to
help you through the next few lines of code that you write, begin building
awareness of the different AI-powered content creation tools available. Expect
workers outside of IT to start using them on an ad hoc basis and consider how
you might support them or mitigate potential risks.
CURATE YOUR OWN DATA SETS TO TRAIN GENERATIVE MODELS
Generative AI models come ready to imitate the artistic style of Picasso or the
sound of The Beatles, but they won’t be ready to create specific content that is
relevant to your organization. Luckily, it can be trained to do so with a robust
enough source of input data. Consider what data you currently own that is a
value differentiator and think about how to prepare it to train an AI model.
DEVELOP AN AI CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Group together the best AI talent your organization has access to on a
centralized team. Have them examine processes and determine where AI can be used
to create the most value.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
LEGAL PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT
It should come as no surprise that AI has gained traction in the legal
professional services industry, as the benefits and return on investment (ROI)
of AI is readily apparent. Automation of manual tasks, such as filing,
categorization, document creation, and billing, is among the most visible
benefits of AI, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
GET STARTED WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Use this blueprint to understand what AI really means in practice and to get
started with your AI explorations to harness its transformative power.
AI AND THE FUTURE OF ENTERPRISE PRODUCTIVITY
Artificial intelligence (AI), as a collection of techniques rather than a
singular technique, sits at various levels of expectation and deployment – with
some applications commonly deployed in enterprises for years and others just
emerging.
INDUSTRY-LED DATA MODELS
INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC EXPERTISE IS HELPING TURN DATA COLLECTION INTO INSIGHTS,
PUSHING MORE BACK-OFFICE OPERATIONS TO FIND ANALYTICS-DRIVEN EFFICIENCIES, AND
CREATING NEW REVENUE-GENERATING OPPORTUNITIES.
DATA VALUE IS DEFINED BY THE INSIGHTS IT YIELDS
The promises of big data have been harped upon for the entire 21st century,
giving rise to an industry of data-collection and analytics services. Clear
examples of data-driven business models are well known in the technology sector,
with the rise of Netflix based on its watch recommendations algorithm, Amazon’s
e-commerce dominance based on its personalized search results, and Facebook’s
success in the ads market thanks to behavioral advertising algorithms. Yet that
success proved more difficult to translate for other industries with more
established business models.
> “Industry insights are increasing the value of enterprise data.”
Legacy technology was one point of friction, with data being trapped in silos
and hard to report on or compare against. But even when that problem is overcome
by modernization efforts, converting data analysis into actionable insights is
difficult. Technology vendors don’t always understand the important factors to
report on for their customers in complex business environments like healthcare
or manufacturing. Recognizing this shortfall, solution providers are now
collaborating with industry to drive the insights needed to increase the value
of enterprise data.
After AI, the two technologies gaining the most momentum in new investment are
data lake or lakehouse and data fabric or mesh, with both seeing a 5% increase
in the number of organizations planning to invest in 2023. These platforms
facilitate better access to enterprise data and enable real-time reporting. To
achieve data-driven decision making, organizations must iron out the friction in
their data analysis process.
The focus around big data has been on the four V’s model: volume, velocity,
variety, and veracity. Now the fifth V, value, must be considered.
THE CHANGE BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE PLANNING TO INVEST IN AN EMERGING
TECHNOLOGY AND THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY INVESTED IN IT.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning Data Lake / Lakehouse Data Mesh
/ Data Fabric Blockchain Quantum Computing Next-Gen Cybersecurity Mixed Reality
(Augmented or Virtual Reality) 5G Robotics
9% 5% 9% 4% 3% 3% 2% 1% 0%
-1% -1% -2% -2% -5% -16% -23% -24%
Internet of Things (IoT) Biometrics Edge Computing No-Code/Low-Code Platforms
ESG Metrics Reporting Workforce Management Solutions Application Programming
Interfaces (APIs) Cloud Computing
SIGNALS VALUE IS DRIVEN BY COST-SAVINGS AND PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS
The most popular ways for organizations to determine the value of their data
demonstrate how industry-specific expertise comes into play. Seventy percent of
organizations determine value based on the improvements made to existing
products and services. Also, 65% of organizations determine value based on how
effectively the data helps reduce operating costs.
Without the right industry expertise, you can’t understand the variables in play
in improving a product or what’s relevant to operational overhead throughout a
value chain.
HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE VALUE OF DATA IN YOUR ORGANIZATION?
How much value-add the data brings to existing products and services 70% How
effectively the data helps us reduce costs in operations 65% How effectively the
data helps us acquire new customers 51% How effectively the data helps us
increase spend in existing customers 38% How much we are able to sell the data
for directly 11% Other 9%
Perhaps that’s why most organizations look to build their own data analysis
tools. According to survey results, 41% of organizations build their own data
analysis with in-house staff. Another 28% both build their own tools and buy
tools to support analysis.
WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR ORGANIZATION’S APPROACH FOR DATA ANALYSIS?
We don’t conduct any data analysis and/or support - 8%
We build our own data analysis with in-house staff - 41%
We buy off-the-shelf tools to provide analysis - 17%
We rely on a service provider for data analysis - 6%
We both build our own data analysis and buy tools and/or support - 28%
Organizations want to put their own industry expertise to work in designing
analytics to provide the right insights. But by taking on the task of building
the tools, they are likely missing out on best-in-class approaches honed by
technology vendors with refined analytics products and services.
Driving the most value from data requires a best-of-both-worlds approach that
combines industry expertise with best-in-class analytics tools.
DRIVERS STORAGE IS CHEAP AND SHARING IS EASY
DATA GRAVITY
An ecosystem of applications and services that includes SharePoint, OneDrive,
Google Drive, and Dropbox and offers APIs and integration opportunities for
developers to enhance their products. The ease of integration with little or no
additional effort on the part of developers leads to more data being collected
more often and stored away in various caches, both locally and in the cloud.
With the cost of storage so low it may as well be free, there is no friction in
stowing away data if there is any chance it could be useful.
AI-ENHANCED CAPABILITIES
Data analytics vendors are integrating AI capabilities into their tools that
help solve challenges around deriving value from data, for both management and
insights. On the management side, tools help automate the preparation,
integration, cataloging, and quality review aspects of data. On the insights
side, AI-driven tools are more adeptly generating visuals that make data
interpretation easy.
NEW WAYS TO SHARE DATA
Data managers are using new platforms to aggregate enterprise data in a way that
makes it more accessible. Users can see real-time updates of the data rather
than requesting reports on historical data, enabling more timely decision
making.(Info-Tech LIVE 2022, 2022 Data and Analytics Trends)
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISK GRADUATE FROM ANALYTICS TO INSIGHTS,
FORMALIZE DATA GOVERNANCE
OPPORTUNITIES
IDENTIFY NEW LINES OF BUSINESS
Refining data to the point that it’s driving unique insights can yield new
revenue-making opportunities. An organization may recognize the need for a new
product to suit customer needs or determine there is an opportunity to target a
different type of customer. In some cases, the data itself may be valuable
enough to sell in a data-as-a-service model.
PARTNER WITH TECHNOLOGY PROVIDERS
Identifying a vendor or solutions provider that’s trying to enter a new industry
can be an opportunity to partner with them. Combining your organization’s
industry expertise with a technology services approach can yield new business
models and help solve your own problems.
TURN ANALYTICS INTO INSIGHTS
Go beyond creating a dashboard of analytics for the business and embed analytics
into your business process. Determine where and when to surface a data-driven
insight to the user so it is most likely to be acted upon.
OPPORTUNITIES
ESTABLISH A FORMAL DATA GOVERNANCE CAPABILITY
It’s rare for organizations to have a data governance process implemented,
according to our survey, with just under one in five organizations saying they
had implemented a data governance process or better yet fully automated it.
Without a formal data governance strategy, businesses will be exposed to risks
including compliance challenges, negative customer experiences, and reputational
damage.
WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR ORGANIZATION’S APPROACH TOWARD DATA GOVERNANCE?
Reactive - we spend a lot of time cleaning data - 17%
Ad hoc - some data stewardship and ownership on a case-by-case basis - 41%
A clear process was recently created but is still being implemented - 23%
A process for data governance is implemented - 17%
A process for data governance is fully automated - 2%
CASE STUDY TURNING “NO-SHOWS” INTO NO PROBLEM FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
> “Healthcare has a lot of challenges that can be solved with better use of
> analytics. But oftentimes analytics companies don’t understand the
> complexities with which healthcare organizations operate.” Victoria Gregorio
> Director, Center for Discovery,
> Innovation and Development
> Children’s Specialized Hospital
SITUATION
In the US, the healthcare industry suffers from a problem around patients not
showing up for scheduled appointments. These “no-shows” cost the industry $1.5
billion annually. At the organizational level, a typical hospital will have a
no-show rate between 15 and 30 percent.
Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Jersey was no stranger to this problem,
seeing about one in every five appointments result in a no-show. Not only was
this costing the organization tens of thousands of dollars per year, but it
meant its resources sat idle and patients did not receive care.
The hospital’s innovation arm, the Center for Discovery, Innovation and
Development, was looking for an opportunity to make meaningful change in the
healthcare industry with analytics. It settled on no-shows as its target problem
to solve.
“We’re in a world of healthcare worker shortages and burnout,” says Victoria
Gregorio, the innovation program lead at Children’s Specialized Hospital. “Wait
lists are longer than before and with no-show solutions, we could use that
information to fill up those appointments and reduce the wait lists. It could
reduce burnout too.”
ACTION
Analytics solution provider and SAS partner Pinnacle Solutions was also trying
to address the no-shows problem. But its customers weren’t seeing the value in
its analytics solution. So, it partnered with one of its customers, Children’s
Specialized Hospital, to form a joint venture in Predictive Healthcare
Solutions.
The hospital brought the industry insights that Pinnacle needed, says Elizabeth
Stack, chief sales and relationship officer for Predictive Health Solutions. “We
as a tech company could have never made the robust solution we have in place
today without the insight of those who understood the healthcare industry.”
The hospital team helped Pinnacle understand how to communicate the value of the
solution. They had to go beyond mere cost savings and address the improvements
made to the patient experience. The analytics were built into the daily
operations of the hospital so they could be actionable. Not only on a
patient-by-patient level but at a strategic level as well.
They also collaborated on refining the no-show prediction model itself, with the
hospital providing insights on what variables were relevant.
RESOLUTION
The Children’s Specialized Hospital and Pinnacle solution splits the revenues
evenly from their joint venture. Predictive Healthcare Solutions bills clients
based on the number of appointments they are booking, allowing the solution to
scale from a small independent provider to a large multi-location hospital.
“We’re about making the data that healthcare organizations already have
actionable,” Gregorio says.
Each customer is provided with a tailor-made algorithm to predict the no-show
appointments accurately for their situation. The type of healthcare delivery and
whether it is in an urban or rural setting are a couple of examples of factors
that can change how the predictions are calculated. A process is also put in
place to ensure the model remains accurate.
“We don’t just rely on the technology,” Stack says. “Once it’s deployed, we have
a process in place to talk about what’s happening from a people, process, and
technology perspective.”
The solution is being used at the Children’s Specialized Hospital as well,
across 12 different outpatient locations, helping to reduce wasted costs and
deliver better healthcare results.
WHAT’S NEXT? AI-POWERED DATA VALUE PIPELINES
New AI capabilities will help organizations at every step along the way to turn
their data into value. Agile governance that is flexible enough to adapt to
organizational change will become automated governance, entrenched in
organizational processes and actively adapting to changes in the environment.
Data fabric architecture will play a role in delegating governance.
Natural language processing and generative AI will also play a role in
storytelling for analytics. Allowing users to ask for data in plain language
instead of complex database queries, then representing it in a beautifully
rendered chart or graph will help individual users realize insights. Metadata
management will be a key aspect to making this type of experience a reality.
DATA AS A SERVICE
Data mesh architecture will align data sources by business domains, allowing
data owners to create data products for their domains. This approach will change
back-office mindsets around data as a resource to aid them in decision making.
In certain cases, organizations will identify data products to make available to
an external marketplace for monetization.
DATA GROWTH
The total amount of data created, copied, and consumed globally is predicted to
increase at a rate of 19% annually and will reach 180 zettabytes by 2025
(Info-Tech LIVE 2022, 2022 Data and Analytics Trends).
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCES PARTNER EXTERNALLY AND ALIGN INTERNALLY
LOOK FOR INDUSTRY-FIT ANALYTICS PROVIDERS
If you’re looking to procure an analytics solution, consider how your
competitors or other organizations in your industry are doing it. If you find
several successful examples involving the same vendor, it’s a good indication
that vendor is already mature in providing analytics to your industry. If you
don’t find one, you’ll have to consider a different route.
PARTNER WITH ANALYTICS PROVIDERS
If you are developing your own analytics solution for the organization, consider
seeking a technology partner with competency in analytics. You may have a good
understanding of the insights your organization needs, but rendering them
accurately and reliably is a specialized skill in itself. Partnering with a
solutions provider may lead to other opportunities down the road.
CONSTRUCT A SCALABLE DATA FOUNDATION
Align your data analytics approach with the business by letting business
capabilities guide your data identification. Then design data practices to
deliver insights and a data architecture that can scale with demand.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
BUILD YOUR DATA PRACTICE AND PLATFORM
The complex nature of data investment leads to de-scoping and delivery of data
services that do not meet business needs or give value to the business. Subject
matter experts are hired to resolve the problem, but their success is impacted
by absent architecture, technology, and organizational alignment.
DESIGN DATA-AS-A-SERVICE
Connecting to data should be as easy as connecting to the internet. This is
achievable if all organizations start participating in the data marketplace
ecosystem by leveraging a Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) framework.
SOFTWAREREVIEWS: DATA INTEGRATION & IPAAS CATEGORY
Data integration software combines data from different sources, databases, data
warehouses, and apps to provide a unified view. Integrated Platform as a Service
is a solution that enables users to develop, execute, and govern data processes.
Evaluate top vendors in the market and understand their ability to satisfy
customers with our reports with data from real software users.
SUSTAINED DIGITAL PROCESSES
ENSURE YOUR ORGANIZATION IS EXECUTING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IT PLANNED WITH
BUSINESS PROCESS MINING AND DISCOVERY.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
Like a chess grandmaster that wants to stay on top of the world rankings,
organizations that have achieved a digital transformation will find it takes
dedicated commitment to continuous learning and review to sustain their new
stature. In last year’s trends report, we explored how the pandemic accelerated
digital transformation, particularly among industries previously considered
laggards. The impact of those efforts is that most customer interactions
worldwide are now digital.
Companies made big investments into digitalizing tasks and processes to get to a
position where they can run the business more efficiently and effectively. Those
that pursue digital transformation soon learn that it’s a transformation that
doesn’t have a definite final state but is instead an evolutionary process
without end. Effort is needed to sustain its momentum, as are new tools and ways
of working.
Based on our survey data, more companies may now be through the initial rush of
digitalization and into the next phase of sustaining their efforts. Last year,
more organizations were likely to say they’d digitalized more than 20% of their
processes, with eight in ten IT professionals saying so. In our survey this
year, seven in ten respondents say they digitalized between 0-20% of their
processes in the past year.
Most organizations have finished making their early game moves to set up the
board. Now they are ready to execute on sustaining their strategic advantages.
TO WHAT EXTENT DID YOUR ORGANIZATION SHIFT ITS PROCESSES FROM BEING MANUALLY
COMPLETED TO DIGITALLY COMPLETED DURING THE PAST YEAR?
Between 0-20% 2023 71% 2022 20% Between 21-40% 2023 17% 2022 28% Between 41-60%
2023 7% 2022 30% Between 61-80% 2023 3% 2022 15% Between 81-100% 2023 1% 2022 7%
SIGNALS DIGITALIZATION MUST LEAD TO OPTIMIZATION
When we asked what motivation they had to pursue automation, increased staff
focus on high-level tasks was the most popular answer with 69% of respondents. A
little more than two-thirds of respondents also saw that increasing productivity
of staff without increasing headcount is a motivation. Only 35% say the
motivation is a cost savings by reducing headcount.
To achieve what they set out for, organizations need to go beyond merely
digitalizing processes and seek to optimize those processes. Digitalization sets
up a process to be probed with process mining tools that can examine how
processes are executed and determine what actions affect key performance
indicators. These tools are bottom-up approaches that capture and document
processes as they are executed.
Using event logs, process mining can enable process automation by detailing
exactly how current processes are run. Process mining can enable better
productivity by identifying unnecessary steps in a process and removing them
altogether. Organizations may identify employees that need to be retrained after
years of following a legacy process that is no longer relevant (AI Multiple,
2022).
WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR MAIN MOTIVATION TO PURSUE AUTOMATION, ABOVE OTHER
CONSIDERATIONS?
Increase staff focus on high-level tasks by automating repetitive tasks 69%
Increase productivity of existing staff to avoid increasing headcount 67% Reduce
errors made by people 59% Improve customer satisfaction 52% Cost savings through
reduction in headcount 35% Increase revenue by enabling higher volume of work
30%
SIGNALS DIGITALIZATION MUST LEAD TO OPTIMIZATION
PANDEMIC’S SHADOW
During the pandemic’s early phase, jurisdictions limited in-person activities to
constrain the spread of the virus. This shifted many in-person activities to
digital very quickly and organizations had to respond by serving their customers
in that context. Delivering services on digital channels meant also reworking
business processes and systems to a more modern approach. As most jurisdictions
have now ended limitations on in-person gatherings, organizations that
transformed are looking for ways to sustain the value they created from their
investments.
