When Allbirds, an eco-friendly luxury shoemaker, announced in April it had struck a $50 million (£37 million deal) to become an AI data center provider, its stock surged more than 580% in a single trading session.

Whether things aren't quite working out, or whether you've identified a brilliant opportunity, pivoting into a new space is often the best bet for surviving – and thriving.

The technology industry is rife with reinventions. Take Nintendo, which started out making handmade toys, or Amazon, which was a mere humble bookseller.

Plenty of companies have successfully made a transition from one line of business to another – sometimes unexpectedly, sometimes out of necessity, and sometimes so dramatically we've forgotten their original purpose. Here are some of our highlights.

1. BlackBerry: From phone maker to auto software developer

In February 2016, BlackBerry acquired the U.K. cybersecurity company Encription as it embarked on a dramatic pivot into cybersecurity consulting. It then broadened its horizons to the software space and now, with the QNX operating system, the firm develops critical software and services for more than 275 million cars around the world.

"It's been a large transformation over the course of the last decade as we've divested businesses and really narrowed our focus towards the B2B segments of QNX and Secure Communications," BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo told Richard Quest in an interview with CNN in January this year.

"So that narrowing of focus has allowed us to simplify, reduce our costs, divest ourselves from subscale businesses, and really put ourselves in a much better position for profitability and long-term growth."

2. Nokia: From paper mill to handsets to next-gen networks

Like BlackBerry, Nokia gained worldwide recognition for its outstanding mobile phones – manufacturing devices from 1982, starting with the Mobira Senator, and now continuing in spirit under the spun-off HMD Global brand.

The origins of the Finnish technology icon, however, stretch back to 1865, when engineer Fredrik Idestam established the company as a paper mill.

It wasn't until a significant merger more than 100 years later — where Nokia, Kaapelitehdas, and Finnish Rubber Works merged to create the Nokia Corporation — that electronics became a key line of business.

Although its reputation faded in the 2000s with the birth of the smartphone — and the eventual sale of its mobile and devices division to Microsoft in 2013 — Nokia continued to make waves under the radar, and under the ground.

It began focusing on networking in 2014 and is now undergoing a major pivot away from sluggish telecom hardware toward AI-native networks, data center networking and 6G tech.

3. Samsung: From groceries to electronics and beyond

Samsung is among the world's most widely known brands and one of the 21st century's biggest technology success stories. The South Korean institution deals in all kinds of goods from fridges to smartphones to laptops to speakers.

In fact, it's hard to find an electronic device that Samsung doesn't manufacture. But the company didn't always start this way.

The company actually started life as a small grocery trading company in 1938, with the 40-employee-strong entity dealing in dried fish, local groceries and noodles. Amazon may have pivoted into this space recently with its Fresh stores, but for Samsung, groceries have always been in its lifeblood.

Samsung didn't enter the electronics industry until the late 1960s, when it started manufacturing black-and-white TVs. It's now a trillion-dollar company that comprises 80 separate companies, spanning construction, financial services, medical services, and many other areas.

In the future, Samsung is hoping to focus on the technologies of tomorrow, including agentic AI and 6G communications.

4. Slack: From gaming to workplace collaboration

Slack is one of the most widely used collaboration platforms on the planet, with the multi-billion dollar business boasting tens of millions of daily users each day.

Well before its massive acquisition by Salesforce for a tidy sum of close to $30 billion (£22.5 billion) – and indeed before it rose to prominence – the company's origins lay in the world of gaming.

When co-founder of photo-sharing site Flickr, Stewart Butterfield, attempted to get his new venture Tiny Speck off the ground in 2009, he developed an internal communications platform to help the team as it was developing its computer game Glitch.

This fanciful 2D MMORPG launched in 2011 and was eventually shut down roughly a year later — with these efforts to make it big in the gaming world ending in tears.

From these ashes, however, Butterfield pivoted the company and instead focused his team's efforts on making their internal communications tools public. Hence, Slack Technologies — and the widely used platform we now know today — was born.

Why Slack? It stands for "Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge". Glitch is long dead, but you can still find a wonderful homage to Slack's origins on its website.

5. YouTube: From dating site to video hosting

The video-sharing platform YouTube has become a giant force in the technology industry, especially since its acquisition by Google, and it's become a hub for businesses across the world.

Millions of users have created businesses using the site, and many existing organizations use the hosting platform as an extension of their own businesses to push video content to billions of viewers.

But before the first video, 'Me at the zoo', was uploaded more than 20 years ago, its founders originally aimed to create a video dating site. The vision, according to co-founder Steven Chen, was to build a platform that allowed people to upload videos of themselves describing their ideal partners.

"We always thought there was something with video there, but what would be the actual practical application?" Chen said at SXSW 2016 in Austin, Texas, according to CNET.

"We thought dating would be the obvious choice."

Fujitsu has announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic designed to accelerate AI adoption across Japanese enterprises and strengthen cybersecurity for critical infrastructure.

The agreement will see Anthropic's AI technologies – including Claude – paired with Fujitsu's industry expertise in delivering mission-critical systems to improve AI transformation capabilities across sectors such as government, finance, healthcare, defense, and critical infrastructure.

As part of the initiative, approximately 100,000 Fujitsu Group employees will utilize Claude to enhance operations, accelerate development processes, and help establish frameworks for the safe and reliable use of AI.

The company said the knowledge gained from this internal deployment will then be used to help customers accelerate their own AI adoption efforts, while ensuring compliance, security, and operational reliability.

The partnership will also see Fujitsu gain early access to Anthropic's latest AI models, with a view to incorporating the technology into future customer solutions and services.

In an announcement, Takahito Tokita, representative director and CEO at Fujitsu, said the company sees the evolution of AI as something that must be swiftly implemented across society and translated into real business value.

"Through this collaboration, we will combine Fujitsu's deep expertise across industries and business functions – particularly its extensive know-how in mission-critical domains – with Anthropic's advanced AI models," Tokita said. "In doing so, we aim to support the creation of new value across industries and realize a trustworthy, AI-driven society."

Expansion of the Fujitsu FDE model

At the heart of the partnership is an expansion of Fujitsu's Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) model, which focuses on working closely with customers to translate AI capabilities into business outcomes.

The firm said it will now combine Claude with its own AI technologies implemented as part of the initiative, which include the Fujitsu Kozuchi AI platform as well as its Takane LLM.

According to Fujitsu, this approach will allow it to "go beyond simple AI deployment" and deliver AI offerings tailored to customers' specific data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, security, and performance needs.

"Through this partnership, we will further strengthen and accelerate our FDE model, ensuring that AI is continuously translated into real value through deep engagement with customer operations," explained Yoshinami Takahashi, Fujitsu's corporate executive officer, corporate vice president, and COO in charge of solution services.

"This will accelerate structural transformation of business and enable a shift toward high-value-added business models."

Strengthening cyber defense capabilities

Alongside AI adoption, the companies said the partnership will also place a focus on bolstering cyber defense capabilities as organizations increasingly look to secure their critical systems in the era of AI.

Fujitsu said it intends to move beyond traditional expert-led cyber security models by combining human expertise with AI-assisted operations to improve response times and strengthen protection across enterprises, essential services, and critical infrastructure.

The company added that it will work collaboratively with the Japanese government to apply the lessons learned from the initiative to improve security across wider society.

Commenting on the partnership, Anthropic chief commercial officer Paul Smith described the agreement as one of the most significant AI commitments in the Japanese market to date.

"The institutions that anchor Japanese society – its banks, its hospitals, its government, its critical infrastructure – hold AI to the highest standard," he said. "Fujitsu has been the technology partner to those institutions for decades, and they are now deploying Claude to 100,000 of their own employees and building a 1,000-person engineering team to bring it to their customers.

"This is one of the most consequential commitments to frontier AI in the Japanese market, and we're proud for Anthropic to be the partner Fujitsu trusts to deliver on that commitment."

The cloud is inescapable in 2025. It’s a $750 billion industry that underpins the vital applications, services, and platforms that power the digital economy.

Yet after more than a decade of enterprise migration and innovation in the cloud, analysis from IT infrastructure firm Kyndryl suggests many spent that time building sprawling, splintered architectures without a clear cut end goal in mind.

In the company’s annual Cloud Readiness Report 70% of CEOs admit they built their current cloud environment “by accident, rather than by design” – this often entailed periodic upgrades aimed at addressing short-term needs, rather than focusing on longer term strategic improvements.

Kyndryl said this shows that many lacked a “deliberate strategy” when pursuing cloud transformation projects, and the effects of this are starting to show with huge workload pressure placed on cloud environments, as well as growing security threats and evolving regulatory requirements.

“If companies benefitted from happenstance in the past, those days are over,” the report states. “Cloud success is no longer a matter of luck but design. The enterprises that thrive now are those that approach cloud as the foundation for intelligence, adaptability, and trust.”

AI is among one of the key factors bringing this lack of clear cut focus to light in 2025, according to Kyndryl. Organizations have increased cloud spending by 30% on average so far this year in a bid to supercharge AI adoption and build out infrastructure capacity to meet demand.

89% said these cloud investments have “made it easier to use AI” and have proved beneficial in underpinning adoption projects. Poorly designed, piecemeal cloud environments are hampering innovation on this front, however, the study added.

Indeed, 35% cited integration challenges as a top barrier to delivering a return on investment (ROI) with the technology.

