technology
reseller.co.uk
BULLETIN : TRENDS
7
Retailers
invest in IoT
Retailers are investing in Internet of
Things (IoT) technologies to simplify,
enliven and customise the shopping
experience. Zebra’s
2017 Retail Vision
Study
shows that:
n
77% of retail firms plan to use ‘real-time
visibility’ in their supply chain to greatly
reduce the risk of items being out of stock,
with RFID platforms capable of boosting
inventory accuracy by 95%;
n
25% plan to equip staff with mobile
point-of-sale devices by 2021 to allow
payment from anywhere in the store and to
reduce queueing;
n
77% aim to make use of systems that
show when specific customers are in-store
so that they can customise their visit on
arrival;
n
75% are looking into technology that
analyses a customer’s in-store movements,
so that they can provide real-time offers
depending on where they linger longest or
despatch a store assistant to serve them;
n
78% consider it ‘important’ or ‘business-
critical’ to integrate e-commerce and the
in-store experience.
IT skills gap holding back digital transformation
More than half (57%) of companies are rethinking their business models due to
advances in technology, such as AI, automation and data analytics, claim Nimbus
Ninety and Ensono, a cloud solutions and hybrid IT services provider.
Almost half (43%) of UK business decision-makers surveyed cited keeping pace with
changing technology as the most significant business challenge for the year ahead.
This is reflected in spending priorities for 2017, which include investment in
infrastructure and processes to support new applications. Cloud (44%), infrastructure
(43%) and agile transformation (35%) are three of the top five priorities.
The survey also highlighted a worrying skills gap, with only 35% of organisations
having the skill set needed to manage their digital transformation. To plug this gap, 41%
are working with a solutions vendor and more than a third are working with a consultancy
or design agency.
Increased productivity not lower headcount is main benefit of process automation
Robotic process automation (RPA)
is enabling companies to realise
significant productivity gains, but it
is not yet leading to broad job losses,
according to a new study by global
technology research and advisory firm
Information Services Group (ISG).
The latest
ISG Automation Index
report claims that RPA offers businesses
a rapid, low-cost way to automate basic,
rules-based business processes without
the need to re-engineer them. It enables
enterprises to execute business processes
five to ten times faster and reduce
resource requirements by 37%.
ISG data show the average full-time
equivalent (FTE) reduction from RPA ranges
from 43% for order-to-cash processes
(billing, cash application, credit, collections
and pricing) to 32% for hire-to-retire HR
processes (benefits, payroll, recruiting
and talent management, and vendor
management systems).
Stanton Jones, director and principal
analyst at ISG Research and co-author
of the report, says that instead of leading
to job losses, the productivity gains have
enabled businesses to redeploy employees
to handle higher value tasks and/or a
greater volume of work.
He said: “In nearly every scenario we
analysed, increased productivity through
task automation stands out as the most
important change – not job loss. Humans are
working alongside software robots, be they
virtual agents or engineers, to increase their
ability to take more customer calls, resolve
more service desk tickets and process more
invoices. This improved productivity is seeing
important downstream effects: increasing
operational speed and scalability, improving
compliance and avoiding future costs.”
ISG predicts that by 2019, 72% of
organisations will be piloting or using RPA
to automate support functions. Because IT
service providers are already introducing
automation into their offerings, IT is currently
the business function most impacted by
automation.
Jones said: “Nearly every IT outsourcing
vendor is introducing some form of
automation into its services. Vendors are
doing this most commonly with autonomics
software, which automates standard
operating procedures and correlates data
to improve these procedures over time.
Whereas, in the past, enterprise clients could
expect a 5 to 10% productivity improvement
in their outsourcing contracts after two years,
we now see examples in which enterprises
are realising a 40 to 140% improvement
over the same time period.”
According to the report, productivity
improvements range from 24% for user
support to 143% for network voice devices.
As productivity improves, costs are declining
as fewer people are needed to manage a
service, especially in areas where software
is replacing hardware.
ISG says double-digit cost reductions
are being seen across all major service
towers, with network and email management
services showing the sharpest cost
reductions of 64% and 71% respectively.
Education
gap
Research
byJobsite
suggests
that lack of
education could
be the reason
why basic IT
problems waste
so much time.
It surveyed
1,000 office
workers and
found that 85%
did not know
how to resolve
even basic tech
problems. The
most common
problems
experienced
are crashed
computers
(51%), email
going down
(44%) and
being locked
out of the
system (41%).
.
co.uk/
Rigid working practices a drain on productivity
Konica Minolta’s new report,
The Digital
Workplace Initiative
, identifies inefficient
technology as a productivity drain, along
with rigid working practices.
Based on a survey of 100
senior IT decision-makers and
1,000 office workers across the
UK, the report reveals how small
distractions, computer problems
and the difficulty of accessing
data when working away from
one’s desk all contribute to lost
productivity for UK businesses.
Konica Minolta points out
that these problems can be
overcome by investing in Digital Workplace
Initiatives (DWI) to change how technology,
people and the workplace interact.
Nearly three quarters of respondents
said that the strongest driver for
implementing a DWI was to increase
employee productivity, both inside (71%)
and outside (71%) the office, followed by
cost reductions (60%).
Konica Minolta claims
that by the end of 2016,
89% of businesses had
invested in a DWI of some
description, with the average
amount invested rising from
£958,824 at the start of
the year to £3,229,167 at
its end.
The top three reasons
to initiate a DWI project
are to enable effective
mobile working (62%); to enable effective
remote working (56%) and to improve
collaboration (49%). Nearly half (47%) of
IT decision-makers expect to see a return
on investment (ROI) within three years.
digital.konicaminolta.co.uk.
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