# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It's also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure. What is digital transformation?

Why does digital transformation matter?[ Want to create a more agile IT organization? Learn how and get the digital transformation Ebook: Teaching an elephant to dance. ]

What does a digital transformation framework look like?

What role does culture play in digital transformation?

What drives digital transformation?

How can I get started on digital transformation?

Where can I learn more?
Digital transformation is imperative for all businesses, from the small to the enterprise. That message comes through loud and clear from seemingly every keynote, panel discussion, article, or study related to how businesses can remain competitive and relevant as the world becomes increasingly digital. What's not clear to many business leaders is what digital transformation means. Is it just a catchy way to say moving to the cloud? What are the specific steps we need to take? Do we need to design new jobs to help us create a framework for digital transformation, or hire a consulting service? What parts of our business strategy need to change? Is it really worth it?
MIT Sloan: The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation
This article aims to answer some of the common questions around digital transformation and provide clarity, specifically to CIOs and IT leaders, including many quotes from digital transformation experts. Because technology plays a critical role in a businesses' ability to evolve with the market and continually increase value to customers, CIOs must lead their organizations through digital transformation [ Click to Tweet].

Because digital transformation will look different for every company, it can be hard to pinpoint a definition that applies to all. However, in general terms, we define digital transformation as the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business resulting in fundamental changes to how businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers. Beyond that, it's a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment often, and get comfortable with failure. This sometimes means walking away from long-standing business processes that companies were built upon in favor of relatively new practices that are still being defined. [ Click to Tweet]

With a plethora of articles and various definitions of digital transformation, it's easy to see why there is some confusion around the topic. For instance, author Greg Verdino focuses on what businesses that undergo digital transformation may expect to achieve. He says, "Digital transformation closes the gap between what digital customers already expect and what analog businesses actually deliver."

A definition from The Agile Elephant emphasizes all the ways businesses may need to adjust their existing practices: "[Digital transformation] involves a change in leadership, different thinking, the encouragement of innovation and new business models, incorporating digitisation of assets and an increased use of technology to improve the experience of your organisation's employees, customers, suppliers, partners and stakeholders."

And the Wikipedia definition, while vague, touches on how the effects of digital transformation extends beyond businesses to society as a whole. "Digital transformation is the changes associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society," it states.

There are a number of reasons that a business may undergo digital transformation, but by far, the most likely reason is that they have to. It's a survival issue for many. [ Click to Tweet]

Howard King, in a contributed article for The Guardian, puts it this way: "Businesses don't transform by choice because it is expensive and risky. Businesses go through transformation when they have failed to evolve."

John Marcante, CIO of Vanguard, points this out, as well: "Just look at the S&P 500. In 1958, U.S. corporations remained on that index for an average of 61 years, according to the American Enterprise Foundation. By 2011, it was 18 years. Today, companies are being replaced on the S&P approximately every two weeks. Technology has driven this shift, and companies that want to succeed must understand how to merge technology with strategy."

Enterprise leaders have largely gotten the message. The IDC research "FutureScape: Worldwide Digital Transformation 2018 Predictions" reported, "By the end of 2019, digital transformation (DX) spending will reach $1.7 trillion worldwide, a 42 percent increase from 2017."

However, it won't be easy. IDC's predictions for CIOs in 2018 echo that, stating: "Through 2019, dragged down by conflicting digital transformation imperatives, ineffective technology innovation, cloud infrastructure transition, and underfunded end-of-life core systems, 75 percent of CIOs and their enterprises will fail to meet all their digital objectives."

CIOs worried about their company's - and their own - survival should focus on securing company-wide support and collaboration to get digital transformation right from the start. They may only get one shot.

But even if business leaders don't believe they have to transform, there are many reasons why they should consider it anyway.

1. Their competitors are doing it. According to a Forrester Research report, executives predict that nearly half of their revenue will be driven by digital by the year 2020.

2. It will make them more profitable. In a recent Gartner survey, "56 percent said that their digital improvements have already improved profits."

3. It will make them more efficient. Research shows, "Nine out of 10 IT decision-makers claim legacy systems are preventing them from harnessing the digital technologies they need to grow and become more efficient."

4. Their customers will thank them. Whether external customers, or internal employees, people have already largely adopted digital practices in all facets of their lives, from shopping online via their mobile devices to adjusting their home thermostat remotely. They are waiting for businesses to catch up.

Although digital transformation will vary widely based on organizations' specific challenges and demands, there are a few constants and common themes among existing case studies and published frameworks that all business and technology leaders should consider as they embark on digital transformation.

For instance, these digital transformation elements are often cited:

Customer experience

Operational agility

Culture and leadership

Workforce enablement

Digital technology integration

While each guide has its own recommendations and varying steps or considerations, CIOs should look for those important shared themes when developing their own digital transformation strategy.

A few examples of digital transformation frameworks include:

Cognizant: A Framework for Digital Business Transformation

Altimeter: Six Stages of Digital Transformation

Ionology: A Step-By-Step Guide to Digital Transformation

In recent years there has been a fundamental shift happening in the role of IT. CEOs increasingly want their CIOs to help generate revenue for their organizations. Almost two thirds(64 percent) of the respondents to the 2017 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey of more than 4,600 CIOs say their CEO wants the IT organization to focus on how to make money rather than save money.

No longer are companies building software or running IT for cost savings and operations, but rather IT has become the primary driver of business innovation. Embracing this shift requires everyone in the company to rethink the role and impact of IT in their day-to-day experience.
Want more wisdom like this, IT leaders? Sign up for our weekly email newsletter.
Bryson Koehler, CTO, IBM Watson & IBM Cloud - GM & Distinguished Engineer at IBM, says, "There is a very different mindset at work when you take IT out of an operating mode of, 'Let's run a bunch of packaged solutions that we've bought and stood up' to 'Let's build and create new capabilities that didn't exist before.' If you look at the vast majority of startups, they're not starting with giant, shrink-wrapped software packages as the base of their company. If you're trying to create innovation inside of a large enterprise then you shouldn't start with that either. You're not here to run the mainframe anymore. You're not here to run the servers. You're not here to run the data center, or the network, or operations. That is table stakes. That's what you can outsource."

Although IT will play an important role in driving digital transformation strategy, the work of implementing and adapting to the massive changes that go along with digital transformation falls to everyone. For this reason, digital transformation is a people issue.

"Finding ways to help people across this digital divide and the culture shock that rapid change brings is going to be just as important as the technology we use to get there," Marc Carrel-Billiard, global tech R&D Lead on digital transformation at Accenture, is quoted as saying in an article for TechCrunch.

Dr. David Bray, former CIO of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission, perfectly captures how this cultural shift sets the stage for transformation. "Throughout human history, the things that we could do with tools changed what we could do as humans, and as a result, changed what we could do as cultures," Bray says. "Our species is 'smart' because we know how to use tools collaboratively together. At the end of the day, when we talk about technology change - whether it's the Internet of Everything, big data, or machine learning - it's really about people and organizational cultures, first and foremost. Then, it's about how those people get stuff done together - and that's really what it comes down to when you talk about transforming organizational cultures."

An important element of digital transformation is, of course, technology. But often, it's more about shedding outdated processes and legacy technology than it is about adopting new tech. The Federal IT Dashboard shows that in fiscal year 2017, over 70 percent of IT spend government-wide went toward operating and maintaining legacy systems.

In the healthcare industry, despite widespread use of smartphones and other mobile devices among healthcare providers, "close to 80 percent (79.8 percent) of clinicians continue to use hospital-provided pagers and 49 percent of those clinicians report they receive patient care-related messages most commonly by pager."

Examples like these span all industries, and the prevalence of legacy technology hinders CIOs' ability to successfully embark on a digital transformation strategy. Research from Forrester suggests, on average, CIOs spend an average of 72 percent of their budgets on existing IT concerns, while only 28 percent goes to new projects and innovation.

If businesses want to evolve with the rapid pace of digital change today, they must work to increase efficiency with technology wherever possible. For many, that means adopting agile principles across the business. Automation technologies also help many IT organizations gain speed and reduce technical debt.

Former FCC CIO Bray recently conducted a major overhaul of the agency's 207 legacy systems, including two 11-year-old servers that weighed one ton each. The effort reduced ongoing maintenance costs from more than 85 percent of the agency's budget to less than 50 percent. Now, moving forward, agility is a No.1 priority for Bray.

"Things today aren't changing linearly; they're changing exponentially. It's not good enough that you were fast last year. If you're not faster this year, you're going to fall increasingly behind. Agility trumps everything else," Bray says. "Personally, I don't commit to any organizational effort that takes longer than six months because the world will change in that period of time dramatically. You need to have stopgaps along the way so that you can reevaluate and pivot if you need to, along that six-month effort. One should have a long-term plan that exceeds six months, yet commit to deliverables in six months or less along the way."

If all of this makes you feel woefully behind, fear not. One of the biggest misconceptions CIOs have about digital transformation is that all of their competitors are much further ahead of the game than they are. That's because "there's much admiration of (and popular press around) the fastest transformers, but little critique of how hard transformation is or how long it may take for a typical Global 2,000 company," says Tim Yeaton, CMO of Red Hat.

As businesses formulate their own digital transformation strategy, there is much to be learned from CIOs and IT leaders who have already begun their journeys. Below is a collection of stories and digital transformation case studies you can explore further.

10 digital transformation must-reads

Matson CIO: The most painful, gut-wrenching part of leading transformation

How hybrid cloud aids digital transformation

SunTrust CIO's formula for speed relies on cloud, DevOps

Budgeting smarts for digital transformation: 4 tips

Digital transformation is a massive undertaking, especially for larger, established companies. When done right, it will produce a business that is more aligned with customer demands and resilient in the fast-moving digital future.

For more insights on digital transformation, see these resources:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital transformation is the integration of digital technology into all areas of a business, fundamentally changing how you operate and deliver value to customers. It's also a cultural change that requires organizations to continually challenge the status quo, experiment, and get comfortable with failure.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Digital transformation involves using digital technologies to remake a process to become more efficient or effective. The idea is to use technology not just to replicate an existing service in a digital form, but to use technology to transform that service into something significantly better.

Digital transformation can involve many different technologies but the hottest topics right now are cloud computing, the Internet of Things, big data, and artificial intelligence.

However, it's not just about the technology: changing business processes and corporate culture are just as vital to the success of these initiatives. Digital transformation projects are often a way for large and established organisations to compete with nimbler, digital-only rivals. These projects tend to be large in scope and ambition, but are not without risks.

While digital transformation is one of the most commonly used phrases in the IT industry, definitions vary. What everyone can agree on is that, beneath the hype, the fluff and the confusion, digital transformation involves some pretty important changes to business culture.
What is included in a digital transformation project?
Digitalisation is not, as is commonly suggested, simply the implementation of more technology systems and services. A genuine digital transformation project involves fundamentally rethinking business models and processes, rather than tinkering with or enhancing traditional methods.

This creative requirement remains a tough ask for business leaders. Most organisations do not have a major problem generating new ideas, but many firms fail when it comes to implementing fresh business models or turning good ideas into organisational objectives, according to research from Cass Business School.

This gap between innovation and execution helps explain why digitalisation and disruption have traditionally been seen as the preserve of nimble start-ups. But it doesn't have to be this way - there are great examples of digital transformation in the enterprise sector, too.
What does digital transformation look like?
The transition of legacy systems to cloud platforms is an oft-cited example of digital transformation. By moving older systems to the cloud, it becomes easier for organisations to update and change applications in response to new user demands. In this case, digital transformation is helping to support nimble and flexible IT operations - it is, in short, making an existing process much more efficient and effective.

Using technology to change or remove an inefficient working process is another good example of digital transformation. Think, for example, of the digitisation of paper records. By using technology to transform how an organisation records its information, it becomes possible to search digital records and run reports in a way that would have been unthinkable or at least unmanageable in an era of paper records.

While digital transformation often involves using cloud-based platforms and services, it can also involve the adoption of emerging technologies. Think of a retailer allowing customers to use virtual reality glasses to visualise its furniture from the comfort of their home. In this case, digitisation transforms the traditional physical retail interaction into a virtual relationship, where customers can try and then buy products at a distance.
How important is digital transformation?
For those who weren't convinced about the positive benefits of digital transformation, the power of digitisation won over many doubters during the coronavirus pandemic.

When lockdown and social distancing started, it was digital transformation - and the IT departments that carried out the work - that helped businesses carry on functioning as normally as possible in the most challenging of conditions. CIOs and their IT teams had to spin-up technology solutions to the challenges that their businesses faced overnight.

Digital transformation strategies were fast-forwarded at breakneck speed. Executive teams, that might once have hesitated over the implementation of a multi-year investment in video-conferencing and collaborative technologies, tasked their IT departments with establishing remote-working strategies in days or even hours.

CIOs and their teams stepped up and delivered - from the support of home working to the provision of online learning and onto the establishment of new online e-commerce channels and even the creation of whole new business models:

The general consensus from experts around the tech industry is that the rapid digital transformation pushed by CIOs and their teams has helped to change the perception of IT for good. Rather than being seen primarily as a service to other functions, such as sales and finance, technology is now recognised as critical factor for long-term business success.
What are the criticisms of digital transformation?
However, recent success doesn't mean every cynic has been won over. While most experts can agree that digitisation involves using technology to make a process more efficient or effective, just about every project that involves using technology gets badged as a digital transformation initiative.

