IFTF's Forecast for 2030

Key changes to result from the rise of machines in the workplace that we can anticipate over the next 13 years include:

• Cloud computing would become the norm.
• While some jobs will be handled by machines, new jobs that don't exist yet will make up the majority of positions in 2030.
• The machine and human interaction will yield greater efficiency in finding talent, managing teams, delivering products and services.
• Workers will learn what they need to do 'in-the-moment,' while on the job to keep up with the skills in demand for the rise of machines in the workplace.

The whole nature of individual careers is expected to change. "By 2030, expectations of work will reset and the landscape for organizations will be redrawn, as the process of finding work gets flipped on its head." The trend currently observed of people working in a "gig economy" is expected to grow to the extent that people would find that they are hired for tasks rather than permanent positions.

The report also envisions a future in which people would not be seeking jobs as much as the jobs will be looking for them: "Reputation engines, data visualization, and smart analytics will make individuals' skills and competencies searchable, and organizations will pursue the best talent for discrete work tasks." As organizations hire people exactly where and when they are needed, they will gain the advantage of becoming "leaner and more competitive," as well as "more agile and profitable," thanks to the reduction in "costs and overheads."

Workers would gain a kind of agility, as well as get trained "in-the-moment" for the tasks required by the organization. Maguire explained that thanks to immersive technologies like AR and VR, workers would not "have to leave the job to complete a curriculum" for retraining. Instead, they'd be able to apply "a digital layer over work stations" that could guide them in new skills and applications right in the workplace.

from 

Preparing for Our Future: The Human Partnership with Machines

Marketing to Visitors Like Customers

Visitors to a site present marketers with a dilemma. Does it pay to pour resources into sending all of them ads, knowing that over 90% will not turn into customers, or do marketers risk losing those who would buy if they did get targeted? In the absence of a crystal ball, marketers can now apply AI solutions to identify which visitors are worth pursuing.

Marketers had already been using AI that identifies customer behavior to set up targeted communication for retention with the help of software from companies like Optimove. The Optimove Customer Marketing Cloud consolidates, mines, and models customer data to fit customers into micro-segments that accurately predicts their future behavior and value to a business.

That kind of customer profiling enables marketers to coordinate hyper-personalized communications at scale. However, it has been limited to customers who have already established their own history and pattern of behavior. In other words, it wasn't possible to predict the likelihood of purchase for a new visitor — until now . . . 

Read more in The Scientific Approach to Relationship Marketing

Analytics for the Anderson Center for Autism

Concerns about retaining the staff prompted the Anderson Center for Autism to seek a tech

pic from http://www.happygreenbee.com/autism-spectrum-disorder-asd-facts-myths/

solution that was compatible with the center's people-first philosophy.

The Anderson Center for Autism is a nonprofit organization based in Staatsburg, N.Y. that operates a school and 100-acre residential campus comprising 20 buildings, as well as 25 adult houses across three counties. The center uses more than 400 desktops and data centers connected by fiber optics. The entire IT infrastructure has been in the cloud since 2012.

The picture for this organization was very different in 2001, when it was suffering from a lack of funding and inefficient processes, as well as high turnover. Then a new CEO took the helm and brought about a major transformation. Over the next decade, the center set up a cloud-based IT infrastructure and predictive analytics, which streamlined processes, cut down paperwork by 95 percent and reduced turnover significantly.

In 2003, Gregg Paulk was hired as the first IT manager for the center and was tasked with building out the infrastructure. He recalls, "We were in the dark ages."

- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/cloud-computing/cloud-mobile-and-analytics-help-retain-employees.html#sthash.LGb5pYyb.dpuf

The Digital Advance of a Venerable Medical Journal

Since 1840, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has been associated with health care expertise. Now the brand includes 60 specialist medical and allied science journals with millions of readers around the world.

As a global brand, the BMJ relies on a digital platform to reach its worldwide audience. To keep up with the demands of this growth, it needed a partner to help it meet its needs.

The printed copies of the venerable journal are still mailed out, but the journal also embraces digital technology and expanded reach. It was the first medical journal in the world to go online 21 years ago, says Sharon Cooper, chief digital officer at the BMJ.

