CIOs will shift away from AI, blockchain, and tech-of-the-day moonshots in 2019 to focus on more methodical approaches to innovation, according to Forrester..

With cloud spending within UK education predicted to increase to £125m by 2020/21 some might be forgiven for thinking that moving to the cloud is an objective in itself. Fortunately, education leaders are seeing beyond the technological implementation side of things and focusing on the outcomes cloud brings about....

· Digital consultancy of makers disrupts traditional consultancy approach
· Venture launched in London by co-founders of award-winning European digital agency
· Consultancy pledges to solve business problems in 58 hours...

BearingPoint in top 30 in the global Chartis RiskTech100® 2019 rankings...

Digital transformation has been a high priority for many organisations for some time, and likely will continue to be for some time. But what`s in store for transformation in 2019? Research firm Forrester Research just released a report with a number of predictions. Here are a few highlights....

The role of big data in the pharmaceutical industry is growing bigger and more important as time goes on - and this could help improve patients` health..

Two global networking and communications companies — Aruba, itself a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, and Siemens — have announced a strategic partnership to deliver industrial clients greater simplicity, security and efficiency in their networks..

Global Cloud Computing market 2018 report frames ideas investigation, observes research, investments in features rich services and products, product distinction, technical inventions, and prices. The Cloud Computing industry research highlights the aspects which influence product development and market development together with up-gradations that may boost the market..

In the past, Artificial Intelligence research was confined primarily to big technology companies and was conceived as a technology concept that could mimic human intelligence. However, with rapid advances in data collection, processing and computation power, AI has become the new electricity for every business..

The frantic pace of today’s do-better-with-less business environment is old news to procurement executives. They grapple with this new normal every day, acutely aware of the need for agility and speed. In fact, 84 percent of procurement organizations think digital transformation will fundamentally change how their services are delivered in the near future.

One of the biggest auditing companies KPMG is taking tentative steps into cryptocurrencies. The company which is known as one of the Big Four- the other three being, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, published a paper on the merits of cryptocurrencies in collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase..

Three qualities really define when a technology has matured, when it has truly come into its own and begun to reach its potential. I’m drawing on past technological advances that have transformed into basic utilities, the things we need in our everyday lives to function. Electricity and mobile phones are two fairly recent examples that come to mind..

Threat hunting likely ranks second after artificial intelligence as a leading cybersecurity marketing buzzword and top airport advertising theme. Why not hunt for threats when dwell time between attack infections and detections can take months? Hiring threat hunters could change the playing field dynamics so if attackers make a mistake, they risk being detected. Sounds good, however, the real answer is more complex..

Fi.Solutions was founded in May 2008 by four former In Extenso partners (Deloitte group). It is a firm of French public accountants offering a wide range of services to French and international businesses..

The Japan market—a tough nut to crack for consulting firms in the past—is generating quite a buzz.As organisations start to use consultants more than ever before, consulting firms are sensing huge opportunities and are acting fast, which is intensifying competition... writes Callum Jack of Source Global Research.

In the past, Japanese business leaders were loath to spend on consultants for two reasons. First, the culture of international consulting firms didn’t always fit with the Japanese way of doing things. Differences in etiquette, hierarchical structures, and decision-making processes made it very difficult for firms to build strong client relationships. Second, Japanese clients—already sceptical about buying anything intangible—didn’t see the value in buying consulting advice if you couldn’t measure its impact. As a result, the Japan consulting market, valued at just US$1.4bn, is much smaller than its counterparts in other mature economies like the UK, where the consulting market is worth US$10bn and in a much smaller economy.
These challenges have hitherto prevented international consulting firms from really pushing to establish their presence in Japan. However, many of the consulting leaders we’ve spoken with recently are now investing heavily in Japan, and they cite four reasons for their new-found optimism:

1. Japanese companies are investing and expanding on to the global stage at an unprecedented speed. As they adapt to Western business culture, the ease of doing business with them is improving. This plays into the hands of consulting firms as these clients seek advice and support from firms with global expertise.
   
2. Bureaucratic Japanese companies have been relatively slow off the mark with digitisation, but it is starting to gather momentum. Digital expertise gathered from markets further along the digital journey is starting to look increasingly valuable to Japanese clients as they shift from strategising and piloting small initiatives to wide-scale digital transformation.
   
