UK businesses spent £1.74bn on IT outsourcing in Q1 2017
Companies are ramping up investment in digital transformation, and it’s showing. This is according to a new report by Arvato, which says Q1 2017 was the strongest in the last five years when it comes to the UK’s private sector outsourcing market.
During Q1, businesses have agreed deals worth £2.42 billion. The Arvato UK Outsourcing Index, created in partnership with NelsonHall, says this is the "largest private sector spend since Q4 2011."
Technology won't fully replace in-store workers, retailers believe
There will still be people working in the stores of the future, but technology is still going to make a profound impact on the retail industry. This is what retail workers think about how their job will transform in the near future.
According to a new report by Epson, 70 percent of retailers think technology will never be able to fully replace people in stores, but it will revolutionize the shopping experience.
Barclays announces new controls for debit cards to fight fraud
Barclays is fighting back against fraud by offering its users more power over when and how their debit cards can be used. According to its announcement, customers will be able to instantly turn a card "on" or "off," disallowing remote purchases. They will also be able to set their own daily ATM withdrawal limits through the Barclays Mobile Banking app.
The new controls are part of the £10 million nationwide drive to increase the public’s awareness of financial fraud risks.
Governments are the biggest targets for cyber attackers
Cyberattacks against the government sector increased by 100 percent in 2016, rising up to 14 percent, according to a new report by Dimension Data. The financial sector has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of attacks, from three percent in 2015 to 14 percent in 2016.
The manufacturing sector is now on third place with 13 percent of all attacks while retail, which used to be the number one target, fell to fourth place with 11 percent. Poor retail.
Do cloud providers want a 'lock and key' security mechanism?
Public cloud providers have ultimate control over our data, applications, and data flows on their platforms. This capability is the main cause of anxiety and a top reason for many companies to shy away from public cloud.
One of the possible solutions to the problem is to implement a "lock and key" mechanism for public clouds. This would allow re-balancing of data control. The question is whether cloud providers want that.
Financial organizations are having trouble finding documents
Pretty much every organization in the financial sector, 96 percent of them, struggles to find documents in the workplace. This is according to a new report by M-Files, saying financial sector organizations need to be better at protecting their information.
M-Files was quick to throw words like "putting customer data at risk" or "GDPR" around, too.
Netrepser malware targets government agencies
Researchers at cyber security firm Bitdefender recently unveiled a new targeted attack and named it Netrepser. What makes this threat different from other APTs (advanced persistent threat) is that it was built with readily available software tools.
The goal of Netrepser, according to Bitdefender, is to steal data from government agencies. No information on which agencies were targeted. Netrepser uses multiple methods to get its tiny digital hands on the victim’s information, from keylogging, to password theft, to cookie theft. At the very heart of this tool is a "legitimate, yet controversial" recovery toolkit provided by Nirsoft.
Why premium loyalty programs succeed
With the gradual evolution of the internet and e-commerce over the past 15 years, consumers have been gifted with the power of choice. With so many websites to crawl through, consumers are no longer restricted by where they purchase an item, who they get their content from or by what time they choose to do some digital "window shopping."
With this new found freedom, these consumers are now constantly evaluating your brand to determine whether it’s worth their money, support, and most importantly -- their time. Historically, companies have tried to win over and keep these consumers with traditional loyalty models of transaction first, benefits later, but that is proving to be unsuccessful today. With the creation of premium loyalty programs like Amazon Prime and the changing tastes of consumers, the status-quo loyalty program just isn’t enough to keep the modern-day customer from browsing at your competitors.
What you can learn from tech stacks
Marc Andreessen wrote his famous Wall Street Journal essay "Why Software Is Eating the World" in 2011. Today, his prediction -- that software companies would take over large parts of the economy as various industries are disrupted by software -- has largely come to pass.
Software has indeed changed the game, with software and online-based services making it possible to build companies with very little infrastructure. Nowhere is this more apparent than with the tech stack -- a new term that refers to the suite of software tools that a company uses.
