Fifteen digital leaders gathered in Oslo in January to discuss the topic of Intelligent Automation. The focus for the evening’s round table was how to build a practical roadmap to achieve successful business outcomes in this rapidly advancing area of digital transformation. Jan-Olav Styrvold led the discussion on behalf of Blue Prism and Avanade.
Much hype has been generated over Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent months. The prospect of a ‘Digital Workforce’ is on everybody’s lips. But just how real is this prospect, and what forces might bring RPA and AI into common use? So far, expectation and reality remain far apart. Dinner conversations amongst the UK’s largest companies shed some valuable light on the pace and direction of take up.
Much is spoken today about the increase in business uncertainty, or what is commonly called the VUCA World. At few points in history have we seen such profound change occurring in every aspect of our lives, from political upheavals (Trump and Brexit) and social change (rise of Millennials) to technology-driven innovation (Cloud, Mobile, Blockchain and AI) and economic disruption (FAANG dominance).
The CIO of a global trading house has adopted a ‘cloud-first’ policy. However, the move has created dramatic variations in monthly bills. Under public cloud it has become almost impossible to predict annual IT operating costs.
Last October 25 senior business and IT executives gathered at the first CIONET UK discussion dinner in London to hear Dr Ben Eaton of the University of Surrey describe what is meant by ‘Company as a Platform’.
Just last week one of the UK’s largest departmental stores, House of Fraser (39 major stores, and a 100-year vintage) narrowly avoided bankruptcy when Mike Ashley of Sports Direct paid just £90m for the assets. This is merely the latest in a series of failures that include Maplin, Toys ‘R’ Us, BHS and most notably Woolworths.
British start-up Ocado lost half a million in 2017 on turnover of £1.3B. But investors rushed to provide a further £150M for robotic warehouse investments during the year. The shares doubled in just one day when founder and CEO Tim Steiner announced a deal with retailer, Kruger, to implement twenty new robotic warehouses across the USA.
