PwC earned $42.4 billion in global annual revenues with $3 billion (2.44 billion pounds) going into bolstering skills over the next two years, the “Big Four” accountant said on Tuesday as it faces closer regulatory scrutiny in Britain.

Researchers at IBM have developed a new lightweight and modular method for speech synthesis.

Whether it is Network Security, behavioural analytics, vulnerability management or phishing detection, AI and machine learning tools are indispensable while dealing with cyber security....

Companies that achieve “efficient growth” focus on building scale, not scope, into their cost structures.

What motivates millennial consumers to follow a brand or company on social media? The largest percentage of millennial men (58%) and women (62%) respondents to the Gartner Millennial Survey 2019 say they follow brands because the posts are informative....

Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has launched Wipro Consumer Care–Ventures to invest in startups in the consumer brands space. The company said on Thursday it will invest in companies in India and Southeast Asia that have "strong entrepreneurs" and startups with a "sound business model"..

Shanghai International Blockchain Week 2019 is a major, blockchain industry gathering themed as Blockchain New Economy, New Decade, New Beginning. Over 2000 participants, 250 experts, and 50 global projects were brought together to share their experience on the development of blockchain technology, real-world applications, regulations & compliance and their vision towards the next decade of the industry..

Kainos, a leading provider of digital services and platforms, has given 45 university students the opportunity to learn cutting-edge AI techniques, including reinforcement learning using AWS..

After four years of moderate progress, in 2018 the pace of the low carbon transition slowed down to the long term average since 2000. Despite significant increases in renewable energy, the gap between the Paris Agreement goal and the current pathway continues to grow.

ConsenSys-backed identity management protocol uPort has entered a partnership with Onfido and PwC to develop blockchain-based identity management in the United Kingdom`s financial sector..

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), announced on Monday it has completed its global blockchain trial in partnership with blockchain software company, R3.

Market Research Inc. has announced the addition of a thorough research study to its extensive repository called the Autonomous Vehicle Security market. The data were reviewed based on effective methodologies such as primary and secondary research techniques..

Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) has unveiled a new artificial intelligence-powered software platform that gives property insurers the ability to process large numbers of claims stemming from natural disasters or other catastrophic events in record time. Cognizant Property Insights is a software-as-a-service solution that combines satellite and aerial imagery and property data, with machine learning technologies to quickly assess damage caused by hurricanes, tornados, floods, wildfires and other disasters in just four to five days, significantly speeding payment of customer claims.

Find out more about one of the biggest commercial opportunities in today’s fast-changing economy.

To invest in the 5G wireless network, healthcare CIOs will need compelling use cases. But since the network won`t be ready for years, finding them may be tough..

Gas looks the best bet of the fossil fuels through the energy transition. Coal demand has already peaked while oil has a decade or so of slowing growth before electric vehicles start to make real inroads in transportation. Gas, blessed with lower carbon intensity and ample resource, is set for steady growth through 2040 on our base case projections.

What are the best and most effective ways information security professionals can use blockchain technology?.

The primary motivators for digital transformation are still more reactive than proactive, says a new report from enterprise database company Couchbase.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is celebrating seven decades of public health progress, which it says, "Have added 25 years to global life expectancy, saved millions of children’s lives, and made huge inroads into eradicating deadly diseases." As WHO notes, there’s still a long way to go.

WW, Atlassian, StubHub and other enterprises are steering digital initiatives to drive business growth and operational efficiency. These digital transformation examples detail IT leaders’ strategies, implementations and challenges.

It’s no secret that one of the largest areas of growth in the tech industry is deploying and optimising internet of things (IoT) devices. After smartphones conquered our pockets, the world’s most innovative companies are building intelligent devices — smart thermostats, speakers, plugs, security systems and more — to control convenience and comfort in another extension of ourselves: the home.

New staffing figures come as Big Four accountant posts healthy profits of £1.02 billion.

High street retailers are facing an ever-changing landscape as consumers change their shopping habits to head online. In order to survive, brands need to learn to adapt and understand how technology can be used to their advantage, not their demise.

• Cybersecurity work (US$16.5bn) now accounts for a quarter of the total market
• Environmental risk moves up the corporate agenda
• US risk services market hits US$35.1bn

