SourceCast: Episode 56: Clouds Cast Shadows
News You Can Use: 1/18/2017
- What’s Adding To Supply Chain Risk? 3 IT Trends To Watch Out For
This report mentioned the threat of “data overload” specifically in the context of health care, stating that it will be a “challenge for providers.” This is because the overwhelming bulk of data will create new and excessive amounts of work for industries to contend with.
According to this report, the answer lies in customized alerts and filtering to help distinguish important data at any given time. It might work slightly differently, but the same principle could extend outward to other industries later on, with further devices connecting to the internet throughout the supply chain.
http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2017/01/whats-adding-to-supply-chain-risk-3-it.html
- Four Moves You Might Not Realize Make You Look Unprofessional in an Interview
You Don’t Finish Your Homework
But, cautions Adrian J. Hopkins, a Muse career coach, this isn’t homework you can half-ass. It’s not enough to spew off a couple of “top-line company facts.” If you want the job and wish to avoid looking unprofessional in any way, shape, or form, you’re going to have to “go above and beyond a basic understanding of the company.” Let the interviewer know how you plan to grow with the company and get him thinking that he can’t “believe” he hadn’t the good fortune of meeting you sooner.http://lifehacker.com/four-moves-you-might-not-realize-make-you-look-unprofes-1790770222
- Christopher Kai: “Catapult Your Career Opportunities
- 5 Steps to Organizing Your Life and Doing Great Things This Year
Let it all go
“Think of new goals, new expectations and new ways to achieve them,” he says.If you don’t have one already, buy a paper shredder and start shredding the piles around you that are just taking up space. Scan the files that are truly needed.
“If you are realistic and hard on yourself, the ratio of what to shred to what to scan will be 10 to one,” Klosky says.
- Driverless Trucks, Robots and Chatbots Could Reshape the Supply Chain
More than half of supply chain companies have so-called innovation centers to help test out new concepts. Of those, 20 percent have achieved a return on their investment, while half expect a payoff in the next two years.
Robots are also on the rise, even though less than a quarter of organizations currently use them in their work, researchers found.
Propelled by algorithms that allow them to accomplish more complex tasks, robots can help companies improve efficiency, cut costs, keep pace with competitors and limit errors, according to respondents.
https://www.trucks.com/2017/01/05/driverless-trucks-robots-supply-chain/
Photo: Joshua Ness
SourceCast: Episode 55: Cognitive Supply Chain
News You Can Use: 1/11/2017
- How to Stop Short-Term Thinking at America’s Companies
Data bears this out. The average holding time for stocks has fallen from eight years in 1960 to eight months in 2016. Almost 80 percent of chief financial officers at 400 of America’s largest public companies say they would sacrifice a firm’s economic value to meet the quarter’s earnings expectations. And companies are spending more and more on purchasing their own shares to drive stock prices up, rather than investing in equipment or employees.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/12/short-term-thinking/511874/?utm_source=feed
- How to fix agile teams that are notoriously bad at hitting release dates
Another strategy to tackle estimation uncertainty is simply to get more estimates. Instead of relying on the judgment of one developer, all team members are asked to hazard a guess, ideally simultaneously to avoid biases (often done through “planning poker”) and use that as a basis for further deliberations. However, no matter how large the group is, this approach still relies on intuitive prediction and is prone to biases such as groupthink.
- How to Drive Your Enemies Crazy
- Why you should ditch your dress code
Whether or not a dress code (or a uniform) impacts productivity in the workplace is an ongoing argument that doesn’t seem likely to resolve any time soon. What I think all of this comes down to is allowing your workforce to decide for themselves how they’re most comfortable and what will allow them to do their best work.
http://www.cio.com/article/3154989/leadership-management/why-you-should-ditch-your-dress-code.html
- Lenovo Selects Talend Big Data Integration to Streamline Supply Chain Management
“We needed an easy-to-use and agile solution that could connect data in real-time from a variety of sources and then efficiently transfer that data to our global inventory management and procurement center,” said Robin Li, IT senior manager, Lenovo. “Talend’s open source architecture gave us great flexibility and stood out for its speed and effectiveness in handling massive volumes data.”
