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What Does the Future of Cloud in Europe Look Like?

Cloud technologies have been catalysts for growth, innovation and agility for data-driven organizations across Europe. How do IT leaders ensure that their organizational cloud-based environments are scalable, effective and comply with relevant data privacy regulatory laws?  

Daniel Melin, Strategist at Skatteverket; and Kaj Kjellgren*, Senior Network Architect at Netnod Internet Exchange; help us navigate the current volatile cloud landscape and provide answers to important questions on cloud security, compliance, and challenges. In addition, we hear about the roles they play in the highly anticipated and talked about cloud project, Gaia-X.  

 

How can businesses ensure effective cloud data protection?  

Daniel: Customers need to choose cloud services that are sufficiently secure for their information. When evaluating security, the customer needs to take the whole spectrum of security into account; physical, IT, information, legal, and political. Security is like a chain and every link has to be evaluated. 

The Swedish Tax Agency has established a cloud center of excellence consisting of experts in IT security, legal, data protection, document and archiving, physical security, procurement, and architecture to make sure that all aspects are looked at before a new cloud service is enabled for users. 

Kaj: Protection of data must be based on an initial categorization of the data itself and identification of requirements on each data element. Not every piece of data requires the same protection. Of course, there are legislations and traditional security requirements that have to be followed.

For information security, this normally comprises availability, correctness, and confidentiality. If you start from zero, orchestrated microservices are the easiest way of ensuring adequate protection using the zero trust concept to isolate the various containers touching the data. Once again, this has to be according to the defined requirements for each data element. This orchestration, often called cloud, can be self-hosted or hosted by third parties, just like any service an organization needs.  

 

What are the biggest challenges concerning compliance with cloud data protection regulations and laws? 

Daniel: There are direct challenges with laws like the Swedish Public Access to Information and Secrecy Act (offentlighets- och sekretesslagen) and the GDPR. Both are challenges for Swedish public sector customers today. However, the Protective Security Act will be the hardest law to comply with, especially when a non-Swedish cloud provider has access to huge amounts of aggregated information. 

Kaj: The main legal challenge for any IT-related issue since 1990 is that legislation is different in different jurisdictions. The market economy pushes for large specialized organizations, services, and products that are bigger than any jurisdiction. This has hurt the flow of money and created tax havens for a number of years. A similar situation now exists for services. 

Those rules made by politicians with imaginary borders do not comply with the foundation of the Internet, which was made by technicians and engineers to be open, free, and unlimited by country borders between jurisdictions. On top of that, no single economy today is large enough to produce services for that economy alone without having to scale impact price for production. 

 

Tell us about your role in the Gaia-X project. 

Daniel: The Swedish Tax Agency currently has an assignment from the Swedish government to monitor Gaia-X. That work includes talking to all relevant stakeholders, gathering information, presenting at conferences, and taking part in the Swedish hub. We are positive about Gaia-X and what it brings to the table. 

Kaj: Netnod is one of the founding members of Gaia-X in Sweden, and together with similar organizations helps with basic services like transport which are needed for players higher up in the value chain. We are currently most active in the Sub-working group Interconnection & Networking which lies under the Architecture Workgroup within the Technical Committee under Gaia-X AISBL. 

 

What role does the human factor play in cloud security and vulnerability? 

Daniel: The human factor is as relevant as always; I don’t see that cloud services create any particular new challenges. However, a successful breach of a hyperscaler yields an extreme effect due to its size and storage of aggregated information. 

Kaj: When implementing any kind of service, there are many different kinds of threats where insider actions, both mistake or intentional, are included. This is where a proper orchestration of microservices using zero trust comes into play. The integrity of a pod managing certain data is important so that it is self-contained and secure regardless of how an attack against the data is designed. One never knows the goal of the attacker, so second-guessing detailed attack scenarios is always doomed to failure. There are always unknown unknowns.  

Most cloud services are provided as unmanaged components, pieces of a bigger puzzle, regardless of whether the cloud is self-hosted or not. The engineers at a company have to create a functional workflow that creates, configures, and secures solutions based on these pieces. This is both a big risk and a safety net, since a lot of people don’t fully understand the complexity of said services and tools, and don’t understand what needs to be secured or how. That being said, those tools are built to be robust and not expose users to dangerous or even impossible configurations. 

 

What areas should organizations consider when choosing a cloud service provider? 

Daniel: One of the biggest concerns today is that cloud service providers have to adapt better to customer needs. Currently, there are a handful of providers offering a one-size-fits-all model. It is certainly a cost-effective model, but the price tag on the invoice does not tell the whole story. The legal implications when using cloud services based in countries with extraterritorial legislation will be an ongoing issue. 

Kaj: Categorization of information must take place, followed by an analysis of what requirements there are in each category. The requirements have to take both legal and security (availability, confidentiality, and correctness) aspects into account. In some cases, there is a balance between goals where the so-called risk appetite is to be decided upon. Be aware of benefits and risks, and make sure you avoid creating solutions where there are too many unknown unknowns.  

 

What are your predictions for cloud trends in the next five years?

Daniel: We will see a market with more cloud providers, from small to hyperscalers, which will provide cloud services that fit different customers. The American hyperscalers will continue to license their technology to other cloud providers. Laws and regulations related to national security will be broader and will affect both cloud providers and customers more and more. The effects of geopolitics will be worse over time and the EU will follow China and USA in being more protectionist. 

Kaj: We see more legislation, specifically in the EU, that isolates the EU from the rest of the world. This will create more borders that force us to use different solutions for different jurisdictions. What we instead need to do is harmonize the laws and regulations in different jurisdictions with each other so the market for IT-related services will not be as fragmented. We are close to a situation where we have serverless environments, with only pods managing information. Everything is orchestrated by mechanisms that understand both information and the policies applied to the information. 

 

The answers have been edited for length and clarity.

*Part of Kaj Kjellgren’s answers were contributed by his colleagues at Netnod: Mattias Ahnberg, Head of Architecture & Development; Patrik Fältström, Technical Director & Head of Security; and Christian Lindholm, Head of Sales and Marketing & Senior Product Manager. 

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Petra Ålund: What the Next-Generation IT Organization Looks Like    

As we enter the new world of work, all eyes are on CIOs and their teams to drive digitalization initiatives and successfully integrate them into existing systems. IT is breaking out of their silos and now has a much-deserved seat at the C-level table. No business decision can be made without the input of the IT division as we move into more technologically advanced ways of working.  