The global risk services consulting market grew by 7.7% to reach a value of US$65.9bn in 2018 as companies turned to risk specialists to help them work out what steps they need to take to best manage emerging and sometimes hard to define risks. Behind this market wide growth is a rising demand across a whole spectrum of risk services, with cybersecurity work now accounting for a quarter of the total market – growing faster than every other service line – but effectively cannibalising many other traditional areas of risk service provision. Other fast-growing areas include the much smaller risk transformation service line, and third-party assurance services. These findings are published today (11th September 2019) in a new report, The Risk Services Market in 2019, from Source Global Research, the leading research and strategy firm for the global professional services industry. The report also found that risks relating to sustainability and the environment are moving up the corporate agenda, thanks to headline-grabbing issues, increased legislation, and the fear of reputational damage resulting from a failure to adopt an environmentally aware approach. The impact of climate change is also leading to the development of new areas of risk management as clients seek support to develop strategies in the face of increased risks such as fire, flood, and drought. In terms of the fastest growing markets within the global top 10, the huge US market performed well in 2018, with an 8.3% uptick in work to US$35.1bn. Also, rapid economic modernisation in China, and clients eager to participate in global markets, meant another year of strong growth (up 9.6%). Nick Allan, CEO of Control Risks, who was interviewed for the Source report, said:
“The financial crisis killed a lot of environmental initiatives, but we`re now seeing governments really respond to this in quite a meaningful way. The Chinese government is really responding to the environmental concerns of their citizens. They`re trying to clean up pollution, and a lot of environmental technologies are being deployed in China.” Automation is also changing the way that risk services are managed, by cutting out manual processes and removing the potential for error. However, the Source report points out that many clients are only just waking up to the possibilities: take-up could accelerate as more use cases are developed. Zoë Stumpf, Head of Market Trends at Source Global Research, added:

“Risk services providers are having to change the way they operate, considering how far they want to go in terms of digitising services and the best way to achieve this. This automation of services is also starting to impact a number of different facets of service provision, changing the traditional pricing model and the type of talent needed, as well as boosting interest in the development of managed services and assets.” The more heavily regulated sectors are those seeing the biggest uptick in risk services demand. Financial services work dominates, generating over a third of all risk service revenues, with demand growing 9.3% in 2018. The much smaller pharma market grew more than 12% in 2018, with healthcare not far behind. Source Global Research estimates that the global risk services market will continue to grow strongly next year, with the market expected to increase by around 10% to the end of 2020—an even higher rate of growth than in the recent past. For more information on Source reports contact ella-sian.jolley@sourceglobalresearch.com, telephone +44 (0)20 3478 1204, or visit www.sourceglobalresearch.com..

It feels like a time when we need some foresight, foresight as to what our World might become, should become. We all have an opportunity – I’d say a responsibility – to dig deep, to search for innovative solutions, inspire good growth, economic prosperity, stronger communities, healthier people and greater social mobility.

Supply chain planners should set up a distinct S&OE process to better execute on S&OP plans and optimise costs..

A potential revolution for the utilities industry is being led by advancements in smart home technology, real time data becoming available and evolving customer expectations. In a sector that is becoming increasingly digital, distributed and personalised, the door is wide open for truly innovative companies.

Turning policies into effective action to advance gender equality.

The skills gap is a lead weight chained to the legs of the British economy. It has long been a problem, but in the shallow waters of the EU swimming pool, it has at least been more or less manageable, at least with a little migrant help. Trouble is, the UK is preparing to perform a deep dive into a very cold and deep sea, one with a global eco-storm clearly visible on the horizon.

The concept of smart cities strives to address challenges in order to achieve sustainable development and a high quality of life. Considering the complexity of the smart city concept, wouldn’t using a prototype be the logical step before implementing it? Especially if such prototypes already exist! For instance, university campuses are ideal data labs in which to test smart city environments.

Across the developed world, the workforce now comes in 50 shades of grey. Since 2008 the average labour-force participation rate of 55- to 64-year-olds in oecd countries has risen by eight percentage points. Depending on your point of view, that trend can be spun as ruthless capitalism requiring workers to spend more years down the salt mines or as a sign that society that is finally recognising the value of its older employees..

Accountancy giant forecasts GDP to shrink by 1.5% with business confidence badly dented.

We`ve all had those days where getting the simplest thing fixed, or even a basic question answered, takes hours. It might be anything from a mysterious glitch in your desktop computer, to a query about what`s covered by your employer`s health insurance plan....

• But the Big Four remain the go-to choice for clients
• Eighty percent of audit clients rate quality of audits as either “high” or “very high” despite numerous accounting scandals
• But over a fifth (22%) would choose either BDO or Grant Thornton