Digital transformation has become the go-to marketing phrase for almost any adoption of new technology. In fact, the phrase is applied so broadly that it is in danger of becoming meaningless. Such is its ubiquity that it's no surprise when an attention-craving organisation badges its creation of a new app or even something as mundane as a laptop refresh programme as a 'digital transformation initiative'.
SEE: Digital transformation: Five ways to help your business boost customer experience
Tech workers also express cynicism about grand talk of digital. No technology employee spends their working day digitally transforming, rather than coding, programming, and developing. For their part, CIOs will tell you the implementation of technology is simply the conduit to help the business meet its objectives, whether that's selling more widgets, making more money and raising customer satisfaction levels.

To critics, digital transformation simply offers tech vendors another opportunity to rebrand their offerings: it's not uncommon to see systems and services being sold as a golden bullet for digital transformation. Such hype is just more fuel for detractors who feel that digital transformation is simply a solution searching for a problem.
What else could we call digital transformation?
None of this criticism should come as a shock. Even back in 2017, analyst Gartner warned that over-selling meant digital transformation was fast-approaching the trough of disillusionment. Four years later and critics would say we're now at the bottom of that trough.

One way to help silence the critics would be to find another name for digital transformation. If we stop using the term blindly, and instead focus on what we're trying to achieve with technology, then we might find a more useful moniker.

That's something that resonates with the CIO community: almost every IT chief will tell you that their organisation is running business transformation, not technology transformation, projects. Other industry commentators suggest culling the phrase digital transformation and creating a slightly modified alternative, such as 'digital landscape', 'underlying digital environment' or 'data-led plumbing'.

The big problem with all these alternative names is that they mean even less than digital transformation. For all its inherent faults, we now all have a perception of what digital transformation means, even if it's just relying a lot more on the cloud and pushing technology into areas that were previously dominated by manual means.

Yes, the concept of digital transformation has its flaws, but - in some ways - the IT industry should just be pleased that the business has begun to recognise the great work that the technology team is undertaking, regardless of what it's called.

Remember that the rest of the business tends to have a problem with big IT concepts. Take the example of the phrase 'cloud computing', which used to be met with non-plussed expressions from non-IT execs 10-plus years ago. Now, the cloud is a broadly understood and accepted term.
Why does digital transformation matter?
Cloud found its footing by proving its value - and so it is with digital transformation. 2020 and 2021 have been dominated by digital transformation projects. This dominance is likely to be a tipping point in terms of its acceptance. The business has seen the value of digital transformation - and now it wants a whole lot more in 2022 and beyond.

Beneath the buzzwords, there lies a crucial concept: digitalisation is helping smart entrepreneurs and pioneering executives to change the established economic order - and the effects are everywhere.

From Amazon's influence over retailing to Facebook's impact on publishing and onto fleet-of-foot FinTechs that are destabilising banking and insurance operations, traditional firms are being challenged by nimble, digital-savvy operators.

Consultant McKinsey reports that many executives believe their companies' business models are becoming obsolete. Only 11% believe their current business models will be economically viable through 2023, while another 64% say their companies need to build new digital businesses to help them get there.
Can you give me an example of what digital transformation looks like?
Logicalis' recently released global CIO survey suggests tech leaders must build agile and adaptable infrastructures to deliver digital-led business transformation. They report there's been a notable shift in the defining aspects of the CIO role during the past 12 months, with most tech chiefs increasing the time they spend on innovation (79%) and strategic planning (77%).

Beauty company Avon International has used a direct-selling model for 130 years. The company normally sells its products through reps who call at clients' doors and collect orders from a paper brochure. But that model was all-but-impossible to continue during the coronavirus crisis and lockdown.

The solution to this challenge came in the form of a rapid digital transformation that allowed reps to carry on selling. The IT team focused first on putting in place a mechanism that allowed reps to ensure that the orders they were taking - through WhatsApp, a text message, an email, or a phone call - were delivered directly to Avon's customers rather than by hand.
SEE: Digital transformation: Keeping e-commerce moving even when everyone is stuck at home
As the company had 60 different enterprise resource planning systems around the world and more than 200 back-office systems, changing the delivery address meant modifying a range of ordering and invoicing processes. The team implemented that new approach on top of its legacy platforms in 30 markets in just six weeks.

Avon also started to develop a stronger e-commerce platform, such as via mobile and web. Sales through e-commerce channels grew by six times in the first three weeks following lockdown. The company also started to produce digital brochures that could be updated far more easily and shared through social channels.
How much are companies spending on digital transformation?
Today, 30% of the company's sales contacts are made online in the UK, up from less than 10% before the pandemic. By finding ways to maintain sales and beef-up its e-commerce channels, Avon kept its customers served and its reps busy, gaining new clients along the way.

In short, digital transformation has helped to change the company's business model - and that's going to last forever. Chief executive Angela Cretu confirmed recently that the company wants to become fully "omni-channel", linking different methods of selling from stores to the doorstep, over the next three years.

Total spending on digital transformation will be more than $6.8 trillion between 2020 and 2023, according to tech researcher IDC, which represents an annual growth rate of 15.5%
How do companies enact digital transformation successfully?
Analyst Gartner also reports that tech spending will increase across the board for most IT organisations through 2021 and beyond. However, it says top performers have made an early start, suggesting companies that have already increased their funding of digital innovation are 2.7 times more likely to be top performers than trailing performers.

Something to note, though: digitisation is far from easy. The average enterprise has more than 200 technology solutions in its tech stack across the organisation, according to Futurum Research. The advisory firm's analysis of digitisation suggests the vast majority of digital transformation initiatives don't consider the user and ultimately result in inefficient adoption.

Digital transformation projects have traditionally been associated to multi-year strategies. Here, CIOs work with their peers to think about how technology might help their organisations react to the threat of digital disruption. They then create a long-term business strategy that uses technology to help the organisation meets its aims.

The problem with many of those long-term strategies is that they take too long to come to fruition. While incumbents are good at creating spot digitisation projects, such as moving systems to the cloud or creating new digital channels to market, they're much slower when it comes to digitally transforming the whole business to support new operating models.

It's still not uncommon to hear CIOs talk about five-year digital transformation strategies. In an age where fleet-of-foot digital challengers can move into a new sector almost overnight, then multi-year strategies are simply too slow. Many businesses have been stuck running digital projects, says analyst Gartner - and while some of these initiatives are large, a collection of digital projects is not simply a synonym for becoming a true digital business.
What's the relationship between Agile and digital transformation?
That over-reliance on multi-year approaches has stopped recently. Many long-term strategies have been fast-forwarded through 2020 and 2021; McKinsey reports that companies' overall adoption of digital technologies sped up by three to seven years in a span of months. The consultant says this acceleration is also happening at the level of core business practices: what was considered best-in-class speed in 2018 is now seen as slower than average.

This need for speed has an impact on digital transformation strategies. Instead of talking about five-year plans, many CIOs now talk about how their board demands constant iteration. In many cases, that shift has required a new Agile way of working.

As the World Economic Forum concludes, digital transformation is as much about establishing the right cultural change programme as it is about introducing new tech. Digitisation needs organisations to work out quickly what their business needs and how they're going to get there. For many CIOs, the best way to find these answers is by adopting Agile methods.

Agile management has its origins in software development, but as Harvard Business Review suggests, it has spread far beyond its product development and manufacturing roots. While Agile won't be applied the same way in every organisation, the basic principles - decentralised decision making, cross-organisation teams and cross-team empowerment - are likely to resonate with most tech leaders.

CIOs suggest the big benefit of an Agile approach is cultural. By working in small, cross-business groups to explore challenges and deliver solutions, IT staff and line-of-business employees can iterate around a problem and apply digital systems and services quickly.
What's the future of digital transformation?
Compass Group CIO Jon Braithwaite says these joined-up journeys mean no one gets a nasty shock at the end of the experiment. They also mean people across the business iterate to find the best possible return from an investment in digitisation.

"It means you're all in the same boat as opposed to the opposite of that approach, which would be where you've asked for some cash and you haven't delivered at the end of the project. I like the joined-up journey. It's really fast-paced and shows how working closely with people is critical to digital transformation success," he says.

Business leaders have seen the benefits that digitisation can bring. From supporting new hybrid working models to building new channels to market, boardrooms have seen how technology can help their organisations - and now they want more.

Gary Delooze, CIO at building society Nationwide, has spent the past 12 months helping his globally disparate IT organisation to embrace what he refers to as a distributed Agile way of working to help counter the challenging circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic.
Who is responsible for digital transformation projects?
Delooze says success stories during this challenging time have created a blueprint for further digital transformation initiatives. People across the business have seen how small groups of people can work to deliver big business outcomes - and others want to become involved, too.

"All of that has led to us actually taking people on a journey, not because we're telling them to, but because we're showing them what's possible," he says. "And that has allowed us to create a pull - it's creating a demand from people to say, 'I want to be part of this', rather than having to spend a lot of time constantly laying out the vision and communicating."

As the traditional guardians of technology investment, CIOs tend to have a big say in digital change projects. Yet CIOs are far from the only executives with a role in digital transformation management, and the pressure for change has led to the rise of other C-suite specialists, such as chief digital officers (CDOs).

Analyst firms fanned the flames by suggesting the appointment of CDOs could hasten the demise of the traditional IT leadership role. Gartner originally claimed a quarter of businesses would have a digital chief by 2015, and IDC said 60 percent of CIOs would be replaced by CDOs by 2020.

Today, those predictions look way off beam. While line-of-business employees are good at buying discrete digital technologies, CIOs have the experience of integrating systems and services. In most cases, appointed CDOs work with their CIO colleagues to exploit advanced technology on behalf of the business.
When does digital transformation stop?
In fact, CIOs have used their experience to maintain a tight grip of digital transformation. With companies now looking to get more from recent digital transformation projects, even greater focus will be placed on the tech leadership capabilities of CIOs - and that means building even stronger bonds with the chief executive and the rest of the C-suite.

As Boots UK CIO Richard Corbridge says, tech chiefs need to think very carefully about what they do next: "For me, that's about being a transformation agent - it's about being the person stood next to the executive committee, taking the things that we must do to transform this business and translating that into what digital can do to help us get there quicker, more efficiently, safer, or to help us make more money."

It doesn't. Many people make the mistake of thinking of digital transformation as a discrete project. As Forrester suggests, true transformation is a journey, not a destination. Digital transformation remains a slippery concept that involves the delivery of value to the business and its customers in new - and perhaps unexpected - ways.

Just as digital transformation constantly changes, so do its constituent elements. Right now, most business transformation activities involve the innovative use of data, whether that involves analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence or machine learning. In many ways, as digital transformation has evolved it has become more about data-led change than anything else.

So the form of digital transformation continues to evolve, meaning the process of defining digitalisation remains complex and contested. The one thing we can be sure of is that transformation - in whatever form it takes - is here to stay, which means CIOs and the rest of the senior team must build a sustainable business strategy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
​What is digital transformation? Everything you need to know about how technology is reshaping business

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital transformation involves using digital technologies to remake a process to become more efficient or effective. The idea is to use technology not just to replicate an existing service in a digital form, but to use technology to transform that service into something significantly better.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Even though we haven't quite hit the final quarter of 2017, you could say it's been an eventful year in digital transformation. Just as I predicted last year at this time, user experience (UX), big data, smart machines - and of course, change itself-have proven big players in the business landscape this year. As we round the bend to 2018, we get a sense of what's ahead in the digital transformation-barring any unexpected disruptions, of course.
1-4. The IoT Will Push Us To The Edge - Literally (IoT, Analytics, Edge, 5G)
One thing I noticed in putting this list together is that the IoT kept popping up, repeatedly. This is why it has found its way to the top. Gartner estimates more than 8.4 billion "Things" are on the internet today, up more than 30% from just one year ago. However, IoT alone is just the start. It isn't so much about the things, but rather what we do with these things once they are connected and supplying us data. Three of the main trends I see - the analytics revolution, edge computing, and 5G cell processing-are all driven by the IoT at their core. In fact, IDC predicts that up to 40% of all compute will happen at the edge in just the next couple of years. This is why trends 1-4 all rest with IoT.

* Analytics (2): If you're maxing out on data and analytics in 2017, just wait. The mass amount of information being created by the IoT has the power to revolutionize everything from manufacturing and healthcare to the layout and functioning of entire cities - allowing them to work more efficiently and profitably than ever before. One company, for instance, found that it was able to reduce the cost of managing its fleet of 180,000 trucks from 15 cents per mile to just 3 cents. That same kind of efficiency can be exercised in almost every industry, from retail to city planning. Tech giants such as Microsoft, IBM, SAS and SAP are all heavily investing in Analytics, more specifically IoT Analytics as they are seeing the power of this combination in driving new business insights across a vast array of industries and applications.

* Edge Computing (3): If you think you've already been pushed to the edge when it comes to digital transformation, look out: you haven't seen anything yet. Just when many companies are finally beginning to move toward cloud computing, edge computing - driven by the sheer volume and speed of information produced by the IoT-is jumping to the forefront of the business scene. Industry leaders such as Cisco and HPE have made huge hardware, software and service bets on this movement, which I look at as strong validation of this trend. As smart drones, autonomous vehicles, and other AI-powered smart devices seek to connect and communicate instantly via the IoT, the matter of sending data "all the way" to the cloud will become highly impractical. Many of these devices will need real-time response and processing, making edge computing the only viable option. For those of you who have just jumped into the cloud generation: don't fret. Though edge will continue to be the go-to choice for processing real-time data, it's likely that the most important and relevant data will still head cloud-ward.