Hybrid and multi-cloud in the spotlight

According to Kyndryl, hybrid and multi-cloud represent the light at the end of the tunnel for many enterprises locked in monolithic, rigid cloud setups.

Both these approaches have gained significant traction in recent years, the study found, with 84% of IT leaders revealing they now “intentionally use multiple clouds”.

Meanwhile, 41% are switching to a hybrid approach, repatriating data to on-premises environments while still hosting non-critical workloads on public cloud. This enables enterprises to balance control, compliance, and performance, the study noted.

“The gap between a reactive and deliberate cloud strategy has never been more consequential,” said Nicolas Sekkaki, global cloud practice leader at Kyndryl.

“With AI demanding seamless data access and governance requirements rapidly evolving, a hybrid cloud model is the differentiator that enables successful AI adoption,” he added.

AI-related considerations aren’t the only driving factor behind the shift to hybrid cloud, however. Kyndryl noted that geopolitical concerns and a concerted focus on data sovereignty, spurred on by regulatory requirements, are also influencing the trend.

75% of leaders said they were concerned about “the geopolitical risks associated with storing and managing data in global cloud environments”, for example, while 65% revealed they’ve “made changes to their cloud strategies” because of compliance concerns.

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UK business investment in AI is set to skyrocket over the next two years, according to new research from SAP, but many are failing to properly plan – and it could cost them dearly.

Analysis from the tech giant shows UK businesses are, on average, spending £15.94 million on AI this year. Moreover, they expect to increase their investment in the technology by an average of 40% across the next two years.

The report found a good return on investment (ROI), with the average UK business seeing returns of 17% from AI investments, and ROI forecast to almost double to 32% by 2027.

Many said they were already starting to unlock value from AI, with 36% reporting significant improvement in decision-making, 34% in customer engagement, and 31% in time to value.

Notably, businesses are confident in their long-term prospects with AI. More than three-quarters (78%) of executives believe AI will achieve a positive return within one to three years. More than half (52%) say it delivers returns faster than any other technology.

In recent months, agentic AI has become highly popular, with the average UK business expecting an ROI of 11% from agents within two years, equivalent to £2.7 million.

Fragmented AI programs are causing headaches

While the outlook is upbeat, the report warned that a concerning number of AI programs are fragmented, meaning many aren’t unlocking full value from the technology.

Indeed, 42% of UK enterprises described their investment as piecemeal. A key factor here is that around 37% of projects are department-led, according to SAP, while 15% admitted their programs were ad-hoc.

Only 7% have a strategic, enterprise-wide IT plan, the report found. As a result, 70% of UK businesses said they were unsure whether AI is delivering its full potential.

“UK businesses have the ambition, talent, and data to lead in AI, although too many are still treating it as a ‘technology project’ rather than a holistic business transformation,” said Leila Romane, managing director, SAP UK & Ireland.

“The real opportunity is to use AI to reimagine how companies operate, how people work, and how value is created for customers. When UK organizations take that broader, strategic approach to adopting the technology and embedding it throughout their business, the results will become tangible."

Success hinges on a solid strategy

The initial scramble to jump on the generative AI bandwagon may have paid dividends for some enterprises, but those examples are outliers and not the norm.

We’re approaching three years since the arrival of ChatGPT, the big launch that sparked the generative AI race, and yet a concerning number of enterprises still don’t have a clear-cut strategy.

Analysis from Carruthers and Jackson earlier this year found more than a quarter (26%) of enterprises had no formal data strategy. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that many enterprises have grown frustrated at a lack of solid returns.

Research from Appen showed fewer than half of businesses (47.3%) recorded a return on investment with AI in 2024.

While this SAP study paints a positive outlook in terms of ROI, nailing the fundamentals still remains paramount for any IT leader. So what are these?

First and foremost, data quality is a key hurdle for many businesses. In a study from Ataccama, 69% of chief data officers (CDOs) identified data quality as their top challenge.

40% also said they struggle to maintain “consistent” data quality, which has an adverse effect on project outcomes.

Meanwhile, data storage is also another key issue for IT leaders. Analysis from Hitachi Vantara in early 2024 showed data storage capacity requirements were set to surge by around 150% in the coming years, and many enterprises have been woefully unprepared to meet these rising demands.

Accommodating huge AI workloads and storage requirements requires equally huge investment if a “data storage crisis” is to be averted, the company noted.

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Organizations that have cracked IT cost optimization and innovation reap the rewards both financially and in terms of time to market, according to new research from SoftwareOne.

They are twice as likely as the rest of the pack to see an improved return on investment, researchers found. A third reported higher profitability, compared with 23% of other organizations, and 43% said they were seeing a faster time to market.

The researchers surveyed organizations in 12 countries and across six industry sectors in North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

They categorized survey respondents into three categories — Optimized Innovators, Aspiring Innovators and Initiating Innovators — based on their reported levels of progress in optimizing IT costs and building a modern IT foundation.

The study found that while 48% of executives at mid-sized companies lacked the budget or were unsure they had the budget to fund the next round of innovation, Optimized Innovators achieved significantly better results.

"Aligning the business benefits of innovation investments with opportunities to strategically optimize IT estates is critical to success," said Oliver Berchtold, president of software and cloud at SoftwareOne.

"Our study suggests that there is a clear opportunity for companies to optimize to innovate."

Top-performing enterprises have nailed IT cost optimization

Optimized Innovators shared seven best practices, the research found, being well ahead of other companies in installing a modern IT foundation for driving ongoing cost optimization and innovation.

Over the next two years, they plan to significantly outspend other companies on critical technologies, particularly in network security, automation, and cloud and SaaS management. They also prioritized data security and privacy, using nearly every available cybersecurity solution more often than others.

More than two-thirds said they'd made significant progress in building a cloud-based infrastructure, with more than half having moved their apps to the cloud and migrated core processes. A similar percentage have established governance, compliance, and security policies.

Meanwhile, they are closing the AI gap and moving ahead with adoption strategies to automate processes, improve decision-making, internal processes and customer engagement.

This means they are nearly twice as likely as others to be at mid-or-advanced levels of implementation for internal purposes, as well as being considerably further ahead in customer engagement.

All in all, Optimized Innovators are ahead of their peers across nearly all areas of cost management, having made significant progress in monitoring and cutting operational, software licensing and IT infrastructure costs.

Optimization efforts will continue

This sharpened focus on IT optimization is expected to continue, according to SoftwareOne.

Over the next two years, the firm expects these high-flying enterprises to make the most progress in areas such as sustainability, while others will align FinOps with sustainability practices to optimize resource usage, reduce waste, and cut energy costs.

"Having defined innovation priorities that drive business outcomes, companies can have a more informed understanding of their IT landscape with an end-goal in mind. This includes analyzing software licenses, cloud environments and custom applications to identify areas for optimization," said Berchtold.

"This process will free up resources to invest where it matters most to the business, whether it be GenAI adoption, security solutions, or accelerated cloud transformation. Bringing these opportunities into reach serves as a catalyst for growth."

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Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is at an all-time high due to the influx of generative AI products on the market. Business leaders are seriously considering integrating the technology within their stack like never before, but must bear in mind specific considerations before doing so.

AI is often thought of and sold as a single, monolithic technology, whereas it's really a vast family of processes, models, and workflows that need to be carefully implemented to really add value. To benefit from incoming AI innovations, businesses need clear plans and a strong idea of how the technology interfaces with their existing systems and sectors.

In the coming months and years, executives expect generative AI to boost financial performance and more than half of firms have already adopted generative AI, whether in pilot stages or in full production.

However, there are a number of hurdles between the current state of investment and the hoped-for gains of generative AI implementation. In the short term, many firms are investing in application security alongside generative AI to mitigate security risks such as proprietary data leaks and legal issues such as AI bias.

Overprovisioning on this technology could also end up being very costly in 2024. CCS Insight tells ITPro that smaller firms will find the cost of running AI models locally “prohibitively expensive” due to the need to pour up-front investment on powerful graphics processing units (GPUs). 

Limiting AI hardware and optimizing data

When it comes to running AI models, it will be important to identify the size and power one’s business seeks. For firms looking to implement AI in a limited manner, such as the simple generation of some internal documents, lightweight models could be adequate. 

Business leaders must always consider the needs of their organization, rather than just the scope of their budget or project timelines.

If an organization sets out to implement the latest large language models (LLMs) on the most powerful hardware, they must be aware this means spending endless money on more powerful hardware to keep up. The majority of the major AI developers are in a race to build larger LLMs with many hundreds of billions of parameters, which will necessitate incredibly costly and stock-limited chips to run.

Instead, businesses should engage in rightsizing, working with a consulting partner if necessary, to determine the precise workloads they need — if any. More lightweight LLMs may operate at a slower rate but could be far cheaper to run and therefore align with the strategies of a firm more closely. 

Open source models will also be a low-cost option for businesses in the immediate future, but will need to be carefully integrated into one’s ecosystem to meet the concerns of the security department and to run as smoothly as possible on the hardware one owns or rents. For example, the PyTorch framework is supported on hardware like AMD’s Radeon GPU family to allow for cheap on-prem AI inference but is not universally accessible. Knowing the products one has already invested in will be key for forming any coherence in one’s AI future AI investment strategy.

AI-focused chips such as AMD’s EPYC CPU family come in a range of models that balance performance and energy efficiency, helping them to serve the specific AI needs of a business as components in a data center.

Rightsizing in these data centers and the kinds of efficiency gains will be essential in the coming years, as enterprises seek to embrace the gains of generative AI and frontier models. While businesses will want to stay relevant and match the technological level of competitors, they will also need to meet sustainability commitments and keep a lid on energy prices. 