We tap into the expertise of  Petra Ålund, Head of Technology at SEB, on effective IT technologies and data strategies, IT talent shortage solutions and the characteristics of tomorrow’s IT organization.      

 

What IT technologies have made the biggest impact on SEB’s business processes?  

Intelligence has come a long way in the last five years. With increasing volumes of transactions and trades, manual work is not enough to maintain optimal pace and quality.  AI and ML are vital in several aspects of our business operations. This includes securing the best uptime for our data centers and keeping a high-security level to data-driven advice internally as well as for our customers.  Here are two important examples:  

  • AIOPs:  AI operations use predictive infrastructure anomaly detection to detect deviations early, preventing downtime and service outage. 
  • Anti-Money Laundering & Financial Crime Prevention:  AI is applied to large sets of data. Its smartness can detect anomalies which allows us to report them earlier. This will help us prevent, examine and report anomalies and suspicious activities more efficiently.   

We are only starting to reap the benefits of smart technologies and we can already see positive impacts. The cloud journey is very prominent and a top priority in most industries. Cloud is the way forward to be scalable, flexible and locationally independent. We have partnered with Google Cloud to collaborate on innovative products and services to provide our customers with a better user experience.  

As a third example,  integration of Application Programming Interface (API) into systems, services, customers, other companies, and data sources will have a big impact on business processes. Leveraging both internal and open APIs on the market will allow the highest availability of components to easily build new solutions for customers.  

 

What is your idea of an effective data strategy for optimal data utilization and protection?

Being data-driven is more than having a data warehouse and producing reports and dashboards. Data transformation is about having your data in order, but more importantly, it is about people upskilling and implementing whole new ways of working in all parts of the bank. It is a big cultural change, and it should not be underestimated.  

 

What are your solutions to solve the IT talent shortage? 

Attract new talent  

Since the competition for talent is fierce, especially for talent with more scarce competencies, talent management is an area SEB is really investing in. Our global talent acquisition team is using cutting-edge tools to be able to work in more data-driven ways to find the right candidates faster and to enhance their end-to-end experience.   

Branding is super important to attract talent. At SEB we are fortunate to be one of the top-ranked Nordic financial employers among finance and IT students. We have close collaborations with universities and regularly participate in events, job fairs, career days, workshops and research fields both directly and through our owners.  

Train and retain our talent  

We work with experts, international universities, and schools to offer learning in all fields to inspire, develop and support our employees’ ambitions. Our initiatives include internal events, hackathons and fully digital business universities. In addition, we offer mentor programs, volunteer programs, job-shadowing and internal gigs where employees can work in different parts of the bank for short periods of time.   

 

What does the next-generation IT organization look like?

Business is IT and IT is business. We will see a continuation of this trend as there is still high demand for digitalization and new technologies. IT is the foundation and delivery mechanism of most financial and banking products and services. Technologies are part of all external and internal deliveries in back-office, operations and customer-facing  functions.   

IT departments are growing in the presence of new marketplaces and ecosystems. They are the infrastructure that enables the digitalization of processes and services for both employees and customers.   

At SEB we have a virtual agile organization with 16 domains consisting of 65 tribes and 285 teams. These are cross-functional execution vehicles that  increase adaptability to change as an organization. This structure allows us to learn, pivot and deliver at high speed, and to thrive in a competitive market.  

I believe that DevSecOps (Dev: IT development, Sec: Security, Ops: IT operations) and IT automation will continue to accelerate in 2022. DevSecOps combine people, processes and automation to unite culture, work methods and tools to create the best prerequisites for fast and stable delivery.   

 

How has the CIO role evolved in the last 18 months?  

CIOs are becoming visionaries of the future as they provide insights into the changing business landscape and how to adapt to new technologies. This has been the set-up at SEB for quite a while where the CIOs are in the front seat of driving strategy. 

This is in line with organizational development and learning as well as increased digital pressure from competitors, customers, and employees. All parts of the bank, with their different skill sets, are collaborating and are equally important in our agile set-up, where we drive both transformation and innovation of new products for our customers. 

 

*The answers have been edited for length and clarity.  

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How Can CIOs Implement Effective Change Management?

Change management is inevitable in the era of digital transformation — at individual and enterprise levels. Over the past year, organizations across the globe experienced some form of change management out of necessity.

Shona Elliot, best-selling author and executive management & leadership consultant, shared her insights on organizational change management in a recent Transformation Thursday session on Clubhouse hosted by Management Events.  

“COVID has completely moved the needle in terms of what change looks like beyond the proper change management processes of the past,” she says.  

 

All eyes are on CIOs to not only spearhead the adoption of new technologies, but to also become leaders in change management. Easier said than done, right? 

The modern CIO may find it difficult to focus their energies on the right areas with so many elements in flux — rapid digitalization, customer expectations, technology advancements, cyber security and shifting go-to-market strategies, among others.  

Therefore, it is essential that CIOs craft change management strategies that can withstand the volatility of current times, as well as help their organizations enable effective transformations in 2021. 

 

CIO: The New Change Agent 

 

“Change management is the art of making organizations work well – and continue to work well.” – Michael K. Levine, author of People Over Process: Leadership for Agility. 

CIOs wear many hats; the newest one being an agent of change. Digital advancements have propelled CIOs to the forefront of organizational change. As a key change agent, CIOs now have the responsibility to promote cultural shifts for successful transformation.  

As more IT organizations adopt agile and design thinking methods to align with overall business goals, CIOs must be able to manage the impact of this change successfully. According to Accenture, the efficacy of technical business transformations relies on strong change management leadership to guide teams through this process.  

 

Why is Change Management So Hard? 

 

70%. This is the percentage of change management initiatives that fail to meet their goal. Change management is hard to get right, and CIOs are forced to face the added challenge of a global pandemic and a remote workforce.  

The main reasons why change management efforts fail at enterprise level are: 

 
 

Often, C-levels prioritize technical capabilities over business capabilities when taking on new spending methodology projects. Majority of resources are utilized on data, tools and insights when it should be focused on the business process adaptations that stem from change management principles.  

Organizations must discard the “There’s an app for that!” philosophy where they become too reliant on packaged software applications to drive internal processes. This philosophy leads to the increasing difficulty of educating and convincing employees to use new technological systems, something CIOs should address urgently.

 

What is Change Fatigue? 

 

As humans, our brains are hardwired to resist change.  