* 5G (4): Just as the amount of data produced by the IoT will force data to the edge, it will also force mobile providers to move faster than ever - toward 5G. The level of hyper-connectivity expected by users today leaves little room not to move forward on the 5G path, but don't get too excited. The move to 5G won't happen overnight, and it will likely be patchy at best throughout the coming year. This year we are seeing Gigabit LTE (the stepping stone between current LTE and 5G) making leaps with devices from Samsung and Sony leading the way. Today much of the Gigabit LTE movement is being powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon technology, but others will certainly seek to become involved in this rapid growth market for mobile.
5. Blockchain Finds Its Way
While its more popular cousin Bitcoin continues to blow away stock market analysts, Blockchain may finally find its place in 2018. Gartner shows that as of February this year, blockchain was the second top search term on its website, increasing 400% in just 12 months. To me, it's no surprise. While the financial industry will be the first to begin utilizing this amazing tool, numerous others - from healthcare to entertainment to hospitality - will not be far behind. Granted, the move to blockchain will not come overnight either - just of trade finance globally will use it by 2020. But once it finds its sea legs - most likely this year - there will literally be no turning back.
6. AI Goes From Newbie To Mainstream
"Yeah, yeah, I know - artificial intelligence." That's likely the response you'll get when talking about AI in 2018. With everyone from toddlers to seniors using Alexa, Siri, and customer service chatbots, it's no wonder AI may soon begin to feel like old news-at least to mainstream users. On the business side, however, so much power remains in AI - in everything from customer service and robotics to analytics and marketing. Companies will continue to use AI to surprise, connect, and communicate with their customers in ways they may not even appreciate or realize. This includes faster, cheaper, and smarter automation of everything from emails and content generation to industrial manufacturing. I believe we are still only at the beginning here, but we have seen the likes of IBM Watson, SAP Leonardo, Salesforce Einstein and other major software companies all launching embedded AI right into their platforms. This is a sign of what is to come.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Top 10 Trends For Digital Transformation In 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Even though we haven't quite hit the final quarter of 2017, you could say it's been an eventful year in digital transformation. Just as I predicted last year at this time, user experience (UX), big data, smart machines - and of course, change itself-have proven big players in the business landscape this year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The European Commission has launched a study to highlight areas where further work will be necessary in the short term to fill DSM gaps and to identify future Commission actions that would bring the highest impact in economic and social terms. The study will feed into the analysis of the economic, technological and social dimensions of disrupting digital developments, and the identification of strategies to manage this transformation and maximise its benefits for Europe.

The European Commission has launched a study to analyse the economic, technological and social dimensions of disrupting digital developments, and the identify strategies to manage this transformation and maximise its benefits for Europe.

The objectives of the study are:

1. To inform the ongoing efforts under the current Commission mandate (as described in "context" above) by highlighting areas where further work will be necessary in the short term to fill DSM gaps;

2. To identify future Commission actions (after 2019) that would bring the highest impact (in economic and social terms) over a relatively short period of time and underpin them with solid evidence, providing a basis for the respective impact assessments.

The focus of the study will be on potentially disruptive economic, technological and social impacts. By disruption we mean significant impact on economic and social structures, innovation, competitiveness of EU industry, labour markets and society at large brought about by digital technologies.

The study will identify areas and technologies where action will be most needed and attempt to underpin them with evidence, for which the first step is to identify the most disruptive digital trends over the coming 5-10 years and their potential impacts on EU society and economy. Priority will be given to areas where EU actions can have the greatest impact and where DSM gaps are the biggest.

The total price quoted cannot exceed EUR 500 000 (five hundred thousand)

Deadline for tenders is 03/04/2018.
For further information, of the services to be purchased, please refer to the tender specifications below:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Shaping the Digital Transformation in Europe - SMART 2017/0094

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The European Commission has launched a study to highlight areas where further work will be necessary in the short term to fill DSM gaps and to identify future Commission actions that would bring the highest impact in economic and social terms. The study will feed into the analysis of the economic, technological and social dimensions of disrupting digital developments, and the identification of strategies to manage this transformation and maximise its benefits for Europe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For Technology Management and Digital Business Leaders. Join us to help business leaders and technology innovators increase efficiency and agility through operational excellence while creating customer-obsessed digital experiences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The hardest part of a successful digital transformation is the cultural piece. Like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles, it begins with small steps.

Executives at legacy companies, struggling to meet the challenge of an aggressive digital disruptor, sometimes think they have to overhaul their business from top to bottom. Not so, according to serial digital entrepreneur and McKinsey advisor James Bilefield, who has worked successfully on both sides of the digital-traditional divide. While a digital start-up can disrupt the market, legacy companies shouldn't undervalue their own competitive assets or make the mistake of thinking the disruptors have all the cards. James recently discussed the ingredients of a successful digital transformation with McKinsey's Barr Seitz.

Digital transformation as a Trojan horse

One of the elements that I think is misunderstood about a digital transformation is that it's typically a Trojan horse for a much broader business transformation, a time to review many aspects of a business's operations from top to bottom-the talent, the organizational structure, the operating model, products, services, etcetera. Some of those are hard changes that need to be made, and some are softer, like language or culture.

In my experience, culture is the hardest part of the organization to change. Shifting technology, finding the right talent, finding the right product set and strategy-that's all doable, not easy, but doable. Hardest is the cultural transformation in businesses that have very deep legacy and cultural roots.

The power of words

One of the areas I focus on with clients is around the power of words. The language that's used internally in the organization-around products, around the customer, around opportunity-and how you translate that externally to your customers or clients can have a very powerful impact on how you conduct your business and the outcomes you can deliver.

For example, at a financial-services company, the kind of language that's used internally to talk about the customer experience is often peppered with three-letter acronyms that are just "management speak." I think there's an opportunity to completely change the game and to think differently by focusing the language around what you're actually delivering for your customers and then rethinking the way the business operates along those lines. It can be a very powerful shift in culture and in the way people think about what they do.

Three steps for getting a digital transformation on track

Any change process starts with an awareness that there's an issue in the organization. There are many ways to address those issues, but the "softer" things that signal change, such as altering the language used, are important. Some organizations even change dress codes and the office environment, break down silos between organizations, and make certain senior managers more visible. Leadership starts to be seen more around the office and to be more open to more junior levels of the organization than they may have typically been in the past. There's a more informal, if you like, style of management.

Then you start to move into the ways the company judges itself-the key performance indicators (KPIs) and the measures you use, for individuals and for teams and for the wider organization-to try to drive real change. How high up do those new KPIs need to be on a dashboard that otherwise may have been rather traditional and may not have changed much for a decade or more?

And thirdly, it's the actions you take, whether it's putting a designer on your executive team, like we have at Apple now, or even making a designer your CEO, as Burberry has recently done.

So there are a number of quite significant changes you can make to send a signal through the organization. It's not just about a chief digital officer or a chief data officer or a chief analytics officer. Actually, this digital thing becomes everybody's job, everyone's responsibility. You need to inculcate that change across the organization, and you need to take many small and large steps to do that.

The economic essentials of digital strategy

Building a culture of constant change

I think you need to be in a state of constant revolution. You don't make a change and then just sit back and wait for the next five years of business as usual. I think you need to build a new momentum and rhythm in your business that reflects the new reality of the industry in which you are operating.

Many companies already have a strategy of continuous improvement in their businesses and in their operations globally. I think you need to instill, even in that kind of organization, a culture of continuous change and evolution in how things work.

Some changes are gradual and evolve toward an end goal, which becomes clear over time, and you need to make a number of small steps to do that. Sometimes you do this through external actions, such as acquisitions, investments, partnerships, or other external activity or statements. Or sometimes you do this through internal activity, such as the people you promote or the way you talk about the company and its customers and mission. Some people will be taken a little outside their comfort zone, but that's OK, so long as you give them the permission to take small risks and fail quickly if they can.

The board's role in the digital age

The role of the board in a digital business is quite different from the role of the board in a legacy business. One of the challenges I think many legacy companies face today is that their boards are not really ready to challenge them and to support and encourage their digital transformation.

If you think of the average age of most board members around the world-and, frankly, of their backgrounds as well-they are not digitally ready. A recent Russell Reynolds survey suggested, I think, that only 4 percent of global 500 companies truly have a board that's digitally ready, even fewer in Asia-Pacific, and under 25 percent in the United States. So there's still a long, long way to go.

To make a digital transformation happen, you need complete alignment-from the board through the executive team through the whole organization. Without that "air cover" from the board and from shareholders who understand the change that you're taking the organization through, it is very, very hard to do it successfully.

For example, many board meetings are backward looking in their approach. The data they're looking at is often a little old. They're not looking at live data. Many board members are often not active customers of the company's products or services. I think there's a new generation of board director emerging that is much more hands-on, with a more entrepreneurial background. You mix that with some of the more traditional board profiles and you get greater diversity on the board.

About the author(s)
James Bilefield is a serial digital entrepreneur and a senior advisor to McKinsey. This interview was conducted by McKinsey Digital and Marketing & Sales Practices' Barr Seitz.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital transformation: The three steps to success

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The hardest part of a successful digital transformation is the cultural piece. Like the proverbial journey of a thousand miles, it begins with small steps. Executives at legacy companies, struggling to meet the challenge of an aggressive digital disruptor, sometimes think they have to overhaul their business from top to bottom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Latin America will be one of the leaders of the global economy. The digital transformation has been one of the keys to this reduction in poverty and improvement in social indicators. But how has it helped? One example is digital financial inclusion.

This is how BBVA's Executive Member of the Board, Head of Global Economics, Regulation and Public Affairs José Manuel González-Páramo explained it at the opening session of the Ibero-American Public Leadership Program. Participants from 13 Latin American countries, besides Portugal, will be taking part in the program this year. BBVA is collaborating with the Carolina Foundation and CAF Development Bank of Latin America for this program. José Manuel González-Páramo indicated that: "We want to contribute to the sharing of experiences and best practice, to the knowledge of government systems, to improving the quality and effectiveness of public policies and to the overall strengthening of institutions in Ibero-America."

He began his remarks by analyzing the economic outlook for the region. "In Latin America this will be, fortunately, a turning year, where we will see positive figures, after two years of negative growth." BBVA Research is predicting that Latin America's economy as a whole will expand by 1.1% in 2017 and 1.6% in 2018. Next year's growth will be accompanied by a boost from the external sector, better exchange rates, higher global growth and an increase in investment.

In the digital arena, José Manuel González-Páramo underscored the arrival of new technologies in the region, which allow cash transactions to be replaced by card or mobile payments. These tools play a highly significant role in financial inclusion. "Technological development is offering a huge, unparalleled, opportunity to boost financial inclusion, because technology is levelling the playing field for everyone again."

BBVA's Executive Member of the Board, Head of Global Economics, Regulation and Public Affairs José Manuel González-Páramo during his speech

The virtuous triangle of financial inclusion
BBVA's Executive Member of the Board made reference to the "virtuous triangle", which consists of three factors: digital development in Latin America, an appropriate regulatory framework and financial education.

In terms of digital development, José Manuel González-Páramo stressed the need to boost the development of the technological infrastructure, i.e. promote accessibility to broadband networks at moderate prices. He also underscored the importance of having an adequate regulatory framework. "We need regulations that guarantee equal access to financial services."

However, in order for everything to work properly, an environment that promotes financial education is essential. For BBVA, financial education is one of the strategic priorities of its responsible business policy and to this end, the bank follows the OECD ) Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) recommendations. Over the past nine years, BBVA has invested more than $80 million in financial education programs for more than nine million people in the countries where the bank has a presence. In 2016 alone, the program has benefitted over 2 million children and young people.

Also attending the program's opening session were Roberto Bermúdez de Castro, Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations; Gustavo Rovira, managing director of the Carolina Foundation; and Guillermo Fernández de Soto, Corporate Director of the CAF Development Bank of Latin America in Europe.

Argentina is facing the great challenge and opportunity of making progress in a digital financial inclusion process that is key for inclusive economic growth, says BBVA Executive Director José Manuel González-Páramo.

Latin America has to foster the right conditions to strengthen its digital ecosystem. However, it faces an obstacle: the digital gap that separates it from other regions in the world. How can this gap be reduced? At a forum of "multi-Latina" companies in Santander, Eva Piera, the Head of Institutional Relations at BBVA stressed that regulation is the key.

Receive in your email the latest information on mortgages: products, tips and recommendations to make the best decision.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Latin America: more growth thanks to the digital transformation | BBVA

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Latin America will be one of the leaders of the global economy. The digital transformation has been one of the keys to this reduction in poverty and improvement in social indicators. But how has it helped? One example is digital financial inclusion.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital transformation in South Korea: A focus on digital skills and entrepreneurship

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Home to some of the world’s biggest technology companies like Samsung, LG and the SK Group, South Korea has a longstanding reputation for innovation, which includes being named the world's most ...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Download PDF Download XLS

Executive summary

Organisations can use technologies to improve processes and create new products, services and channels to market. Digital transformation efforts are therefore top of mind for executives as they can lead to cost savings, greater innovation and can also be used to fend off companies who seek to disrupt entire industries through new business models.

As e-commerce and digital processes become more important to business, especially as new digital native competitors such as Alibaba, Snapchat, Baidu and Flipkart disrupt traditional markets, access to high quality digital infrastructure, human capital and industry technology ecosystems are critical to success and can serve as a global competitive advantage for countries and companies alike.

At the same time, organisational ability to compete is often impacted by the digital environment around them and constraints in terms of legacy systems, processes and mindsets. To assess the overall environment for potential digital transformation within 11 economies (China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand), this report introduces the Asian Digital Transformation Index. It goes beyond a narrow definition of digital transformation at organisations to also assess whether the overall environment is conducive to it across three pillars: enabling ICT infrastructure, pool of relevant talent and willingness to partner with others.

In addition to geographic differences, a survey conducted for this report also captures efforts across six industries: manufacturing, financial services (including insurance), media (including broadcasting and technology), healthcare, professional services and logistics (including transportation). We assess variations in appetite for digital disruption within the confines of the digital environment available to them.