It’s already becoming incredibly expensive to build generative AI platforms, and a recent report from Pure Storage indicated that businesses still lack the right infrastructure to cope with AI energy demands.

This will be true of organizations that have a poor grasp on structured vs unstructured data management, perhaps with a sprawling and siloed system that prevents IT managers from achieving proper oversight of the firm’s data. Fixing data silos and unifying data across an organization can help improve the performance of any generative AI model while reducing the burden on data engineers and the chief data officer (CDO).

The role of the channel and trusted partners

The channel can play a key role in the adoption of AI hardware and software. As generative AI is adopted on a wider scale, it will be rare to find businesses with the resources and specific needs that allow them to go it alone on AI integration. Rather, channel partners with massive computing resources or pre-made generative AI models will supply businesses with what they need.

Many generative AI services are already available through public cloud partners such as AWS’ Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft’s Azure AI Platform, or Google’s Vertex AI. Equally, businesses may seek out private cloud options for AI or rent AI hardware directly from a vendor. Leaders must decide the route they will take based on their individual needs; those with particularly sensitive data such as financial services companies may choose to rely more on private cloud models or even fork out to run models on-prem, for example, rather than rely on the goodwill of public AI firms in handling their data.

Ultimately it will come down to the individual needs of each business. Considering these in advance and knowing the precise outcomes one is aiming to achieve through the use of an LLM or other AI model will help partners bring this to fruition.

When adopting AI in the coming year, businesses should consider what their needs truly are and then apply these to AI integration rather than seeking solutions without a problem in mind. There are a multitude of paths available to adopting AI systems with generative AI, in particular, being offered via a number of trusted partners as well as through the open source community.

Making net-zero goals directly relevant to each individual could be the most powerful tool for encouraging employees to take charge and help IT organizations and their industry reduce emissions faster.

That's according to Chia-Huei Wu, professor in management at King's Business School, King's College London, who explains that research suggests developing personally relevant narratives that individual employees directly relate to and understand – as opposed to simply providing explanations or facts. 

"This can be based on a kind of storytelling," he says.

It makes sense to have all hands on deck where possible – the task is huge, after all. 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), average global temperatures must rise no more than 1.5°C (34.7°F) this century to avoid catastrophic climate change, which means slashing emissions 43% by 2030 versus 2019 levels and at least 60% by 2035. 

"The most important factor is motivation – it's about whether people want to do something, using their internal time," Wu says. "People may not think a fact (such as a figure from an emissions estimate) is relevant to them personally." 

A simple example might be developing a communication strategy that encourages employees to rethink sending emails, how much data they use, and the like. Even though these can be small things, the direct relevance to their own behaviors is more obvious than other initiatives, he points out.

Of course, organizations can help further by examining the potential for in-house mechanisms and initiatives that can foster greater efforts and provide routes to success, all of which should be embedded into daily work activities.

An example might be forming groups or "small clubs" that support each other to take action or suggest innovations or improvements. 

When employees can understand who is benefiting from an action or activity and why – understanding how everyone's work is connected across the whole organization – that can also increase the understanding of the meaning of their own work and how what they do can be influential, Wu points out.

"It sounds simple but has come out powerfully in organizational research" he says.

You might also consider that increasing focus on emissions can attract and develop more talent in the first instance, as Susan Kenniston, global sustainability head at Wipro, adds.

"Even knowing how to talk about it, even for recruiters and writing job descriptions and things, threading it into how you represent the company, it really starts there," she says.

Create a kind of "curriculum around sustainability that meets employees where they're at", she says.

Enabling education at executive and management levels that involves more junior employees can drive "faster feedback loops" on emissions over time, while rethinking metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) in relation to the overall business value framework, she says.

Jillian Moore, sustainability and global advisory lead at Avanade, agrees, adding that leaders need to accept and be comfortable with the fact they no longer have all the answers, while also communicating better and more consistently.

"We have a lot of people on the ground out there with clients, usually at slightly earlier levels in their career, who are hugely passionate and know more about sustainability," she says. "Sometimes we can be holding them back, not giving them the runway or space to actually act."

Get with the program

While it can be difficult to get consensus across every individual in a company, people involved at whatever level can often agree on the direction of travel. Then the task can become more about ensuring everyone can play their part and deciding what each individual can contribute, she says.

"You … need a program that helps take on board all these ideas," says Moore. "And you need transparency of outcome with everybody."

For example, if you're reducing travel and you show how the associated cost savings benefit a role it can feel like a win-win, encouraging people to bring forward further ideas, Moore says.

She also advises that organizations make emissions reduction part of people's objectives and appraisals, knitted directly into the job description; sustainability as indivisible from personal career progression.

"We're still at a point where people are prepared to do a lot of this altruistically and some people are very passionate about it. But I don't know how long that phase will last," Moore says.

Rajkumar Vijayarangakannan, leader of network design and devops at ManageEngine, emphasizes education and awareness initiatives as critical to sustainable practice for increasingly power-hungry machines, woven in right from the data center construction phase.

"Our team runs the bigger energy consumption areas, the data centers [which account for] 60-70% of our energy consumption," he says.  "Even five years ago, it was different. We have to optimize every space; even the smallest optimization helps us save a lot." 

Vijayarangakannan says he typically starts by talking to employees about switching off the lights. That might sound simplistic but actually it demonstrates awareness that every little action makes a difference, and that can very much be down to individual choices. 

The effectiveness of actions can be easily showcased these days with the use of temperature sensors, for example, he adds.

"Everything is involved with carbon emissions. So we started giving awareness programmes on which operations, methods and practices can give much better carbon emission control," Vijayarangakannan says. "Then they can, as employees, all be aware of it and then do their own individual things. Each and every one is part of a green program, and it starts from the level one employee."

In one small data center project, the vacuuming was consuming a lot of power; noticing this, the organization changed the method of cleaning, resulting in much lower ongoing emissions. "Every aspect of it is our individual responsibility," Vijayarangakannan says.

Every little helps

Sheryl Moore, head of sustainability at Stone Group, similarly favors getting buy-in from everyone to fully embed sustainability.

"Many people help me with this," she says. "A lot of it comes down to the values and the culture of the organization. If you encourage a more open conversation, that really helps."

People have to feel safe to voice their opinions and see that ideas also do get implemented, without necessarily needing to fully define, curate or present that idea in full themselves, Moore notes.

As James Robey, global head of environmental sustainability at Capgemini, says, tackling the climate crisis relies on collective action. 

"It’s vital for employees to be fully engaged," Robey says. "Our most far-reaching ... was a VP-led initiative to boost employees’ understanding of sustainability, while sparking new ideas and learnings for climate action."

Enterprise software firm Appian has announced new generative AI capabilities for its platform, as well as a new tool for businesses to create their own AI models.

Appian AI Skill Designer will allow business users to build artificial intelligence (AI) models based on their private data, without the need for a complex understanding of the systems that keep such systems working.

It was announced alongside a greater focus on generative AI, and OpenAI’s GPT in particular, across Appian’s platform to improve tasks such as data insight or form creation.

For example, a manager could generate detailed projections based on metadata within their own data environment using nothing but natural language prompts.

The announcements were made in the opening keynote of this week’s Appian World, the company's annual conference held in San Diego.

“It’s an exciting time to think about the applications of AI into the work we’re doing, and Appian has been diving deep into generative AI over the past several months,” said Malcolm Ross, senior VP of product strategy at Appian.

“We thought about exploring how we can make this a more reliable, impactful technology that’s going to impact the way you build applications in the Appian platform.”

The automation and low-code giant has sought to address privacy and transparency concerns surrounding large language models (LLMs) by allowing businesses to use their own data for training through low and no-code development.

Appian AI Skill Designer will be capable of three primary functions at launch, with more to be added to a community-led marketplace for AI tools over time.

The document classification and extraction features will enable businesses to automatically sort documents and pull key information from a range of files.

Appian said this would potentially free up employees' time that might otherwise be spent on manual entry tasks - long a promise of automation and AI.

Email classification can label and interpret the inboxes of employees using a foundational understanding of a company’s important communications, similar to the features announced by Microsoft with 365 Copilot.

"The potential benefits of artificial intelligence for process automation are immense, but only if organizations can successfully incorporate complex AI technologies into their digital workflows,” said Matt Calkins, CEO at Appian. 

“Appian AI Skill Designer and our integration of OpenAI are major advances that democratize access to the benefits of AI.”

Appian launched an integration with OpenAI in March, which allowed its customers to use the popular chatbot to summarize Appian record data, or as a customized company assistant capable of responding to common queries.

To build on this, the firm announced that it would be adding functionality such as building forms such as license applications automatically, or the ability to rapidly explain how an application within a business’ stack works.

Analysis: Appian's AI approach

This is a cautious approach to AI adoption by Appian, certainly when contrasted with the speedy adoption of AI tools by Microsoft and even the warier Google.

There is a sense that Appian has acknowledged the reality that generative AI might not be right for every business, but that more bespoke AI tools have a clear role to play as more of an assistant and augmenting tool for automation.

Appian championed its Data Fabric at Appian Europe, promising customers the most seamless read/write experience and more oversight of their data than any competitor could offer.

Since the feature launched, Appian stated that Data Fabric has been adopted by over 94% of new customers, and has facilitated more than one billion queries.