MORE CENTRALIZED LOG FILES
Investigating organizational activities through digital log files can only be
done if there is consensus on which log files represent reality. Legacy ERP
systems stored data in separate silos and made this type of analysis too
difficult. New approaches to ERP that unify data stores on a single platform
open up the possibility of establishing a single source of the truth.
DO MORE WITH LESS
It may as well be every CIO’s mantra. In 2023, with an economic downturn
expected and organizations struggling to hire talent in certain areas, there is
pressure to make the existing workforce more productive by removing wasteful
processes and automating repetitive, low-level tasks.
SIGNALS DIGITALIZATION MUST LEAD TO OPTIMIZATION
OPPORTUNITIES
IMPROVED BACK-OFFICE EFFICIENCY
If willing to adapt processes based on the findings of process mining,
organizations will be able to continually improve. Employees can be trained with
real feedback data and positive outcomes will reinforce best practices.
REACH CONSENSUS ON KPIS
Rather than stakeholders disagreeing on what key performance indicators (KPIs)
should be used to indicate their success, reach a consensus that’s based on
evidence. Having everyone in pursuit of the same goal is half the effort of
sustaining digital transformation.
DRIVE TRANSPARENCY AND OBJECTIVITY
Business process mining provides visibility into actions as they were executed,
bridging the gap between expectations and reality. This allows for the detection
and reconstruction of digital roadmaps or business workflows in phases and helps
build consensus around a source of the truth.
RISKS
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Just because a process mining tool surfaces a flaw in execution doesn’t mean
that everyone in the business will agree. Accepting that a tool that examines
log files can direct how business processes should be run means accepting best
practices as determined by people. Plan to meet different levels of friction as
the organization implements the practice and accept that some stakeholders will
take more convincing than others.
STANDALONE SOLUTIONS GET ICED
Purchasing a standalone solution that examines the log files of your ERP system
provided by another vendor runs the risk of changes in compatibility. As ERP
providers look to add their own process mining capabilities through in-house
development or acquisition, they could make changes to their log files that make
them more difficult to access or read by a third party. Think about future
support scenarios when selecting a solution.
RESULT QUALITY
The results produced by the BPM system is dependent on past entry logs by
employees in the ERP or SAP system. There are certain parts of the business
process system that are conducted offline and don’t have entry logs within the
system. If the quality of data is poor, it will be reflected in the results
produced by the BPM. It is important that quality check methods are implemented
at different stages of the business cycle to ensure best results.
CASE STUDY ALBEMARLE’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SHIFTS TO VALUE REALIZATION
> “ERP has grown in capability and size but it hasn’t had a big paradigm shift
> since the ‘90s. Digital process mining is the next disruptive and major
> technology that can change all ways of working like ERP did.” Jim Richards
> VP Business Systems
> Albemarle Corp.
SITUATION
Charlotte, NC-based chemicals producer Albemarle Corp. counts more than 5,900
employees and generates $3.3 billion in revenue. In 2017, its CIO initiated a
three-tier digital transformation strategy. Stage one solidified the
fundamentals of infrastructure and security. In stage two, the focus was on
modernizing from its on-premises SAP systems into a unified SAP S/4HANA cloud
environment while avoiding unnecessary process customizations.
Across 5,000 global users, Albemarle was able to use 95% of standard processes
in the new platform with zero code modifications. It migrated from a legacy and
multi-silo backend to a single platform in the cloud in a period of just 18
months. The technology project and change management was complete, and
sustaining the transformation became the next goal.
In stage 3, the focus shifted to value realization from operating on the new
platform. That’s when Albemarle started considering using business process
mining (BPM), a technique that uses event data to show what people and machines
are really doing and when that veers from the desired process.
“We wanted to be able to check on our standard processes and stay on the
standard path. Ultimately, our sustainability depends on if the users are
following the processes. That’s what brought us to look at BPM,” says Jim
Richards, vice president of business systems at Albemarle Corp.
ACTION
To pursue BPM, Richards first created the accountability structure in his
organization. As the lead on enterprise business systems, he already had five
directors reporting to him on SAP deployments across the organization. After
considering using a Center of Excellence approach to focus on BPM, he decided to
instead use talents of the business systems analysts group. The digital
technology manager started reporting directly to Richards. That position would
be responsible to build up the BPM expertise in the group and eventually train
other analysts on the competency.
Albemarle considered a couple of vendors in the space but ultimately selected
Celonis, a Munich-based data processing firm started in 2011 and rated as one of
Germany’s most-valuable private companies. Celonis reads the change logs
generated by SAP. From there it is able to report on how employees took action
to complete a specific process and in what order the steps were taken. The
software can then check that execution against the agreed-upon process that was
drawn up on the whiteboard.
“What is our happy path? Is it the standard process that we thought it was? It’s
about helping users follow the right process,” Richards says.
To get started with the new tool, Richards partnered with Albemarle’s order to
cash group. The group was not meeting some key performance indicators like
on-time delivery and order confirmation dates.
Richards learned that it was important to educate experienced team members on
the new tool and how it would help improve their processes.
RESOLUTION
Digital process mining gained traction with the order to cash group by drilling
down into the data and exploring the reasons behind why some suppliers were not
getting order confirmations. Albemarle connected the problem back to the
inventory that it had available to promise. In oversold situations, it is
necessary to confirm orders against planned production. So to improve the
process, a new planning project was put in place to integrate the different
departments involved and allow order confirmations to be done more reliably.
The proof of concept with the tool was effective and Celonis was soon deployed
to other areas of the business. For example, it examined its hiring process,
which was taking an average of about three months to complete. Background checks
were taking too long to complete, and Albemarle decided to change its vendor in
that area.
Richards finds overall that BPM is helping make the new standards put in place
during the company’s digital transformation effort more sustainable. “People
that just want to get their job done tend to want to move away from the
standard,” he says. Managing against that urge is “a combination of change
management and training.”
Albemarle will continue to expand its BPM footprint. It plans to roll it out to
its transportation logistics across road, ocean, and rail planning in 2023.
Richards’ team will partner with business and process owners to implement
Celonis with them.
WHAT’S NEXT? THE BIGGEST THING SINCE ERP
TWO SIDES OF SUSTAINING DIGITAL
BPM is being enhanced by AI and more often bundled with emerging process
discovery tools. Process discovery is the other side of the coin to process
mining, a top-down approach to monitor users. The tools provide the most
effective mechanism to sustain a digital transformation investment and stand to
impact every area of business operations. Gone will be the days of drawing out a
process on a whiteboard and hoping managers can coax employees into following
it. Instead, software will visualize processes as they are really executed. This
will help organizations identify candidates for automation, hone their automated
processes, and avoid conflicts between processes.
The market for standalone process mining tools has seen triple digit growth
since 2018 and is expected to continue that trend in 2023. Now more vendors that
are established with ERP or robotic process automation (RPA) solutions are also
looking to add the capability through building it out themselves or acquiring
other software developers. Expect software-as-a-service providers to integrate
the capability into their offerings. These vendors will benefit from the
familiarity with their own log files, allowing for tighter integration of the
tools.
BPM will also extend out to capture manual activities in warehouses and
factories, translating human behaviors into a digital log that can be examined
for opportunities to discover best practices and eliminate errors.
(VentureBeat, 2021)
AUTOMATION AUGMENTATION
Organizations seeking new automation opportunities will use process mining to
help. The tools address process documentation gaps and inaccuracies and help
build a funnel of automation candidates. Process mining and discovery help to
streamline automation after the pilot is completed.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCES MIND YOUR GAPS AND SOCIALIZE NEW WAYS TO REALIZE
VALUE
IDENTIFY YOUR TOOLING GAPS
Map out how your organization operates and highlight the pain points around
value delivery and productivity. Determine where tooling is under and over used.
Understand the objectives in taking stock of your processes: is the aim to
improve efficiency, create a business continuity plan, or both?
ASK YOUR VENDOR ABOUT THEIR PLANS
Before acquiring a standalone solution to create your process mining capability,
ask your ERP vendor if they have plans to incorporate one in the future. Using a
solution designed by the same vendor that designed the log files might lead to
better results. Or you may learn that you only have to wait for the capability
to be added rather than spending more on a different vendor.