According to Elliot, “I’ve heard senior leaders many times in their career say they are just going to be resisting change or a stakeholder group is just going to resist it.”, and nothing can be done except to move forward to something new. In addition, 92 % of participants in a Deloitte survey stated that resistance to change is an expected reaction from employees as well.  

The rapid pace of continuous change at organizations may take a toll on employees, also known as ”change fatigue”. This is on top of the stress caused by the pandemic and health concerns, economic issues and job uncertainty. If not addressed immediately, change fatigue can be a serious inhibitor of digital transformation. 

CIOs must keep this in mind when planning change management strategies. Change fatigue can result in C-level peers and employees becoming frustrated and resentful — which can get in the way of achieving company goals. 

 

What Makes a Good Change Manager? 

 

Forward-thinking change managers must redefine the concept of change management for their organizations. This is supported by Elliot, who recalls leaders with a traditional mindset having an awakening around the importance of their employees and building a people-centric culture.  

“It is looking at all of the decisions through the lens of ‘how does this impact our employees and teams?’ and ‘how do we talk to them about it?’”  

This shift in mindset will help with creating a simple and effective change management project plan, that should include: 

 
 

Furthermore, a change management project plan should be supported by these strategies: 

  • Assess change readiness of employees to determine overall stress and morale level as well as openness to change, 
  • Understand how the organization and working culture has been impacted by external events, 
  • Acknowledge the importance of aligning people, technology and processes, 
  • Translate overarching goals and objectives into specific transformational strategies, 
  • Ensure all internal stakeholders and executives are aligned and informed. 

With the rise of remote workforces, change management strategies are likely to succeed when CIOs take the time to utilize digital communication tools to connect with teams within the organization and listen to their concerns.  

Besides that, IT leaders can propel their teams to digital transformation with five pillars of change management success:  

 
 

They can tailor existing change management models to their organization’s needs, such as Lewin’s Change Management model, McKinsey 7-S model and Kotter’s theory.  

 

Why is Change Management Important for CIOs to Understand?

 

Valuable time and resources go into adopting new technologies and processes. Without change management, that time and money go to waste.  

According to Elliot, senior leadership needs to understand all the components to change and craft an approach to help spearhead successful change initiatives. CIOs should also note that change management plans are not a one-person job.  

“I look at it as a co-creation model, to be able to include stakeholders that are going to be responsible for delivering the change and include them in the conversation as early as possible.” 

Furthermore, IT leaders who involve employees in designing change management processes are more likely to succeed. Results from a Gartner survey reveal employee engagement and retention rate increased by 38% and 46% respectively with the integration of open source change management.   

A good change manager keeps their employees in mind and closely collaborates with stakeholders when building an impactful change management strategy.

Once seen as an isolated and ongoing project, change management is now reactive and necessary. CIOs must make their mark in the change management landscape and inspire their organization to be excited about change, instead of fearing it. 

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Can CxOs Harness The Power of Clubhouse?

Clubhouse, a social media platform, is currently making waves around the world as the latest silicon valley success with everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to Oprah making their appearance on the app.

For c-level executives (CXOs), Clubhouse can be a powerful tool for business growth when used effectively. There’s potential for it to be a platform to learn about emerging technologies, fringe strategies, solutions, and even learn new skills.

In this article, we’ll go through some tips to effectively use the platform and ensure that you’re not missing out on the hottest social media app.

 

Clubhouse: A Quick Recap

 

If you’re well-versed in Clubhouse, then go ahead and skip this part. If you do not know anything about Clubhouse, here are some important points to be aware of:

  • It’s a voice-only social platform that lets users create rooms and start conversations.
  • Users can join rooms and participate in conversations.
  • Each room will have moderators to oversee conversations.
  • It’s an invite-only app, which means you need to be invited to join.
  • It’s only available in iOS but an android version is being developed.
 
Join US NOW: Be part of Management Events’ Clubhouse (@Managementev) and gain exclusive access to deep-dives from industry experts and key decision-makers.
 

How To Harness Clubhouse

 

Now that you have a basic understanding of Clubhouse, how or why should you use Clubhouse?

While it is still in its infancy, Clubhouse does offer tangible short-term and long-term business gains that other social media platforms do not. As a business or organization, it’d be wise to take advantage of what the app has to offer, especially now with people such as Elon Musk being part of it.

 

Expanding Your Business Network

 

At face value, Clubhouse might not guarantee success for your business goals, however, it can be a valuable tool to expand your network and open up opportunities for growth and potential partnerships.

Once you’ve secured an invitation, experiment with the platform and follow different clubs, join rooms and connect with people that could be cultivated into networking opportunities for your organization or a source for valuable insights and inspiration.

The app has seen high-profile figures joining and engaging consistently, making it a vibrant platform for decision-makers to network with peers, work with visionaries, and maybe even be inspired by like-minded leaders.

 

A Place For Knowledge Sharing

 

At its core, Clubhouse is about sharing. Be it sharing information, ideas, or insider knowledge, the app provides a great place for insights from industry peers that otherwise might not be easily accessible.

Of course, it doesn’t compare to tailored industry events or virtual networking sessions for businesses, it is still a hotbed for CXOs to share their findings, engage in discussion on industry trends, and gain unique perspectives from other c-levels.

Whether it is about marketing, AI, finance, or even business transformations, there are a wide variety of topics and rooms that you can explore and learn from to help you solve or strengthen your business.

 
Next-level Insights: Gain exclusives insights on industry trends from experts at Management Events’ Clubhouse (@Managementev) sessions.
 

Huge Pool of Talent and Recruitment

 

As you visit rooms and join in discussions relevant to your industry, you’ll come across people with the skills and experience that your business might need. Given the exponential growth of Clubhouse’s userbase, this makes it a valuable platform for talent resources and recruitment.

There have been many cases of recruiters utilizing the app by finding talents through networking in the chat rooms or just setting an impromptu interview on the spot. During Elon Musk’s infamous interview on Clubhouse, he used the opportunity to promote NeuraLink and went on to encourage engineers to apply to his company, highlighting the instantaneous interaction that you can have on the app.

Finding the right people can be as easy as joining a room and mentioning that you are looking for people to help with your business. Within minutes, you’ll be receiving messages from talents and the services that they offer.

 

What The Future Holds For Clubhouse

 

While Clubhouse is definitely the buzzword for many right now, its future as a pillar of business networking is still in question. There are tons of potential within the app, but also numerous issues that still need resolving.