With generative AI input, this promise could be realized to a greater degree than has been possible up to now.

Of particular importance is the decision to use generative AI as an assistance tool for low and no-code development, rather than as a black box product in and of itself.

By shifting the focus away from the creative applications of other models, it may be that Appian’s approach has also shielded its new toolset from the worst of the hallucinations faced by prominent chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard.

After all, data trawling and organization are the bread and butter of large language models. 

As a result of how LLMs are trained and built, they are often at their best when used in place of manual information recall or internal search engines.

This is particularly true when trained mainly or entirely on an organization's own data, a tailored experience that Appian has placed front and center.

The idea of using AI to explain how software works is not new - indeed, it's been present in GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT for some time, and Bard is now capable of this too.

It's one that makes sense for Appian's product proposition though, and could prove very valuable as a 'no-code documentation' option for the apps that Appian elsewhere helps green developers construct.

The former CIO at TSB Bank has been fined for his involvement in the company’s 2018 IT migration which saw customers locked out of their accounts. 

Carlos Abarca, who led the botched IT migration, was handed an £81,620 fine by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for failing to take “reasonable steps” to ensure that the bank supervised its outsourcing arrangements with a third party during the project.

An investigation by the PRA found that Abarca “failed to ensure that TSB had obtained sufficient assurance from the third party” that the IT migration could be successfully carried out. 

Abarca was responsible for TSB’s outsourcing relationship with its main third-party supplier for the IT migration program. 

However, the PRA found that the former CIO failed to ensure the third party’s “ability and capacity were adequately assessed on an ongoing basis”.

Similarly, the investigation concluded that Abarca failed to ensure that TSB had obtained “sufficient assurance” over the third party’s readiness to operate the new IT platform.

Sam Woods, deputy governor for Prudential Regulation and CEO at the PRA, said Abarca was found to have breached the PRA’s senior manager conduct rule 2 and that his conduct during the program “fell below the standard” the regulatory body expects.

“Senior managers have an essential role to play in ensuring that firms manage and supervise outsourcing effectively,” Woods said in a statement.

“In this case, the PRA has fined Mr AbarcA because his management of a key outsourcing relationship fell below the standard we expect.”

In its statement, the Bank of England said Abarca agreed to resolve the matter with the PRA, which resulted in a 30% reduction in the overall fine imposed by the PRA. Without this discount, the financial penalty would have been £116,600.

TSB’s botched migration

The April 2018 migration project at TSB had intended to update its IT systems and migrate data for corporate and customer services to Banco Sabadell’s systems as part of a merger.

Although the migration was initially successful, the platform subsequently experienced major technical issues, resulting in significant disruption to TSB banking services. 

In-branch, telephone, online, and mobile banking services were all severely disrupted due to the failed migration, which affected millions of customers. 

Some customers were left without access to banking services until December that year, and the company was forced to pay more than £30 million in compensation to affected customers. 

The incident also prompted regulatory action against the high street bank. In December last year, the Financial Conduct Authority fined TSB £48.65 million. 

This fine marks the first penalty imposed on an individual involved in the failed migration, according to the Bank of England.

Digital automation and energy management specialist Schneider Electric has launched its first Ecommerce Partner Program to support overall growth and collaboration for partners.

The new initiative provides access to an e-commerce transformation and activation manager, a dedicated Schneider Electric specialist to help with strategy development, alongside access to the latest industry updates, news, and events. 

There’s also a range of comprehensive training courses on offer, covering topics such as company, product, e-commerce, and sustainability, which Schneider said will help partners keep ahead of the competition. 

Additionally, the program features a range of compensation options. These include marketing funds, rebates, and sell-out initiatives to help partners make the most of their e-commerce investments. 

“The mission of our partner program has become clearer,” said David Terry, vice president of IT channels, Europe at Schneider Electric. 

“For the first time, we are offering our e-commerce partners a program which is unique and innovative that sets it apart from its competitors.”

He highlighted the initiative’s comprehensive suite of tools and resources aimed at helping partners “succeed in the e-commerce space”.

“From marketing support to technical assistance, the program offers a wide range of services to ensure partners have the best experience possible,” he added. 

“The program also offers exclusive discounts and promotions to help partners maximize their profits. 

“With its comprehensive features and the ability to customize the program to fit the needs of each partner, the Ecommerce Partner Program is truly ahead of its competitors.”

The move follows Schneider’s 2022 revamp of the mySchneider IT Partner Program, which saw the company overhaul its structure in response to feedback from its partner community. 

The refreshed initiative introduced a simplified and more streamlined framework that features specializations for key sectors – including data centers, software, and services – with the aim of catering to more specializations over time.

Back then, Rob McKernan, SVP of Schneider Electric Europe’s Secure Power division, highlighted the importance of strengthening relationships as one of the most effective ways to drive growth.

“By listening to our partners and designing the program to accommodate both new market trends and changing business models, we can help them to fast-track new sales opportunities and build the partnerships of the future,” he said.  

The inaugural HFS Horizons: Cloud Native Transformation, 2022 report examines the capabilities of 20 IT service providers and management consultancies offering differentiated approaches to meet the transformation needs of clients.

This research effort assesses how well service providers are helping their clients to envision and deliver cloud native transformation outcomes. HFS recognizes IBM as Horizon 3 with "driving transformation with hybrid cloud assets and differentiating M&A investments".

Download now to learn more.

Provided by  IBM

Leading analysts have advised businesses to continue to spend heavily on IT in 2023, despite economic challenges, saying the investment is likely to be "recession-proof".

Some IT leaders will continue to invest heavily and view current economic conditions as a prime opportunity to build new, more resilient revenue streams, enhance organisational processes and position themselves as more relevant to their customers.

Others will fail to capitalise on this opportunity. Those who adopt a more conservative approach to IT spending and ‘hunker down’ in the year ahead could find themselves at serious risk of falling behind competitors.

The comments were made by John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, to IT Pro ahead of the unveiling of the consultancy's research on Wednesday. It predicted that IT spending will increase by 2.4% from 2022 to $4.5 trillion in 2023.

This forecast follows the previous quarter's prediction that IT spending was expected to increase by 5.1%, highlighting concerns over spending as the global economy braces for an impending recession.

Inflation and economic disruption have rapidly eroded consumer purchasing power, Gartner noted, while device spending is also down among enterprises. But despite challenging conditions, overall IT spending is expected to remain strong.

The software and IT services segments, for example, are projected to grow 9.3% and 5.5% respectively across 2023.

In particular, Gartner predicted that the IT services market will continue to grow as organisations seek to bring in outside staff to bolster support and implementation of IT projects.

This could see consultancy spending reach $264.9 billion in 2023 – a 6.7% increase from the year previous.

John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, said that while inflation has “devastated” consumer markets, many enterprises will continue to increase spending on digital business initiatives.

“A turbulent economy has changed the context of business decisions and can cause CIOs to become more hesitant, delay decisions or reorder priorities,” he said.

“We’ve seen this in action with the reshuffling taking place among some B2B companies, especially those that overinvested in growth. However, IT budgets are not driving these shifts, and IT spending remains recession-proof.”

‘Recession-proof’ IT spending

Lovelock said that IT spending outlooks for the year ahead should inspire confidence among senior technology leaders.

“Overall, I think enterprise IT spending in 2023 is going to be recession-proof,” he said. “There’s no doubt about it.”

Lovelock warned, however, that as businesses seek to traverse difficult economic conditions, there is a serious risk that a "chasm" emerges between businesses seeking to invest their way out of a recession and those seeking to hunker down and weather the coming storm.

“The split between the companies that will investment heavily in IT and those that don’t is going to be higher this year than ever. The polarisation in the market between the ‘IT buyers’ and the ‘IT hesistants’ is going to get wider than we’ve seen in an awfully long time.”

“The division between the high spenders and the low spenders will be greater than we've ever seen in an awfully long time. 2009 is probably the last time we've seen a split this big,” Lovelock said.

“And it does tend to come around economic uncertainties. There are companies that either say IT is a solution to problems, and those that see IT as an expense.

“There are fewer that say it's an expense - more of them would see it as a solution or the only way out, and there's more spending from them. But then there will be this big chasm.”

Workers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax Studios have voted overwhelmingly in favour of forming a union, becoming the first group within Microsoft to do so.

Approximately 300 quality assurance (QA) testers at Microsoft-owned ZeniMax studios have voted to unionise, in affiliation with the Communication Workers of America (CWA).

The CWA said a “supermajority” of the QA workers voted to join the union through an online portal, or by signing a union authorisation card, and that Microsoft has officially recognised the union.

Negotiations between ZeniMax Workers United, which represents workers in Maryland and Texas, and Microsoft are expected to begin shortly. To date, union demands have revolved around workload, fair wages, and transparency.

“Microsoft has lived up to its commitment to its workers and let them decide for themselves whether they want a union,” said CWA president Chris Shelton.

“Other video game and tech giants have made a conscious choice to attack, undermine, and demoralise their own employees when they join together to form a union. Microsoft is charting a different course which will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers and should serve as a model for the industry and as a blueprint for regulators.”

Microsoft acquired ZeniMax studios in 2021 for $7.5 billion in a move that brought popular gaming titles such as The Elder Scrolls, Doom and Fallout into its control. In December 2022, Microsoft committed to neutrality towards the unionisation efforts and pledged to accept the result of the vote.

"In light of the results of the recent unionisation vote, we recognise the CWA as the bargaining representative for the quality assurance employees at ZeniMax," said Microsoft in a statement.