Combined, the Asian Digital Transformation Index and the survey assess overall progress on digital transformation within countries and across industries. The key findings of the research are as follows:

About the report

Connecting Capabilities: The Asian Digital Transformation Index is a report from The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), commissioned by Telstra. Kim Andreasson was the author and Charles Ross was the editor. The report is based on three interrelated research efforts.

First, the Asian Digital Transformation Index, which is a quantitative ranking of 11 economies in the region (China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand) and three global comparators (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States) comprised of 20 indicators across three thematic categories: digital infrastructure, human capital and industry connectedness. The categories, and the individual criteria within them, are weighted according to our assumptions of their relative importance in fostering digital transformation at organisations within countries (for the full methodology see appendix).

Second, the report and Index draws on a survey of 870 executives in the same 14 countries, 660 of whom are in Asia, primarily across six industries: manufacturing, financial services (including insurance), media (including broadcasting and technology), healthcare, professional services and logistics (including transportation). A survey screener question ensured that all respondents were either extremely (33%), largely (41%) or moderately (27%) familiar with their organisation's efforts to transform themselves digitally.

Third, the Index and the survey findings were supplemented by interviews with senior executives and experts as well as wide-ranging desk research with the aim of understanding digital transformation in the Asia-Pacific region. The EIU bears sole responsibility for the editorial content of this report. The findings do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsor.

Our thanks are due to the following people for their time and insights (listed alphabetically by last name):

Jerry Black, chief digital officer, Aeon Co, Japan

Christian Busch, associate director, Innovation Co-Creation Lab, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Neal Cross, chief innovation officer, DBS, Singapore

Julian David, CEO, techUK, UK

John Davison, CEO, Zuellig Pharma, Singapore

Chris Hemstrom, president of Development, Strategy and Innovation, Linfox, Australia

Michael Hilb, vice president, Group Strategy and Digital Business, DKSH

Ravi Krishnamoorthi, senior vice president & head of Business Consulting, Digital & Application Services - EMEIA, Fujitsu, UK

CT Liu, executive vice president, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan

Thomas McDermott, interim executive director, Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute, US

Stephen Miles, CTO Asia Pacific & Japan, CA Technologies, Singapore

Tan Hwee Pink, associate professor of Information Systems (Practice) and Director of the SMU-TCS iCity Lab at Singapore Management University, Singapore

Mike Usher, director, Information Risk and Privacy, Prudential Corporation Asia, Malaysia

Michael Wade, professor of Innovation and Strategy and Cisco Chair in Digital Business Transformation, IMD, Switzerland and Singapore

Bruce Weinelt, head of Digital Transformation, World Economic Forum, Switzerland

George Westerman, principal research scientist, MIT Sloan Initiative on the Digital Economy

Related Content

Video

Thrive on

Workbook

Index workbook and methodology

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Whitepaper - Connecting Capabilities - The Asian Digital Transformation Index

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Download PDF Download XLS Organisations can use technologies to improve processes and create new products, services and channels to market. Digital transformation efforts are therefore top of mind for executives as they can lead to cost savings, greater innovation and can also be used to fend off companies who seek to disrupt entire industries through new business models.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital transformation in Germany is creating more jobs than destroying

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Technology is creating more jobs in Germany's manufacturing industry

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Together with social, mobile and cloud, analytics and associated data technologies have emerged as core business disruptors in the digital age. As companies began the shift from being data-generating to data-powered organizations in 2017, data and analytics became the center of gravity for many enterprises. In 2018, these technologies need to start delivering value. Here are the approaches, roles and concerns that will drive data analytics strategies in the year ahead.

Data lakes will need to demonstrate business value or die

Data has been accumulating in the enterprise at a torrid pace for years. The internet of things (IoT) will only accelerate the creation of data as data sources move from web to mobile to machines.

"This has created a dire need to scale out data pipelines in a cost-effective way," says Guy Churchward, CEO of real-time streaming data platform provider DataTorrent.

For many enterprises, buoyed by technologies like Apache Hadoop, the answer was to create data lakes - enterprise-wide data management platforms for storing all of an organization's data in native formats. Data lakes promised to break down information silos by providing a single data repository the entire organization could use for everything from business analytics to data mining. Raw and ungoverned, data lakes have been pitched as a big data catch-all and cure-all.

But while data lakes have proven successful for storing massive quantities of data, gaining actionable insights from that data has proven difficult.

"The data lake served companies fantastically well through the data 'at rest' and 'batch' era," Churchward says. "Back in 2015, it started to become clear this architecture was getting overused, but it's now become the Achilles heel for real real-time data analytics. Parking data first, then analyzing it immediately puts companies at a massive disadvantage. When it comes to gaining insights and taking actions as fast as compute can allow, companies relying on stale event data create a total eclipse on visibility, actions, and any possible immediate remediation. This is one area where 'good enough' will prove strategically fatal."

Monte Zweben, CEO of Splice Machine, agrees.

"The Hadoop era of disillusionment hits full stride, with many companies drowning in their data lakes, unable to get a ROI because of the complexity of duct-taping Hadoop-based compute engines," Zweben predicts for 2018.

To survive 2018, data lakes will have to start proving their business value, says Ken Hoang, vice president of strategy and alliances at data catalog specialist Alation.

"The new dumping ground of data - data lakes - has gone through experimental deployments over the last few years, and will start to be shut down unless they prove that they can deliver value," Hoang says. "The hallmark for a successful data lake will be having an enterprise catalog that brings information discovery, AI, and information stewarding together to deliver new insights to the business."

However, Hoang doesn't believe all is lost for data lakes. He predicts data lakes and other large data hubs can find a new lease on life with what he calls "super hubs" that can deliver "context-as-a-service" via machine learning.

"Deployments of large data hubs over the last 25 years (e.g., data warehouses, master data management, data lakes, Salesforce and ERP) resulted in more data silos that are not easily understood, related, or shared," Hoang says. "A hub of hubs will bring the ability to relate assets across these hubs, enabling context-as-a-service. This, in turn, will drive more relevant and powerful predictive insights to enable faster and better operational business results."

Ted Dunning, chief application architect for MapR, predicts a similar shift: With big data systems becoming a center of gravity in terms of storage, access and operations, businesses will look to build a global data fabric that will give comprehensive access to data from many sources and to computation for truly multi-tenant systems.

"We will see more and more businesses treat computation in terms of data flows rather than data that is just processed and landed in a database," Dunning says. "These data flows capture key business events and mirror business structure. A unified data fabric will be the foundation for building these large-scale flow-based systems."

Langley Eide, chief strategy officer of self-service data analytics specialist Alteryx, says IT won't be alone on the hook when it comes to making data lakes deliver value: Line-of-business (LOB) analysts and chief digital officers (CDOs) will also have to take responsibility in 2018.

"Most analysts have not taken advantage of the vast amount of unstructured resources like clickstream data, IoT data, log data, etc., that have flooded their data lakes - largely because it's difficult to do so," Eide says. "But truthfully, analysts aren't doing their job if they leave this data untouched. It's widely understood that many data lakes are underperforming assets - people don't know what's in there, how to access it, or how to create insights from the data. This reality will change in 2018, as more CDOs and enterprises want better ROI for their data lakes."

Eide predicts that 2018 will see analysts replacing "brute force" tools like Excel and SQL with more programmatic techniques and technologies, like data cataloging, to discover and get more value out of the data.

The CDO will come of age

As part of this new push to get better insights from data, Eide also predicts the CDO role will come into its own in 2018.

"Data is essentially the new oil, and the CDO is beginning to be recognized as the linchpin for tackling one of the most important problems in enterprises today: driving value from data," Eide says. "Often with a budget of less than $10 million, one of the biggest challenges and opportunities for CDOs is making the much-touted self-service opportunity a reality by bringing corporate data assets closer to line-of-business users. In 2018, the CDOs that work to strike a balance between a centralized function and capabilities embedded in LOB will ultimately land the larger budgets."

Eide believes CDOs that enable resources, skills, and functionality to shift rapidly between centers of excellence and LOB will find the most success. For this, Eide says, agile platforms and methodologies are key.

Rise of the data curator?

Tomer Shiran, CEO and co-founder of analytics startup Dremio, a driving force behind the open source Apache Arrow project, predicts that enterprises will see the need for a new role: the data curator.

The data curator, Shiran says, sits between data consumers (analysts and data scientists who use tools like Tableau and Python to answer important questions with data) and data engineers (the people who move and transform data between systems using scripting languages, Spark, Hive, and MapReduce). To be successful, data curators must understand the meaning of the data as well as the technologies that are applied to the data.

"The data curator is responsible for understanding the types of analysis that need to be performed by different groups across the organization, what datasets are well suited for this work, and the steps involved in taking the data from its raw state to the shape and form needed for the job a data consumer will perform," Shiran says. "The data curator uses systems such as self-service data platforms to accelerate the end-to-end process of providing data consumers access to essential datasets without making endless copies of data."

Data governance strategies will be key themes for all C-level executives

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to go into effect on May 25, 2018, and it looms like a specter over the analytics field, though not all enterprises are prepared.

The GDPR will apply directly in all EU member states, and it radically changes how companies must seek consent to collect and process the data of EU citizens, explain lawyers from Morrison & Foerster's Global Privacy + Data Security Group: Miriam Wugmeister, Global Privacy co-chair; Lokke Moerel, European Privacy Expert; and John Carlin, Global Risk and Crisis Management chair (and former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division).

"Companies that rely on consent for all their processing operations will no longer be able to do so, and will need other legal bases (i.e., contractual necessity and legitimate interest)," they explain. "Companies will need to implement a whole new ecosystem for notice and consents."

Even though GDPR fines are potentially massive - the administrative fines can be up to 20 million Euros or 4 percent of annual global turnover, whichever is highest - many enterprises, particularly in the U.S., are not prepared.

"When the Y2K boom came around, everyone was preparing for odds that they may or may not face," says Scott Gnau, CTO of Hortonworks. "Today, it seems that barely anyone is properly preparing for the GDPR being enforced in May 2018. Why not? We're currently in a phase where every organization is not only trying to deal for 'what's next,' but they're struggling to maintain and deal with issues that need solving now. Many organizations are likely relying on chief security officers to define the rules, systems, parameters, etc., to help their global system integrators figure out the best course of action. That is not a realistic expectation to put on one individual's role."

To enforce GDPR properly requires the C-suite be informed, prepared, and communicative with all facets of their organization, Gnau says. Organizations will need a better handle on the overall governance of their data assets. But large breaches, like the Equifax breach that came to light in 2017, means they will struggle to balance providing self-service access to data for employees while protecting that same data from prospective threats.

As a result, Gnau predicts data governance will be a focus point for all organizations in 2018.

"A key goal should be developing a system that balances democratization of data, access, self-service analytics, and regulation," Gnau says. "The way we architect data safely going forward will have an impact on everyone - customers in the U.S. and overseas, the media, your partners, and more."

Zachary Bosin, director of solution marketing for multi-cloud data management specialist Veritas Technologies, predicts a U.S. company will be one of the first to be fined under the GDPR.

"Despite the impending deadline, only 31 percent of companies surveyed by Veritas worldwide believe they are GDPR-compliant," Bosin says. "Penalties for non-compliance are steep, and this regulation will impact every and any company that deals with EU citizens."

The proliferation of metadata management continues

It's not just the GDPR, of course. The data deluge keeps growing, and governments around the world are imposing new regulations as a result. Within organizations, teams have much greater access to data than ever before. This all adds up to increased importance of data governance, along with data quality, data integration and metadata management.

"Metadata management and ensuring data privacy for regulations such as GDPR joins earlier trends like AI and IoT, but the unexpected trend of 2018 will be the convergence of data management technologies," says Emily Washington, senior vice president of product management at data and analytics software provider Infogix. "Businesses are increasingly evaluating ways to streamline their overall technology stack if they want to successfully leverage big data and analytics to create a better customer experience, achieve business objectives, gain a competitive advantage, and, ultimately, become market leaders."

Extracting meaningful insights and increasing operational efficacy will require flexible, integrated tools that allow users to quickly ingest, prepare, analyze and govern data, Williams says. Metadata management, in particular, will be essential to supporting data governance, regulatory compliance, and data management demands in enterprise data environments.

Predictive analytics helps improve data quality

As data projects move into production, data quality is increasingly a concern. This is especially true as IoT opens the floodgates further. Infogix says 2018 will see organizations turning to machine learning algorithms to enhance data quality anomaly detection. By using historical patterns to predict future data quality outcomes, businesses can dynamically detect anomalies that might otherwise have gone unnoticed or might only have been found much later through manual intervention.

"As more data is generated through technologies like IoT, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage and leverage," Washington says. "Integrated self-service tools deliver an all-inclusive view of a business's data landscape to draw meaningful, timely conclusions. Full transparency into a business's data assets will be crucial for successful analytics initiatives, addressing data governance and privacy needs, monetizing data assets, and more as we move into 2018."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 data analytics trends that will dominate 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Together with social, mobile and cloud, analytics and associated data technologies have emerged as core business disruptors in the digital age. As companies began the shift from being data-generating to data-powered organizations in 2017, data and analytics became the center of gravity for many enterprises. In 2018, these technologies need to start delivering value.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Recent research from Dell captured the essence of this uncertainty that's in the minds of many executives. In Dell's survey of 4,000 business leaders worldwide, they found that 45 percent fear their company may become obsolete in the next three to five years. Nearly half (48 percent) said they weren't even sure what their industry will look like three years down the road. And close to 80 percent expressed feeling threatened by digital startups, clearly worrying that tomorrow someone else might completely annihilate what they're working so hard on today.