Some of those issues include a better method to filter audiences, a better system to moderate, and most importantly, the security concerns over data and audio leaks.

Whether or not Clubhouse will become a super-aggregator remains to be seen but the potential is there. With the developers looking to improve the platform by adding creator tools and quality-of-life improvements, the app can be a powerful tool in the hands of C-level executives in the future.

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CIO Investments: Which Tech Is Your Priority?

As the world crosses into 2021, the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has brought surges in global stocks and market optimism.

However, even with great hopes of economic recovery by the end of 2021, organizations still need to ensure that their business growth and plans continue positively. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are playing a big part in achieving these goals by maximizing information technology (IT) investments and advancements.

 

What IT Investments To Focus On?

 

According to our Executive Trend Survey, 67% of CIOs placed data science as a top priority for 2021 with core focuses on analytics strategy, data management, and big data analytics. 

Meanwhile, cyber security and cloud were named as other top CIO priorities by 59% and 53% of surveyed leaders respectively.

 
 

But what does this mean for CIOs across the industries?

Based on feedback from CIOs and key IT executives, the majority (47%) of them are facing 2021 with slight changes in their goals and a lower budget for their function.

 
 

With limited budgets, CIOs need to pick and choose which goal takes priority over the others and select a solution that will truly give them the return on investment they seek.

Thus, even if CIO trends point towards analytics if their current end objectives don’t correspond with the need for data solutions, they should focus on more pressing investments.

Another key factor influencing their investment priorities lies in the current maturity levels of their technology and operations. For instance, some are still new in forming data strategies while others are more advanced in their data-driven processes, thus their focus areas in the use of data science differ greatly.

 

Investing In Data Science

 

Today, it’s uncommon to find any company that is not taking advantage of their data. From enhancing customer experience to improving predictive maintenance, business leaders are aware that data is critical to their organizational growth.

But which area of data analytics should your organization focus on? Between the different analytics applications and components, what should be the foremost priority?

In recent interviews with CIOs and other IT decision-makers, over 450 of them named analytics as their core focus. Even so, under the analytics umbrella, their interests ranged from big data analytics and predictive analytics to data warehousing and analytics strategy.

 
 

55% of them selected data management as their foremost investment in analytics, naming master data management (MDM) and product information management (PIM) implementation as some of their projects.

 
 

The MDM solution is largely adopted by the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector to manage massive amounts of transactional data on their customers. PIM, on the other hand, is seeing higher demand by the e-commerce industry and an anticipated fast growth in the media and entertainment sector.

In regards to data analytics strategy, some of the CIOs are investigating how they can make the business work more efficiently through analytics strategy while others are taking the next steps to improve data quality.

On the other hand, a number of the interviewed decision-makers are still setting up and realizing their data strategy, indicating that they’re still in the planning stages and concentrating on becoming a data-driven organization.

 

Investing in Cyber Security

 

Meanwhile, our most recent interviews with CIOs on cybersecurity investments discovered that cloud security is foremost on their priority list followed closely by cyber security strategy.

 
 

From our findings, a number of the interviewed decision-makers expressed interest in implementing security information and event management (SIEM) solutions.

 
 

Another hot spot in 2021 cyber security spending, according to Forbes, is identity and access management (IAM), which is a prime focus for 30% of business leaders investing in cyber security. Some of their projects regarding access and identity management include:

 
 

With uncertainties still forthcoming, some CIOs are worried about guaranteeing a high level of cyber security with a limited budget while facing challenges in approaching the topic of online security to a diversified and remote workforce.

 

Investing in Cloud

 

Based on CIO investment feedback from the interviews, most of them are still in the planning stage of their cloud strategy with cloud integration and migration as their core priorities.

 
 

Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud are three of the most popular cloud platforms in the market, and interviewed decision-makers are contemplating between the cloud computing services while some are even working with all three of the platforms.

Alternatively, a group of IT leaders and other key C-suites are working towards a hybrid cloud environment, which is commonly used in industries such as:

What is Your Focus Area?

 

As seen in our survey findings and interviews, each of the IT leaders is prioritizing a specific solution that best serves their target goals with consideration to their budget, their available expertise and IT talents, and current processes.

For some, the immediate focus is on surviving the consequences of the pandemic, “which has become the number one objective for most emerging technology investments”, according to KPMG’s research. For others, it’s an opportune time to shift to a more digital business model and accelerate their digital transformation.

Nevertheless, while benchmarking and taking note of emerging IT trends help your organization to measure business performance against other companies, the global situation and market uncertainty are still expected to significantly affect information technology investments.

The important thing is to have a solid focus on your strategic IT priorities, adopting agility and adaptability for business continuity, and making smart investments to prevail in the long term.

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IT Benchmark 2021: Where Do You Stand Among the CIOs?

CIO IT Benchmarking

The outbreak, evolving workscape, a volatile market, changing customer demands –  Chief Information Officers (CIOs) have their hands full in strategizing IT projects while maximizing the value of technology investments.

With the modern CIO role entailing more strategic decision-making, you need to identify key technologies that not only help advance the organization’s digital transformation, but that also increase its business value and competitive edge.

So how effective is your IT strategy compared to other organizations in your industry? Are there areas where your peers are ahead of you? Let’s dive into the IT benchmark data for the coming year.

Data Science Takes The Lead

In 2019, Management Events’ Executive Trend Survey found that 88% of CIOs across Europe were focusing on cyber security adoption for the coming years, followed by cloud and big data.

However, the pandemic has shuffled tech priorities with the latest survey discovering that data science and analytics have taken precedence over cyber security for 2021.

Although the findings point towards a higher importance of data science, the surveyed CIOs seem to be almost equally torn between data, cyber security and cloud investments. The close gaps indicate that these three technologies are vital parts of CIOs’ business continuity and recovery strategies.


The Rise Of Data

Based on our survey and interviews with IT decision makers, their core data focuses are on analytics strategy, data management and big data analytics, with the majority looking for data science and analytics to be scaling within their organization in 3 years.

Almost 82% of the surveyed leaders said they are updating data analytics models to accommodate changing market behavior. Furthermore, 73% agreed that they’re heavily investing in data-driven business models for post-COVID-19 survival.


Compared to the 2020 annual budget of between €100,000 and €250,000, the budget allocated by the CIOs for 2021 data analytics spending in their organization is higher, with the majority looking to spend in the €500,000 range.