"We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement."

After its official formation, the group has become the largest union within the gaming industry. Video game QA testing is considered a competitive field to enter, and workers within the sector can face long work hours known as ‘crunch’ in the final stages of game development.

Calls within the gaming industry for representation and improved work conditions have been growing in recent years, as the sector lags behind the benefits offered in other parts of the tech industry.

Workers at games firm Proletariat Inc. filed to form their own CWA-affiliated union, known as the Proletariat Workers Alliance, in December. The union has tweeted a number of demands including improved benefits and calls for better progression opportunities.

Proletariat Inc is a subsidiary of Activision-Blizzard, which Microsoft is attempting to acquire for $68.7 billion. In June, The New York Times reported that Microsoft had committed itself to neutrality in the unionisation efforts of Activision workers if the deal went through, though the FTC and CMA are assessing the deal for its potential limiting of competition within the gaming industry.

Changing demands in the tech sector

A number of workers in the tech sector are seeking wage increases and further commitments by employers, as the cost of living increases and recessionary cuts put job security at risk.

In April 2022, Amazon workers at a Staten Island fulfilment centre unionised, a first for the company, and against structural opposition within the organisation.

Workers at Google’s parent company Alphabet also unionised in 2021, with the Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) having grown from 400 members at the time of launch to approximately 800 at the time of writing.

Work demands in the tech industry have been questioned recently at companies such as Twitter. After his acquisition of the social media firm in October, Elon Musk halved the company’s workforce and demanded ‘hardcore’ working hours and intensity from those remaining, which led to a mass resignation of dissatisfied employees.

Shortly after, a number of employee benefits were rescinded such as allowances for child care and quarterly team outings, with Musk citing the poor financial situation of the company as the cause for change.

A number of tech companies have similarly engaged in cuts, as Meta fired 11,000 workers after rocky financial results, and cloud communications platform Twilio reduced its workforce by 11% in September 2022.

Big changes over the last few years have fundamentally transformed the way organisations operate. The scale and nature of workplace transformation has shifted, with more emphasis on accommodating all employees regardless of where they work. Most, if not all, agree further change is on the horizon, but this process must be handled correctly, as rushing any workplace transformation, or failing to understand the specific reason for the change, can cause serious and long-lasting issues.

Indeed, hurrying downsizing, remodelling or the rollout of a hybrid work strategy can end up costing more time, money, and efficiency in the long term if all eventualities aren’t accounted for, and each stakeholder isn’t consulted and engaged up front.

Organisations planning to undergo a workplace transformation in the coming months must fully understand the needs of their workforce, as well as considering elements such as data demands and information security. It’s also important to build relationships with experts, rather than going it alone, as this added guidance enables you to deliver on digital transformation projects in the most successful and efficient way possible.

Assessing the scale of the challenge

Making changes to workspace configuration and implementing a hybrid work strategy, are higher priorities for global enterprises, according to research Iron Mountain has conducted with Economist Impact, the research arm of The Economist. The majority (61.2%) of organisations also say their employee engagement demands significant, much or some improvement. Such changes must come hand-in-hand with digital transformation goals and activities. These are both key pillars in the mission to raise resilience. Indeed, 79.1% of executives surveyed agreed that managing physical work locations was important in fostering long-term resilience, while just over half are changing their approach in order to invest in flexible workspaces that can be adapted to workplace needs post-pandemic.

Despite this widespread enthusiasm for business change and digital transformation, sheer willpower isn’t enough to see these ambitions through. Regardless of industry there are several guiding principles that must be followed in order to appreciate the scale and nature of the challenge. These will be unique to each organisation but there are also commonalities such as the desire to reduce costs, increase productivity, and guarantee an improvement in employee wellbeing.

Building a workspace for the future

Although COVID-19 gave rise to a dramatic increase in remote working – which has permeated into enterprise culture now that we have learned to live with the impact of the pandemic – some people still yearn to come into the office. Regardless of whether employees are planning to come in five days a week, or once a fortnight, focusing on modernising that physical space is key to raising their morale and productivity. It’s more likely than not, therefore, that an office that’s been untouched since before the pandemic is not fit for the modern age.

Before organisations begin ripping out desks and filing cabinets, they must first think strategically and – with the guidance of expert consultants – evaluate the needs of their unique workforce. Businesses should take an inventory of all physical and digital environments to ensure their purpose is clear, and eliminate any inefficiencies that exist. Identifying gaps in manual or digital processes, any access needs or security holes, are good first steps.

Although the physical space is important, there’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes that needs to be addressed. Data protection and the way the enterprise safeguards its assets in the age of hybrid work, are paramount. This not only spans personal information the organisation might hold in records and documents, and that workers need to access, but the distribution and management of physical devices like laptops. When undergoing a radical business transformation such as this, success hinges on staying on top of each and every aspect. This can be overwhelming without expert assistance to ensure the process means your business is as resilient as it can possibly be.

It’s vital to ensure that key stakeholders, such as corporate real estate, security, records and information management are included in the decision making process. Each brings an important perspective to planning your workplace transformation. By ensuring clear and transparent communication between the relevant parties, you can ensure transformation that suits everyone and best serves the needs of your business.

Starting afresh

Amid the myriad considerations that organisations must take when undergoing any business transformation, leaning on a trusted vendor like Iron Mountain and its Clean Start® solution will give business leaders the confidence and assurance to know they are on the right path. An Iron Mountain Clean Start assessment, conducted by a team of experts, can guide enterprises through key risk and opportunity areas of a workplace reconfiguration.

Iron Mountain Clean Start comprises several components including secure storage, secure destruction and digital transformation, with a multi-pronged approach ensuring organisations are covered across the board. Using Clean Start can help you optimise your office footprint, cut costs, clean out physical and digital spaces, and maximise the efficient use of assets and space. Often enough, such a workplace transformation comes hand-in-hand with digital transformation projects.

The age of hybrid working means many organisations have seen the sands shift beneath their feet, meaning they need to react at pace and with decisiveness in order to stay competitive. Ensuring any transformation is reinforced with expert guidance at every stage is essential to guaranteeing your agility, flexibility and resilience in the future.

Palantir has announced a £75 million partnership with the UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) that will see the data analytics firm support the department’s digital transformation.

As part of the deal, Palantir said it will work closely with Defence Digital to transform how the MoD harnesses data across multiple levels of its operations and unlock greater efficiency.

Moving forward, the firm said the partnership will enable the MoD to treat data “as a strategic asset” to deliver a “superior military advantage”.

“Working in close collaboration with Defence Digital, Palantir software will enable the MoD to exploit data at scale and speed to make faster, better decisions across defence,” the company said in a statement.

“The agreement will enable any part of UK Defence to gain access to Palantir software across multiple classifications, wherever and however it can help – turning the MoD’s digital vision into reality at pace,” Palantir added.

Transforming UK defence capabilities

Palantir specialises in building digital platforms to support data-driven operations and decision making.

Its software collates data into a “single view” through a modelling concept known as ‘ontology’, meaning that when data sources are integrated into the software it “digests”, cleans, and harmonises data.

“The ontology allows users to see data not as rows and columns, but as objects, properties, and the relationships between them”, the company explained.

By implementing this data model across the UK’s defence apparatus, Palantir said MoD personnel will be able to perform advanced scenario planning, testing hypotheses, and provide real-time models to establish how scenarios would play out during operations.

“Whether for front-line operations, budget decisions, or maintenance planning with industry partners, Palantir’s software gives the MoD the ability to understand outcomes before making decisions.”

Caroline Bellamy, director and chief of data at Defence Digital said the tie-up will enable the MoD to become a “truly integrated digital enterprise”.

“A Defence where real-time, interconnected data better informs decision making, our people are digitally connected and empowered, and step changes in digital capability have been made for our war fighters and across our business operations,” she said.

Guy Williams, head of UK defence & national security at Palantir said the partnership will accelerate the UK Armed Forces’ current ambition of becoming a more data-driven fighting force.

“We're proud to expand our long-standing relationship with the MoD through our partnership with Defence Digital, and look forward to delivering world-leading software capabilities to enable greater operational outcomes,” he said.

Fostering closer ties

This deal builds on a decade-long partnership between the US-based company and Britain’s defence department.

The Royal Navy currently uses Palantir technologies to support operational planning and logistics, and used Palantir’s Foundry system to reorganise and streamline personnel during the pandemic.

“Palantir Foundry is critical to the Royal Navy’s transformation, driving radically improved availability of its ships and submarines,” said rear admiral Jim Higham.

Palantir’s Foundry platform is also used by the NHS to make better use of data and deliver improved clinical outcomes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the system was used to streamline logistics and ensure that vital PPE and tools such as ventilators were rolled out efficiently across NHS services.

Similarly, the company’s software is now being used to reduce planned care backlogs in NHS trusts across England.

The cloud has revolutionised business IT, creating flexibility and affordability for companies to establish systems and perform complex tasks that once were only available to the most biggest organisations with the most resources.

However, something of a paradox exists at the heart of cloud migration. While the promise of the cloud is simplicity and scalability, the huge variety of options and providers on offer can result in complexity and costliness, with businesses ending up paying for more than they need across multiple vendors.

To realise the true benefits of the cloud, it’s important to create a clear roadmap to plan your cloud migration.

Key questions

To develop a roadmap that will ensure that your cloud migration will deliver what you need from it without costing you the Earth, there are some key questions that you need to ask yourself.