- See more at: http://www.baselinemag.com/cloud-computing/virtualizing-a-venerable-medical-journal.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BL_NL_BB_20170202_STR2L1&dni=393649804&rni=25396992#sthash.qU3lEl7D.dpuf

German clouds on the horizon

The possibilities inherent in applying digitization to industry has earned a name of its own, Industry 4.0, with modified spelling when applied to Germany. In Europe, Germany is the leading star of this fourth industrial revolution. Progress on that front has not been as rapid as some had hoped due to some obstacles identified by a Mckinsey and Co. report published in March 2016.  But that is set to change now with the arrival of clouds built in Germany to meet the needs of Germany’s Industry 4.0.

The Mckinsey report, “Industry 4.0after the initial hype” (PDF download )  looks at perception, progress, and problems faced by the evolution of manufacturing in a digital age. It is based on survey responses from 300 industry experts in Germany, the US, and Japan.  In a nutshell, the anticipation raised a few years ago has resulted in some disappointments, as some businesses did not come up with a clear plan and timeline for implementing a digital strategy.  At this point, 60 percent of those surveyed said that they have come up against obstacles to executing digital strategies.

A fundamental problem for some of the companies was finding a way to integrate the data that comes in from various sources, something that is essential to extracting a comprehensive picture of the process to maximize efficiency that doesn’t compromise the data security or ownership when it passes into “third party technology and software providers.”   For the companies in Germany, there’s the additional concern of being certain to comply with the data privacy regulations in place and the distrust of datacenters located outside the country. 

Read more in 

New IoT Clouds on German Horizon

Tech Forecast for 2016

 Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid Technologies gives her take on what we can expect to see this year. .in 

2016: 6 New IP Predictions

For one of the predictions, I was really tempted to put in a reference to The IT Crowd. You should be able to guess which one.

Hybrid cloud alliance

Hewlett Packard Enterprise's unique partnership with NTT America is a classic example of a New IP partnership -- built on the strengths of each and to the advantage of both in that it delivers innovative products, market access, interoperability, security and more

Read more in 

HPE & NTT: A Strategic Alliance for Hybrid Cloud

.....

Nested virtualization improves the odds for online gaming

                  

photo  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Roulette_wheel.jpg

In the past few years, 888 Holdings—one of the largest online gaming companies in the world and the largest one for legal online gambling in the United States—has grown rapidly and expanded into new product lines and markets. The Israel-based company delivers casino games, poker, bingo and sports betting to computers and mobile devices.

To meet the demands of more than 20 million subscribers in Europe and the U.S., 888 Holdings relies on cloud services. It also uses a nesting virtualization solution, which provides flexibility and rapid replication of environments.

CIO Eran Elbaz explains that his organization has to reconfigure and test its own applications, while also conforming to regulations in different jurisdictions.

Read more in

Nested Virtualization Solution Saves Time & Money

Clouds and the Connected Car

Here we are, nearly at the end of 2015, and we still don't have flying cars. But what we do have are connected cars, and that technological advance has the potential to yield all new insights and solutions. Thanks to the combination of connected cars, analytic engines and the cloud, real-time data and real-time solutions are now possible.
Read more in 

Connected Cars, Data & the Cloud

Hurdles & Headways for Cloud Adoption

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing

Cloud computing offers clear benefits in terms of efficiency, function and cost, which is why most organizations are already using cloud services or planning to do so in the near future. However, cloud hurdles like security remain top of mind for many verticals such as healthcare.

While Cisco predicts cloud usage will quadruple by 2019, as we saw in Cisco's Cloudy Forecast, some organizations and sectors are still holding back. The question is: What is keeping them back? (See Cisco's Cloudy Forecast.)

To gain insight into the current hurdles and headways of cloud adoption, The New IP spoke with Sarah Lahav, CEO of SysAid Technologies, and John Grady, senior manager of product marketing for XO Communications Inc. Although both agree that security is the primary concern for organizations that have yet to adopt the cloud, there are other factors at play, as well.

Read more in 

Cloud Hurdles & Headways

Is a Smart Barbie a Smart Move?