SOCIALIZE THE PRACTICE OF PROCESS MINING
While process mining and discovery tools will automatically surface the
deviations from standard process and visualize it for you, that’s not of value
in itself. Managers have to be able to take the results to their employees and
explain what was learned and how to fix the issue identified. Understanding that
this quality assurance step is a part of the ongoing effort to improve
productivity should become ingrained in organizational culture. Staff might
perceive that their personal activities would be tracked on a corporate computer
when they are not, so address privacy concerns clearly.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
SOFTWAREREVIEWS: BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT
A BPM system helps to design, model, formalize, document, and automate business
processes and make their execution more efficient. It allows companies to manage
entire business process lifecycles, model scenarios, and discover opportunities.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CENTER
As we emerge from the pandemic, your choices range from blindly turning
everything back on to rising to the challenge of building a resilient
organization that can thrive in a digital economy.
BUILD A WINNING BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION PLAYBOOK
Apply good practices to first optimize and then automate key business processes.
Take a user-centric perspective to understand how users interact with technology
to complete their tasks. Maximize the learning of automation solutions and
business operational changes through small, strategic automation use cases. This
sets the foundations for a broader automation practice.
ESG ANALYTICS AND REPORTING
PREPARING FOR A HEIGHTENED REGULATORY ENVIRONMENT WITH TIMELY AND ACCURATE
REPORTING ON ESG METRICS.
THE ERA OF NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS BEGINS
In 2023, public companies will be required to report on their carbon emissions
by financial regulators in the UK, EU, US, Canada, and elsewhere.
> “...a majority of IT professionals expect to support environmental mandates
> but are not prepared to accurately report on their organization’s carbon
> footprint.”
We identified the shift from voluntary to mandatory reporting on ESG metrics
such as carbon footprint in last year’s report. But with various financial
regulators around the world either implementing those reporting requirements or
moving closer to doing so, many organizations are still behind on this issue.
According to our survey, a majority of IT professionals expect to support
environmental mandates but are not prepared to accurately report on their
organization’s carbon footprint.
IS IT PLANNING TO SUPPORT ANY ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, OR GOVERNANCE (ESG)
MANDATES AT THE ORGANIZATION IN THE COMING YEAR?
Yes, we are supporting environmental mandates (e.g. reduce carbon emissions) 56%
Yes, we are supporting governance mandates (e.g. improving diversity on the
board of governors) 45% Yes, we are supporting social mandates (e.g. improving
people’s access to food) 37% No, we are not supporting any ESG mandates 25%
REGULATORY PRESSURE TO REPORT ON CARBON EMISSIONS IS BUILDING AROUND THE WORLD:
International Financial Reporting Standards board received responses to draft
climate reporting regulations and has several meetings planned to discuss. Once
completed, the standards will be implemented by many countries.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received feedback on its greenhouse gas
emissions reporting requirements for ESG funds on August 16 and could put the
proposals in place by the end of 2022.
The European Union received feedback on its European Sustainability Reporting
Standards in August and plans to submit a first draft to the commission by the
end of the year.
The UK made its Climate-related Financial Disclosure Regulations law in January
2022, and they were enforceable as of April.
SIGNALS IT IS COMMITTED TO ESG BUT NOT CONFIDENT ABOUT IT
Despite the commitment to support an ESG initiative, less than one quarter of IT
professionals say their organization can accurately report on the impact of its
ESG initiatives, and 43% say their reporting on impacts is not accurate.
Reporting accuracy was even worse for reporting on carbon footprint, with 46%
saying their organization could not report on its carbon footprint accurately.
This is despite most IT professionals saying they are working to support
environmental mandates.
HOW ACCURATELY CAN YOUR ORGANIZATION REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF ITS ESG
INITIATIVES?
Accurately 24%
Not Accurately - 44%
Somewhat Accurately - 32%
MORE SPECIFICALLY, IF IT WAS REQUIRED TO DO SO, HOW ACCURATELY COULD YOUR
ORGANIZATION REPORT ON ITS CARBON FOOTPRINT?
Accurately 24%
Not Accurately - 46%
Somewhat Accurately - 29%
DRIVERSAN URGENT NEED TO ACT TO AVERT DISASTER
CLIMATE CRISIS
The increase of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere has caused global annual
average temperature to increase 1.1°C since the start of the industrial
revolution. The temperature is projected to rise further and cause many negative
impacts including droughts, species extinctions, and an increase in extreme
weather events. To mitigate the damage, the United Nations is calling on
governments to work to stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050 (The
New York Times, 2021).
INVESTOR CONCERN
Investors are not satisfied with voluntary ESG reports that can’t be compared
between companies. In an analysis that compared the corporate reports and the
Climate Disclosure Project responses of 56 tech companies, researchers found a
gap of 391 megatons of carbon emissions. Of which, 202 megatons came from
supplies consumed, and 189 megatons came from products sold to market (Nature
Communications, 2021). Millennials are the demographic group that are most
concerned with ESG investing and are the largest demographic behind investing
and are still growing, standing to inherit trillions in wealth over the next
decade.
REGULATORY CRACKDOWN
Mandatory rules for ESG disclosures are arriving in multiple jurisdictions
worldwide. Regulators recognize the need for consistency across jurisdictions,
and we are seeing the regulators converge on using the recommendations of the
Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) when drafting
disclosure requirements. The ISSB’s General Requirements and Climate Standards
are also based on the recommendations of the TCFD. Other jurisdictions may adopt
rules that are more stringent.
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISKBRIEF THE BOSS, STUDY THE STAFF
OPPORTUNITIES
Brief senior executives and the board on the imminent requirements for ESG
reporting. Develop your voice of leadership on the issue in the organization.
Assess your entire stakeholder landscape to ensure you have a fulsome
understanding of your data needs. Conduct a gap analysis to identify the primary
data you will require to satisfy all your stakeholders.
Consider where you can leverage current data management infrastructure and
governance practices (e.g. financial reporting (SOX), OTC derivative reporting).
Study the ESG solutions market. Understand what technology will help deliver
accurate reporting of carbon emissions.
Examine market-based opportunities. Organizations that are already carbon
negative may stand to profit by selling carbon credits to jurisdictions with a
cap-and-trade system.
RISKS
Prepare IT’s ESG budget. Funding for delivery of new reporting capabilities is
needed in 2023.
Assess staff readiness to adjust to ESG reporting requirements.
Examine project priorities to ensure organizational alignment with new ESG
mandates.
CASE STUDYWALMART’S NET-ZERO MISSION IS BACKED BY SCIENCE
> “What do you do as far as influencing your vendor partners in your sourcing
> team to make those sustainability decisions? Because at the end of the day,
> 80% (of the device carbon footprint) is really belonging to them.” Denise
> Wallace
> Director of Technology Support
> for Logistics and Client Services
> Walmart Canada
SITUATION
Walmart’s corporate head office started its Regenerative Initiative in 2017. The
goal is to be carbon negative by 2040, meaning it is reducing more emissions
than it is creating. Walmart is working with the Science Based Targets
Initiative to measure and reduce its emissions in three categories:
SCOPE 1:
Emissions directly created from Walmart’s buildings. Walmart is planning to
start using low-impact refrigerants and to scale use of renewable energy.
SCOPE 2:
Emissions created from its fleet. Walmart purchased a fleet of Tesla trucks and
is committed to a 100% renewable energy fleet by 2028.
SCOPE 3:
Supply chain emissions both upstream and downstream. Walmart’s Project Gigaton
incentivizes suppliers to report on reducing emissions and offers calculator
tools to support them.
COMPLICATION
With its corporate goals for ESG set, Walmart Canada is creating its plan to
align with the strategic pillars and begin reporting on efforts made to curb
carbon emissions. In IT, the challenge is to develop a baseline set of metrics
for the impact of devices on overall carbon footprint.
Reporting on real-time data for each deployed device will be a challenge because
of the variables. User behavior and power supply source are just a couple of the
metrics that must be considered.
After the emissions of operating devices are considered, the emissions of
manufacturing the devices are still left to be considered. Walmart will have to
work with its vendors to determine the impacts.
RESOLUTION
Denise Wallace is a part of Walmart Canada’s regenerative tech team, and is
working to create a baseline set of metrics for handheld devices and PCs as a
primary focus. Walmart will work with suppliers Dell and Zebra to understand the
footprint of their devices. “I’m going to find out what I’m consuming when I’m
operating those devices.”
Wallace’s team will break down the data by region and by domain once it’s
compiled. Then her team will look at what measures can be put in place to reduce
the emissions from devices. For example, device power saving policies could be
put in place.
WHAT’S NEXT?MULTIPLE JURISDICTIONS FOLLOWING IFRS STANDARDS
There has been a great deal of consolidation between standards bodies in the
last year. The publication of two draft standards by the International
Sustainability Standard Board (ISSB) in March 2022 could influence how mandatory
disclosure regimes evolve. The advantage to the industry of this standard is
that the ISSB framework is modeled after the IFRS’s accounting rules, which are
widely adopted, enabling organizations to leverage existing infrastructure and
consistent performance reporting across financial and non-financial risks
(IFRS).
