Crypto and Blockchain Fundamentals

I believe blockchain will do for trusted transactions what the Internet has done for information. - Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM Since the 1990s, we have had an Internet of Information that allows us to seamlessly share information such as documents, images, emails, and videos over the Internet. While most Internet users do not need to understand the details of the technical protocols operating underneath user-friendly software interfaces, it is helplful to understand how they work at a high-level. With the Internet of Information, copies of information are routed over the Internet. If a sender emails a friend, the sender keeps the original email, and the friend receives a copy of the email. To transact value, i.e., money, over the Internet, one cannot send a copy. Instead, after the transfer of value is complete, the sender should no longer have the money, but rather the recipient should

Businesses will increasingly use robots to deal with theexplosion of data

The term “Robotic Process Automation” (RPA) connotes visions of physical robots wandering around offices doing the job of humans. However, the term really means automation of service tasks. Let’s think of business processes such as transferring data from multiple input sources such as email and spreadsheets to systems of record like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Here the term RPA most commonly refers to configuring software to do the job

A new approach to automating services

Companies are achieving productivity gains by using software robots to perform routine, rules-based service processes. If implemented well, such automation can result in high-performing human-robot teams, in which software robots and human employees complement one another

The Outsourcing Unit Working Research Paper Series Paper 14/1 – Cloud Services: The Great Equalizer for

Acknowledgements: We thank and acknowledge our research sponsor, Accenture. In particular, we are grateful to Miguel Gabriel Custodio, IT Strategy Australia/Cloud Strategy- APAC, for his support. We also thank the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals for their support in administering a survey, and Ken Saloway and Frank Casale for connecting us with SME cloud adopters

Creating Global Shared Services: Lessons from Reuters

Creating shared services requires a coordinated integration of four change programs: business process redesign (BPR), organizational redesign, sourcing redesign, and technology enablement. If managed properly, shared services reduce costs, improve services, and can even generate revenues. However, surveys show that many executives fail to achieve the promised results. In this article, we present the lessons Reuters learned during a five-year journey to create global shared services within its finance organization. The lessons highlight how to: (1) Adopt the right transformation approach; (2) Identify processes for shared services by analyzing the costs, attributes, and readiness of process activities; and (3) Get business unit clients and internal staff to cooperate and embrace the shared services initiative

Cloud Services Practices for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Our research shows that SMEs are getting great economic and business value from cloud services, including cost avoidance, cost savings, rapid deployment, scalability, management simplicity, and better security and resiliency compared to in-house IT provision. Based on four cases, we identify the challenges SMEs face as they adopt cloud services and the practices they use to overcome the challenges.Click here for free 2-page executive summary (pdf)Click here for free presentation slides (pptx