Today's fashion doll is not your grandmother's Barbie. Nowadays, she comes equipped with WiFi, voice recognition, and access to data stored in the cloud.

Since 1959, the iconic Barbie doll has gone through multiple permutations as it evolved to reflect the fashions and expectations of each generation. Lately, that includes technology to enable conversations with the doll. And Mattel has discovered that a talking Barbie causes trouble. In the last generation, people objected to what Barbie said; now they object to what she hears.

Read more in 

Smart Barbie Puts Child's Play In The Cloud

Better together

Some things are good on their own but really great when paired with something complementary -- like cookies and milk, wine and cheese, or perhaps a firewall and SaaS security. Read more in 

Cloud-Based Risk Assessment Meets the Firewall

SaaS for Clinical Studies

"As a single system made up of many components, iMedNet EDC "can be configured [any] way you want." It offers drag and drop options for setting up dashboards and to-do lists that help users keep their studies on track. It also has options for individualized levels of access; each user gets his or her own ID and password that can be specified to a very detailed level for what the user can access and upload."
Read more in 

Seeding SaaS to Speed Up Clinical Studies

Getting to really know your customer requires managing a lot of data

Socrates considered "know thyself" the objective of wisdom, but in business, the key to success is knowing your customer.

A customer's relationship with a brand is much more complex than some people assume. As shoppers, we don't just come on to a site and buy what it sells out of the blue. We may get there by clicking on an ad, clicking on a promotion in an email, or by remembering a positive experience we had with the business when we called and chatted about an order. There are many different channels involved, and each one only shows one aspect of the total customer experience. So how do you really get to know what your customer is responding to?

This past June, Israel-based, NICE Systems introduced the NICE Customer Journey Optimization solution to just that problem.  Read more here: 

Location, location, location moves to the cloud

Location, location, location. That's the answer always offered for the three key components of real estate.

When it comes to managing information on the business end, the same formula for success calls for a SaaS solution that allows information from all other sources -- lead generation, CRM, website activity, and mobile apps -- to come together to yield optimum insight and predictive analytics.

Read more in 

Case Study: SaaS for Home Sales

3D printing in the cloud: it's not just fun and games

One of the delights of writing for The Enterprise Cloud Site is learning about things that sound unlikely but really do exist, like the Society for Printable Geography. The printable does not refer to traditional maps but to 3D printing, which renders geographical data into iPhone cases, pendants, earrings, and puzzles.

All this is made possible by Sculpteo, a company that combines 3D printing with a cloud engine. Howevr, 3D printing is not just for hobbyists and collectors. It has many applications in robotics, architecture, scientific research, and education.  Read more in 3D Printing, Cloud Engine Revolutionize Manufacturing

Crowdsourcing creativity in the cloud

Betterific is the attempt to harness the power of the web to improve on the concept of a suggestion box and on just about everything else. It is intended to give people a chance to not only voice their ideas for improving what is already out there, but to be heard as well. Read more in 

Crowdsourcing the Corporate Suggestion Box

Seeing stones for military, rescue, and security operations

What do JRR Tolkien, JP Morgan Chase, the military, and rescue workers have in common? Palantir.

"The Palantír" is the title of the 11th chapter of Tolkien’s The Two Towers. The name refers to the "seeing stones" that allow one to view what is happening elsewhere. In 2004, the name was also taken on by a company that develops software organization to extract meaning from various streams of data to combat terrorism, fraud, and disaster damage.

Palantir distinguishes its approach from data mining by calling it "data surfacing." Read more at 

From Sorcery to Surfacing Data

For more on big data used by the army, see  

National Safety in Big Numbers

 "You can't have a data Tower of Babel" in which each system keeps its data isolated from other systems, Patrick Dreher, a senior technical director at DRC, told Military Information Technology.His company worked with the US Army on the Rainmaker cloud-based intelligence system, which integrates different data models used by the intelligence community. "For example, when Afghan drug lords finance Taliban insurgents, data from one database can be combined with Taliban financing data from an Army database inside the cloud, allowing analysts to make timely, critical connections and stay one step ahead of insurgents."