IN THE US
In 2023, the SEC will require large, accelerated filers – companies with more
than $700 million in the hands of public investors – to start capturing
information on climate disclosures to be filed in 2024. Filers that have
$75-$700 million in public investment will start capturing information in 2024
and file in 2025. Small reporting companies will start capturing information in
2025 to be filed in 2026 (Federal Register, 2022).
IN THE EU
The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive was adopted in October 2022.
Companies “start reporting under the [directive] starting in 2024” (reporting in
2025 on 2024 data). It applies “to all companies listed on the EU regulated
markets except for micro-companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs)
have until 1 January 2026 to comply with the report requirements.” An opt-out
clause could buy some companies time until 2028. The estimated impact is that
“49,000 EU companies will be required to report on sustainability information in
the future, compared with 11,600 companies at present” (EY, 2022).
“For non-European companies, the requirement to provide a sustainability report
applies to all companies generating a net turnover of €150 million in the EU and
which have at least one subsidiary or branch in the EU. These companies must
provide a report on their ESG impacts, namely on environmental, social and
governance impacts, as defined in this directive” (Council of the EU,2022).
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCESSOCIALIZE THE NEW REALITY AND PREPARE TO REPORT
INFORM
Understand the pending regulatory shift and how it will affect your
organization. Educate your executives and board about the risks.
CONDUCT A GAP ANALYSIS
Identify the data gaps that will prevent you from satisfying all stakeholders.
New SEC requirements around ESG reporting requires electronic tagging of
climate-related disclosures to iXBRL. Survey solutions will help fill those
gaps.
PREPARE TO REPORT
Start doing the upfront work required to surface the data needed to report on
your organization’s carbon footprint in a way that will satisfy external
auditors. Shore up your supplier relationships and start the discussion on how
they can help you report scope 3 emissions – those which are created by the
products and services that you consume and that you sell.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
ESG DISCLOSURES: HOW WILL WE RECORD STATUS UPDATES ON THE WORLD WE ARE CREATING?
Read this executive brief to learn about the upcoming environmental, social, and
governance (ESG) reporting mandates, what to do to prepare for them, and what
they mean for IT.
THE ESG IMPERATIVE AND ITS IMPACT ON ORGANIZATIONS
An organization’s approach to ESG cannot be static or tactical. It is a moving
landscape that requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization.
Cross-functional coordination is essential to be ready to respond to changing
conditions.
SOFTWAREREVIEWS: ESG REPORTING CATEGORY
Find and compare vendors that offer solutions to help manage your operational
data, evaluate your impact on the environment, and provide reporting to perform
audits.
ZERO-TRUST SECURITY
THE SHIFT FROM SECURING NETWORK BOUNDARIES TO A FOCUS ON VERIFYING USERS,
ASSETS, AND RESOURCES.
ZERO TRUST MEANS FULL ACCESS AT THE BARE MINIMUM
The number of software supply chain attacks over the past couple of years is on
the rise and the impacts are serious. State-sponsored criminal actors are
seeking to disrupt critical infrastructure by targeting software that is widely
used in the industry. These groups have the sophistication and resources to
identify zero-day vulnerabilities. Attacks of this nature have proven disruptive
to critical infrastructure such as gas pipelines and government services such as
public transit. The exploits are used to deliver ransomware payloads or other
malware.
To defend against the threat vector, the industry is turning to the concept of a
“zero-trust network.” The original concept was formally established by security
researcher John Kindervag in November 2010 when he authored two whitepapers. Its
three core concepts held:
1. There is no longer a distinction between a trusted and untrusted interface
on security devices.
2. There is no longer a trusted and untrusted network.
3. There are no longer trusted and untrusted users. (Infosecurity Magazine,
2019)
In the US, President Joe Biden responded to the rising software supply-chain
attack threat by requiring federal government departments and agencies to adopt
zero-trust architecture as defined by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology. This security model acknowledges that threats exist both inside and
outside traditional network boundaries. It requires continuous verification of
the operational picture using real-time information from multiple sources to
determine access and other system responses.
> “With attacks continually on the rise, a zero-trust security model
> acknowledges that threats exist both inside and outside traditional network
> boundaries. It requires continuous verification from multiple sources to
> determine access and other system responses.”
“In essence, a Zero Trust Architecture allows users full access but only to the
bare minimum they need to perform their jobs” (White House, 2021).
Government and critical infrastructure may be the targets of these campaigns,
but they’re not the only victims. Any organization that uses the affected
software suffers collateral damage. Once an exploit for any widely used piece of
software is available, other financially motivated hackers will use it to target
a wide array of potential victims.
IT professionals are most concerned their organizations will be disrupted by
cybersecurity incidents compared against other potential sources of disruption.
Slightly more than half of respondents said it was likely or very likely that a
cybersecurity incident will disrupt their business in 2023. Disruption from new
government-enacted regulation was the area of next-most concern with 40% saying
it was likely or very likely to disrupt business.
PERCENTAGE OF RESPONDENTS WHO SAID LIKELY TO DISRUPT THEIR ORGANIZATION IN 2023
Cybersecurity incidents 50% Government-enacted policy change 40% Regulatory
changes 34% Established competitor attains better market position 21% New player
enters the market with unique value proposition 18%
SIGNALSZERO TRUST IMPLEMENTATION ON MINIMAL RESOURCES
Despite their high concern with cybersecurity incidents disrupting their
business, IT professionals identify a couple of major challenges that will
prevent them from with dealing with the issue in the year ahead.
SHORTAGE OF TALENT
First of all, organizations may not have the grassroots talent nor the executive
awareness required to deal with cyber threats. According to our survey, 54% are
concerned that talent shortages will lead to capacity constraints in
cybersecurity. Another 46% are concerned that cyber risks are not on the radar
of the executive leadership or board of directors. These two cybersecurity
issues were the top concerns of professionals above all others, ranking just
ahead of supply chain risks related to cyber threats.
IT professionals are more worried about their internal competency issues than
they are with the actual threat itself at the moment. Unfortunately, it doesn’t
look like they’ll receive new resources to change matters.
RATE HOW CONCERNED YOU ARE ABOUT EACH OF THE FOLLOWING CYBERSECURITY ISSUES:
Talent shortages leading to capacity constraints in cybersecurity 54% Cyber
risks are not on the radar of the executive leaders or board of directors 46%
Supply chain risks related to cyber threats 43% New government or
industry-imposed regulations 39% Changes to cyber insurance policy 39%
Organization is not prepared to respond to a cyber attack 38% IT/OT security
convergence 37% Lack of compliance with external frameworks (e.g. NIST, ISO) 34%
BUDGET CONSTRAINTS
The second concern is that many organizations will not have more budget to help
surmount their resourcing issues. While slightly more than half of organizations
(53.5%) indicate they will increase the amount they spend on security next year,
many will be either spending the same amount as in 2022 (41.5%) or decreasing
spending (5.1%).
FOR THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR, HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE YOUR ORGANIZATION’S SPENDING ON
CYBERSECURITY WILL CHANGE COMPARED TO THE PREVIOUS YEAR?
A decrease of more than 10% - 2%
A decrease of between 1-10% - 3%
About the same - 41%
An increase of between 1-10% - 39%
An increase of more than 10% - 14%
DRIVERSCOSTLY RECOVERY FROM CYBER WARFARE’S COLLATERAL DAMAGE
HEIGHTENED GEO-POLITICAL TENSIONS
Modern warfare is more likely to see opponents wield cyber threats than guns or
tanks. When conflict does become a full-fledged assault, cyber attacks preempt
the physical attack to destabilize the enemy first. Before Russia’s tanks rolled
into Ukraine, its cyber attacks compromised Ukrainian critical infrastructure
and disrupted communications networks (Canadian Centre for Cyber Security,
2022).
COST AND CONSEQUENCE OF RECENT BREACHES
Breaches have become more expensive as ransomware payloads are a popular choice
among cyber criminals motivated by profit. Paying a ransom to regain access to
organizational data and systems is a common outcome. After cyber insurance
providers started hiking rates and requiring more security controls be in place
to qualify for their coverage, the cost of insurance against such attacks is
also higher. Successful attacks also cost an organization that suffers downtime
related to an attack. Often days or weeks can pass before an organization is
able to make a complete recovery from a network breach.
COMPLEXITY OF SOFTWARE SUPPLY CHAINS
It’s difficult for organizations to even know exactly what software is deployed
in their environments, and therefore, from which known vulnerabilities they
suffer exposure.