Leaning Into Change

Leaders aren't crazy to feel this way. Pressure continues to increase in all directions-from competitors and customers, as well as the C-suite. As just one example of how quickly and dramatically digitization can change businesses and whole industries, think about how we buy groceries. If you talked to the executives at Safeway last year, they likely would have given a very different answer about who their competitors are than if you talked to them today, now that Amazon has bought Whole Foods.

Another important consideration in strategic transformation is identification of current pain points that many enterprises share. For example, many of today's businesses are faced with managing a significant amount of legacy infrastructure. Hundreds of millions of operating systems have been installed for Windows and Linux, and an operating system doesn't exist in a vacuum-every OS is on some kind of server, whether physical, virtual or cloud. Also, every server has a whole host of other components that go with it, from power and cooling, to storage and networking. So one area that companies should target is solving the dichotomous issue of having a ton of disparate infrastructure that needs to undergo transformation, but needing to do so in a way that minimizes business impact.

Moving Workloads-Anytime

Some technologies do help companies to harness infrastructure more dynamically, so that organizations can stay open to the changing environment rather than stuck in one place. These technologies allow companies to take their workloads and move them independently of each other-to the best execution venue that makes sense for them. Companies that do this see a quick reduction in the number of operating systems needed-and because of that reduction, they also experience faster transformation of their infrastructure.

With the growth of Linux and container-based applications in the enterprise, companies today are rarely just Windows or just Linux. If you walk into any major company today and ask 'How many versions of this do you have, and how many editions of that do you have?' nobody's going to say, 'We're just vanilla-we have only one edition of this and one version of that.' That's just no longer realistic.

Since companies inevitably possess a mix of infrastructure, versioning and editions, the best thing they can do now is find a way to unify their disparate environment before continuing down the road of further technology adoption. In other words, they need to ensure unified Smart Availability across their environment to continue down the road to true digital transformation.

The ideal solution gives companies the flexibility to manage the multi-platform environments their legacy database applications-SQL Server, Oracle and more-necessitate. Ideally, it would provide the capability to sustain future needs around Docker containers as well. The key is for enterprises to have a way to do this without having to standardize their entire infrastructure on a single database or single operating system edition or version.

Encapsulating Chaos

To me, the digital transformation is about having a tool that helps companies simplify that chaotic environment, allowing them to encapsulate their workloads on the fly. It's about the ability to move workloads from any host, to any host, anywhere in their environment, at any point in time by supporting a mixed operating system environment. This approach optimizes enterprise operations by unlocking the freedom to dynamically move workloads to always run on their best execution venues.

Here's the bigger reason why this approach is a game-changer: when companies have the ability to encapsulate workloads and move them around, they can start to think differently about how they manage their applications. Instead of thinking, 'I've got it here, running on this old box, and I've got to migrate it to this new box,' migration is no longer the conversation piece. Instead, it becomes about moving each workload where it makes the most sense. Because it may be that the old box does some things pretty well, but for a certain time during the month, it would be nice to be able to take advantage of another capability on more suitable infrastructure.

With the ability to dynamically move stateful instances and containers around, a company could take something that's running on a bare-metal box, move it to a virtual machine, take it to the cloud and then decide to move it back on premises. Each of these processes can take place in a matter of seconds. In short, this offers a way for companies to start reimagining high availability. Instead of workload-specific targets, now workloads are free to move wherever they need to go to ensure best execution environment at any point in time. It's the ultimate enabler for enterprise adaptability-the legs needed for any successful digital transformation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Best Practices For Digital Transformation In 2018 And Beyond | Articles | Chief Technology Officer

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Recent research from Dell captured the essence of this uncertainty that's in the minds of many executives. In Dell's survey of 4,000 business leaders worldwide, they found that 45 percent fear their company may become obsolete in the next three to five years.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In our ongoing effort to develop digital transaction management standards that are applicable around the globe, the xDTM Standard Association traveled to Tokyo last week to meet with local organizations and hear their perspectives on these evolving technologies.

We met with a diverse group of businesses and government ministries, and greeted our newest board member, Dr. Eiji Kuwana, Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Security Officer, NTT Advanced Technology Corp., in person.

In a region with a strong tradition of paper-based transactions, Japanese institutions are evolving to digital mindfully, with a strong focus on standards. Many government agencies in Japan are eager to understand how other regions are developing effective policies to support secure, private and valid digital transactions that comply with local laws. Much like in the U.S., the Japanese real estate industry is at the forefront of understanding how to make the transition to digital.

It was exciting to hear first hand how Japan is leaning into digital transformation, and understand the unique concerns Japanese businesses have regarding how to make digital transactions protected yet accessible. We look forward to continued participation and engagement with the xDTM Standard Association in this region.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Understanding Digital Transformation in Japan - xDTM Standard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In our ongoing effort to develop digital transaction management standards that are applicable around the globe, the xDTM Standard Association traveled to Tokyo last week to meet with local organizations and hear their perspectives on these evolving technologies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As technology and business leaders prepare their final tweaks for their digital plans in 2018, there is certainly evident some pace fatigue, combined with a growing sense that digital change is now nearly inevitable and/or omnipresent in both the enterprise and society today.

Last year saw what was perhaps the highest water mark for sense of urgency and desire for faster delivery on results when it came to digital transformation: Customers, internal and external both, are demanding much more these days, with the bar set by the customer experience leaders like Apple, Amazon, and Google. What's more, customers want their expectations to be delivered on far more rapidly that ever before.

All of this has put increasing pressure on IT and business leaders to scale up their ambitions this year while beginning to tackle the end game, or more accurately the end-of-the-beginning game: Truly reorganizing their traditional business models from the ground up into a more coherent and effective set of digital products and services that will grow faster than the traditional line of business. Now the urgency is to get there in the next year or two, before potential disruption by a startup or newly transformed competitor.

The data shows that businesses have gotten the message and there is vast investment currently being made in large-scale technology change: IDC recently determined that spending on digital transformation efforts, including technology and services, will grow by 42% by just next year, to over $1.7 trillion.

In the past I've been critical of the staid pace of IT spending growth in the non-technology sector, because of the years of limited development of a strong digital foundation and accumulation of pernicious and hard-to-shed technical debt. How could digital transformation laggards follow the leaders if the leaders have been out-investing them for half a decade or more?

The oft-cited poster children for digital leadership, including the likes of Burberry, Travelex, Nordstrom, and Tesco have managed to engineer combined technology and cultural change for the digital era. But they've also outspent in their industries for years as well. Thus with today's corporate urgency for improved, modern, and seamless customer experience, which has been tied to quite a bit higher business performance overall, it was much needed good news from my perspective that a rearward look at IT budgets of 469 CIOs for 2017 finally showed an astonishing 20% overall increase (at least based on a percentage of revenue basis), according to recent data from SIM International. If this data holds, it's one of the greatest increases in years.

One way to read this sudden growth in IT budgets: Organizations are finally gearing up to tackle the scale of digital transformation.

This then frames up the focus for digital transformation 2018: Speed, spending, and scale are on the top of most tech transformation agendas, with growth being the top business motivation for doing so according to a new Gartner survey of over 2,600 IT leaders. But it's not just these factors in a vacuum. Scale means transforming the top functions of an organization together across silos, and that's at all not easy to do. In fact, most organizations have long avoided big bang change efforts because of the famously high failure rate of such initiatives, or about 70% of them by last estimate according to the Harvard Business Review.

Three Emerging Top Level Domains for Digital Transformation

It's not been lost on many observers that the structure of today's organizations is based on a functional model that is designed for specialization and efficiency in an industrial era, instead of one focused on the major seams and intersections in the organization across which value is created. The latter model was a priority in a world that didn't change very quickly and for which there was high variability and low competition in available services due to geography and other similar factors.

However, with the rise of the Internet and the digital world, change has become the norm and formerly dominant discriminators, like physical location, have dropped sharply in significance in many cases, making every organization compete almost head-on with every other. (Though, there is some evidence however that where your actual digital business is located can matter.) This has magnified the importance of investing where it matters most to differentiate from competitors.

More recently this has had the effect of throwing the customer experience into sharp relief as the most evident and now top factor in attracting and retaining customers. Those that make it much easier for customers to find, buy, use, and get help for their products and servers get an outsized advantage, since switching to a competitor is just a click or tap away. IBM's recent 2017 customer experience study found that of top rated orgs in the category, 80% engaged customers personally, 76% offered customized experiences, and 96% offered omnichannel fulfillment. This is in sharp contrast with those that aren't leaders.

However, even today sales, marketing, operations, customer service, and innovation/R&D are still not organized around a single, consistent customer experience, despite evidence showing that market leaders tend to have high quality, well-integrated customer experiences, much of which is already largely digital today in most organizations.

The reasons for not doing this are many and complex, some having to do with the challenge of wresting these functions away from existing CXOs that very much want to keep them, as well as the relatively emergent, poorly understood, and unproven way that customer experience should best be actually embodied in a modern organization. Put simply, we really don't know the best way to do it yet, although the discrete and disjoint silos we have today are certainly a far cry from what we need.
SEE: How Sephora is leveraging AR and AI to transform retail and help customers buy cosmetics (TechRepublic)
The issue is that customer experience increasingly must have these critical attributes: Omnichannel (or being where most of your customers are most of the time, whether that's Facebook, in a smartphone app, or with Internet of Things devices), a consistent experience across these channels, a valuable customer journey that enables a sustained, growing, highly personalized relationship over time, and ultimately the fulfillment of a customers aspirations and dreams to the fullest extent possible.

But in order to deliver on this type of customer experience, two other closely related experiences -- oft neglected when it comes to digital transformation -- must also be included in the process or the organization simply doesn't have the capability to realize modern expectations in customer experience.

The Experience Laggards: Worker and Partner/Supplier

This is where two new industry discussions have come into play recently, focusing on two other primary digital experiences that make it possible to deliver on customer experience in a sustainable way in fast-changing times: The worker experience and the partner/supplier experience.

Together, these two additional realms of stakeholder interaction, combined with customer experience, represent the three main value streams in our organizations today: Customer experience provides value to the customer, which is what they pay for (in some way or another.) Worker experience is what is used to provide customer experience either directly or indirectly as it's used to operate the resources of the company on the behalf of customer. And partner/supplier experience is used to enable and make effective the experience that faces an organization's ecosystem. Partner/supplier experience actually forms the beginning of the value chain that ends up becoming the customer experience itself, so it's foundational.

Note: Much of the industry discussion at the moment actually uses the term employee experience instead of worker experience, yet it's quite clear that many workers today are not actually employees so I tend to prefer the latter as more inclusive. Be aware that both phrases are used today with the former being the more well known.

However, while customer experience as a concept is relatively well known now, companies are just now realizing that all three of these experiences must be developed as part of coherent and comprehensive digital transformation to a relatively high level in order to realize the promise of digital modernization. This trio of integrated experiences are then the three legs of the proverbial stool for the contemporary organization. To be clear then: Much of digital transformation is actually the process of remaking the old functional silos (marketing, sales, operations, customer service, etc.) into these three much more seamless and continuous experiences that are designed for frequent change, adaptation, and evolution.

Digital change at scale for better experiences

In the coming Experiential Economy, as value creation is dominated by how well these three experiences are delivered, the greatest discriminator will be the ease at which an experience (customer, worker, partner/supplier) meets the stakeholders needs, as well as how well it stays adapted to them. To do this, we've learned as an industry, requires us to overcome what I've called the Engagement Paradox, which observes how there are millions of stakeholders combined that our organizations must address and satisfy, each of which are coming to expect a one-on-one personalized relationship with the experiences that enrich their lives, livelihoods, and businesses.

Mass personalization and one-on-one engagement will therefore increasingly dominate our digital experiences, as will the need for local adaptation and the movement away from one-size-fits-all experiences, devices, and technologies.

In fact, I've explored in the last few years on how I've discovered that digital transformation has steadily become more decentralized as a broader portfolio of local transformation efforts that has some central coordination and cross-pollination of lessons learned and best practices (what I've called a Network of Excellence, with a growing body of examples.) DIY approaches to digital transformation have become possible and are growing ever-more popular, such as low code and citizen developer tools. These then are potential paths in terms of more safely increasing the speed and scale of digital change.

What we'll almost certainly see in 2018 is the rise of digital change agents, formal and otherwise, who are coming to understand these three major focus areas of digital transformation, use their newfound expectation to demand to drive improvement, and begin to deliver on them, restructuring the organization physically and virtually as needed in order to get two key benefits: Economies of scale and economies of change that they need to deliver on a fuller and more holistic organizational experience.

So, while you'll see many business and IT surveys showing that business growth, customer retention, artificial intelligence, analytics, Internet of Things, and other individual priorities top the list of focus areas for digital transformation this year, the real strategic conversation and focus is an entire level up:

How can we best steadily craft and maintain world class digital experiences for all of our stakeholders in a way that avoids disruption and builds a path into the future? This then will be the prime focus of leading organizations in 2018 to put them into a much better digital posture to meet their key business objectives.

Additional Reading
The enterprise technologies to watch this year Who controls the marketing tech stack in 2017: The CIO or CMO How customer experience drives product development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What enterprises will focus on for digital transformation in 2018 | ZDNet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Up until this year, organizations could often afford to overlook the bigger picture for various digital upgrades, improvements, and modernization. In 2018, these threads will now become so connected that increasingly holistic digital transformation efforts will focus on more customer and worker-centric models for better organizing how they function to avoid disruption while creating value faster and more effectively.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Software eats the world, right? We've been saying that for how long now? (1997 in my case, I think.) And we're still transforming? Yep.