The first is the ‘why’. Understanding what you want to achieve from your migration is key to developing a plan. Perhaps you’ve outgrown your existing hardware or it is on the verge of becoming obsolete. You might want to cut costs, or build scalability or flexibility into your operations. Knowing what your goal is is vital for assessing the success of your migration, and will underpin your entire plan.

The ‘why’ is naturally followed by the ‘how’. Who will be the team responsible for the migration? This might be handled in-house by your IT team, or you might want to bring in outside specialists to help or take charge. Whatever the case, it’s essential that everyone is working together and knows what their place is in the plan.

This is also the stage where you need to prepare your existing infrastructure for the migration. Are you planning a hybrid environment? Can you foresee any compatibility issues, and what can you do to mitigate these? The better prepared you are, the more likely you are to avoid the biggest bumps in the road.

Finally, you need to get the timing right. The timeframe will be dictated by various factors, such as the amount and type of data to be migrated to the cloud and when the timing will be best for your business operations. Migrations can be done quite quickly or over an extended period of time, and it will be up to you and your migration team to decide what is best for your company.

Next steps

When your roadmap is ready, it’s time to put it into action. You are likely to encounter issues and roadblocks (whether large or small) during your migration and it’s important to not let them derail you from following your roadmap. Knowing the kinds of issues you are likely to face will help you to prepare for them and know what to do if they arise.

And once the migration is ‘complete’, that isn’t the end of the story. You are likely to have other tasks and goals ahead of you. After all, the beauty of the cloud is in its flexibility and scalability, so it will serve you to take a long-term perspective on your migration and the future management of your infrastructure.

To learn more about creating and executing your roadmap and what comes after, read our co-branded IT Pro/ANS report, ‘Future-proofing transformation: An end-to-end roadmap for SMB cloud migration’

London-based IT reseller Highgate IT Solutions has announced a permanent shift to a four-day working week, following the success of a six-month trial period.

The company began testing the scheme on 1 April, in a move believed to be a first of its kind in the UK channel, with the aim of giving staff more free time while retaining its usual productivity levels.

It implemented the 100:80:100 model, committing the business to 100% pay for 80% of time, in return for 100% productivity.

With the trial now complete, Highgate has revealed that the initiative was “overwhelmingly successful” and as a result, it will be implementing the working structure on a permanent basis.

Bob Sahota, sales director at Highgate, explained that the COVID pandemic changed perspectives on people’s time and how it’s used via a post on LinkedIn.

“We all experienced suffering to varying degrees and the long-term consequences were unknown,” he said. “As an organisation we have always prioritised employee wellbeing and mental health ahead of everything, making that the keystone of our entire operation, knowing very well that if we as a company can look after our employees, they will in turn look after us.”

The launch of the four-day working week gave the company the opportunity to take this philosophy further, with the prospect of significantly improving everybody’s work-life balance.

“The reality is that our results far exceeded anything we could ever have imagined,” he added. “Commercially, we saw performance and productivity increase, including several individual and team personal bests being registered throughout the trial. We also experienced zero negative cases from our clients.”

However, Sahota said it was the positive impact on employee wellbeing that was the most impressive outcome of the trial.

“We saw work/life balance and overall quality of life improve the most. Seeing how everyone used their new-found extra time was also very rewarding,” he said.

“For me personally, I would say it has been nothing short of life changing. Having an extra day to spend however I need to, has improved the quality of my life drastically.”

The push towards a four-day working week has gathered momentum since the pandemic. This year, not-for-profit organisation 4 Day Week Global and think tank Autonomy announced a UK-wide pilot programme to measure impact on staff productivity and wellbeing, as well as environment and gender equality.

More than 70 organisations signed up to the scheme, including 3,300 workers. Data taken at the halfway stage revealed that 95% of organisations had so far found productivity to either have been maintained or improved, while 86% do not intend to revert back to the old dynamic.

The UK's official nationwide trial comes after numerous other countries around the world have run similar pilots often returning successful results.

The most widely cited example was that of Iceland's which ran a four-year trial, reporting overwhelming successful results. Other countries to embark on similar pilots are Spain, which is currently trialling a three-year pilot, Scotland, Ireland, and Japan which is still planning how it will begin its trial.

IT management software provider SolarWinds has cut the ribbon on Transform, its first formal channel partner programme, which has been designed to drive growth for partners.

The new initiative aims to help transform the way the firm collaborates with technology distributors, VARs, global systems integrators, managed service providers (MSPs), as well as cloud partners around the world.

Partners will have access to SolarWinds’ AI-powered observability solutions for modern, distributed, hybrid, and multi-cloud network environments, through software as a service (SaaS) and cloud-connected, on-premises deployments.

In an announcement, SolarWinds said the programme will provide strong profit potential and growth opportunities, alongside resources such as incentives, rebates, training programmes, and more.

“We are building further on our monitoring leadership and are now evolving our business to deliver the best solutions in full-stack observability, service management and database monitoring,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, president and CEO at SolarWinds.

“Our exciting portfolio and value proposition enable us – and our partners – to help accelerate our customers’ business transformation wherever they may in their cloud journey.”

With more than 300,000 customers and more than 2,000 partners, SolarWinds has grown to become one of the world’s leading providers of IT and network management software.

The company says its ‘Secure by Design’ initiative has been critical to the development of its platform.

SolarWinds said it unifies observability and services management to provide AI-powered solutions for IT Ops, DevOps, CloudOps, and SecOps teams.

Back in June, SolarWinds unveiled its new Next Generation Build System, a refresh of its software build process and a key cog within this secure by design framework.

The company has now launched its Hybrid Cloud Observability offering - the first based on its ‘Secure by Design’ principles - which is designed to increase performance and reduce remediation time across on-premises and multi-cloud environments.

The Transform initiative also adds a new partner category which the firm said will help support MSPs with an engagement mode that ranges from global scale to regional providers.

This means MSPs can now offer SolarWinds’ Hybrid Cloud Observability with flexible licensing and pricing models to help provide customers with the necessary flexibility and scale they require.

“Our partner relationships are critical as we move forward with a bold plan to grow our business through customer-centric technology innovations,” said Jeff McCullough, VP of worldwide partner sales at SolarWinds.

“Together with our partners, we share a vision to completely transform the market for IT management software.”

Oracle NetSuite hopes to go further than ever before in providing its customers with a fully end-to-end solution, as it signals that automation and cross-service integration are integral to the company’s vision.

This was stated loud and clear by Evan Goldberg, founder and executive vice president, Oracle NetSuite in the first of two keynote speeches made at the company’s SuiteWorld conference in Las Vegas. Making a range of service announcements centred around fixing problems faced by businesses, from vendor payments and shift efficiency to retail and supply chain solutions, the overriding message was nevertheless one of unity across the company’s full spectrum of services.

From acquiring customers to delivering products seamlessly, NetSuite is reaffirming its role as an end-to-end ecosystem for businesses rather than a tool to be used for specific tasks. Goldberg used the example of a fictional fitness company, WYRA, to illustrate just how wide a role NetSuite sees itself as having in assisting each of its customers. In the story, NetSuite comes to the company’s help just as it clinches its biggest ever contract.

“They needed to continue to acquire and grow their customer base. They needed to create and deliver fantastic products and services, and to do this they needed to hire and empower a next generation of employees. Then finally, they had to do all of this while optimising their cash and their profits.

“They went to NetSuite Increase their efficiency, automate complex processes, break down the silos, and it's not just the functionality in all these different areas and all these different value streams, but how it all works together.”

Goldberg listed a range of services that NetSuite provides, and how each would improve WYRA’s platform, but in running through them in order of adoption made clear that from warehouse to customer, all work best in tandem.

This analogy, combined with the slogan of the conference — ‘Full Suite Ahead’ — could best summarise NetSuite’s vision for its role in business growth. While any number of the solutions announced at the conference could benefit businesses on their own, from AP Automation to enhanced Workforce Management, NetSuite contends that the more of its suite a business buys into, the greater the gains it will experience as a result.

“We believe that as customers adopt more and more of the suite, they get exponential value. Everything ties together,” noted Goldberg.

It could be said that small businesses stand to gain more from NetSuite's end-to-end overhaul, as it reduces their need to invest in additional services or operate in-house. Responding to a question from IT Pro at the press conference, Goldberg clarified that the majority of customers seek out NetSuite’s services just as they are about to embark upon rapid digital transformation, or looking to scale into a larger market.

“We’re especially attractive to companies that outgrow their initial accounting system, when they decide they need a more professional finance operation.

“So definitely our customer base is biased towards people that are growing and they see it as an opportunity to set themselves up for long-term success. And you can talk about a company in the software industry, many of them are thinking about potentially IPOing and we have an incredible track record there in the majority of companies' tech ideas.”

Indeed, NetSuite is perhaps best known as a provider of accounting solutions, and it continues to provide innovative systems for managing company finances to its many customers. However, with its ever-growing suite, and newly-announced automated banking features, NetSuite could be seen as going up against competitors within the managed banking and transfer sector such as QuickBooks. Despite the potential threat posed by expansion into such markets, Goldberg stated that he is “not worried about them.”

“Because of the vast capabilities that we have, the entire suite, how we can scale, and things like CDQ. That's not something that you're generally going to see with smaller products.

“And at the sophistication that we're going to do and also, much of the work that we've done for vertical solutions and industry solutions, product companies or service companies and nonprofits, we’ve made enormous investments and it’s accelerating massively as part of Oracle.