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISK GATHER EXTERNAL RESOURCES, ASSIGN
ACCOUNTABILITY
OPPORTUNITIES
OPEN-SOURCE FRAMEWORKS AND TOOLS ARE FREE TO USE
Developers looking to build modern security approaches into their software don’t
need to spend money or hire a security engineer. Open-source solutions such as
Sigstore and frameworks such as The Update Framework provide solutions to
protect against software supply chain attacks.
MAKE USE OF GOVERNMENT RESOURCES
Federal governments in many different jurisdictions are recognizing that poor
cybersecurity poses a risk to a country’s critical infrastructure and economic
productivity. In response, many offer cybersecurity centers that provide
security alerts, guidance on improving cybersecurity, and tools and services to
help.
MAKE SECURITY A FEATURE
Avoiding data breaches and being proactive on cybersecurity protections can
improve your organization’s reputation. In a time when most consumers have seen
their personal information breached multiple times, promising them a secure
experience is valuable.
RISKS
APPLY AN ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK TO CYBERSECURITY
This is an effective way to assess how cybersecurity is managed by the
organization as a whole. Fundamentals common to these frameworks establish the
capabilities needed to support the organization in managing risk, determining
its appetite for risk, and determining risk severity and priority.
DESIGNATE A CISO
If the organization doesn’t already have a role that is accountable for
cybersecurity and is at a high enough position in the firm to clearly
communicate to the board of directors in an unimpeded manner, it’s time to
create that role (ISACA, 2022).
GET THE BOARD INVOLVED
New regulations being introduced by the SEC require organizations to demonstrate
how their board of directors effectively manages cybersecurity risk. That means
the board must include expertise in cybersecurity or hire expert advisors.
CASE STUDY EDGELESS SYSTEMS SECURES ITS SOFTWARE DELIVERY PIPELINE
SITUATION
Edgeless Systems caters to customers in industries that deal with highly
sensitive data such as financial services and healthcare. Its Constellation
solution allows companies to use public cloud resources in a secure fashion by
using a Kubernetes cluster built on virtual machines to offer confidential
computing – an environment where computing can be done securely without risk of
interception or snooping by a third party.
Aware of the recent risks seen in the software supply chain, Edgeless Systems
wanted to improve the security of its own solution for customers. Existing
approaches to providing this type of assurance involve working with existing
certificate-issuing authorities. But that process requires managing highly
sensitive keys and is cost prohibitive.
Instead, Senior Security Engineer Fabian Kammel suggested using Sigstore, from
The Linux Foundation. Available both as a service and as an open-source
repository, the Sigstore solution combines three components to sign code, verify
signatures, and monitor activity. Meant to provide security for open-source
software, Edgeless Systems deployed it for Constellation’s command line
interface and the measurements of its node images.
ACTION
Using Sigstore meant Constellation didn’t have to invest in key management. All
that’s required is a way to prove you own the email account you’re using to sign
the software. The developer simply logs in and signs their code. “It’s great,
helping the average Joe make software more secure,” Kammel says.
Sigstore brings together three different services in its solution: Fulcio,
Cosign, and Rekor. Fulcio signs the code, Cosign verifies the signatures, and
Rekor monitors the activity using a publicly available and transparent log. The
combination of services creates a safe chain of custody for open-source software
in one seamless package.
In addition, Constellation also implemented The Update Framework (TUF), which is
hosted by The Linux Foundation. It helps developers maintain the security of
their software update systems against attackers who aim to compromise the core
repository or signing keys. TUF adds verifiable records using metadata that can
be used to authenticate update files. It works in the background of a software
update system in an automated fashion.
> “We are selling a security product, so we need to make sure that between when
> we build the product and when it reaches the customer, no one attacks it along
> the way.” Fabian Kammel
> Senior Security Engineer
> Edgeless Systems
RESOLUTION
Edgeless Systems has protected its client base against attacks that alter its
code base between the repository and compilation. It’s further assured them that
the updates they receive will not be altered to be an older version in disguise,
leaving them open to discovered vulnerabilities. It eventually chose to switch
from Fulcio to a key-based certificate management authority, but Sigstore is
flexible enough that it can still use the other two components for signing and
verification.
“Our product aims to remove the cloud provider from the trusted compute base …
therefore we decided having a long-term private key better suits our security
concept,” Kammel says. “I am very happy with Sigstore’s architecture, they
decoupled their features nicely. So, I still get the benefit of using Cosign and
Rekor while bringing my own key.”
From a broader perspective, components like Sigstore and TUF (which was created
a decade ago) are among initiatives improving the security of supply chains. But
the solutions do require integration into software to be effective. Sigstore is
currently in beta and collaborating with major open-source contributors such as
Google, Red Hat, VMware, and Cisco. Microsoft-owned open-source repository
community Github officially adopted Sigstore to verify all JavaScript and
TypeScript npm packages in August.
Despite its sponsorship from large companies, Sigstore makes clear it’s
currently run on a best-effort basis. So, the threat of the service not being
available one year from now may scare away some enterprises. But the way to
mitigate that risk is to simply download the Sigstore open-source code and run
the service yourself.
“Once we get the integration of all these different tools, we can get a very
secure software ecosystem over the next few months or years,” Kammel says.
Whether the integration will be achieved on a widespread basis is the big
question.
WHAT’S NEXT? THE RISE OF CONFIDENTIAL COMPUTING
In Info-Tech’s 2021 Tech Trends report, we featured the self-sovereign cloud
trend. The concept is that organizations will look to maintain the maximum
control over their infrastructure even as they extend out into cloud
environments. One way they will achieve this is with a new type of architecture
that allows data to remain encrypted while being processed. Previously,
end-to-end encryption meant that data was encrypted only while at rest and while
in transit. Now it can be encrypted while in use. The capability is now being
broadly referred to by confidential computing. Using a trusted execution
environment for processing that is software defined, confidential computing will
be a public cloud enabler for many highly sensitive industries such as
healthcare and government.
The Linux Foundation formed the Confidential Computing Consortium in 2022,
attracting membership from major technology providers: Arm, AMD, Cisco, Google,
Huawei, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Red Hat, and VMware, to name a few.
Many new confidential computing solutions are coming to market as well. Edgeless
Systems, featured in this trend report’s case study, is one of them. Hyperscale
cloud vendors are offering their customers confidential computing environments
and a growing list of vendors such as Fortinet, Anjuna Security, Gradient Flow,
and HUB Security are providing solutions. One estimation sees the confidential
computing market growing as fast as 90% per year to a value of $54 billion by
2026 (Everest Group via VentureBeat, 2022).
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCES PUT HIGH EFFORT INTO ZERO-TRUST SECURITY
ASSESS
Determine your organization’s zero-trust readiness and clarify the benefits of
zero trust for the organization. Not everyone can achieve absolute zero-trust
environments, but everyone can adopt its methods.
DEPLOY
Create a roadmap with prioritized initiatives that will improve your zero-trust
architecture. Deploy zero trust to the most relevant protect surfaces first.
MONITOR
Identify the progress metrics that will illustrate your evolution from a
perimeter-based defense to a zero-trust model. Reports on progress should be
made directly to the board of directors or top executive decision makers.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
DETERMINE YOUR ZERO TRUST READINESS
Assess your current state and determine the benefits of adopting zero trust to
help plan your roadmap.
BUILD A ZERO TRUST ROADMAP
Move from a perimeter-based approach to security toward an “Always Verify”
approach by creating a zero-trust strategy and the roadmap to deploy it.
ASSESS AND GOVERN IDENTITY SECURITY
Learn how to assign identity security roles and responsibilities, inventory your
identity types and repositories, assess your identity security threats and
mitigations, and build an identity security architecture.
RECESSION PREPARATION
BE PROACTIVE ABOUT AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN BY ALIGNING IT SPENDING WITH BUSINESS
PRIORITIES.
DOES A RECESSION ALWAYS REQUIRE A CONCESSION?
In addition to all the new technologies that could yield innovation and all the
risks that IT must work to mitigate, a financial risk to the IT budget looms for
2023. An economic downturn threatens to diminish IT’s resources. That diminishes
the degree to which IT can pursue growth opportunities and can offer protection
from regulatory burdens and bad actors.
> “An economic downturn threatens to diminish IT’s resources. That diminishes
> the degree to which IT can pursue growth opportunities and can offer
> protection from regulatory burdens and bad actors.”
A majority of economists are predicting that a recession will take hold in many
regions in 2023 or sooner. The root of the problem is that demand for certain
products and services is higher than can be supplied. This is putting
inflationary pressure on prices, particularly energy prices. Central banks
around the world responded during 2022 by hiking primary interest rates, but the
pace of inflation hasn’t slowed as much as they hoped. Rates are likely to go
higher yet in 2023, making capital more expensive. At the same time, GDP is
slowing or declining worldwide.