Although over two-thirds (68%) of audit clients still rank a Big Four firm as their first-choice external auditor, over half (58%) do not name their current auditor as their first choice. Despite this, large, listed companies are still not prepared to change their incumbent auditor. This data is revealed in a report published today (9 September 2019), which also found that despite recent press coverage about the quality of audits, clients think very highly of the quality of audit work, with 80% rating it as either “high” or “very high” quality. At the same time though, over a fifth (22%) of audit clients would choose either BDO or Grant Thornton, confirming that these two firms are the leading choices outside of the Big Four and are the mid-tier firms best placed to capture some market share from them. The report, published today by Source Global Research, surveyed CEOs, CFOs, and senior finance executives from large organisations in the US (66%) and UK (34%), all of whom have been responsible for selecting external auditors or have worked with external auditors during the audit process. The Source report highlights two key factors benefiting the incumbent auditor and restricting more supplier churn in the audit market: Knowledge is key – Audit clients state that the two most influential factors when choosing a new auditor are knowledge of the sector and the extent to which the auditor knows/understands their business. The current auditor is clearly already going to have a lot of firm-specific knowledge and, as a result, knowledge of the sector. This makes it difficult for an alternative firm to convince prospects that it can offer something extra in these important areas. Complex stakeholder landscapes create inertia – This benefits the incumbent as audit committees need to be won over and it may be hard to convince committee members to change auditors, especially where there aren’t any obvious problems with the current relationship. For listed companies, shareholders will need to approve a change in auditor as well, and will need to hear a strong argument to explain why a change is necessary. Martin White, a Senior Analyst at Source Global Research, said:
“It takes a lot of political capital for decision makers in companies to push through a change of auditor, and that may act as a block even when there is some dissatisfaction with the existing auditor. Our research also shows that there could be an opportunity for BDO and Grant Thornton to pick up much more work if clients have a positive experience of working with BDO or Grant Thornton for advisory work, or through joint audits and audit firm rotation. This could mean that more clients may trust them to provide a high-quality audit and lean towards them as their first-choice auditor.” Conflicts of interest
The Source report also revealed that audit clients don’t seem overly concerned by potential conflicts of interest. In fact, the majority of respondents only think auditors should raise awareness of other services during the audit or six months before retendering. Only 2% of clients think an audit firm should never talk about other services it offers. Martin White from Source concluded:
“With mandatory audit rotation looming, the firm that can successfully raise awareness of its other services stands to gain not just revenues, but perhaps even deepened relationships with its clients. Ultimately though, we feel that innovative uses of technology may turn out to be a driver of change by allowing firms to differentiate themselves and demonstrate the possible improvements a new auditor could bring.” For more information on Source reports contact ella-sian.jolley@sourceglobalresearch.com, telephone +44 (0)20 3478 1204, or visit www.sourceglobalresearch.com..

Fears about an economic downturn in the US have been waxing and waning for many months now, but growing disquiet is now being fuelled by some hard facts, with a slowdown in GDP growth in the second quarter of 2019, and a recent troubling downwards revision of 2018’s growth rate, writes Zoë Stumpf of Source Global Research.

The magnitude of change that enterprise IT is going through (architecture, cloud infra and SaaS) brings for security models is vastly underestimated. There is an entire generation of multi-billion dollar security companies that have a largely on-premise business not particularly relevant to the cloud/hybrid world....

The tech arm of business advisory firm KPMG is to take 100 digital specialist staff to 12,000 sq ft at Manchester Science Partnership’s Manchester Technology Centre campus.

IBM will begin offering quantum-safe cryptography services on its public cloud beginning next year in a move toward bolstering the security of data and privacy from fault-tolerant quantum computers.

Reflecting the potentially vulnerable state of the property market as Brexit looms, KPMG said house prices would fall by between 5.4% and 7.5% across different regions next year if a new agreement with Brussels was not in place by 31 October.

Plastic pollution is a global problem. The statistics are alarming – and emotive. However, it remains the modern world’s packaging material of choice. Roughly a third of the 350 Mt produced globally is used in packaging applications. But as public perception shifts and the issue gets pushed up the political agenda, the tide could be turning.

The human race is the most complicated; and difficult system and every human has a different personality of action. Using the same tone and the same language does not fit in order to communicate with different people. However, it is usual for us to use different tones and languages while we communicate with our friends and other people but it is impossible for the machines to have different personas for different people until now.

NEXTDC stands out for its technological sophistication in design and engineering pertaining to power quality, back-up power, and mechanical cooling LONDON,.

IBM Research labs are part of a tradition where large tech companies had extensive research labs. IBM Research, along with the original Bell labs and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), have developed many innovations.

Just like last year, Gartner has positioned Microsoft in the Leaders Quadrant in the “2019 Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management Tools, Worldwide,” based on its completeness of vision and ability to execute in the UEM market.” Microsoft is also highest in the “Ability to Execute” axis.

Some folks say bigger is better. And sometimes that’s true. But not always. Take digital transformation, for instance. Many companies approach digital transformation as an all-or-nothing endeavor....

“Staff augmentation” has long been a dirty phrase in consulting, redolent of stacking your consultants high and selling them cheap, writes Fiona Czerniawska of Source Global Research.

A perspective from Moorhouse Consulting: Insurers no longer ask whether they should digitally transform, they ask where to start and how to deliver the transformation.

Almost half (40%) of UK workers would consider working in a temporary, interim or contract position - citing a better lifestyle (47%), higher hourly pay (29%), more flexibility (26%) and exposure to new skills (19%) as the main drivers.

Large enterprises in particular will be operating multi-modal IT, i.e. elements of traditional IT, elements of cutting-edge digital, and elements of pretty much everything in between. So, how should organizations structure their information security management?.

The internet of things and blockchain -- they should go together like strawberries and cream, right? What could make more sense than a constant stream of data about devices, their state, and their use, combined with a distributed and trustworthy mechanism for anyone to read or say things about the data?.