As for data tech adoption, the majority of CIOs are currently building capabilities by hiring new talents with the required skills. However, in the future, they are looking to change their adoption strategy by investing in other companies to acquire the skills.

Diving deeper into the benchmark data, most of the IT leaders focusing on data analytics are from the retail and consumer industry, followed by the banking and financial services industry. Incidentally, aside from data analytics, the retail CIOs are also looking into e-commerce implementations.


Join the discussion on the latest IT trends with leading CIOs, CTOs and more at 600Minutes Executive IT  in Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Norway.

Cyber Security Is Still A Priority

With cybercrimes on the rise, businesses around the world are working hard to prevent data breaches and system disruptions. At the same time, companies are in the midst of strengthening their security framework, from securing endpoints to stronger online protection.

So what are the cyber security benchmark and CIO cyber security focus areas for 2021?

In terms of security investments, data security and privacy is one of the core focal points among European CIOs along with a more robust cyber security strategy and emphasis on cloud security.


As COVID-19 saw increasing security breaches, it’s not a surprise that employee awareness training on cyber security is a top priority for 95% of IT leaders. Meanwhile,  89% of the IT C-executives are expecting a rise in predictive and behavioral detection to prevent cyber attacks.

Similar to data science, cyber security’s annual budget was also ranging between €100,000 and €250,000 for 2020, but has increased to €500,000 for 2021, according to the IT leaders in our survey.

Currently, 58% of the decision makers are partnering with vendors and consultancies for their cyber security solutions, but in the future, most of them are looking at partnering with organizations in other industries to create security ecosystems.

Incidentally, IT leaders from the manufacturing industry make up the majority of surveyed CIOs looking to invest in cyber security.

Cloud Increase On The Horizon

 

On cloud benchmark data, our survey found that cloud is the third topmost tech priority for 2021 with the majority interested in cloud migration coming from the banking and financial services industry.

88% of the cloud-focused respondents are currently looking to migrate their workload to the cloud for increased business efficiency, and the survey also discovered that cloud infrastructure and cloud platforms are primary aspects of the CIO cloud strategy.


Unlike the other aforementioned technologies, cloud migration seems to have different budget ranges. The CIO respondents are divided between spending less than €500,000 and between €500,000 and €1 million in the coming year, when in 2020, the annual budget for cloud was mostly less than €50,000 and between €100,000 and €250,000.

Currently, their cloud adoption approach is partnering with external vendors and training their employees, but 68% of the IT leaders are hoping to acquire the necessary cloud capabilities by investing in other companies in the near future.


How Should You Respond?

Before undertaking a benchmarking opportunity, there is much to consider:

  • Are you looking at industry benchmark data or more towards IT budget benchmarks?
  • What performance or process gaps are you seeking to enhance?
  • Do you have a clear objective for the tech implementation?

While the trends are pointing mainly towards data analytics, investing in this solution must be in line with your organizational and industry goals. As Datafloq puts it, companies need to “dig down to understand if [data analytics] is worth it”, and if it’ll bring them the return of investment (ROI) that they are looking for.

Data analytics use case of a CIO interviewee from a Dutch online travel agency:

  • What’s the objective of analyzing the data? To improve booking experience and behavior recognition
  • What data are they looking at? Online customer behavior
  • What are they using to process the data? Big data analytics and predictive analytics

The same goes for all innovations that are the focus of CIOs. Although market trends are pointing to a certain technology, it doesn’t mean that everyone must jump on the bandwagon.

Data benchmark is just one indicator of your organization’s performance that will potentially inform you on which areas you need to improve, but identifying the right elements to benchmark is the key. It’s vital to choose elements and technologies that will bring the most positive impact to your organization’s growth and revenue.

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Mind The Talent Gap: Bridging The IT Shortage

IT talent shortage is a top barrier for many industries as the business world advances steadily into the digital era.

Analytics Insights reported these global skill gaps:

  • Artificial Intelligence – 66%
  • Cyber Security – 64%
  • Internet of Things – 62%
  • AR / VR – 61%
  • Robotics – 60%
  • Big Data – 58%

In fact, Gartner’s survey discovered that global talent shortage is now the top emerging risk for organizations while 75% of enterprises are anticipating skills gaps in key IT roles post-outbreak.

What’s even more concerning is Korn Ferry Institute’s finding, which estimated a worldwide deficit of 4.3 million tech-skilled workers by 2030.

 

THE SHORTAGE PROBLEM

 

Although companies are aware of the importance of tech talents in the ever-changing digital landscape, recruiting much-needed IT professionals to close the talent gap is not an easy task.

Major reasons behind the digital skills shortage include:

 

  • Lack Of ICT Graduates

 

Representatives of the tech and education sectors believed there is a disconnect between tech employers and universities on the digital talent wanted by the industry, leading to ‘skills mismatch and unemployable graduates’.

One of the dilemmas is the speed of technology. The world is either churning out new inventions or updating existing technologies to the point that institutes are unable to keep up. Even when the universities are aligned with industry needs, 95% of the curriculums take roughly two years to change.

 

  • Shallow Pool Of Talent

 

With the demand for different skillsets, employers of today are not just wrestling with one digital talent gap but “hundreds of discrete shortages and surpluses”.

However, tech giants, such as Apple, Microsoft and Google, attract more than the fair share of available talent worldwide, and companies without the resources of the economic powerhouses are left at a disadvantage.

 

  • Outdated Workforce (& C-Level) Skills

 

Although the rapid progress of technology enables improved business efficiency, it also means that employee skillsets become obsolete quicker.

4 out of 10 workers fear they’ll lose their job within 5 years due to outdated skills while the World Economic Forum conveyed that “54% of all employees will require significant reskilling by 2022”. However, many don’t realize that the digital gap extends to the C-suites as well.

The MIT Sloan Management Review reported that upper-level executives are out of touch with the digital savviness required for these highly technological times, highlighting that less than 15% of surveyed executives believed their leaders have the right mindset and skills to lead in the digital economy.

 

BUILDING THE BRIDGE

 

The challenges of finding talents and upskilling workers while keeping pace with the speed of innovation seem like a herculean task. Thus, functions, from HR to the C-levels, must work closely with one another to discern and acquire the digital skills vital for a successful digitalized company.

 

  • Talent Management Strategies

 

Hiring is the top action companies across the regions take to solve IT shortage, followed by retraining and building skills, but many firms are ‘flying data blind’ in regards to the talents they require for their digital transformation.

