Corporate training is evolving, with powerful tools, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), becoming the norm. Both AR and VR offer employee simulations, scenarios and information in a secure, risk-free environment..

Architectural decisions for big data go far beyond hardware, software, and networks. Companies must also build a foundation that allows the right entry points to data that supports the business..

German electrical engineering and electronics conglomerate Siemens AG is teaming up with China’s Internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in a deal that will see it use the latter’s public cloud computing platform to host its MindSphere operating system for the Internet of Things..

At Kainos, we pride ourselves on not being tied to proprietary tools and services, allowing us to provide the most suitable solution for the problem, and within the Applied Innovation team, part of what we do is try out the newest cutting edge technologies to evaluate their business value and determine how well they fit the task at hand. There is no denying the strong partnership we’ve developed with Microsoft?.

Venture Capital (VC) investment in the UK gained strength in Q2’18, propelling it back to the top of the VC market in Europe according to Venture Pulse Q2 2018..

Few business risks today have the destructive capability of a cyber attack. Yet, for many organisations, cyber risks remain obscure, low priority, and are frequently seen as the domain of IT departments to manage..

Whether your customers are businesses or consumers, winning and retaining them is an increasing challenge.

There are myriad ways digital tools could change everything for pharma and the NHS. Many believe that harnessing the opportunities created by technology will be essential if the NHS is to manage the challenges ahead..

With an average of 1,000 attacks per month on aviation systems, the world’s airports are a favourite target for cyber terrorism. And you`re one of the biggest reasons why it`s happening..

The UK government pledged in May to use artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent more than 20,000 cancer-related deaths a year by 2033, with the prime minister’s plans being welcomed by health charities and industry alike..

Markets are what you make of them. Henry Ford knew it when he introduced the “any colour so long as it’s black” Model T Ford. Faberge knew it when he produced the first of his brilliant, bejewelled eggs. Big or small, high value or low cost: We get to decide, writes Fiona Czerniawska of Source Global Research...

The telecom market is a highly dynamic environment, despite being traditionally regarded as mature with high barriers to entry.

Landlines are set to be consigned to history at PwC later this year, as the accountancy giant switches its 18,000 UK staff entirely to mobile networks..

A new patent application from IBM outlines a way for developers to catalog coding updates and milestones on a blockchain..

The Perch-pike radar solution is based on modules of IBM Food Trust, a collaborative solution built on IBM Blockchain Platform and The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, created to efficiently and securely trace food during each step of the food supply. IBM Food Trust currently has over a dozen companies on the network..

Artificial Intelligence is growing in sophistication, complexity and autonomy. Opening up transformational opportunities for business and society. At the same time, it makes explainability ever more critical..

A new independent report by the Design Council today (Thursday 5 July) calls on the government and business to invest in the UK’s burgeoning ‘design economy’ to drive future jobs, innovation, productivity and overseas trade.

In a recent report, Intelligent Analytics:Threats and opportunities in the global analytics market, reveals that, collectively, consulting firms currently only have a 25% share of the analytics market. The remaining 75% is being done in-house, by clients themselves, writes Alison Huntington of Source Global Research...

Northern Ireland software company Kainos has revealed an £8m investment in research and development (R&D) for an automated testing platform that will expand its global footprint..

The skills gap is a growing concern for all those involved in cyber-security and was the topic of the recent parliamentary hearing by the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy..

The management and technology consultancy continues to strengthen its position as an independent, client-focused, European firm...

A record 75 percent of major British companies are now pessimistic about Brexit, a survey showed on Monday, adding to signs of anxiety around the economy as Britain’s divorce with the European Union draws near..

Our world is undeniably digital. New technologies, like social media and artificial intelligence, make our society unrecognisable from even 20 years ago. If you’re feeling queasy at the speed of change, hold tight, it’s only going to get faster..

Waves of technology-driven change now regularly disrupt industry, culture and society. The challenge of navigating this turbulence grows increasingly complex, requiring deep examination of overlapping trajectories in search of hidden insights..

Hitachi has released a point of view on the topic of co-creation, which we define as the process of innovating with partners in order to create new value for business stakeholders, customers and society at large. It’s a powerful message that is resonating in the market..

Waves of technology-driven change now regularly disrupt industry, culture and society. The challenge of navigating this turbulence grows increasingly complex, requiring deep examination of overlapping trajectories in search of hidden insights..

In the two years since the EU referendum, the disparity between the share performances of companies that operate largely inside the UK and ones that repatriate profits from foreign subsidiaries has almost reached a record high, said the accountancy company KPMG..