Despite the negative signals, most IT professionals expect their budgets will
increase in 2023. Fifty-five percent of respondents anticipate a bigger budget
next year, with 28% expecting an increase between 6% to 15%, and another 8%
expecting an increase between 16% to 30%.
IT professionals in the US are more optimistic than their international
counterparts. Seven out of ten expected a budget increase in 2023, compared to
55% for the global average.
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2023, HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE YOUR IT SPENDING WILL CHANGE
COMPARED TO SPENDING IN 2022?
Decrease of more than 30% 2% Decrease between 16-30% 3% Decrease between 6-15%
5% Decrease between 1-5% 5% No change 19% Increase between 1-5% 27% Increase
between 6-15% 28% Increase between 16-30% 8%
SIGNALSNEW TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT PLANS REMAIN STRONG
During the short recession that followed the onset of the pandemic in 2020, many
firms were spending on IT budgets out of necessity. Non-essential workers
couldn’t gather in the office and needed the capability to work from home.
Businesses that still relied on in-person customer interactions were motivated
to open up digital touchpoints instead. It appears that experience is
influencing IT professionals to expect continued investment during the next
recession as well.
Out of 621 respondents, only six indicated they were not planning to invest in
any new technologies by the end of 2023. Areas that are most popular to invest
in for 2023 include cloud computing (58%), AI or machine learning (44%), data
lake / lakehouse (41%), application programming interfaces (APIs) (41%), and
next-gen cybersecurity (39%).
IT departments are still planning to invest in the technologies to pursue their
digital transformations and protect their organizations’ new digital
infrastructure.
Cloud Computing 58% Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning 44% Data
Lake / Lakehouse 41% Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) 41% Next-Gen
Cybersecurity 39% No-Code/Low-Code Platforms 31% Workforce Management Solutions
29% Internet of Things (IoT) 28% Robotics 18% Edge Computing 16% ESG Metrics
Reporting 15% 5G 15% Data Mesh / Data Fabric 14% Mixed Reality (Augmented or
Virtual Reality) 12% Biometrics 11% Blockchain 10% Quantum Computing 5%
DRIVERSINFLATING PRICES, SHRINKING WORKFORCE
Signals: Indicators that a recession may occur
INFLATION
Many governments responded to the pandemic’s disruption to the economy with a
new money supply. This drove more demand for goods. Meanwhile, China’s
zero-COVID policy hampered manufacturing in the region, limiting the supply side
of many goods. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused commodity prices to soar,
causing costs to balloon even more.
WAGE GROWTH
The pandemic created an employee’s market as employers found it hard to hire the
talent they wanted and keep them engaged. Productivity did not keep up with the
upward trend and this further contributed to inflation as companies’ overhead
costs increased.
AGING POPULATIONS
The post–World War II population boom period is now expressed as a large
demographic bulge of senior citizens. Workers must support a larger proportion
of retirees, who also require more healthcare attention. Older people also tend
to save more as they prepare for retirement, translating to less money fueling
growth. (The Economist, Oct. 2022)
Counter Signals: Indicators that a recession may not occur
HIGH EMPLOYMENT
The share of working-age people who are currently working is at an all-time high
in many developed countries.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE
Consumers feel good about their personal finances and are confident about paying
off debts. They are still spending.
COMMODITIES RETREAT
The price of oil peaked in mid-2022 and then slowly retreated. If it continues
downwards in 2023, there will be less inflationary pressure. (The Economist,
July 2022)
ATTACK OPPORTUNITY – PROTECT FROM RISKIDENTIFY CHAMPIONS, NEGOTIATE WITH VENDORS
OPPORTUNITIES
DEMONSTRATE HOW IT PROJECTS IMPROVE EFFICIENCY
If a recession affects your company’s fiscal outlook and budgets are being
trimmed, an IT leader can justify their spending by demonstrating that it will
yield a high return on investment. Enabling workers to do their jobs faster or
better with less resource commitment will be desirable at a time of
belt-tightening.
FIND CHAMPIONS FOR IT INVESTMENT
A well-aligned IT department should be supporting business development
initiatives. To highlight the value of IT spending, recruit an executive that
leads another line of business to acknowledge that IT’s support is crucial to
their success.
RETIRE HIGHLY CUSTOMIZED LEGACY ENVIRONMENTS
Investing in new IT initiatives is possible even when the overall budget is
reduced. CIOs must find ways to remove wasteful spending on maintenance of
non-standard processes and customized environments that consume resources. Doing
this can sometimes be difficult because the business is hesitant to change. Use
any budget tightening measures as a directive to take action despite those
fears.
RISKS
KNOW YOUR ORGANIZATION’S POSITION IN THE BUSINESS CYCLE
Whether it’s preparing for an economic downturn or participating in an industry
sector expansion, understanding where your business stands in the cycle will
help you determine your IT budget posture. The longer you have to plan, the more
strategic you can be. The less time you have, the more reactive you must be.
FORGE STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS WITH VENDORS
Avoid creating too many transactional relationships with vendors at low spend if
possible. Instead, spend more with one vendor that can deliver many different
capabilities to your organization. This will give you opportunities to negotiate
better prices and earn the vendor’s ear on what product features to add next to
meet your needs.
CONTROL ASSET COSTS
Avoid rising costs of software maintenance by rationalizing your applications
and ditching the tools you don’t need. Put off upgrades and hardware refreshes
that won’t provide a differentiating advantage. Review contracts with service
providers and determine which should be renegotiated, canceled, or suspended.
CASE STUDYCOMING TO GRIPS WITH BUDGET CUTS
SITUATION
Gary Davenport is a board member of the Information and Communications
Technology Council in Canada and a former National President of the CIO
Association of Canada. With two decades of experience as a CIO in the private
sector, Davenport has seen his share of budget fluctuations during recessions or
otherwise.
On his first day as CIO of a telecom firm, Davenport attended a meeting with the
company’s leadership and learned that a 20% cut was necessary across all
departments – including IT. He was so new to the role that he hadn’t even
reviewed the IT budget yet.
> “As soon as you successfully achieve the level of required improvements for
> the current recession cycle, it will be time to start planning for the next
> one.” Gary Davenport
> Director at Large
> CIO Association of Canada
Davenport fell back on his framework for financial management, which focuses on
five areas:
* Managing the demand of IT services
* Managing the supply side
* Using new technology to replace costly legacy technology
* Managing internal productivity: seeking to improve internal skill level and
to do more with less
* Streamlining operations: optimizing organizational structures and controls
“Strategy drives structure, not the other way around,” he says.
He also made use of his IT leadership team, calling a meeting to tap into their
familiarity with the organization. Davenport understood IT wouldn’t be treated
differently from other departments in the organization and didn’t waste any time
arguing against the cuts.
ACTION
Davenport assembled his IT leadership team and some extended staff members for a
brainstorming session. He was up front about the request from management and by
the end of the session he had enough good ideas to put together a plan. He went
back to management the next day with his approach while other departments
remained in denial.
“Productivity versus reactivity was my learning,” he says. “That’s what CIOs
should be doing, get in front of the inevitable changes in funding that you come
across.”
The plan to cut 20% of the IT budget didn’t remove resources from Davenport’s
team. Instead it removed budget from the supplier side. The team rationalized
its software tools, ending licenses of tools that no longer served a useful
purpose. They changed how their third-party hosting services were billed to
attenuate fees paid for peak demand capabilities.
On the organization side, the structure was streamlined as Davenport flattened
the management structure. He reduced the number of people reporting him from
nine to five. He points out that lower value positions aren’t always more junior
positions. Organizations tend to continuously add new jobs and positions without
taking away, so an opportunity to revise structure can reduce redundancies.
Davenport says that despite the overall budget cut, he was able to invest into
certain areas of IT. He increased resources on the IT business operations side,
hiring more resources to the PMO and financial controls side. To find the funds,
he diverted the savings that came from supporting the legacy environment as it
was retired.
RESOLUTION
Looking at the economic forecast for 2023 and seeing that most IT decision
makers expect a budget increase, Davenport sees two possible explanations.
Either businesses are so dependent on their digital transformation investments
that they are reluctant to reduce IT spending despite a recession, or IT leaders
are overly confident and out of touch with the business realities.
“It surprises me they are so optimistic. I don’t think it will play out that way
in the end,” he says. “It will be somewhere in the middle.”
Most wouldn’t have predicted a dramatic increase in IT spending during the
beginning of the pandemic, but companies were forced to address the need for
employees to work remotely. The “work from home” vision of the future that had
been long discussed finally became a reality through necessity.
“That crisis turned into a great opportunity,” Davenport says. “So you have to
find new and better ways to do business.”
A recession demands a sharpened focus on clear business benefits from IT
projects. IT leaders can use that to raise the bar on requirements for what
projects requested by the business will be prioritized.