“So I'm not worried about being a flank, but I am concerned that our customers feel like when they go to NetSuite, they're continuing to get all the benefits that they had before.”

Indeed, NetSuite’s customer base has grown by 5,000 in the past year, and the firm’s ethos of providing for the widest range of customer needs possible, regardless of whether it is competitive or fully innovative in the markets into which it edges as a result.

Looking at the company’s philosophy in light of tech skills gaps and economic issues both regional and global such as the cost of living crisis, NetSuite also appears to be telling businesses that scaling a company does not have to involve increasing head counts. Through the full embrace of its services, NetSuite argues that customers can look forward to greater insights and an increasingly automated experience, and hopes that customers will enjoy growth as a result.

“Everything we showed today was about eliminating processes, automating things, so that you don't have to necessarily grow your staff,” Goldberg later stated at a roundtable discussion.

If NetSuite’s suite-wide automation can facilitate growth in lieu of extra hires, it could push the company into a particularly powerful position in the current market. Its parent organisation Oracle reportedly made cuts to its workforce over the summer, eyeing up a potential $1 billion in savings in exchange for thousands of roles, and other tech giants such as Microsoft are easing up on hiring for the immediate future. With some businesses choosing to invest and grow their way through economic headwinds, NetSuite might become even more widely used to save companies money on systems and better identify what needs cutting, or conversely see its customer base dwindle as firms batten down the hatches rather than aim to grow.

35 startups, SMEs, and scaleups are joining the Cyber Runway accelerator programme, taking on challenges like ransomware, zero-day attacks, and secure authentication.

The programme has been designed to strengthen the UK’s cyber ecosystem and accelerate the growth of a new generation of breakthrough cyber startups to improve national security, stimulate innovation and drive economic growth. It’s part of the government’s mission of making the UK a responsible and democratic cyber power, as laid out in the National Cyber Strategy 2022.

Currently in its second year, Cyber Runway is the largest government-backed cyber startup accelerator in the country. Funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, it’s run by Plexal, Deloitte, and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT).

The 2022 Cyber Runway cohort is set to take on challenges like ransomware, zero-day attacks, secure authentication, incident response, and improving cyber awareness. Its members include CyberMind, which is using AI to help cyber workers deal with their mental health, and Worldr, which secures employee data through zero-trust architectures.

“We are backing businesses on the frontline defending the UK against cyber threats,” said cyber minister Julia Lopez. “Our investment in these innovative British startups helps create skilled jobs and a more diverse workforce, which strengthens our national security as well as our booming tech industry."

45% of the programme’s members are based outside of London and the South East of England. 65% have women in their leadership teams and 28% are run by founders from black, ethnic or minority backgrounds. Cyber Runway will also be delivered in person and virtually to maximise its nationwide reach.

Startups are set to benefit from business masterclasses, mentoring and engineering support from CSIT, technical product development support, and opportunities to connect with international cyber hubs. They will also be able to attend regional events and connect to investors and corporations to fuel growth.

Applications for the second cohort opened on 5 July 2022, after the first round saw 107 entrepreneurs benefit from the initiative. Cyber Runway said that up to 100 more startups would be accepted into the programme which will run over the course of six months.

UK safety tech sector revenues hit £381 million last year, the government has announced, an increase of 21% across the ‘world-leading’ industry.

This was matched by the creation of jobs within the sector, with a total number of 2,850 now available marking a 30% increase from the previous year.

Additionally, 57% of safety tech firms were based outside of London and the South East, a sizeable increase from the 48% based outside of these regions just two years prior. In total, 117 firms have been identified as currently offering safety tech solutions.

In a blog post, the government specifically championed safety tech such as tools used to detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) content. These systems have been put in the spotlight by the government’s Online Safety Bill, which seeks to compel companies to use or develop such tools to even work on messages currently protected by end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

The bill has drawn criticism from rights organisations such as The Open Rights Group, which has described the measures as “an Orwellian censorship machine.” A recent survey of industry experts also revealed that 66% thought ending E2EE would have a negative impact on protecting society, while Meta plans rollout of E2EE across Messenger and Instagram in 2023.

Last year, the government set up the Safety Tech Challenge Fund, a £555,000 competition to find novel solutions for combatting CSEA content without impacting people’s rights to privacy. These include artificial intelligence (AI) and facial recognition solutions for detecting child abuse images before upload.

At the time, it was announced that the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) would offer advice to the winners, to protect privacy throughout the development process.

However, doubts have been raised over the feasibility of regulation of direct messaging that also retains privacy measures. Last year several rights organisations signed an open letter to MPs, stating that the tech being sought by the government would be bad for business as well as individual privacy.

“End-to-end encryption means that your constituents’ family photographs, messages to friends and family, financial information, and the commercially sensitive data of businesses up and down the country, can all be kept safe from harm’s way,” the letter stated.

“It also keeps us safer in a world where connected devices have physical effect: end-to-end encryption secures connected homes, cars and children’s toys. The government should not be making those more vulnerable to attack.”

At the time of writing, the Online Safety Bill has been put ‘on ice’ amidst Conservative Party restructuring, leaving the timeline for when these changes can be expected to be passed into law unclear.

When the house returns in September the bill could be redrafted, or scrapped entirely under the leadership of either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak.

For now, safety tech sees no signs of slowing, as 67% of firms within the sector predict a customer base increase of 50% or more within the next 12 months.

“Making the online world safer is not only the right thing to do, it’s good for business,” said digital minister Damien Collins

“UK tech firms are at the cutting-edge developing practical solutions to the risks posed by the internet so that it continues to be a benefit not a detriment to people’s lives.

“They have blazed a trail of growth, innovation and job creation to become world leaders in their field and we are committed to maintaining their upward trajectory.”

Privacy platform DataGrail has hired Cathy Polinksy as its new chief technology officer (CTO).

Polinsky is the former vice president of engineering at Shopify, and before that spent four years as the CTO at Stitch Fix. She also has ample experience from work throughout the industry for companies such as Salesforce, Yahoo, Amazon, and Oracle.

Her experience with systems that support both consumer customisation and robust privacy protection were touted by the company as making her an excellent fit for the role.

“I have been fortunate to be part of companies that are good stewards of data, but as more and more SaaS apps are adopted, the privacy issues become more complex,” said Polinsky in a statement.

“Even companies with the very best intentions and practices may struggle with people’s inherent right to data privacy. DataGrail helps manage an intricate and expansive ecosystem of data with a solution that every company needs.”

DataGrail specialises in data subject requests (DSR), in which a subject contacts a data controller with a request to modify personal data held by a third party. These are linked closely with subject access requests (SAR). DataGrail helps brands stay compliant with data regulations through their platform, as well as manage their data efficiently.

Just last month, DataGrail updated its DSR automation to better serve internal data systems, giving customers the ability to more easily delete, access or anonymise data. The new API provides more control over internal systems, extending its reach to custom databases, as well as applications.

In a Twitter thread, Polinsky also stressed the importance of protecting data privacy in line with the role.

“Data privacy is a fundamental human right that doesn't have to be incompatible with providing highly personalised technology and experiences. I'm excited to focus on this important problem with the DataGrail team.”

Also joining the company is Sam East, the former Sendoso chief revenue officer who will now fulfil the same role at DataGrail.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled that Cathy and Sam have joined our team,” remarked Daniel Barber, founder and CEO of DataGrail.

“They are gifted professionals who share our belief that data privacy is a human right. Together, we can transform data privacy in ways that benefit both businesses and consumers.”

Rogers Communications Inc. has announced a C$10 billion investment in improved infrastructure and AI research in moves to improve their telecoms network.

Earlier this month, Rogers experienced a serious network outage that affected many of its 10.6 million customers across Canada, restricting access to even emergency services. Beginning on July 8, the outage lasted approximately 19 hours.

5G and other mobile internet, cell connectivity and even landline connections were all affected by the outage. Canadian police stated that some customers were even unable to access emergency services.

In a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Rogers reportedly said the problem was traced back to a network update, which had inadvertently deleted a routing filter and “allowed for all possible routes to the Internet to pass through the routers”.

Without the filter in place, internet traffic passed through routers at an unsustainable rate and quickly overwhelmed them.

In response to the outage, Rogers has made a series of commitments. Chief among them is a three-year, C$10 billion investment into more network testing and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve network reliability.

The company has also announced an agreement with rival companies to support each other’s 911 calls in the event of network difficulties, as well as the separation of their wireless and internet services to limit the extent of future outages.

In a blog post on the Rogers website, President and CEO Tony Staffieri apologised for the disruption and set out the aforementioned commitments in full. He stated that “emergency calls to 911 simply have to work,” and outlined where the C$10 billion will be invested.

“This includes more oversight, more testing and greater use of Artificial Intelligence to ensure we’re able to deliver the reliable service you deserve.

“Finally, we are partnering with leading technology firms to do a full review of our network to help us learn from the outage. We will share lessons with our industry for the benefit of every Canadian.”

AI could be used to help design more effective network infrastructure, or adaptively tune antennae to improve connectivity. Earlier this year, Qualcomm announced an AI-integrated 5G modem-RF, which it claims provides better average speeds.

Rogers separately warned in an update on Twitter that some customers had received scam text messages offering credits by way of apology for the outage. The company stated that while it will be applying credit to accounts, customers need take no action and should report any suspicious SMS.