 

SKILL GAP ANALYSIS

 

Conducting an IT skill gap analysis, such as the steps recommended by The Predictive Index or the template by Capterra, helps to pinpoint missing digital talents and crucial technical knowledge among employees in the company.

Once a clear plan on the necessary skills has been established, hiring managers will fully understand what talents to find and the required proficiency levels. But just that is not enough as organizations should continuously invest in talent acquisition capabilities, and nurture the talent pipeline to enable quicker business transformation.

 

DEPLOYING & UPSKILLING

 

Effective talent deployment is another method for minimizing the tech talent shortage. Companies should optimize their existing workforce by taking inventory of available digital talent, and deploying those with tech skills to essential key roles while training them to further advance their competencies.

On upskilling, organizations can organize peer mentoring or coaching sessions, where team members with digital tech skills are able to help hone the desired talents in other employees. It should be noted that mentoring may take considerable time before the skills are adequately learnt and applied, but is one of the least costly ways to upskill the workforce.

 

LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT (L&D)

 

Research found that 83% of workers global-wide want their leaders to provide opportunities to learn new skills whereas more than two-thirds wish their companies would increase the budget for digital skills development. These findings indicate that workers feel their employers are not doing enough to drive the talent growth of the staff.

Enterprises should ensure that their internal training anticipates upcoming shifts in technology, and be aware of the skills needed to meet digital transformation across the board. For instance, Adobe conducts its own skills-growth training for employees, offering intense machine learning training programs to both technical and non-technical staff.

 

  • New Sources Of Talents

 

As mentioned earlier, it’s a global race to attract the best tech talents. In an increasingly shallow pool of talent with industry sharks swiping top IT professionals, firms must seek other sources of talents to progress their digital transformation.

 

MINORITY TALENT GROUPS

 

Salesforce’s President, Miguel Milano, wrote that businesses should tap into underutilized seas of talents, such as minority groups and those without college education. Howard Elias, President of Services and Digital at Dell Technologies, corroborated with Milano’s statement, stating that Dell seeks to hire those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech, which include women, people with autism, and other groups largely excluded from the industry.


 

“Diversifying teams does more than solve a shortage of workers, it also makes good business sense,” Elias mentioned, citing McKinsey’s recent study that discovered companies with higher gender and ethnic diversities are more likely to record better financial returns. 

 

VARYING EXPERIENCE LEVELS

 

The Wall Street Journal, on the other hand, revealed how older IT professionals are being passed over by employers for much younger talents, despite the shortage of IT workers. The reasons behind the choice range from lack of skills in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to the cost of compensation packages. 

However, the Executive Vice President of Robert Half, John Reed, believed that, “hiring managers can’t afford to overlook any potential talent pool” as companies will lose the advantage of having a team with varying experience levels to tackle different tech issues.

 

GIG ECONOMY

 

Another talent source is the gig economy. The emergence of the gig economy, or contract work, has significantly changed the traditional work dynamics, being dubbed as the ‘future of work’.

Reworked, a digital publication, commented that skills such as AI, natural language processing (NLP) and data engineering would be best filled by gig workers as “organizations are realizing they only need access to this skilled work for a limited time.”

 

START FROM THE TOP

 

Although companies should focus on training their workforce, the C-suites themselves must ensure that their digital skills are up-to-date. At the same time, CEOs and other C-level partners are encouraged to be actively involved in the development of corporate learning. 

 

  • Chief Learning Officer (CLO)

 

Most organizations have an L&D department tasked with driving effective corporate learning. Oftentimes, though, the training programs either lack analytical data on determining the agenda or lack the adaptive advantage of innovating according to market conditions.

This is why it’s vital for CEOs to make learning a C-suite priority by designating a Chief Learning Officer (CLO) to head the L&D function. Industry giants such as General Electric and Merck, for instance, appoint CLOs to oversee the ‘corporate learnscape’, utilizing data, science and other relevant learning in the workflow.

 

  • C-Suite Upskilling

 

Upskilling shouldn’t be limited to employees. Top executives should also scrutinize their C-suite tech skills inventory, and seek to improve their knowledge and experience in high technologies for greater chances of successful growth.

With the digital revolution strongly underway, the C-levels must have an intimate understanding of digital innovations and how they impact the organizations. Unfortunately, not all leaders comprehend technologies, as seen in the case of cloud transformation, which can cause misaligned goals and stalled projects.

 

  • Change of C-Level Mindset

 

Change is ever consistent, and leaders who are unwilling to embrace the technology-driven future of business risk falling behind their competitors, especially in the current time of remote working and digital business.

According to Management Events’ Executive Trend Survey, respondents stated that lack of experimentation and organizational support are top internal challenges when adopting new technologies in their companies, showing that some leaders are deeply rooted in the ‘legacy mindset’.

Before analyzing and closing the skills gap among the workforce, C-suites must ask themselves, “Are they equipped with the digital abilities and mindset to tackle the demands of the new economy?”

 

IN CONCLUSION

 

Many leaders may be ill-prepared to manage the tech skills gap, but that is why the whole executive team must come together to tackle the IT talent gap in today’s digital world – from HR leaders morphing into digital change agents able to drive talent strategies to respective C-levels analyzing missing skills and developing an integrated learning ecosystem.

There’s no single solution to address the digital skills shortage, and organizations may need a mix of approaches to close the gap. But whatever the case, businesses must start now to rectify the shortage of IT professionals and prepare actions for future talent disruptions.

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600Minutes Executive IT: How IT Leaders Develop Agility In Times Of Crisis

The recent 600Minutes Executive IT held by Management Events revealed in-depth insights from over 300 top-level IT executives and solution providers from leading organizations in Sweden. 

In group discussions during the virtual event, CIOs across the industries lent their thoughts and opinions on leading in the virtual landscape and through times of crisis.


 

Virtual Leadership

As known the world over, the coronavirus outbreak has brought unprecedented circumstances to the business world, from urgent business continuity planning to lengthy operational disruptions.

As C-suites sought to keep their business operations running, remote working was widely established throughout organizations. But for many IT leaders, managing and leading a remote workforce is a novel experience, and they are faced with different levels of difficulties.

 

Obstacles and Challenges

There were multiple concerns expressed by the event attendees during the group discussions.

One IT executive mentioned that it’s a challenge to keep track of how employees are doing while another stated that it’s harder to pick up on what’s going on when they, as the leader, are working away from the team. Yet another participant expressed worry on the flow of information not reaching the teams.