That it's taking so long is just an indication of just how hard it is for companies to change how they operate. But hard does not mean impossible, and we think companies could exert a little more willpower using technology to do a better job for customers.

To find out the state of digital transformation, we surveyed 1,600 business and IT decision-makers in North American and European enterprises. The answer? Sorry, I'm afraid. As you can see from the picture below, 21% of firms think their transformation is done and dusted. Really? Done? Another 22% are investigating or not transforming at all. And while 56% of firms are transforming, their level of investment and scope of transformation are still mostly small. For example, only 34% of banks and insurers are even bothering to transform marketing and only 45% are transforming customer care - too few given consumers' mass adoption of mobile devices.

Why? As one respondent put it, "It's a war between old-school technophobe leaders and the technology innovation that represents a completely different way of doing business."

Need more evidence of the sorry state? Here are three examples:

1. On the transformation concerns list is security, but only 31% of companies are worried about that. Really? 69% of you aren't worried about data breaches?

2. We also found it surprising that, while three of every four executives think emerging technology is key to transformation, only 17% are investing in artificial intelligence.

3. Even SaaS investments aren't as big as they could be, as 45% of companies haven't invested in this yet, either.

We have more to share on the state of digital transformation, but let us leave you with the fact that CIOs lead transformation in 37% of firms while CMOs lead transformation in only 12% of companies. There's work to do, people. Our customers deserve it.
One aspect of digital transformation-artificial intelligence-is challenging for many companies, from training AI to preparing the data and understanding its actions. Watch Forrester's complimentary webinar for ways to successfully implement your AI strategy.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Sorry State Of Digital Transformation In 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Software eats the world, right? We've been saying that for how long now? (1997 in my case, I think.) And we're still transforming? Yep. That it's taking so long is just an indication of just how hard it is for companies to change how they operate.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Digital transformation has moved beyond a nice-to-have to let's get cracking. Once a top priority for early adopters and cutting-edge enterprises, digital transformation has moved into the mainstream. Few would argue that digital transformation initiatives are vital to the success of their organization.

In fact, 64 percent of respondents to a 2017 Constellation Research survey said digital transformation is essential to driving profits.

A recent Frost & Sullivan survey looking at end-user perspectives on navigating digital transformation globally, found that improving digital presence will be a top driver for IT investment over the next two years. Other broad goals respondents have for their organizations include reducing operational costs, improving the customer experience, and aligning IT with business strategy.

Here is a look at some specific digital transformation trends that are on organizations' radars right now - as well as once hot initiatives that are beginning to cool.

Heating up: Location services

Connecting with patients and "creating an intensely positive digital experience" is top of mind at Dignity Health, says Dr. Shez Partovi, chief digital officer and senior vice president of digital transformation at the healthcare system, which is merging with Catholic Health Initiatives. To do that requires "removing friction" and engaging with patients wherever they are, he says.

Dignity Health launched its digital transformation in 2016. Already it is deploying remote care and telehealth with an app that lets users find a physician, book an appointment, and conduct "video visits." On tap for this year: pre-registering for check-in to a clinic or pre-admission to a hospital.

One of the big pain points for patients and their families is finding parking when they arrive at a hospital or clinic. "What we see heating up is the combination of the information you can present using a mobile device, whether a QR code or bar code ... with geolocation to enhance the experience and simplify the in-person transactions,'' says Partovi.

Location services will indicate the best place to park when patients arrive at the parking lot, as well as how to navigate the hospital to get to where they need to be. Some Dignity Health facilities have beacons that, when patients arrive in the parking lot, "wake up your phone and say, 'Welcome, do you need directions to get to where you're going?' This will help us connect with people and simplify their journey," he says.

When people enter places like an airport or a ballpark, there are in-person transactions that still have friction, Partovi notes. "We see an opportunity to leverage technology to remove the friction of when you're physically in the space. "We're turning our attention to transforming the in-person experience."

Reducing costs while improving customer care is critical; meeting customers when, where, and how they need it "may be the only way to keep healthcare organizations competitive in the near future," agrees Alpa Shah, global vice president of digital transformation at Frost & Sullivan. "The ease of video conferencing, the ability to receive text message updates on appointments or medication reminders, and the growth of wearable devices all make healthcare a leading industry in digital transformation."

Cooling down: Cloud-first strategy

These days, rethinking an organization's infrastructure typically means moving workloads and apps to the cloud. That's not necessarily the right approach for everyone, though. "I get the sense that [a cloud-first strategy] has come and gone,'' says Bill Mayo, CIO of Broad Institute, a biomedical research institute based in Cambridge, Mass. "If you're just now declaring that cloud works for you, you've got a little answering to do for what you've been doing for years."

What makes the most sense is being able to "blur the lines between a cloud or on-premises environment - and that it's not a binary choice anymore,'' he says. For a long time, people felt they couldn't move to the cloud because of security issues, or their data was too sensitive or because of concerns about being locked in to a provider, Mayo says. Then there were the pro-cloud zealots who preached that everything should move to the cloud for all the benefits organizations would reap, including reduced costs, storage and scalability.

"We're beyond the stage where one [approach] is wonderful and the other is terrible,'' Mayo maintains. "The fact is, I'm not after either architecture. I'm after some balance of flexibility, security, cost and speed, and sometimes that points me to a cloud solution and sometimes it points me to an on-premises solution."

Heating up: 'Atomic pricing' in the cloud

Data transformation initiatives require very robust, reliable and scalable cloud infrastructure. Cloud services are fueling them with what Partovi calls atomic pricing: when an organization can buy infrastructure on a per-second basis, he says.

During flu season, for example, he notes, the hit rate for information on the flu "scales to millions of hits, and Dignity Health's cloud platform can scale automatically to accommodate the higher demand. "These sorts of advantages have made us bold when it comes to purchasing cloud infrastructure, and we're willing to invest even more because our investment goes further, since we're only paying for our atomic demand."

Cloud provides incredible economies of scale, Partovi says. "I don't need to purchase legacy infrastructure and support it while we wait to scale. Leveraging economics in cloud infrastructure are, without question, a big part of my digital strategy."

Pricing for compute, bandwidth and storage on cloud providers like AWS, Google and Microsoft Azure is down to a second, he says. "They are racing to go atomic and we are delighted. I only pay for what I use. It's like being at a fabulous buffet ... you only pay for what you take, but the menu choices are amazing."

Cooling down: Build-it-yourself IoT platforms

In-house internet of things (IoT) platforms are falling out of favor as major vendors and consulting firms are leveraging ready-to-use IoT platforms, claims Matthew Mead, chief technology officer of digital technology consulting agency SPR.

"Previously, platforms were not available, so companies were forced to build their own, typically using cloud-based technologies as their base,'' he says. "These new and emerging IoT platforms allow companies to get to market more quickly, for less money and with a richer set of features."

The Frost & Sullivan survey found that overall, across major industry sectors, successful implementation of IoT is a top priority. The level of IoT deployment has moved from watching and learning to mid- or large-scale trials among 35 percent of respondents and embedding of IoT into core services/products among 34 percent of respondents, says Shah. In addition, 40 percent of respondents said they are deploying next-generation offerings.

Heating up: Blockchain for business

Right now, it's unclear all the ways in which blockchain can be used in an enterprise, and implementations are few and far between. Yet, that's not stopping some companies from eyeing blockchain technology with great interest.

"One immediate benefit we have seen from this technology is in our contract agreements,'' says Chris Rothstein, CEO of sales platform company Groove. "Smart contracts are an emerging technology that I expect, along with several of the capabilities of blockchain that we are still discovering, will gain in popularity in the coming years."

"We're seeing an exponential increase in interest regarding blockchain technologies,'' says Mead. "While cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin gets most of the headlines, we're seeing more interest from Fortune 5000 companies in smart contracts using the blockchain distributed ledger."

This immutable ledger not only can eliminate some middleman costs and complexity, but "also stands to return control of some data to citizens,'' he says.

Blockchain is also on Bob Amareld's radar. Amareld, associate director of strategic operations and technology for global procurement at Biogen, hopes there will be lots of startup consultancies that will help him simplify the process of taking his disparate data sources and have a blockchain script be able to read them, so he doesn't have to build something from scratch.

"I think that technology has huge utility, but it's in the wrong place in the hype cycle,'' Amareld says. "If I'm going to spend a lot of money, I need to be sure it's going to work." He envisions a time in the near future when all of his data can be linked together in one blockchain and using a dashboard tool to pull together data sets and link an invoice to a purchase order and then to a contract.

"Right now, I'm stuck in an area where there's many different data hubs,'' he says, noting that the ERP system Biogen's procurement group uses has five to 10 data hubs that might talk to one another, "and I need something that pulls them together. You can't manually link everything."

Cooling down: Mobile-first and tablets

A few years back, lots of organizations were trying to build their software to be mobile-first. The thought was that everything would move to mobile in a few short years, effectively making computers and other office staples obsolete.

Similarly, people expected tablets to take off as the new way to do business because they were mobile, powerful and relatively easy-to-use.

"We didn't see either of these trends play out, though,'' says Rothstein. "In fact, we are now seeing this trend reverse, as software has returned to a desktop-first model, only supporting the development of mobile and tablet apps afterward."

Heating up: Identity management in the cloud

As users begin consuming more and more digital services, it's becoming more critical to manage one's identity in a single online persona instead of having to use their Facebook or Google accounts. In keeping with the as-a-service movement, Partovi believes identity as a service is the next big thing: a single identity account for consuming services so a user doesn't have to constantly prove they are who they are - sort of like an online driver's license, he says.

"What's cooling is solutions that aren't willing to play nice in the identity management space,'' he says.

The challenge will be coming up with a way to manage identities on a global scale, Partovi says. "In the world of digital transformation, it's almost a necessary step to simplify identity management. Otherwise, we get crushed by the weight of having to manage so many identities online."

Cooling down: Multiple tools for collaboration

The days of using lots of different collaboration tools are numbered, observers say. In one company alone, you might find Slack, Chatter, Yammer, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, Trello, Office Planner, LinkedIn communities, and countless other offerings.

While the competition may prompt new levels of utility and innovation, "it's driving users and IT crazy,'' says Mike Fitzmaurice, vice president of workflow technology at Nintex. "We're approaching the point where organizations are going to have to pick winners and invest in their usage and adoption, or people are going to give up and go back to email."

When figuring out which tool to use takes more time than doing the actual work, Fitzmaurice says, "we have paralysis, not productivity."

While there will continue to be investments in unified communications and collaboration tools, Shah says Frost & Sullivan is seeing that companies like Microsoft and Google are gaining tremendous traction with collaboration software consumer messaging and calling services like Skype and Google Voice. "This will definitely shake up the traditional on-premises communications companies,'' he says.

And while digital marketing is here to stay, there is a proliferation of these tools in enterprises as well, says Kyle Hutchins, a senior director in the customer experience practice at West Monroe Partners. "I don't see new technologies being developed, and instead, there will be a focus on consolidation, connectivity, and optimization. That's where the dollars and resources will go."

Heating up: AI, machine learning

While artificial intelligence has been gaining momentum, there is increasing interest in using a subset of AI, machine learning, which is sometimes referred to as "narrow AI."

"Narrow AI is the discipline where statistical approaches allow software algorithms to improve the reliability and effectiveness of particular tasks over time with experience,'' says Mead. "Today, narrow AI can provide a competitive advantage, but in the future, this sophisticated statistical analysis will be required to satisfy the end-user expectations that come along with digital transformation."

AI technology is moving "from large central processing to local devices (IoT) working on their own out on the edge and ultimately in concert with each other," says Ed Szofer, CEO of SenecaGlobal.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
6 hot digital transformation trends - and 4 going cold

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital transformation has moved beyond a nice-to-have to let's get cracking. Once a top priority for early adopters and cutting-edge enterprises, digital transformation has moved into the mainstream. Few would argue that digital transformation initiatives are vital to the success of their organization.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As digital transformation's importance has continued to grow, CIOs have been asked to focus on one goal: Delivering exceptional digital experiences to customers. It's a number one CIO priority in 2018.

To embrace this, companies are migrating towards faster and more flexible development pipelines, and exploring new technologies like AI. More organizations across diverse vertical markets are adopting DevOps practices and principles to outstride their competition and meet the demand for customer obsession. And, because of this change in approach, new tools are emerging in the areas of test automation, continuous integration, and continuous deployment.
[ See our related article, 7 leadership rules for the DevOps age. ]
As we enter the New Year, these digital transformation trends will likely stand out as business drivers. If CIOs can stay ahead of these, they will set themselves up for success in 2018.

Trend 1: Customer obsession is a high priority

Forrester reports have shown that many organizations who consider themselves as focused on their customers are only at a level known as "customer aware." These organizations are aware of their customers, their priorities, and what they value. However, these customer-aware organizations lack the fundamental understanding that their customers are the most important aspect of their roadmap.

When an organization makes nearly every business decision based on the answer to the question of "how does this benefit the customer?" they can move beyond a customer-awareness model and into a customer-obsessed one, and this has a positive impact on revenue.

If 2017 was about many organizations becoming fundamentally aware of the "customer-obsessed" model, 2018 will be a year in which companies of all sizes put the idea to work when planning and building software.

Trend 2: Artificial intelligence as a business driver

Tied directly to the concept of customer experience (and customer obsession) is the trend of using artificial intelligence and big data to impact business decisions, by understanding changing the way users interact with sites and applications. Forrester's data from 2017 shows that more than 50 percent of organizations have implemented some form of AI project, and another 20 percent are planning to do so in the short-term future. Examples of this in action are things like artificial intelligence-fueled chatbots that can respond to customer's questions in an intuitive and "human" way.