Photo: Denys Nevozhai
Supplier Report: 1/7/2017
Japan’s love of technology might be backfiring for their salarymen as 36 white collar workers have been replaced by IBM’s Watson technology (long term they will need it due to declining a declining population). Foxconn workers in China are also being phased out in favor of automation and robotics (because young Chinese workers don’t want to be treated like robots).
The US Healthcare industry is expected to grow their use of cognitive computing by 42% (compound annual growth rate) over the next 4 years. During those 4 years your car is also expected to get much smarter as Amazon and Microsoft are putting their AI technologies in your dashboard.
Acquisitions
- Google buys Sweden’s Limes Audio to boost Hangouts voice quality
“As more and more businesses adopt our video conferencing solutions, powered by Chromebox for Meetings and Google Hangouts, it’s critical that we provide a great audio experience. With G Suite customers now relying on video communications for their day-to-day meetings, it’s more important than ever to ensure low-cost, high-quality audio.”
https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/05/google-acquires-limes-audio/?ncid=rss
- Why LinkedIn Under Microsoft Is Doomed (this article is a little misguided, but a fun read)
There are two things Microsoft will most likely do to LinkedIn. The first would be to leave it alone, which—from what I can tell—will worsen the product. But Redmond could also come in and ruin the product with a few years of meddling, just as it did with everything from Nokia to WebTV.
So the likelihood of anything good coming from the LinkedIn buyout is improbable, at best. This, despite the fact that Satya Nadella is at the helm. The problem is the corporate culture, not the bosses.
http://www.pcmag.com/commentary/350754/why-linkedin-under-microsoft-is-doomed
Artificial Intelligence
- How IBM And Microsoft Are Disrupting The Healthcare Industry With Cognitive Computing
Analysts estimate that the market for AI in healthcare applications is expected to grow at a CAGR of 42% until 2021. The healthcare industry is ripe for disruption, which Microsoft and IBM are exploiting through their offerings.
- Japanese company replaces office workers with artificial intelligence
The technology will be able to read tens of thousands of medical certificates and factor in the length of hospital stays, medical histories and any surgical procedures before calculating payouts, according to the Mainichi Shimbun.
While the use of AI will drastically reduce the time needed to calculate Fukoku Mutual’s payouts – which reportedly totalled 132,000 during the current financial year – the sums will not be paid until they have been approved by a member of staff, the newspaper said.
Japan’s shrinking, ageing population, coupled with its prowess in robot technology, makes it a prime testing ground for AI.
- iPhone manufacturer Foxconn plans to replace almost every human worker with robots
The first phase of Foxconn’s automation plans involve replacing the work that is either dangerous or involves repetitious labor humans are unwilling to do. The second phase involves improving efficiency by streamlining production lines to reduce the number of excess robots in use. The third and final phase involves automating entire factories, “with only a minimal number of workers assigned for production, logistics, testing, and inspection processes,” according to Jia-peng.
- Hyperimaging and AI will give us superhero vision
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/superhero-vision-is-coming-much-sooner-than-youd-think_uk_586f8c0ce4b0cf4ed40e63bd
Cloud
- AT&T Goes All In on IoT at CES
In a series of announcement at the show, AT&T revealed a new partnership with Emerson for methane emissions monitoring, announced the addition of Portland, Ore., as a new spotlight city in its Smart Cities program, and launched a new IoT Professional Services offering that will lend the carrier’s expertise to help businesses design, test, deploy, and manage IoT solutions. Alongside the latter, AT&T also introduced a new light version of its IoT Starter Kit, a dedicated starter kit for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) IoT service, and a more streamlined IoT device certification process.
https://www.wirelessweek.com/news/2017/01/t-goes-all-iot-ces
- Microsoft unveils connected car strategy at CES 2017: ‘Cloud will do the heavy lifting’
The platform allows automakers to leverage Microsoft’s virtual assistants, business applications, and office services, the post said. It will also help integrate productivity tools such as Cortana, Office 365, and Skype for Business into vehicles.
