Hardware

• When the workplace was bricks and mortar, most employees had hardwired desktop computers at their work station.
• As the digital workplace evolved, the hardware needs for employees changed. The first set of changes involved laptops with docking stations with a standard keyboard, mouse, and monitor and wireless capability around the building, so employees could work at their desks or take their laptops to meeting rooms. This configuration resulted in a digital workplace but inside the building.
• As more and more employees began to work from home, their requirements expanded from just laptops to include cameras, headsets with microphones, and spare laptop charges.
• The home offices required enough broadband to support increased uploading and downloading of large files, streaming, and video calls.
• If the organization requires the use of a VPN, the system will have to be tested to ensure it can handle the larger number of users.
• From a policy perspective, the organization may have to revisit reimbursement for internet access or data plans for hot spots.

Software Solutions (SaaS if possible)

Messaging

• Required to provide a fast way to communicate with colleagues.
• Types include email, instant messaging, mobile messaging, microblogging.

Productivity

• Enables knowledge workers to get their jobs done more efficiently.
• Solutions include word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software, calculators.

Collaboration

• Enables employees to work with each other and with partners.
• Includes creation of team rooms, communities, wikis, and web conferencing. 

Communication

• A tool is required to support information sharing and internal publishing.
• Solutions include Portals/intranet, blogs, personalized homepage.

Business

• Enables employees to access business-critical systems, such as ERP's, Manufacturing, Sales, Finance, HR, and more.
• Examples of the processes these systems support include expense claims, attendance and payroll processing, and reporting, customer relationship management, procurement, sales management, and more.

Crowd Sourcing

• It enables an organization to gather ideas, inputs, and thoughts from employees.
• Solutions include an Ideation platform, polling, survey, and forums. 

Connectivity

• It helps locate experts and colleagues across the organization.
• Tools include Employee directory, Organization chart, and Rich profiles for employees.

Mobility

• Mobility enables access of tools away from the physical office or workplace.
• Tools include a PC/laptop, mobile/smartphone, home office space, and remote scanners.

Culture

• The organization's culture guides the way employees behave and work. Therefore, it ultimately determines how and to what extent your employees leverage the digital workplace to connect, communicate, and collaborate.
• One of the significant cultural changes in moving to a digital workplace is the increased transparency and autonomy that results. Employees, managers, and business leaders all can track the status of every project and even provide their opinions.
• The positives in this model of autonomous work environments include everyone knowing their responsibilities and everyone seeing the corporate goals and understanding how their work fits into the big picture.
• The improved transparency also allows business leaders to see deeper into the organization and have better control and management.
• This transparency means fewer meetings and more time to focus on the actual work. The sessions that do take place will have to be virtual, which may require some training in both the technology and the etiquette of virtual meetings. Using video is necessary as it helps employees stay connected, regardless of distance.
•  Traditional hours of working will also change. Teams and individual employees will need to be flexible with a potential shift in working hours.
• Managers will also experience added pressure to make sure their teams are performing well while remote.

Security

• If the company's remote working strategy allows employees to use personal devices, employees will no longer be working on secure networks and machines but relying on their own devices and home and public Wi-Fi.
• This accessibility could require changes to security settings such as "multifactor authentication (MFA) to allow the workforce access to the sites and files they need while ensuring the right person is logging in."
• If requiring access through a VPN, then untrusted personal devices have access to the corporate network.

Support Services

• When the workforce is remote, and employees are trying to figure out new processes and tools, support desk requests will surge.  
• There should be self-service resources and knowledge bases for employees to reduce requests, as well as enough trained resources to cover increased demand.

AI Augments Decision Intelligence

• The use of AI in decision intelligence is about using data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to operationalize and even automate decision-making in business. Decision intelligence should include both predictive insights and prescriptive insights to help guide users in decision-making.
• In 2019, Gartner categorized decision intelligence as under the "Innovation Trigger" part of the hype cycle for artificial intelligence. This means it's a technology that is at its early stages, and that it's generating publicity while its commercial viability is still in question. Gartner expects digital intelligence to plateau in 5 to 10 years.

 

Source

 

• Decision intelligence is also one of the major trends shaping business intelligence and analytics. This is due to the unpredictability of current decision-making models that don't capture real-time data and uncertainty very well.
• This trend is driven by global business environments that have become more "volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous" as a result of disruptions in technology, such as growth in digitization, as well as changes in policy. Senior executives then need to use big data and artificial intelligence in their approaches.
• The use of decision intelligence has become more prevalent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Xylem, a water technology company, uses decision intelligence to help utilities make capital and operating decisions so that utilities can be resilient and ensure continuity for their customers.
• In the finance sector, decision intelligence platform provider Quantexa helps Standard Chartered spot financial crimes such as money laundering, fraud, and terrorist financing. Through the help of the platform, bank investigators are able to conduct complex investigations more rapidly, leading to faster decision-making.