At the core of this movement is data: It's imperative for organizations to gather more data than in the past. But, more significant than the data itself is the means of turning data into action, and businesses will be looking to do so through the use of AI and automation. Thus, customer obsession, AI, and data analysis and how they are all intertwined will become focal points for the coming year.

Trend 3: Being fast is more important than being perfect

Historically, companies have nurtured an organizational culture that strives for bulletproof solutions. The outcome of this type of culture is ultimately strong final products, but a slow development cycle that fails to fuel rapid innovation and business growth. In 2018, more organizations will move toward the "failing fast" model - focusing more on speed, innovation, and learning quickly, instead of trying to develop the perfect product.

The result is a more a nimble business that can build products, release them, test them, and collect/analyze data at an incredible rate. This will fuel an overall better product, a better user experience, and a more engaged and collaborative team. Businesses today need to continuously reinvest in this strategic imperative to remain competitive their respective marketplaces.

Trend 4: Increased focus on testing and agility

2017 saw a massive increase in the number of organizations tapping into modern software development methodologies for their development processes. An essential concept in the Agile methodology is the power to make many incremental changes (harkening back to the idea of speed over perfection). One of the issues that can arise when doing many releases and making loads of gradual changes is creating lots of bugs and conflicts between teams. So, how will organizations solve this moving into next year? The answer is mostly DevOps.

The goal of DevOps is to build a pipeline where each step is as frictionless as possible. The coding itself should be as frictionless as it can be, and can be made even more frictionless and smooth by implementing a build system. Testing, deploying and monitoring should also be simple.

When you've created this frictionless pipeline, implementing automation and testing at every step of the way is much more approachable. Proper testing is a fundamental aspect of any successful Agile or DevOps pipeline. When testing becomes an essential part of the pipeline, organizations will deliver better products, faster. Look for more teams to make the leap from Agile to DevOps in the coming year.

CIO to-do items in 2018

To stay ahead of these trends, CIOs will need to do a few things right to get to the customer-obsessed gold standard.

1. Find inefficiencies in your development, testing, and deployment processes. Those inefficiencies hamper your ability to respond quickly to changes. This is what DevOps is all about - creating an environment whereby a business is able to respond quickly to customer needs. Usually, the two major things missing are a frictionless CI/CD pipeline and automated testing to ensure that code that has been submitted is valid.

2. Now kill your releases. Remove the concept of "releases" entirely. Just deploy a feature as soon as its code is ready and fully tested, and don't wait for a "bigger" release.

3. Once you have the ability to respond quickly to required changes in the product, build a customer-obsessed data gathering capability: This enables you to figure out what the customer wants and swiftly comply.

Remember, artificial intelligence, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps are only tools and not the end game. The end game is being customer-obsessed, and giving the customers what they need, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Want more wisdom like this, IT leaders? Sign up for our weekly email newsletter.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital transformation: 4 growing trends in 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As digital transformation's importance has continued to grow, CIOs have been asked to focus on one goal: Delivering exceptional digital experiences to customers. It's a number one CIO priority in 2018. To embrace this, companies are migrating towards faster and more flexible development pipelines, and exploring new technologies like AI.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The difficulty of digital transformation & how to make it happen | Rico Dittrich | TEDxUniPaderborn

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is better than a fair amount of inspiring TED Talk videos to kick off the new year? The digital leaders must stay always on top of things, ready to put their beliefs into question. We live in an age where the only constant is the constant change, after all.

Whether you are trying to improve your business strategy, to establish yourself as a true guide for your employees, or simply to find your inner motivation, there is a TED Talk waiting for you.

Through the years, the world's leading thinkers have made their mark with brief - and yet disruptive - speeches, ranging from marketing to technology, from creativity to self improvement. As a fact, we have gathered lots of " ideas worth spreading ", and we have now something close to 2.000 talks available online.

You don't have to feel overwhelmed, though, because we have done the hard work for you. We have selected 10 of the most inspiring TED Talks ever, those that have affected us as digital marketers and entrepreneurs. Enjoy, get inspired and rock your 2017!
YOUR ELUSIVE CREATIVE GENIUS - ELIZABETH GILBERT
Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of Eat Pray Love, " shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person being a genius, all of us have a genius. "

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM - STEVEN JOHNSON
Steven Johnson, the author of Mind Wide Open, talks about the birth of ideas. People often thinks they are individual 'Eureka' moments but maybe history tells something different.

HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION - SIMON SINEK
Simon Sinek, the author of Start With Why, shares his powerful model for inspirational leadership. A model that starts with a golden circle and the question 'Why?'

WHAT CONSUMERS WANT - JOSEPH PINE
You know we are obsessed with the importance of the customer experience. Joseph Pine, author of Mass Customization, tells us why authenticity is so hard to sell.

CHOICE, HAPPINESS AND SPAGHETTI SAUCE - MALCOLM GLADWELL
What does it have to do a spaghetti sauce with the power of choices and the pursuit of happiness? Follow Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell and you will know.

404, THE STORY OF A PAGE NOT FOUND - RENNY GLEESON
We all have experienced the 404 - Page Not Found. Is it a failure in the connection between a brand and a customer? Or an incredible choice to build relationships? Ask the expert Renny Gleeson.

YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SHAPES WHO YOU ARE - AMY CUDDY
Your body language affects how others see you, band how you see yourself. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how 'power posing' might have an impact on your life.

THE PUZZLE OF MOTIVATION - DAN PINK
Everyone needs motivation in his life. Career analyst Daniel Pink shares his experience, starting with something that marketers often ignore: Traditional rewards aren't always effective.

VIRTUAL REALITY AND THE EMPATHY MACHINE - CHRIS MILK
On the tech side of the TED, this one by Chris Milk is one of the best talks ever. Virtual reality, storytelling, interactions, emotions, even business: you will find this and much more.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR COMPUTERS GET SMARTER THAN WE ARE - NICK BOSTROM
We close the list with Nick Bostrom's talk, because the topic has never been so current and intriguing. Is it true that machines are becoming smarter than humans? And, if so, how will the world change?

Need more inspiration? Download The Mobile Engagement Playbook, a collection of relevant insights based on many years of Neosperience's expertise that'll help you to overcome the challenges of the digital transformation and grow your business exponentially.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Inspiring TED Talk Videos Every Digital Leader Should Watch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What is better than a fair amount of inspiring TED Talk videos to kick off the new year? The digital leaders must stay always on top of things, ready to put their beliefs into question. We live in an age where the only constant is the constant change, after all.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Digital transformation manifests in different ways for different companies. For some, it is a push towards developing a mobile strategy, while for others it is all about embracing new technologies as a way to improve and revolutionize operations. It can also be confusing and disorienting, as change often is. These TED Talks will help explain the role of digital transformation and organizational change in general.

"And you might be thinking that it was good luck, but it wasn't. There was a pattern of deliberate choices."

This TED Talk is about the way Costa Rica was able to adopt mostly clean energy. You might be wondering what fossil fuels have to do with finance. While the two subjects are unrelated on the surface, dig deeper. Leading the charge at your company to embrace digital transformation could take some big conversations - but that is exactly what needs to happen for a true transformation.

"How do you think we have self-driving cars? ...It's because we changed the nature of the problem."

In this TED Talk, the speaker looks at the role that Big Data plays in the modern world and how reframing of common problems is what has enabled different technological advancements to come to fruition. He talks about how the nature of work is changing, too, and how some of that change is extraneous, while other aspects could be misused. It will help you understand how digital transformation could impact your company and its operations.

"Business strategy has always been premised on assumptions about technology... those assumptions are changing."

This TED Talk speaker explains the nature of business strategy and how our existing notions of strategy are predicated on our understanding of technology. As technology advances and changes, business strategies also have to adapt. He talks about the ways that technology is disrupting the value chain as we know it and the way that business models in general are changing in response. Finance leaders will appreciate the links the speaker draws.

"When it comes to self-transformation, you can't help but get a sense of the excitement. But there's another type of transformation that occupies a very different emotional space: The transformation of organizations."

The speaker in this TED Talk is focused on transformation itself. He starts by comparing how energetic people often are about changes in their personal lives compared to apathy that often accompanies organizational change. The speaker argues that people need to accept change as a constant that can be managed.

"We need to think more modestly and subtly about when and how we can shape, rather than control, unpredictable and complex situations. It's a little like the difference between throwing a ball and releasing a bird."

This TED Talk comes from a strategist who applies concepts from biology to organizations. The speaker talks about how companies can learn from living organisms how to build companies that are resilient in the face of a changing environment. Digital transformation is one of these adaptations or evolutions of which he speaks.

Surviving digital transformation and being effective at implementing those directives requires a big-picture approach. Make sure that your company is prepared with tools that make digital transformation a true evolution instead of a simple response to the shifting market or environment.
Learn how organizations are gaining instant financial insights and using them to make better decisions - both now and in the future. Register now for 2017 Financial Excellence Forum, Oct. 10-11 in New York City. Follow SAP Finance online: @SAPFinance (Twitter) | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube
About Conor Donohoe

Conor Donohoe is an ERP consultant for SAP S/4HANA Cloud at SAP. He is a qualified chartered accountant, with first-hand experience of how technology can drive business change. Trained in a Big Four accounting firm, he is experienced in advanced analytics and reporting within the professional services, banking, and pharmaceutical industries. Conor comes from the ERP user side, so understands the challenges ERP users can encounter with their systems - and where real gains can be made.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Top 5 TED Talks For Finance Leaders In Digital Transformation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital transformation manifests in different ways for different companies. For some, it is a push towards developing a mobile strategy, while for others it is all about embracing new technologies as a way to improve and revolutionize operations. It can also be confusing and disorienting, as change often is.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After years of hype about gigabit speeds that will let you download full-length movies in mere seconds, is finally becoming a reality in 2018. Or at least, we'll get our first taste of it.

The fifth generation of connectivity, pithily called 5G, will be ready for prime time later this year. Software is being tested, hardware is in the works, and carriers are readying their plans to deploy 5G in select markets by the end of 2018.

The new networking standard is not just about faster smartphones. Higher speeds and lower latency will also make new experiences possible in augmented and virtual reality, connected cars and the smart home - any realm where machines need to talk to each other constantly and without lag.

In the brave new 5G world, you will definitely need to buy a new phone, but it won't be all about handsets.

"5G will be the post-smartphone era," said Robert J. Topol, Intel's general manager for 5G business and technology. "Phones are the first place to launch because [they're] such an anchor in our lives from a connectivity standpoint."

Here's what you can expect as 5G rolls out later this year:

3 5G Fast Facts

* 5G standard was completed in June.
Carriers are working with infrastructure partners to deploy 5G-ready equipment by the end of 2018.
* The first 5G-capable phones will start to appear early next year. The first 5G devices will be mobile hotspots, which will roll out toward the end of 2018.

Where 5G Is Now

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project, the standards body that writes the rules for wireless connectivity, That agreement paved the way for hardware makers to start developing handsets with 5G modems inside. But the non-standalone specification applies to 5G developed with LTE as an anchor. agreed in December on the first specification for 5G . The Non-Standalone Specification of 5G New Radio standard covers 600 and 700 MHz bands and the 50 GHz millimeter-wave end of the spectrum.

In June, the standards body completed the rules for standalone 5G. Now network operators can start fine-tuning their software using equipment that complies with the completed standard.

"[The standard] really sets [the stage] for interoperable systems and field trials with operators in 2018, and it starts the clock for being able to build standards-compliant devices heading toward the last half of 2018 and early 2019 launches," said Qualcomm's Matt Branda, who oversees 5G marketing.

It's important to note that 5G devices have to play nice with existing LTE networks, because in areas where 5G coverage will be spotty or nonexistent, the new radios will be optimized for available LTE connections. That's why the non-standalone specification came down first.

Companies such as Qualcomm and Intel are working on 5G modems that will fit into phones, cars, smart-home devices and other device forms that have yet to take shape. Those radios are in the midst of testing to make sure they're interoperable with network operators and infrastructure companies.

"We've done dozens of trials already," Intel's Topol said. "Now as we get closer to the commercial silicon, that's where the OEM announcements [from hardware makers] will start to come in."

For its part, Qualcomm has said that 19 network operators around the globe plan to use its X50 5G modem in their 5G trials; that figure includes all the major U.S. carriers. Eighteen device makers, including Sony, ZTE and LG, plan to use the X50 in their 5G products, according to Qualcomm. Qualcomm also unveiled a new LTE modem - the X24 - which is also expected to be included on early 5G devices, as its maximum download speed of 2 Gbps should help those phones keep a fast connection even when 5G networks aren't available.

How Wireless Carriers Are Preparing

The earliest 5G deployments will use fixed wireless, similar to the wireless broadband you use at home. Intel showed off some of that in South Korea, allowing viewers at the games to take advantage of so-called "time-slice technology" to pick a vantage point to watch the action. That tech is powered by a 5G fixed wireless connection. Intel announced at Mobile World Congress that it will partner with Japanese telecom operator NTT Docomo to turn Tokyo into a smart city for the 2020 Olympics. The two companies are already laying the groundwork to create those experiences. 5G will be widely available by then, but Intel has ambitious plans in place, including 360-degree virtual reality demonstrations in 8K resolution. functionality at the Winter Olympics

Demonstrations aside, now that the final specification has been released, we expect to see more announcements from wireless carriers on 5G availability in the U.S.