Datacenter
- Dell EMC serves up ‘white glove’ treatment to exclusive top-tier partner level
“Partners with Titanium Black status have placed a big bet on Dell EMC,” Byrne said. “They’re going above and beyond. They’re investing heavily in us and we are returning the investment in them so they can continue to achieve the extraordinary.
“Titanium Black provides a rare and distinctive opportunity far and above what partners have experienced anywhere in the industry. Through the Dell EMC Partner Program, Dell EMC and our partners will attack the market, with our Titanium Black partners leading the way. We will deliver incredible transformation for our customers. We’ll be the channel to watch.”
- Better Buy: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co vs. Cisco Systems, Inc
Even after its banner 2016, HP Enterprise stock is trading at a mere 11 times future earnings, making it one of the best values in its sector. Cisco is tradingat just 12 times forward earnings, and with its nearly 3.5% dividend yield and future prospects, it’s the better buy for growth and income investors.
That said, when the smoke clears, HP Enterprise will be ideally positioned to grow by leaps and bounds as 2017 progresses — and beyond. For investors in search of pure growth potential, HP Enterprise gets the nod.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/01/04/better-buy-hewlett-packard-enterprise-co-vs-cisco-systems-inc.html
But where is HPE’s growth coming from? Storage? That can’t last.
Software/SaaS
- Oracle is starting to fine customers who thought they were using free Java software
At issue, reports Clarke, is a hugely popular version of Java called Java Standard Edition (or Java SE), that anyone can download from the Oracle website.
One unnamed retailer that underwent an audit on Java was issued a $100,000 bill, negotiated down to $30,000, The Register reports. And this could be only the beginning. Sources told Clarke that Oracle has hired 20 Java specialists for its License Management Services (LMS) department, the ones who do the audits.
http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-starts-to-audit-java-customers-2016-12
But Oracle is publicly stating that they ARE NOT increasing audits…
Oracle denies it’s ramping up a program that fines customers for using software they thought was freeOracle’s commitment to Java and its community remains stronger than ever, as shared recently at JavaOne. Oracle is not ramping Java SE compliance activity or hiring of compliance staff. The licensing model and policies for Java SE have remained unchanged since before the acquisition of Sun Microsystems. It is incorrect to imply that it’s easy for users to accidentally use Java SE Advanced features.
http://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-says-it-is-not-ramping-up-a-audits-of-java-2016-12
- It’s Official: Microsoft Eliminates Yammer Enterprise Plan
Orton described that decision as a natural product evolution. Earlier this year, Microsoft turned on Yammer by default for all eligible Office 365 customers. Since then, the vast majority of Yammer customers use it as part of an Office 365 subscription. The stand-alone version was retired Jan. 1, although those who are already using it can continue to do so at least through the end of this year (and, in exceptional cases, as long as 2019).
http://www.cmswire.com/digital-workplace/its-official-microsoft-eliminates-yammer-enterprise-plan/
Other
- 11 things we think will happen in business technology in 2017
In 2016, Microsoft and Google — widely seen as the second- and third-place contenders in the cloud wars with Amazon, respectively — made big hires and masterminded partnerships and acquisitions to bolster out their sales pitch to enterprises.
Amazon may be the undisputed leader in the space, but Microsoft and Google aren’t taking it lying down. Watch this space: The cloud computing market is still growing, and so vicious competition will be the order of the day.
- Department of Labor sues Google over wage data
The agency is seeking what it calls “routine” information about wages and the company’s equal opportunity program. The agency filed a lawsuit with its Office of Administrative Law Judges to gain access to the information, it announced Wednesday.
Google, as a federal contractor, is required to provide the data as part of a compliance check by the agency’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), according to the Department of Labor. The inquiry is focused on Google’s compliance with equal employment laws, the agency said.
http://www.cio.com/article/3154772/government/department-of-labor-sues-google-over-wage-data.html
Photo: Megapixelstock