How will driverless cars impact the insurance industry?
In the next decade or so, it’s predicted that our roads will be awash with driverless cars, with estimates that they will account for a quarter of global car sales by 2035. This will present either a huge opportunity for the insurance sector or a challenge that could lead to its downfall. Car insurance has long been a lucrative business, generating billions of dollars in annual revenue and supporting thousands of jobs. So the disruption promised by driverless cars is a genuine concern.
The primary challenge comes from the fact that 90 percent of road traffic accidents are caused by human error, a risk that driverless cars have the potential to eradicate, sparking a significant improvement in road safety. And while safer roads are always a welcome development, the knock-on effect would be to cause the need for third-party damage insurance to almost disappear. With fewer accidents and fewer claims, Forbes estimates that premiums will reduce by as much as 75 percent.
Hire and retain talent to make it in the digital economy
The way we work is transforming at an extraordinary rate. Explosive progress in the technology industry, demonstrated by the fact that digital tech investment reached £6.8 billion last year, creating 1.64 million jobs as a result, is unavoidable. Despite this positive influx of job roles, there is a mismatch between the volume of positions available and the skills that are required to do them.
To be able to maintain a grasp of its competitive edge within a global marketplace, the UK must begin to tackle the ever-increasing skills gap.
Marketers can't afford to ignore YouTube stars
YouTube offers businesses the ability to connect meaningfully with their audience and build an engaged base of customers and prospects. The video sharing website has never been more popular. Today, over three billion hours of videos are watched per month, with an additional 300 hours of videos being added each minute. Yet, out of all the videos uploaded to YouTube, only a very small percentage generate more than a few hundred views; and only an elite few of those ultimately end up going viral. However, when done right, uploading videos can be big business. And not just for traditional organizations.
The number of channels earning six figures each year on YouTube is increasing by 50 percent year on year. According to a 2014 Variety survey, the stars of YouTube’s most popular channels, such as Swede Felix Kjellberg’s PewDiePie and Germán Aranis’ HolaSoyGerman, are now more influential and popular than mainstream celebrities among teenagers, so they need to be taken seriously by marketers.
UK businesses will spend £37bn on failing agile projects
Businesses in the UK will waste £37 billion on failed agile IT projects in the next 12 months, according to a new report from 6point6. The report is based on a poll of 300 UK and US CIOs. They were asked about their experiences with agile, and how its principles are being applied and executed.
More than half of CIOs (53 percent) see agile development as "discredited," and three quarters (75 percent) don’t even want to defend it any more. Seventy-three percent of CIOs think agile IT is its own industry now, and 50 percent consider it an "IT fad."
Advertisers need to keep an eye on gamers to reach new audiences
It’s time to stuff the stereotypes. For too long in the minds of too many, gaming has been thought of as a sub-culture populated by teenage boys sitting indoors and playing shoot ‘em ups on either a console or computer.
The statistics to disprove this have been around for a long time -- the average age of a US games buyer was 36 last year and women make up more than 40 percent of gamers. Nearly two-thirds of US households contain at least one frequent gamer. Staggering stats that make it hard to pinpoint who the "typical" gamer is -- because there isn’t one anymore.
Is a Google-made Chrome ad-blocker the answer to intrusive advertising?
In case you missed it, rumors are rife that Google will soon introduce an ad blocker in Chrome. Understandably, there's concern about the power that would give Google over the advertising industry and its competition. As a member of said competition, I am equal parts concerned and supportive of an ad blocker in Chrome.
It’s certainly an interesting story. On first thought it’s a little ironic, in that a company which makes a large proportion of its money through advertising revenue is not only giving users of its browser the ability to block ads from appearing, but turning it on by default too. If the rumor is true, the addition of an ad blocker in Chrome could limit the reach of ads to over half of the world’s internet users overnight. That’s a big change, and in many instances it’s needed.
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