3. A serious shortage of talent—caused by an ageing population—is causing recruitment headaches for clients who will need consultants to plug the gaps.
   
4. Japanese clients’ aversion to services that don’t provide tangible results seems to dovetail perfectly with the growing trend of digital asset-based services, as these can apply advanced analytics to provide quantifiable insights.

Consulting firms are right to sense the opportunities but, as competition heats up, there is no guarantee of success. Developing a deep understanding of the Japanese business world, and providing services that demonstrate tangible outcomes for clients—which could be through implementation experience, digital assets, or managed services for instance—will be critical to establishing strong client relationships. A key thing to consider here about the Japanese business market is the high value placed on trusted long-term working relationships. So while it may prove difficult to get a foot in the door and establish trust initially, the hard work will pay off in the long run for the firms that get it right. ___________
Callum Jack is a senior analyst at Source who provide specialist research on the management consulting market to consultants and their clients.

© Source Global Research 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission..

Deloitte Legal has added a Singapore legal practice, Sabara Law to its network of over 2,400 legal professionals in more than 80 countries. The practice`s focus is on fields that are adjacent and complementary to Deloitte’s international multi-disciplinary teams, advising clients in data protection, financial services regulatory and commercial law; mergers and acquisitions; employment law and legal management consulting..

More than a fifth of workers in the East of England now earn less than the real Living Wage – up from 21 per cent last year – new research from KPMG reveals. Females continue to get the worst of the bargain..

Netherlands-based ‘Big Four’ auditor KPMG has released a bullish report on cryptocurrency. The report argues that institutional investors must join the industry for it to “realise its potential.” The report, dubbed ‘Institutionalisation of Cryptoassets,’ focuses on why and how institutional investors should enter cryptocurrency, along with “challenges” the process faces and under what circumstances crypto could become a “full-fledged asset class.”.

The EU and UK negotiators have agreed the technical details of a Brexit deal. Yet, with less than five months until the UK leaves the EU and considering the UK and each EU country needs to sign off on the deal, the likelihood of a No-Deal Brexit is still high. And this has raised questions around the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)..

Cognizant is back to what it did best for most of its 24 years: focusing on growth. According to its mid-term strategy beginning next year, the Nasdaq-listed company expects to grow between 7% and 11%, retain its 19% operating margin and promises to spend at least $600 million on acquisitions every year..

In Deloitte’s 2018 North America Technology Fast 500, which measured the fastest-growing companies in technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech sectors,nine Colorado companies made the list..

The Government should ensure “mental health first aid” is available in every workplace alongside staff trained to respond to basic injuries, according to a letter backed by British businesses including Royal Mail, WH Smith and management consultants PwC.

The MCA (Management Consultancies Association), the representative body for the UK’s leading management consulting firms, is pleased to announce it has appointed a new Chief Executive, Tamzen Isacsson.

With careful attention to six key areas, companies can make the most of their R&D investment and outpace the competition.The success of the companies we’ve identified as high-leverage innovators reaffirms one of the time-tested findings of the Global Innovation 1000 study..

A new study conducted by Capgemini notes that despite the barriers facing blockchain, 87% of survey respondents said they are at least in the early stages of blockchain experimentation and the top drivers behind investments are cost saving (89%), enhanced traceability (81%) and increased transparency (79%). Walmart’s announcement of a food safety blockchain solution, and Nestlé, Unilever, Tyson Foods, and Starbucks’ blockchain trials also show possibilities.

Financial services isn’t ordinarily what anyone would consider a trend-driven industry. But it’s a data-intensive industry, and that puts it directly in the path of disruption from artificial intelligence. Wherever their strategies take them, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that financial institutions will have to come to grips with AI–along with the implications AI has for safety, inclusion, employment, and the financial services value chain..

More than half of CEOs (67%) have put their own intuition over data-driven insights in the past three years because the insights contradicted their own experience or intuition. This is despite the fact that data and analytics are becoming an increasingly important component in business decision making..

OEE Consulting, one of UK’s larger independent consultancies specialising in operations and customer excellence, has been picked up by French multinational Webhelp. The BPO provider will merge OEE Consulting with its relatively new consulting subsidiary gobeyond, creating a consultancy with more than 300 consultants..

