News You Can Use: Finding The Money For Digital Transformation

Looking for more insight into what customers might be up to? Here are four items that could give you an edge with a customer or two, focusing on digital transformation, internal information security threats, knowledge management and cognitive computing.

NOT ENOUGH MONEY FOR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?

Is lack of funding holding back some of your customers from pursuing digital transformation projects? Other solution providers may be getting the same answer. Chief financial officers want to move their organizations forward with digital transformation initiatives, but spending on maintaining aging technology is holding them back, according to financial advisory firm Grant Thornton. Its recent survey of more than 400 CFOs in the U.S. found three top barriers for future technology growth: managing costs (cited by 51 percent of respondents), maintenance of legacy systems (41 percent) and seamless business integration (40 percent).

"The simple truth is that CFOs face an uphill battle when it to comes to adopting technologies like cloud computing and advanced analytics,” says Mike Ward, national managing principal of business consulting and technology for Grant Thornton. “And they are feeling a sense of urgency." Why? Nearly half of survey respondents – 46 percent – believe their IT platforms can't run effectively and need future investment.

POTENTIAL COGNITIVE COMPUTING TARGET: THE HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE

Many businesses may just be kicking the tires on cognitive computing, but IBM believes the technology holds great potential in the human resources office. IBM, which has staked a good chunk of its future on cognitive computing, says there are several HR capabilities that can be helped by cognitive applications. A recent report the company co-authored with the Smarter Workforce Institute (SWI) highlights how cognitive technologies are likely to impact HR functions such as talent acquisition and on-boarding, talent development and HR operations. That impact, according to a statement from IBM, is already being recognized, as more than 65 percent of CEOs surveyed believe that cognitive computing will drive significant value in HR, while more than half of HR executives believe that cognitive computing will affect key roles in organizations.

SECURITY: THE ENEMY WITHIN IS STILL A PROBLEM

Security solution providers may be more than busy guarding their customers' infrastructures from cyberattacks, but that doesn't mean businesses are letting their guard down when it comes to insider threats. Security analytics platform vendor Haystax Technology this week released data from a new survey that said nearly three-quarters - -74 percent – of organizations feel vulnerable to insider threats, a jump of 7 over a similar survey in 2016. And of the organizations that are investing in insider threat mitigation, 61 percent are focusing mostly on deterrence, such as access controls, encryption and policies. Meanwhile, 49 percent are focusing on detection – such as monitoring and intrusion detection systems -- while 35 percent employ forensics and analysis systems, such as security incident and event management (SIEM) tools. "Ask any cybersecurity specialist to name the biggest security threat to an organization, and they'll tell you it's people," Haystax CEO Bryan Ware said.'

THE NOTES ON THAT PROJECT? YEAH, THEY'RE UMM, AHHH, HMMM ….

Knowledge management has long been an established business discipline. But the term itself has also been called an oxymoron. In many cases, it may just be a problem crying out for a solution. Harnessing all of an organization's knowledge and content is a challenge today, given the current shift toward more flexible and freelance work environments, and a 23 percent global employee turnover rate, according to Jive Software, based in Campbell, Calif. That leads to what Jive calls "corporate amnesia." It recently found that 47 percent of "global knowledge workers," defined as employed adults who use a computer or mobile device for at least some of their work, cite that as a problem at their company. The number in the U.S. is only slightly lower, at 42 percent. "Corporate amnesia becomes a rising problem when organizations fail to put their most valuable asset, their people, at the center of their digital transformation," said Elisa Steele, CEO of Jive Software, in a statement. One startling number: U.S workers said they spend about a third of their average work day searching for corporate information needed to complete work projects.