Edge AI

• There's also an increase in the use of edge AI, which is about helping machines and applications implement AI locally, closer to "the edge" where data is collected. This allows them to respond and make decisions faster.

 

Source

 

• This trend is driven by the growth of real-time data usage. By 2025, 150 billion devices and sensors will continually stream real-time data that needs to be processed locally or closer to "the edge," according to research from IDC and Seagate. In 2017, this data only represented 15% of the datasphere, but it is expected to rise to nearly 30% by 2025.
• NVIDIA is one of the companies at the forefront of the Edge AI trend. In May 2019, NVIDIA launched its edge computing platform, NVIDIA EGX, which helps organizations gather, analyze, and act on data in real-time. This platform was created "to meet the growing demand to perform instantaneous, high-throughput AI at the edge." NVIDIA EGX counts 40 organizations and companies among its early adopters, including BMW Group Logistics and GE Healthcare.

Using Machine Learning to Improve Personalization in Marketing

• Machine learning has started to play a fundamental role in improving personalization in marketing. Through machine learning, companies are now able to read and react to customers’ emotional cues.
•  Complex algorithms are allowing programs to deduce new forms of data, both auditory and visual, and draw conclusions about emotions much more accurately. Machine learning is also powering targeted advertisement and personalized content.
• Renowned internet giants are embracing machine learning as the only feasible way of satisfying millions of customers with personalized services.
• The need to develop more personal and people-centered experiences across the numerous buying stages is diving this trend. The need to increase revenue and enhance marketing-spend efficiency is also spurring the trend.
•  Netflix is one of the companies at the forefront of this trend. The entertainment giant uses machine learning to comprehend the kind of shows its customers like. Netflix also uses machine learning to make on-the-fly suggestions to its existing customers.

Increased Adoption of Voice Assistants

• Machine learning is the force behind the increasing popularity of voice-enabled assistants. Increased automation has seen businesses delegate manually redundant tasks to machines.
• As a result, voice assistants are becoming a commonplace in the contemporary business environment. The assistants are helping in making reminders, setting appointments, and reading books, among other tasks.
• The voice assistant technology utilizes voice queries and natural language user interface to respond to questions, recommend, and execute actions by delegating requests to a designated internet service.
• The need to perform complicated and important tasks effortlessly while improving productivity is a key driver of this trend. Companies are using machine learning to develop custom-designed voice assistants to help in processing operations efficiently and with ultimate accuracy.
•  Google is one of the companies at the forefront of this trend. RankBrain, the company’s voice assistant, is one of the in-demand intelligent voice assistants. It is designed to recognize phrases and words in order to learn and better foresee outcomes. RankBrain and other voice assistants are relying on machine learning to handle unexpected search queries.

Robotic Process Automation

• Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of technology guided by structured inputs and business logic to automate business processes. Using RPA tools, companies can configure robots or software to interpret and capture applications for triggering responses, manipulating data, processing transactions, or interacting with other digital systems.
• According to Forrester, robotic process automation (RPA) is going to be a $2.9 billion market by 2021.
• Many businesses are using RPA because it increases productivity and efficiency by automating important tasks that are repetitive and time-intensive using automated software tools.
• Some early adopters of the technology include the finance and accounting sector.
• In addition to giving employees the room to concentrate on core tasks, RPA ensures that there is data accuracy and process consistency. It helps companies to execute processes “five to ten times faster with an average of 37 percent fewer resources.”
• Global insurer Zurich is an example of a company that is at the forefront of the trend. Together with its RPA partner, Capgemini, the company won the “Paragon Award” by Information Services Group. RPA has enabled the company’s underwriters to focus on more complex policies.

Automated Machine Learning

• Machine learning falls under artificial intelligence and is based on the concept that systems can interpret data, identify data, and execute tasks with minimal human intervention.
• Data centers consume approximately three percent of all the electricity in the world. Increasing the efficiency of these centers when it comes to power consumption has proven to be challenging. Automation software powered by machine learning programs have become useful in improving data center efficiency practices.
• In addition, machine learning is used for predictive maintenance in data centers.
• Google is at the forefront of this trend. The company uses a machine-learning driven artificial intelligence program that manages the cooling systems in its data centers. It was developed by Deep Mind. Using the program resulted in the energy consumption of the cooling systems being reduced by 40 percent.