But among the many hurdles, face-to-face communication and socialization seem to be the most worrying aspects of remote work. Participants were concerned on how to keep the teams together when they’re no longer physically meeting or interacting with each other.

This is especially the case for new hires, whereby organizations need to ensure proper onboarding of the employees and help in building relationships with the current teams. As an IT leader aptly explained, “Now, we are riding on the current company culture from the physical office, but for new hires, there’s a challenge to transfer the silent knowledge and culture that ‘sits in the walls’.”

Stagnancy is another worrying issue among leading IT directors and C-levels as teams don’t share as many ideas or brainstorm as much as before.

As one IT leader commented, “New ideas get lost as most meetings are within the same function. It’s important to keep in contact with decision makers in other functions in order to develop new ideas.”

Other worries and issues presented during the discussions were:

  • Investing more 1-to-1 time for the same output;
  • Difficulty in following up with their teams and getting concrete actions;
  • Lack of boundaries between work and non-work, resulting in potential burnout;
  • Struggles in starting new projects; and
  • Micromanagement.
 

Positive Outlook and Solutions

Even though there are concerns with coordinating a remote workforce, a number of participants are positive that working offsite, or telecommuting, can bring good results. As one attendee stated, “[Remote work] should not be seen as a cost, but an opportunity.”


 

For instance, a decision maker participating in the group discussions claimed that due to the outbreak and subsequent remote working situation, there’s now a stronger focus on innovation, which can help companies to discover business opportunities that were once neglected.

Others corroborated with his statement, saying that the coronavirus inadvertently led to the organization gaining momentum in digitalization, and they should use the ‘new normal’ as a chance to initiate strategic changes.

One example given is the use of iPads for the company’s operators for communication and training purposes, which in the past would have taken a very long time. Others mentioned how their organization now works more digitally and has increased efficiency in some areas, and how people are more innovative without so many contradictions.

 

As an IT director said, “Productivity increases during periods where we are forced to be more innovative.”

 

Additionally, it was a general agreement among the IT leaders that working remotely led to more efficient online meetings as staff seems more prepared, with specific agendas and smooth subsequent information flow and discussions.

Even though a number of attendees voiced out the challenges they’re facing in creating a successful digitalized workforce, they also suggested solutions to overcome the hurdles.

Some of the solutions for effective and progressive remote workforce management given by the participants include:

  • Developing policies and reinforcing them;
  • Raising morale through interactive and non-work-related activities, such as music quizzes;
  • Connecting more often with peers, teams and others from the company to gain different perspectives;
  • Having more dialogues with the workforce on handling the crisis and other work issues; and
  • Scheduling fun meetings and engaging sessions, such as a virtual coffee break, to replace physical socializing.

However, given the pros and cons of working remotely, quite a few of the top executives are looking to develop a hybrid solution of working from home and office.

 

Towards A Hybrid Landscape

“Remotely, productivity remains the same, or is even better, But for some cooperation and creative process work, there’s a need for physical meetings.”


“Virtual hiring is possible. However, physical meetup is still needed to hand over computers and phones, and to provide basic training on how to perform the job.”

 

The above statements are just a few comments from IT leaders who believe in having the best of both offsite and onsite worlds, and were discussing how to maximize value and efficacy in a hybrid office landscape.

Aside from providing possible solutions to the difficulties of building team relations and maintaining the innovation and development arenas, the hybrid solution also addresses the issue of trust.

As a participant mentioned, “If you don’t see your teammates and staff every day, more trust is required,” while another explained that, “In the past, it wasn’t part of leadership to ensure that their groups do their jobs from home.”

An IT executive in the discussion suggested a day or two per week working from home with the rest of the days in the office. Such a solution not only provides the flexibility for employees needing time to take care of family and personal business, but also answers the needs for department heads to have their teams for certain face-to-face tasks.

“A flexible workforce can lead to higher productivity,” a participant asserted.

 

Moving Forward

 As a top IT executive observed, “People react differently to the changing environment and working conditions.” However, overall, it seems that employees, and even customers, have adapted to the ‘new normal’ relatively fast, and companies are witnessing faster digital transformation and innovation than before.

Perhaps it’s true what a decision maker from the IT function said during the discussion – “We need more crises to develop further.”

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The Rising Concerns of CIOs Amid Pandemic

Before the start of this decade, multiple studies and surveys predicted that CIOs will have a unique set of key concerns and priorities which they should prepare for. According to CIO Insider, the top focus areas for CIOs in 2020 would be talent, culture, and organizational challenges. Acuvate reported similar trends with the addition of IT-related initiatives, while Adobe highlighted customer experience amongst others.

Fast forward to the second quarter of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and unprecedented circumstances strike the world, which then begs for a question: do the predictions from these studies still stand true? Do  CIOs’ priorities remain unchanged or are CIOs pivoting to different initiatives to support their business continuity plan (BCP)?

Let’s take a look at what challenges and developments preoccupied CIOs over the past 4 months and the business areas and technologies that have proved vital for organizations’ business continuity planning.

 

Cloud Migration

The recent crisis saw remote working as the norm as employees were made to quarantine themselves during this pandemic. This transition caused businesses to face difficulties in communicating, accessing data, and business analysis. 

Henceforth, CIOs needed to change the legacy system and speed up cloud migrations to continue efficient operations and propel into an increasingly competitive business landscape. For a comprehensive BCP, CIOs also had to adopt cloud computing technology promptly to accommodate remote working and achieve better collaboration among stakeholders. Management Events’ latest Executive Trend (ET) Survey H2 2020* revealed that around 86% of businesses were looking to migrate their workload to the cloud as the rapid digital transformation was made prevalent, aligned with the current trend of modern technological advances.

 

Cybersecurity Risks

According to Entrepreneur, the FBI reported that the cybercrime rate in the United States has increased 300 percent since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Meantime, the U.N disarmament chief, Izumi Nakamatsu also said that cybercrime is on the rise “with a 600% increase in malicious emails during the current crisis”. 

The rise of cybercrime is attributed to several reasons including chaos around the pandemic, massive layoffs, and the increase of remote workers’ online activities with multiple networks that have either limited basic security measures or the lack of it. CIOs face challenges in educating employees about cyber threats and maintaining system security, primarily when it is accessed externally. Insights from our ET Survey 2020 revealed that 92% of businesses find cybersecurity awareness training for employees essential and deemed it to be a priority. 