Most importantly, Davenport advises not to wait for the recession to arrive but
instead to take a proactive approach. The depth and the length of the recession
can significantly impact the pain felt by IT departments that are ill-prepared,
especially in private sector.
“This is where the most important attribute for CIOs comes through, resiliency,
and the ability to push forward your digital transformation objectives and all
the benefits for the business while still managing the money,” he says.
If IT leaders don’t consider money management a strength, be sure to hire people
that can provide support. A CIO can provide strategic direction and rely on a
direct report to manage the budget.
WHAT’S NEXT?SEEKING NEW TOOLS TO GUIDE THE ECONOMY
The US Federal Reserve holds its next strategy review in 2024. It will review a
period of slow growth during very low prime interest rates in the 2010s,
followed by specific crises that disrupted the economy in the pandemic and a
ground war in Europe. In this scenario, it may be tempting to raise the
inflation target from 2% to 4%. This could help avoid a painful recession and
create more room to stimulate the economy with reduced rates (The Economist,
Oct. 2022).
In last year’s Tech Trends report, we noted the rise of central bank digital
currencies around the world, with some banks already deploying the modern money
to their economies, others doing proofs of concept, and most still in research
mode. A recession could motivate central banks to fast-track plans for digital
money. It could provide more tools more finely attuned to treat a recession,
such as issuing different categories of money to targeted populations and
attaching rules for how and when the money should be spent.
RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCESPREPARE FOR PAIN AND FIND A PENNY PINCHER
GET TOUGH ON SUPPLIERS
Instead of reducing internal resources, find opportunities to cut spending with
vendors where possible. Look to reduce software licenses, renegotiate contracts,
and focus on strategic partnerships with third parties over transactional
relationships.
DON’T BE OVERLY OPTIMISTIC
IT leaders may expect bigger budgets will continue based on their experience
with the pandemic-induced recession, but this economic downturn is driven by
different factors. Don’t assume immunity from cuts made to other departments.
PUT A STRONG FINANCIAL MANAGER IN PLACE
If CIOs are not masters of balancing the budget and scrutinizing the resources
awarded to each new project, they should hire an operational leader who can
oversee the finances and hold accountability for the PMO.
INFO-TECH RESOURCES
OPTIMIZE IT PROJECT INTAKE, APPROVAL, AND PRIORITIZATION
Approve only the right projects that you have capacity to deliver. Failure to
align projects with strategic goals and resource capacity are the most common
causes of portfolio waste across organizations.
REIMAGINE IT OPERATIONS FOR A CLOUD-FIRST WORLD
Well-implemented cloud infrastructure reduces tedious, repetitive tasks, and
gives operations teams time to take a greater role in planning, management, and
governance.
ESTABLISH AN EFFECTIVE PMO FOR IT
Implementing a PMO can help to ensure that resources are being used effectively,
projects are completed successfully, standardized processes are being followed,
and accurate information is being used for decision making.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
METHODOLOGY
Info-Tech’s Tech Trends and Priorities 2023 survey collected responses from Aug.
9 to Sept. 9, 2022. The online survey received 813 total responses, with 521
completing every question and 292 partially completing the survey. More than 90%
of respondents worked in IT departments.
Note that in the tables below totals do not equal 100% in cases where multiple
selections were allowed per question or due to rounding.
DEVELOPING THE TRENDS
Info-Tech conducts brainstorming exercises with its industry experts and former
CIOs to determine the implications of megatrends for technology decision makers.
The Tech Trends and Priorities Survey is developed based on the lines of inquiry
suggested by those implications. Analysts with functional area expertise design
hypotheses that are tested in the survey results. The trends featured in this
report are based on those results.
Info-Tech’s Priorities reports also leverage this research, which determines the
external pressures that different functional roles must respond to with urgency.
FIRMOGRAPHICS
SIZE OF ORGANIZATION
(1) 0-100 17.47%
(2) 101-250 12.30%
(3) 251-500 12.18%
(4) 501-1,000 12.05%
(5) More than 1,000 46.00%
SENIORITY
(1) Manager 24.11%
(2) Director-level 22.63%
(3) C-level officer 17.22%
(4) VP-level 9.10%
(5) Team lead / supervisor 8.00%
(6) Team member 7.01%
(7) Owner / President / CEO 5.54%
(8) Consultant 5.17%
(9) Contractor 1.23%
REGION
(1) United States 43.9%
(2) Canada 12.3%
(3) Africa 11.1%
(4) Other (Europe) 8.1%
(5) Australia 6.6%
(6) Great Britain 6.5%
(7) Latin America, South America, or Caribbean 2.8%
(8) New Zealand 2.7%
(9) Middle East 2.5%
(10) Germany 2.2%
(11) Other (Asia) 2.0%
(12) India 1.6%
(13) Netherlands 1.1%
(14) Japan 1.1%
(15) Mexico 1.0%
(16) China 0.4%
INDUSTRY
(1) Government 15.62%
(2) Professional Services 14.51%
(3) Media, Information, Telecom & Technology 12.92%
(4) Manufacturing 11.56%
(5) Financial Services (including banking & insurance) 11.32%
(6) Healthcare & Life Sciences 10.70%
(7) Education 9.47%
(8) Other (Please specify) 7.87%
(9) Not for Profit (including professional associations) 5.78%
(10) Retail & Wholesale 4.43%
(11) Utilities 3.57%
(12) Construction 3.32%
(13) Transportation & Warehousing 3.32%
(14) Gaming & Hospitality 2.09%
(15) Arts & Entertainment (including sports) 0.49%
EXPERT CONTRIBUTORS
RITESH KOTAK
JURIS DOCTOR GRADUATE
UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA
Ritesh Kotak is a digital/cyber strategist, tech entrepreneur, and small
business evangelist. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The
Economist, and several other publications. He frequently appears in mainstream
media as a subject matter expert on tech and cyber-related stories.
VICTORIA GREGORIO
DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR DISCOVERY, INNOVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
CHILDREN’S SPECIALIZED HOSPITAL
Victoria P. Gregorio is the chief operations officer at Predictive Health
Solutions and the director of the Center for Discovery, Innovation, and
Development at Children’s Specialized Hospital in Milburn, New Jersey. Victoria
is a passionate healthcare leader fostering growth through positive disruption.
Victoria holds a PhD in public policy analysis from Rutgers University and has
more than 13 years of experience working on innovation within social service
organizations.
DENISE WALLACE
DIRECTOR, TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT, LOGISTICS AND CLIENT SERVICES
WALMART CANADA
Denise Wallace has been leading technology strategic initiatives and
transformational programs for over 15 years. She led an IT spin-off of Resideo
Technologies from Honeywell International that was completed within 18 months.
She also led various IT enterprise roles at Honeywell where she was recognized
for her leadership in operations and service delivery. Denise holds a bachelor’s
degree in engineering from the University of Waterloo.
EDEL JOYCE
PRODUCT MANAGER, WEBEX HOLOGRAM
CISCO
Edel Joyce is a product manager at Cisco with over 15 years of industry
experience. In her career journey so far, she’s held pivotal management roles in
the telecommunications technology sector across engineering design & operations,
customer experience, strategy, financial planning, and cost optimization.
ROB SHERIDAN
CO-FOUNDER AND CCO
GLITCH GOODS
Rob Sheridan is the co-founder (along with his wife Stephanie Sheridan) and CCO
of Glitch Goods, a fashion lifestyle brand featuring his original glitch art and
designs. He is also an art director, writer, designer, illustrator,
photographer, director, and editor, amongst other things.
JIM RICHARDS
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS SYSTEMS
ALBEMARLE CORP.
Jim Richards works as a vice president, enterprise business systems, at
Albemarle. With three decades of experience in the technology sector, Jim is a
proven leader of enterprise software delivery teams. Jim holds a master’s degree
from Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.
GARY DAVENPORT
FORMER NATIONAL PRESIDENT
CIO ASSOCIATION OF CANADA
Gary Davenport is an independent management consultant providing CIO mentoring
and strategy development services for a variety of clients across Canada. He was
also notably past-president of the CIO Association of Canada (CIOCAN), which is
a not-for profit and vendor-independent organization representing over 400 CIOs
from across Canada.
FABIAN KAMMEL
SENIOR SECURITY ENGINEER
EDGELESS SYSTEMS
Fabian Kammel is an experienced senior security engineer and architect with a
history of working in enterprise cloud and automotive security. He is skilled in
Google and Amazon public cloud, DevOps, and automation, as well as Go,
Terraform, and Ansible.
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CONTRIBUTORS
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* Edel Joyce, Product Manager, Webex Hologram, Cisco
* Rob Sheridan, Art Director, Co-Founder Glitch Goods
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* Jim Richards, VP Business Systems, Albemarle Corp.
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