ADDRESSING THE TALENT GAP

• Estimates in unfilled cybersecurity positions vary, ranging from 1.8 million unfilled positions in the United States to over 4 million unfilled positions worldwide. Average fill rates for IT jobs do not exceed 20%, and some experts acknowledge that the "rate of growth remains anemic due to an acute talent shortage." 
• This cybersecurity skill deficit may be facilitating data breaches and other threats due to both a shortage of trained staff and inadequate training for non-technical employees. Although cybersecurity has some potential growth as a career field, the current lack of training in computer science programs and lack of systemic training are key areas that need to be addressed.
• Although the growth of the "ethical hacker" community and several online tools like Cybrary help address this gap in talent, the key method for strengthening cybersecurity in the midst of a talent gap is fostering internal collaboration between IT, data, and non-technical staff.

FOSTERING INTERNAL COLLABORATION

•  Many Chief Information Officers (CIO) consider cybersecurity a priority for their organization; one strategy for fostering greater awareness and technical acumen amongst non-technical staff is developing a "security culture" in that organization.
• Fostering this culture amongst IT, C Suite, and non-technical staff means more than just encouraging password changes and superficial behaviors; it means getting "buy-in" from non-technical staff and executives to foster more security-conscious behaviors. This can be achieved through simple strategies like ongoing training, workshops, and creating unique communication channels.
•  Collaboration and transparency must be fostered in order to strengthen an organization's cybersecurity and data efforts, focusing on a shared vision based on common goals and principles. Collaboration with other organizations should consist of both educational resources and threat intelligence.

REAL-TIME THREAT ASSESSMENT

• With the increasing volume in internet speed and traffic, organizations are challenged to face and handle threats in real-time. Traditional cybersecurity tools are inadequate because of their inability to perform real-time assessments.
• Although there are some potential cybersecurity tools in development, organizations should be encouraged to share information about potential threats with each other. Sharing threat intelligence and educational resources with other organizations can foster knowledge resources and shared information about cybersecurity.

RANSOMWARE

•  With ransomware attacks on the rise, IT and data professionals need to take a more proactive stance. Although ransomware attacks declined in 2018, an increase in attacks and more organizations willing to pay ransomware attackers have made ransomware a high cybersecurity priority in 2020.
• Ironically, ransomware is the easiest cybersecurity threat to control through both frequent backups of data and security-conscious practices.

DATA SECURITY/PROTECTION

• With data creation reaching astronomical numbers, IT and data professionals are challenged to maintain security of their data in light of an increasing number of breaches and the potential effect on the "digital society".  
• Organizations are challenged to take time and effort to determine their cybersecurity needs, assess the appropriate best practices in key areas where data security may be impacted,

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Best Practices

• With a larger percent of the workforce working from home, traditional internal company communications such as phone calls and web chats are not ideal with participants being distracted by situations arising at home; a best practice is using an online bulletin board (i.e. Slack) as that method allows for immediate communications when meetings/agreements are needed quickly.

•  Video conferencing capabilities are a best practice as it has many advantages over e-mail or phone calls; for smaller groups, the ability to discern visual cues allow for increased understanding and knowledge about coworkers and also help reduce the sense of isolation among teams. For any firm, video is ideal for complex or sensitive conversations; its more personal format allows for these conversations to have a lesser chance of being misunderstood. According to a recent survey of video conferencing users, around 90% of respondents stated that video conferencing provided increased productivity, better quality of discussions, and quicker decision-making.
• Ensuring that all remote employees have adequate online access; some workers may have irregular and/or slow systems. Best practices involve equipping these workers with mobile hot spots and/or an associated data plan, which allows mobile users to access a certain amount of data from a wireless provider.
• Providing suitable work devices to the remote staff; a best practice is for the IT department to survey existing user devices to determine if they are capable for company requirements. This practice has the advantage of being the quickest and least expensive way to get a remote staff up and running, as opposed to outfitting all users with company-supplied devices.
• Another best practice is to equip users with accessories to provide an optimum experience for remote working such as; a webcam if the worker device does not have one, a high-quality headset with mic, and signage that a user can place near their work area to alert others they are on a conference. These accessories will ensure the best results for clearly understood communication during web or phone conferencing.
• Safely securing remote access to the company's Virtual Private Network (VPN); best practices achieving this objective include testing all remote devices to ensure the VPN is working reliably, having clear and detailed VPN usage guidelines for remote users, and requiring two-factor authentication (requiring additional information beyond user IDs and passwords) for user access. Because the VPN may allows remote users access into many areas of company data, the practices are key to ensuring secure access to company information.

Research Strategy