AT&T has already announced that it will launch to homes in Sacramento, California, and four additional markets later this year, but hasn't announced plans for mobile 5G. 5G wireless service in 12 cities by the end of the year, though the company declined to offer more details on which markets will see 5G rollout and when. Verizon is bringing

"There are network operators that will be very aggressive with their plans. There might not be a lot of devices ready but it's important that the networks be ready."
- Robert J. Topol, Intel

As for Sprint, it's eyeing an early 2019 rollout on millimeter wave spectrum, though the carrier is currently building out its network capacity and boosting LTE speeds with massive MIMO, or the use of multiple transmit and receive antennas at a base station to increase capacity. That will lay the groundwork for 5G deployment in 2019.

T-Mobile is also aiming for a 2019 launch followed by nationwide 5G coverage in 2020 after winning an auction for 600 MHz spectrum last summer. T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray says the company is already rolling out 5G-ready 600 MHz equipment, so that when 5G is ready to go, T-Mobile will only have to push out a software upgrade. At Mobile World Congress, Ray announced that T-Mobile is laying down 5G-ready equipment in 30 cities in 2018, starting first in New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas.

But Ray also cautioned that the race to get 5G connectivity to customers in 2018 is a "pointless race," because the first 5G-ready smartphones won't be announced until Mobile World Congress in February 2019.

MORE: The Fastest (and Slowest) Wireless Networks
Next-generation wireless networks require more infrastructure, such as small cells placed both indoors and out that transmit millimeter waves, which travel short distances. That's why T-Mobile is focused on laying down equipment this year. Sprint's use of massive MIMO is another way to build out a next-gen network. Sprint announced at MWC that customers in Chicago, Dallas and LA will start to see faster speeds thanks to massive MIMO network rollout that began in April. Later this year, Sprint subscribers in Atlanta, Houston and Washington D.C. will also see what Sprint calls "5G-like capabilities."

Massive MIMO cell sites provide up to 10 times the capacity of LTE, but Sprint's 2018 plans are a bridge between LTE and 5G. Sprint customers will not see 5G connectivity this year.

But infrastructure is key to ensuring 5G coverage is expansive, efficient, consistent and plays well with existing LTE networks.

"There are network operators that will be very aggressive with their plans," Intel's Topol said. "There might not be a lot of devices ready but it's important that the networks be ready before the devices. Intel chipsets will start to be ready for handset manufacturers and others to go and build around."

What About Phones?

After chip makers and carriers make their moves, phone manufacturers will get their turn. That means new phones are on the way.

"It's our intent to have an initial device by the end of the year. We'll continue to add to that device portfolio in [2019] and beyond."
- Gordon Mansfield, AT&T

The specification is complete. Now, 5G networks will roll out and Intel and Qualcomm will have chipsets ready to go. But you won't see a smartphone with a 5G radio inside this year.

"5G will be a new device," said Gordon Mansfield, AT&T's vice president of RAN and device design. "Your existing device does not have the radio in it that supports the 5G new radio capabilities. It's our intent to have an initial device by the end of the year. We'll continue to add to that device portfolio in [2019] and beyond."

That device won't be a phone, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Jan. 31. Instead, AT&T will release a mobile hotspot-like device called a puck that will deliver faster speeds and lower latency in portable modem form.

MORE: Best Smartphones on the Market Now
That means the phone you buy this year, even now that the 5G standard has been completed, won't be compatible with 5G networks. That's something to think about if you're planning to splurge on a pricey handset.

5G Beyond Phones

Being able to take advantage of truly unlimited data is a smartphone user's dream, but everyone I've talked to about 5G is more excited about the potential unlocked by next-generation wireless. From smart-home security to self-driving cars, all the internet-connected devices in your life will be able to talk to each other at lightning-fast speeds with reduced latency.

"5G is one of those heralds, along with artificial intelligence, of this coming data age," said Steve Koenig, senior director of market research for the Consumer Technology Association. "Self-driving vehicles are emblematic of this data age, because with one single task, driving, you have massive amounts of data coming from the vehicle itself, [and] a variety of sensors are collecting a lot of information to model its environment as it moves. It's pulling in data from other vehicles about road conditions down the lane. It could be weather information, but also connected infrastructure. There's lots of data behind that task, which is why we need the capacity and lower latency."

And 5G could finally make augmented- and virtual-reality headsets more palatable for mainstream users. This is notable because companies such as Apple are reportedly developing AR glasses to complement - or perhaps even replace - smartphones. 5G would make that possible.

Ericsson illustrated at this year's Mobile World Congress how smart glasses could become faster and lighter with a 5G connection, because instead of being weighed down with components, the glasses could rely on external hardware for processing power.

I watched through the glasses as digital balls cascaded down physical shelves and onto the ground, marveling at how the virtual world was mapped on top of the physical one. But more importantly was how seamless the experience was, as the balls tumbled from the shelf to the floor.

Augmented reality glasses and virtual reality headsets haven't yet , but tech companies are betting that these devices will eventually replace our smartphones. With 5G, that could actually happen. cracked the mainstream

Verizon and Nokia recently tested the transmission of live interactive virtual reality and 4K video streaming over a 5G connection outdoors using Verizon's millimeter-wave spectrum and found that they were able to reach throughput speeds of 1.8 Gbps with a latency of about 1.5 millisecond. Basically, the latency is so small as to be unnoticeable, which will make VR a much more comfortable and engaging experience.

But don't get too excited. There's still a lot of work to be done in the meantime, including interoperability trials to make sure the radios play nicely with hardware and infrastructure build-out so 5G coverage isn't concentrated solely in high-density cities.
MORE: Augmented Reality Makes Us More Human, Not Less
"I think a lot of the hype is where things are gonna be 10 years from now with 5G, not what it will be at launch," said Ron Marquardt, Sprint's vice president of technology development.

2018 is when the 5G transition truly starts. But 2020 is when the fifth generation of wireless connectivity will really start to take off.

Editors' Note: This article was updated on June 15 with news that the 5G stand-alone specification is complete.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Truth About 5G: What's Coming (and What's Not) in 2018

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After years of hype about gigabit speeds that will let you download full-length movies in mere seconds, is finally becoming a reality in 2018. Or at least, we'll get our first taste of it. The fifth generation of connectivity, pithily called 5G, will be ready for prime time later this year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why digital transformation has little to do with technology! | Tobias Burkhardt | TEDxIngolstadt

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have proven to us that we can trust them with our personal data. Now it's time to reward that trust by giving them complete control over our computers, toasters, and cars.

Allow me to introduce you to "edge" computing.

Edge is a buzzword. Like "IoT" and "cloud" before it, edge means everything and nothing. But I've been watching some industry experts on YouTube, listening to some podcasts, and even, on occasion, reading articles on the topic. And I think I've come up with a useful definition and some possible applications for this buzzword technology.

What is edge computing?

In the beginning, there was One Big Computer. Then, in the Unix era, we learned how to connect to that computer using dumb (not a pejorative) terminals. Next we had personal computers, which was the first time regular people really owned the hardware that did the work.

Right now, in 2018, we're firmly in the cloud computing era. Many of us still own personal computers, but we mostly use them to access centralized services like Dropbox, Gmail, Office 365, and Slack. Additionally, devices like Amazon Echo, Google Chromecast, and the Apple TV are powered by content and intelligence that's in the cloud - as opposed to the DVD box set of Little House on the Prairie or CD-ROM copy of Encarta you might've enjoyed in the personal computing era.

Most of the new opportunities for the "cloud" lie at the "edge"

As centralized as this all sounds, the truly amazing thing about cloud computing is that a seriously large percentage of all companies in the world now rely on the infrastructure, hosting, machine learning, and compute power of a very select few cloud providers: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and IBM.

Amazon, the largest by far of these "public cloud" providers (as opposed to the "private clouds" that companies like Apple, Facebook, and Dropbox host themselves) had 47 percent of the market in 2017.

The advent of edge computing as a buzzword you should perhaps pay attention to is the realization by these companies that there isn't much growth left in the cloud space. Almost everything that can be centralized has been centralized. Most of the new opportunities for the "cloud" lie at the "edge."

So, what is edge?

The word edge in this context means literal geographic distribution. Edge computing is computing that's done at or near the source of the data, instead of relying on the cloud at one of a dozen data centers to do all the work. It doesn't mean the cloud will disappear. It means the cloud is coming to you.

That said, let's get out of the word definition game and try to examine what people mean practically when they extoll edge computing.

Latency

One great driver for edge computing is the speed of light. If a Computer A needs to ask Computer B, half a globe away, before it can do anything, the user of Computer A perceives this delay as latency. The brief moments after you click a link before your web browser starts to actually show anything is in large part due to the speed of light. Multiplayer video games implement numerous elaborate techniques to mitigate true and perceived delay between you shooting at someone and you knowing, for certain, that you missed.

Edge computing has privacy benefits, but they aren't guaranteed

Voice assistants typically need to resolve your requests in the cloud, and the roundtrip time can be very noticeable. Your Echo has to process your speech, send a compressed representation of it to the cloud, the cloud has to uncompress that representation and process it - which might involve pinging another API somewhere, maybe to figure out the weather, and adding more speed of light-bound delay - and then the cloud sends your Echo the answer, and finally you can learn that today you should expect a high of 85 and a low of 42, so definitely give up on dressing appropriately for the weather.

So, a recent rumor that Amazon is working on its own AI chips for Alexa should come as no surprise. The more processing Amazon can do on your local Echo device, the less your Echo has to rely on the cloud. It means you get quicker replies, Amazon's server costs are less expensive, and conceivably, if enough of the work is done locally you could end up with more privacy - if Amazon is feeling magnanimous.

Privacy and security

It might be weird to think of it this way, but the security and privacy features of an iPhone are well accepted as an example of edge computing. Simply by doing encryption and storing biometric information on the device, Apple offloads a ton of security concerns from the centralized cloud to its diasporic users' devices.

But the other reason this feels like edge computing to me, not personal computing, is because while the compute work is distributed, the definition of the compute work is managed centrally. You didn't have to cobble together the hardware, software, and security best practices to keep your iPhone secure. You just paid $999 at the cellphone store and trained it to recognize your face.

The management aspect of edge computing is hugely important for security. Think of how much pain and suffering consumers have experienced with poorly managed Internet of Things devices.

As @SwiftOnSecurity famously said:

Consumer electronics are just plastic boxes with an abandoned Linux distribution inside.
- SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) October 17, 2017

That's why Microsoft is working on Azure Sphere, which is a managed Linux OS, a certified microcontroller, and a cloud service. The idea is that your toaster should be as difficult to hack, and as centrally updated and managed, as your Xbox.

I have no idea if the industry will embrace Microsoft's specific solution to the IoT security problem, but it seems an easy guess that most of the hardware you buy a few years from now will have its software updated automatically and security managed centrally. Because otherwise your toaster and dishwasher will join a botnet and ruin your life.

If you doubt me, just look at the success Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla have had in moving browsers to an "evergreen" model.

Think about it: you could probably tell me which version of Windows you're running. But do you know which version of Chrome you have? Edge computing will be more like Chrome, less like Windows.

Bandwidth

Security isn't the only way that edge computing will help solve the problems IoT introduced. The other hot example I see mentioned a lot by edge proponents is the bandwidth savings enabled by edge computing.

For instance, if you buy one security camera, you can probably stream all of its footage to the cloud. If you buy a dozen security cameras, you have a bandwidth problem. But if the cameras are smart enough to only save the "important" footage and discard the rest, your internet pipes are saved.

Almost any technology that's applicable to the latency problem is applicable to the bandwidth problem. Running AI on a user's device instead of all in the cloud seems to be a huge focus for Apple and Google right now.

Companies will control even more of your life experiences than they do right now

But Google is also working hard at making even websites more edge-y. Progressive Web Apps typically have offline-first functionality. That means you can open a "website" on your phone without an internet connection, do some work, save your changes locally, and only sync up with the cloud when it's convenient.

Google also is getting smarter at combining local AI features for the purpose of privacy and bandwidth savings. For instance, Google Clips keeps all your data local by default and does its magical AI inference locally. It doesn't work very well at its stated purpose of capturing cool moments from your life. But, conceptually, it's quintessential edge computing.

All of the above

Self-driving cars are, as far as I'm aware, the ultimate example of edge computing. Due to latency, privacy, and bandwidth, you can't feed all the numerous sensors of a self-driving car up to the cloud and wait for a response. Your trip can't survive that kind of latency, and even if it could, the cellular network is too inconsistent to rely on it for this kind of work.

But cars also represent a full shift away from user responsibility for the software they run on their devices. A self-driving car almost has to be managed centrally. It needs to get updates from the manufacturer automatically, it needs to send processed data back to the cloud to improve the algorithm, and the nightmare scenario of a self-driving car botnet makes the toaster and dishwasher botnet we've been worried about look like a Disney movie.

What are we giving up?

I have some fears about edge computing that are hard to articulate, and possibly unfounded, so I won't dive into them completely.

But the big picture is that the companies who do it the best will control even more of your life experiences than they do right now.

When the devices in your home and garage are managed by Google Amazon Microsoft Apple, you don't have to worry about security. You don't have to worry about updates. You don't have to worry about functionality. You don't have to worry about capabilities. You'll just take what you're given and use it the best you can.

In this worst-case world, you wake up in the morning and ask Alexa Siri Cortana Assistant what features your corporate overlords have pushed to your toaster, dishwasher, car, and phone overnight. In the personal computer era you would "install" software. In the edge computing era, you'll only use it.

It's up to the big companies to decide how much control they want to gain over their users' lives. But, it might also be up to us users to decide if there's another way to build the future. Yes, it's kind of a relief to take your hands off the steering wheel and let Larry Page guide you. But what if you don't like where he's going?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have proven to us that we can trust them with our personal data. Now it's time to reward that trust by giving them complete control over our computers, toasters, and cars. Allow me to introduce you to "edge" computing. Edge is a buzzword.