Our latest UK IT outsourcing survey found most customers are happy with what they get from their service providers. Almost nine in 10 rated their outsourced relationship as satisfactory or better – up two per cent on 2017. Many industries would kill for a rating that high – so why are outsourcers so worried?.

IBM`s newly minted Summit supercomputer can run an estimated 200,000 trillion calculations per second with stunning accuracy, making it the most powerful supercomputer in the world. Equally remarkable are the two women who helped create the project: Hillery Hunter and Stefanie Chiras represent each of the two IBM divisions behind the Summit supercomputer. The project took four years and thousands of engineers..

We`re at an unprecedented point in human history where artificially intelligent machines could soon be making decisions that affect many aspects of our lives. But what if we don`t know how they reached their decisions? Would it matter?.

IBM is hoping to apply a mix of behavioural analytics to tennis matches at this year`s Wimbledon tournament to automatically build video highlights reels. The company will use its Watson AI engine to recognise a player`s emotions and combine this with crowd noise and player movements to curate a highlights reel for viewers..

Equiteq is pleased to announce that it has advised The NAV People (TNP) on its recent management buy-out, which was led by the existing management team and backed by investment from FPE Capital. The transaction closed on June 21, 2018.

As artificial intelligence and IoT applications are becoming more prominent, businesses must consider how to best process and analyse such data. Think of the countless business efficiencies and consumer-centric conveniences that have been offered up by the connected home or smart city. However, this new era of connectivity has introduced disruption for many businesses..

The need for more learner-centred systems (over institution and educator dictated systems) is growing. After all, digital natives demand flexible and tailored services – their apps and lifestyle tools are increasingly 24/7 and accessible from smart devices. Cloud-based apps are loved by resident students, blended students and distance students alike: students are empowered..

IT security strategies based on trusted and untrusted domains are being rendered insufficient as hackers camouflage their attacks through compromised, privileged credentials. It’s happening so often that eight in ten breaches are now the result of compromised employee identities..

● Canada’s consulting market approaches $4bn landmark ($3.91bn)
● Digital transformation work almost quadruples its market share in one year
● Healthcare market–the star performer for consulting work...

Accountancy giant PwC has announced a new senior partner for its Newcastle office. Jonathan Greenaway will become the senior partner for PwC’s Newcastle office with effect from July 1, taking over the role from Bill MacLeod, who has led the office since 2014..

That golden age of gas predicted by the International Energy Agency isn`t really materialising for the world`s biggest turbine makers. Faced with a decline in demand for new gas power units, Siemens is now considering the sale of its turbine business. Bloomberg originally reported the news..

Organisations feel threatened in this constantly shifting world. Innovation is critical to survival, but it’s tough to keep pace with disruptive challenges. At PA, though, we believe in a positive human future – established organisations have the people to sustain innovation that will see them flourish. So, how do you turn business as usual into innovation as usual?.

ThoughtWorks, a global software and digital transformation consultancy, today announced the free availability of its newest open source product, Gauge. Available to download for free, Gauge was built to make test automation easy and to help organisations of all sizes on their journey towards continuous delivery. Gauge creates acceptance tests in any language, integrated development environment or ecosystem.

In just two decades, the world has drastically changed. Amazon launched, the first iPhone hit the shelves, and Government Digital Service (GDS) was founded. These are just a few of the digital revolutions that have been released across the public and private sectors in that time. And the pace of change is increasing. It feels like we’re entering a new era of digital..

What is the Modern Digital Estate for AI and how can it work for your enterprise?.

It’s that time of year again - the Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards, where we showcase the excellence that our partners have demonstrated over the past year by showcasing them across the globe, and we’d like to further congratulate our 2018 UK Country Partner of the Year, Kainos, on their fantastic award..

It’s just one small step from a self-driving car to AIs taking over the world and the “end of days” dystopias that Hollywood has popularised in a number of recent films. According to Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, Alexandra Whittington, April Koury, and Helen Calle, of Fast Future this is, at least, what some would have us believe.

By 2020, 92 percent of European companies will have deployed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to streamline business processes Businesses reported a 9 percent increase in RPA budgets in the last year