Interpol reported that the focus shift to health crisis was a probable cause for the shortfall of cybersecurity which made it easier for cybercriminals to attack computer networks and systems of the users individually and even an organization as a whole. 

As business operations are forced to move to digital space and therefore exposed to online vulnerabilities, it is recommended that CIOs enhance their cybersecurity systems to minimize risks and incorporate them in their BCPs. The board of directors should always involve CIOs in decision making regarding security which includes policies, processes, people, as well as developing and innovating technology.

 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

According to Lomit Patel, vice president of growth at IMVU, from detecting the first coronavirus outbreak to reducing operational dependencies by the surge of automation in all industries, artificial intelligence plays a big part in driving growth during post-pandemic setting.

It is not a surprise for an organization to make sudden cuts in budgeting (with our own Executive Trend (ET) Survey* showing 48.1% of decision-makers focusing on cashflow preservation for business continuity) to survive financially during the pandemic which includes the unfortunate decisions of retrenchment that lead to an overload of work for remaining employees, but at the same time calls for more efficient management of certain tasks that can be automated. Subsequently, as a long-term BCP infrastructure, CIOs are looking into accelerating the adoption of AI and ML to boost process automation into their daily operations and to replace human labor. It is best to involve all areas for the automation strategy as an alternative solution to reduce operational costs and increase productivity. 

Organizations that already utilize AI and ML as part of their services and products have to retrain their models due to the unusual customer/user behavior during the pandemic. Incidentally, this creates an opportunity for CIOs to explore and establish better artificial empathy (AE).

 

Acute Innovation

The crisis is impacting multiple businesses across industries causing drastic changes in customer behavior, supply, and demand worldwide. As a matter of fact, it is eye-opening to witness how companies respond proactively to adapt to current situations. For some businesses, adjusting means investing in new products and solutions to support their revenues. Various innovations were produced after merely less than a month of product development, creating a new business paradigm. 

As an example, General Motors (GM) recently made a shift in its production line into manufacturing medical equipment such as breathing ventilators. This transformation allows GM to generate $489.4 million from only its production of ventilators even when shutting down car production. It is commendable that GM is taking advantage of its resources and technology as an alternative to a new stream of revenue, and at the same time, contributing to the cause of battling the current pandemic. Considering how digital the world today is, and how much industries depend on technologies, it is prevalent that CIOs play an essential role in accelerating new innovations to provide businesses with a competitive edge at high speed and low cost.

 

The Unforeseen Agent 

While the CIOs’ focus areas for the year 2020 have stayed relatively close to the predictions, COVID-19 has become the unforeseen agent that added urgency and criticality to digitalization and business transformation. The pandemic forced CIOs to accelerate their initiatives and take urgent actions to ensure competitiveness in their businesses. Organizations and workers that had been traditionally slow to adopt new technologies found themselves having to adapt quickly to the challenges of this operational paradigm or lag behind and close the shop.

CIOs are at the heart of every company’s business operation, but their role has evolved; from helping a company run better and faster to ultimately become an imperative figure that keeps a business resilient with changing times.

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Enterprise Architecture, The Agile Way!

Agile Architecture; what is it and why is it the new way to help your business grow?

In the early 1990s, people felt the need to break with the traditional “waterfall method”. They began a search for more practice-oriented ways to deliver software, which over the years led to Agile development.

Agile spread around the world and has had a huge impact on how organizations are structured and how they transform towards the future. The big challenge now is to stay in control over your organization’s transformation in this rapidly changing and flexible environment.

 

EA Goes Agile


The mapping out of the entire organization and recording, maintaining, using and improving information to support transformation usually takes a long time. But organizations need to be able to change faster and in shorter cycles in order to keep up with the speed of innovation nowadays.

So how can we keep Enterprise Architecture (EA) relevant and valuable in this fast changing world?

By combining Agile and Architecture.

This allows you to change in a more structured and secured way. It reduces risk, as well as increases the business impact you make by better aligning the projects with strategy. You work towards a centralized repository in which the current situation has been completely worked out. From there, you can start working in a structured way on the future desired state, which is based on decentralized investment, and not yet fully determined, so it can change along the way.

The future state is separated into fragmented bits, created throughout the organization, and is orchestrated by the architect into a whole in the central Enterprise Architecture Management Repository.

This means that the stakeholders can directly contribute to the current state architecture. It also means the architecture has to be fully integrated with Project (Portfolio) Management, Change Management, and with Business Process Management, Application (Portfolio) Management and Data Management, resulting in operational stakeholders taking responsibility for their changes. It is important that this can be done easily and quickly in everybody’s own language.

 

The Architect Becomes A Director


The Enterprise Architect now orchestrates teams of specialists responsible for the operation and monitors if projects meet the requirements from the set frameworks of conditions, principles and guidelines that fit the organization. He/she orchestrates the progress of projects in multiple phases or sprints.

The Enterprise Architect is now responsible for making sure all projects deliver products that contribute to the organization’s objectives while being in harmony with each other (aligned operation & strategy). Projects are delivered in the short term, while always keeping the long-term objective in mind.

And this requires close collaboration with the executive teams of the organization: In what direction is our organization heading? How do the changes in both our internal and external environment influence our strategy? How can we constantly adapt to these changes?

In an Agile Architecture driven organization, the architect presents decision-ready scenarios to the executive board, so that strategy can be adapted not on a yearly basis, but on a weekly or monthly basis, while heading towards the projected goals for that year.

With Agile Architecture, the focus is much more on a strategic level; managing the details is distributed to the people familiar with and responsible for those details; mostly in the operation. The architect is more a director and is closer to the teams that implement the projects.

The architect will work together more with these teams in order to keep track of the situation and the transformation and to make sure that nobody deviates too far from the set principles and guidelines, while constantly being open to improvements and adaptations.

In order to be able to integrate all those project architectures with your Enterprise Architecture, you need the right tooling.

BlueDolphin is a collaboration platform in which the various stakeholders can easily work on different projects, all in their own way and in their own language, while constantly contributing to the central repository.

 

 

BlueDolphin helps map out the current situation and displays the road to the future by providing an understanding of the current situation.

The power of BlueDolphin is that you can facilitate all those different roles on the same knowledge platform. The information is aligned within one central repository, and can be dynamically visualized in such a way that it’s understood by every stakeholder in the organization, allowing everyone to work from one and the same up-to-date ‘reality’. This saves a great deal of time and reduces the need for endless communication.

This way, you can use Agile Architecture to make your organization much more flexible and resilient at the same time.