Britain’s biggest employer organisation and main trade union body have sounded the alarm over the prospect of British companies implanting staff with microchips to improve security. The tiny chips, implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger enable people to open their front door, access their office or start their car with a wave of their hand, and can also store medical data..

It’s true to say that RPA has taken us a long way towards unlocking productivity benefits tied up in manual processes. It has galvanized a mindset that things can change without a need for massive systems reengineering..

► Just 58% of finance leaders say that businesses are highly trusted by public
► 72% say AI will have significant impact on how finance drives data-driven insight
► 76% say finance should recruit talent with nontraditional backgrounds...

IBM revealed it was developing a blockchain-based system allowing a dynamic cooperation between scientific researchers beyond institutional borders and outside interference..

The world’s two fastest supercomputers are now American, according to the rankings that are released biannually. The two computers, Summit and Sierra, both use IBM technology..

• 85% of global business leaders name Symphonic C-Suite as the most important human capital trend.
• 65% of global business leaders name Workforce Ecosystem as the least most important human capital trend.

Customers are starting to get the message that their data is valuable. Tom Merritt offers five suggestions to ensure your customers` data isn`t vulnerable to attack..

AG Siemens, the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe, has recently announced a huge investment of $681 million USD in a center that will be used for the study and the development of the blockchain technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and other high-end technologies..

Technology innovation has been one of the great drivers of progress for humanity. From accessing clean water and manufacturing sustainably, to reducing poverty and ensuring health and well-being for all, we’ve turned to technology. In an increasingly crowded and connected world however, the barriers to progress can appear impossibly difficult. And we now face a set of systemic challenges of a scale and complexity not seen before..

Professionals within larger organisations (25,000 employees or more) are significantly more satisfied with their machine learning progress than employees in smaller companies (500 employees or less), according to Algorithmia`s 2018 State of Enterprise Machine Learning study released on Tuesday..

Cities around the globe are having to become digitally smarter to maintain economic, social and environmental sustainability. City services and resources are under pressure to keep up with the demands of digital-savvy populations generating masses of data and wanting to connect with their surroundings. But how can we ensure new digital services are cyber secure?.

The management consulting team of KPMG is looking to hire nearly 8,000-9,000 people in India, a tenth of them to be deployed on projects overseas, as they see global clients increasingly want one of the Big Four audit firms to implement solutions and demonstrate results for the strategy guidance it gives them..

A new report by the Capgemini Research Institute today reveals that blockchain could become ubiquitous by 2025, entering mainstream business and underpinning supply chains worldwide. Through investment and partnerships, the distributed ledger technology will dominate manufacturing as well as consumer products and retail industries, ushering in a new era of transparency and trust..

New report shows the worst decline the manufacturing sector have seen in two years.

Arthur D. Little (ADL) today published a new research report that highlights the impact digital technology such as AI, advanced analytics, self-learning systems and the Internet of Things will have on the innovation process.

PA Consulting (PA), a global innovation and transformation consultancy that’s bringing ingenuity to life, announced today that it has acquired Essential Design (Essential), a Boston-based innovation strategy and product design business. Essential are experts in user-centred design, improving customer experiences and driving innovation to market.

Global innovation and transformation consultancy PA Consulting (PA) today announces that 10 of its employees have been awarded with Chartered Project Professional (ChPP) status making them some of the first of their kind in the world.

Equiteq, the knowledge economy M&A specialist, is pleased to announce that it has advised Essential Design (Essential), a Boston-based innovation strategy and product design business, on its sale to PA Consulting (PA), a global innovation and transformation consultancy.

A new IDC study shows private cloud spending increased 28.2 percent year over year. Off-premises private cloud, in particular, is seeing strong growth..

Green Park, the executive search diversity specialist, has released its third annual Top 100 BAME Leaders in Business Index to celebrate the professional achievements of Britain’s ethnic minority leadership community and their commitment to delivering positive change.

A new programme to help companies raise money via equity crowdfunding campaigns has been launched by leading equity crowdfunding communications agency TribeFirst and global accounting and advisory company, Grant Thornton.

PA Consulting (PA), a global innovation and transformation consultancy that’s bringing ingenuity to life, announced today that it has acquired Essential Design (Essential), a Boston-based innovation strategy and product design business. Essential are experts in user-centred design, improving customer experiences and driving innovation to market.