LONDON, June 20, 2018 - Advanced business use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is expected to double in Europe by 2020, as companies seek to improve customer experience and streamline their finance operations, according to new research from Information Services Group (ISG), (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm. ISG, in partnership with RPA software provider Automation Anywhere, surveyed more than 500 European business leaders to assess their adoption of RPA technology and services. The research reveals the percentage of European companies expecting to be at the advanced stage of RPA use will double by 2020, while fewer than 10 percent will not yet have started their RPA journey. While Europe has been slower to adopt technologies like automation than other markets, RPA is moving into the mainstream, with 92 percent of respondents saying they anticipate using RPA by 2020, and 54 percent saying they will reach the advanced stage of adoption by then, up from 27 percent currently. ISG’s research reveals RPA budgets in Europe increased on average by 9 percent in the last year, significantly ahead of the average increase for general IT spending. Of those companies that posted an increase, 25 percent saw a double-digit increase. Third parties, such as consultants and service providers, make up more than half of this budget. Increasingly, improving the quality, speed and efficiency of client-facing and finance functions are becoming top priorities for corporate automation buyers. Over the next 24 months, respondents say RPA is expected to have the greatest impact on customer service and order-processing functions (43 percent), closely followed by finance, treasury and audit (42 percent); procurement, logistics and supply chain (40 percent), and sales and marketing (38 percent). Adoption of RPA is in its initial stages in Europe, with three-quarters of respondents saying they are in either the early phase (up to pilot testing) or intermediate phase (automating fewer than 10 business processes). By 2020, however, nearly three-quarters expect to be in the intermediate to advanced phase (automating 10 or more processes). Among Europe’s largest markets, 60 percent of German companies expect to be in the advanced stage of deployment by 2020 (versus 32 percent today), following by 50 percent in France (up from 22 percent) and 46 percent in the UK (up from 23 percent). However, barriers to adoption remain. Security is a key concern, with 42 percent of businesses citing this as an obstacle to expanding their RPA use. Lack of budget and resistance to change were both cited by 33 percent, followed by concerns over governance and compliance (29 percent), lack of IT support (28 percent) and lack of executive commitment (27 percent). Commenting on the findings, Andreas Lueth, partner at ISG, said: “Robotic Process Automation is delivering improved outcomes for enterprises across Europe and our research shows many more businesses will be taking advantage of the technology by 2020 as adoption accelerates. The increasing prominence of RPA in organizations is borne out in the fact that many businesses are now choosing to appoint Heads of Automation – a role that has appeared only in the past two years. “This technology has the potential to revolutionize customer service and back-office functions alike, but organizations should be wary of falling into the RPA trap. The decision to deploy RPA should be treated as a strategic business initiative, with defined objectives and measures. Without this, the chance of failure is high.” James Dening, vice president, Europe at Automation Anywhere adds: “European enterprises are at an exciting juncture with respect to RPA. If implemented properly, over the next few years RPA technologies will help deliver significant value for businesses across a range of European enterprises and industries, ensuring growth in productivity, efficiency and output, and helping these firms and industries stay competitive at a local, regional and global level.” Detailed findings of ISG’s RPA research can be found here.

Crown Commercial Service awards ISG a place on SARS II Framework
ISG will help further CCS’s goal to drive cost savings for the public sector and taxpayers

LONDON, June 18, 2018 - Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm, will be able to provide telecommunications spend recovery services to the UK Government under a new agreement with the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), an executive agency of the UK Cabinet Office. Following a competitive selection process, CCS awarded ISG a place on its new Spend Analysis and Recovery Services (SARS) II framework (RM3820), Lot 4 (Contract Compliance – Telecoms/Mobiles). Departments across Central Government and the wider public sector are now able to leverage specialist ISG resources to identify, report and recover any overpayments or duplicate payments for telecommunications services, including:

· Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN) lines · Call plans · Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) / Ethernet · Leased line services · Maintenance charges · Mobile voice and data charges.

The Framework Agreement is in effect for four years: two years initially with the option to extend for a further two years. Phil Millward, ISG partner specializing in the UK public sector, said: “We are immensely proud and excited to have been awarded a place on the SARS II framework. Our selection on this highly competitive framework is a testament to the expertise ISG has in assessing and optimizing telecom pricing and terms in the marketplace and our ability to analyze and recover payment anomalies on behalf of our clients. “ISG has a strong track record of working with organizations across the UK public sector. We continually strive to provide our public-sector clients with market-leading advice, support and research to guide them on their digital transformation journeys, with the aim of improving operating efficiency and lowering costs for taxpayers.’’.

In 1610, after months of painstaking work grinding his own lens, Galileo Galilei finally held his new telescope up to the night sky. What he saw astonished him: instead of a few hundred stars, he could see thousands, even millions, writes Fiona Czerniawska of Source Global Research...

LONDON, June 14, 2018 -- Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) today announced Netcentric, a Cognizant Digital Business, has been named 2018 Adobe Experience Cloud Partner of the Year in EMEA by Adobe, the global leader in digital marketing solutions.

London, 15 June 2018 – UK politicians, industry and civil society are joining with colleagues from across the globe to create the AI Global Governance Commission, a universal platform which will develop international AI framework and policy.

PwC is already adapting to meet this bright new future, creating a range of graduate apprentice degree courses in technology, including a Data Science degree course with Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities which will kick start in September 2018..