Network outages such as this or the recent KDDI disruption in Japan can have major impacts on business operations and day-to-day life, especially if access to emergency services is affected. Nearly 60% of internet traffic is caused by mobile internet use, with an estimated 4.67 billion mobile internet users in 2021 highlighting how essential stable networks are to overall access to the internet.

Eutelsat and OneWeb are engaged in discussions to create an all-share combination between the two companies, to create one joint communications entity.

French satellite operator Eutelsat confirmed the talks in a July 25 press release, after days of rumours about a potential merger between the two. OneWeb’s primary endeavour is its low earth orbit satellite constellation, through which it seeks to provide broadband internet across the world.

Eutelsat has 45 years of experience within the sector, and the ability to bring large-scale funding to the comparatively small OneWeb. If completed, the deal would represent a major consolidation of communications infrastructure, with the new entity will be the world's first to operate both low Earth orbit (LEO) and geosynchronous equatorial orbit (GEO) satellites.

The finished arrangement would see OneWeb and Eutelsat shareholders each holding 50% of the newly formed entity’s shares.

The British government invested £416 million in OneWeb in 2020, to save the company from bankruptcy. At the time, the deal was criticised due to OneWeb’s inability to provide GPS services seen as crucial to the UK following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Through a stake-backed investment bank, the French government currently has a 19.9% stake in Eutelsat, resulting in the merger bringing together French and UK governmental interests.

The OneWeb constellation currently stands at 428 satellites, around two-thirds of the 648 that was hoped to be in operation by the end of 2022. In March, OneWeb shelved plans to work with Russian space agency Roscosmos after it demanded that the UK government sell all its shares in the company.

In 2021, OneWeb and BT announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore providing stable internet connections to rural customers in the UK using its network of low LEO satellites. It is hoped that the network will provide for those in remote areas without existing cable infrastructure.

Satellite internet is a hotbed of innovation and rivalry right now, with SpaceX’s constellation of Starlink satellites growing by the month and recently gaining FCC approval to provide internet to moving vehicles. The company is currently engaged in a very public dispute with the DISH Network, whose proposals to share the 12GHz band for 5G services it claims will unacceptably disrupt Starlink services.

In contrast, OneWeb announced an agreement with SpaceX to launch some of OneWeb’s remaining satellites earlier this year. The two companies have indicated that they do not consider their respective interests to conflict.

“The combined entity would be the first multi-orbit satellite operator offering integrated GEO and LEO solutions and would be uniquely positioned to address a booming ~$16bn (2030) Satellite Connectivity market,” said Eutelsat in a statement.

“OneWeb is one of the two only global LEO networks and has experienced strong momentum over recent months, with service expected to be fully deployed in 2023.”

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has intervened in Microsoft's planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, citing concerns that the merger could impact competition within UK markets.

Microsoft first announced its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard in January, and, in April, Activision Blizzard’s shareholders approved the deal in a near-unanimous vote. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) previously announced it would also assess the deal, and determine whether it constitutes a monopolisation of the gaming industry or would limit competition in the tech sector.

According to the CMA announcement, a phase-one decision is expected by September 1.

The outcome of the inquiry is likely to shape Microsoft’s business strategy going forward. Although much has been made of the impact that the merger will have on the particular market, as it would make Microsoft the third largest gaming company in the world, it can also be understood as a symbolic of the company’s expansion strategy for the next decade.

At $68.7 billion, the merger will be the third largest of the 2020s so far, and Microsoft’s largest to date. It continues amidst widespread coverage of workplace misconduct at Activision Blizzard, alleged to date back some years.

Increasingly, Microsoft has used acquisitions to fuel its expansion efforts, with the most significant examples not coming from the gaming space. Of course, there was much publicity in 2014 around its $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang, the creators of best-selling game ever Minecraft.

The significance of the company’s $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance Communications, and the myriad other cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure companies it has purchased in the past five years alone lay out the case for Microsoft’s growing use of its vast wealth to obtain firms in sectors it operates in, or otherwise seeks to.

Any software development firm operating in a field in which Microsoft has expressed interest, be that gaming, quantum computing, or cloud system development, should seriously consider the likelihood that they could be acquired by Microsoft.

In an interview with Axios, CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer identified it as critical to Microsoft’s next big goal, the casual gaming market: “The board of Microsoft, on the day that we got approval for ZeniMax, asked, ‘What was next?’ And the constant conversation had always been about mobile and casual.”

The mood of the Microsoft board as relayed by Spencer could be the key element of this quote, with the ‘what’s next’ attitude highlighting real enthusiasm for more such mergers and acquisitions in Microsoft’s immediate future.

The CMA and FTC decisions will make or break this strategy, setting a precedent going forward. Microsoft will either be gifted the opportunity to aggressively expand into other corners of the tech and research sector, or be sent back to the drawing board as their diverse and frequent acquisition strategy is deemed a step too far.

In the past year, the CMA announced an investigation into Nvidia’s planned $40 billion takeover of Arm on competition grounds, given the capacity of an Nvidia-controlled Arm to do damage to the competitiveness of Nvidia’s rivals. The planned merger fell through in early February, with unwanted publicity around the deal greatly exacerbated by the CMA investigation.

IT Pro approached Microsoft and Activision Blizzard for comment.

Applications for the second intake of the DCMS and Deloitte-backed Cyber Runway startup accelerator have opened today.

Run by Plexal, which also runs a host of other government-backed accelerators and development schemes, the cyber security accelerator is now accepting applications for its second ‘cohort’ of UK-registered startups after the first round saw 107 entrepreneurs benefit from the initiative.

Cyber Runway said up to 100 more startups will be accepted to the programme which will run over the course of six months.

Supported startups will receive an extensive package of support including business masterclasses, one-to-one mentoring, access to investors, technical support, and more.

There will also be dedicated learning opportunities on how to build a sustainable business with modules on how to achieve net-zero targets.

Cyber Runway said every accepted startup into the second cohort will keep the entirety of their intellectual property (IP) and equity.

It also claims to be the UK’s “largest most diverse cyber accelerator”. It sees diversity as one of the biggest challenges facing the cyber security industry and sets several representation goals for its cohorts.

Cyber Runway aims to have 30% of its companies being female-led projects, 40% to be based outside of London, and at least 15% coming from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds.

In its first cohort, 45% of member companies were female-led startups and 52% were run by founders from BAME backgrounds. Cohort members also receive training on how to build inclusive business policies.

The accelerator is formed of three ‘streams’ - support programmes designed differently for companies at different stages of development - called Launch, Grow, and Scale.

Cyber Runway is now accepting applications for the Grow and Scale streams only. Eligible startups will be anywhere between pre-seed and Series B and above on their capital-raising journey, looking to grow further.

The Launch stream is different to Grow and Scale in that instead of a six-month support programme, members undergo a one-week bootcamp to gain skills and develop their idea into a real cyber security business.

Previous members of the Grow stream saw a 20% increase in revenue, an 8% increase in investment and a 22% increase in headcount by the end of the programme, Cyber Runway said, and Scale graduates saw a 45% increase in revenue, a 14% increase in investment, and a 71% increase in headcount.

“The economic and geopolitical necessity for a thriving cyber security ecosystem has never been greater,” said Saj Huq, Chief Commercial Officer at Plexal.

“As the UK’s largest cyber accelerator, Cyber Runway provides a uniquely scaled platform for growth at the heart of the UK’s innovation ecosystem, that is designed to support bold, ambitious and diverse founders to realise their potential. We encourage any startup that is serious about their growth to apply and collaborate with us.”

Applications are open until 29 July and both Grow and Scale streams are slated to begin in September.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has announced a new competition for organisations, inviting bids from organisations to deliver a programme supporting the UK’s tech startups and digital sector networks.

The winning bidder will be awarded £12.09 million in the form of a Digital Growth Grant, to be spent from April 2023 on assisting small and growing firms as part of a two-year programme.

Individual organisations can apply or submit applications as part of a consortium. Applicants are required to be registered corporate entities, with a significant presence within, and knowledge of, the UK tech sector.

Following the valuation of the UK’s overall tech sector at $1 trillion this year, the government seeks to place special focus on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing in a move to consolidate the UK’s place as Europe’s tech investment capital. £12 billion of venture capital funding was raised within the UK in the first five months of this year alone.

The DCMS highlights seed funding and initial financing rounds as areas in which small companies require support. It also states that the competition winner must take steps to improve investment, innovation, and business growth on a regional level, as outlined in the recent Regional Ecosystems report.

This will be achieved through partnership with local entities, with the aim of improving the digital economy across the UK, rather than simply boosting existing tech hubs in major cities. Additionally, the winner is expected to make existing firms and initiatives within the public and private sectors aware of startups and scaleups, to improve access to markets and talent across the board.

“The success of our startups and scale-ups has driven the UK ahead of Europe and China to be second in the world for tech investment this year,” said Digital Minister Chris Philip.

“We want every corner of the country to feel the benefits of tech success and we’re looking for an industry partner to help make this possible through the Digital Growth Grant.”

Applications are open now and close at midday on August 15. The successful bidder will be notified in September, with activities to begin in April 2023.

Toshiba is considering up to eight buyout proposals, and a further two capital alliance options, it has been reported.

Although the firm has declined to confirm any details at time of writing, insiders have indicated to Reuters that potential prices of up to 7000 yen per share would value the business at 3 trillion yen, or $22 billion dollars.

However, those aware of the details have stressed that the offers greatly vary in price, and that this figure represents the upper limit of what is on offer.

As the conglomerate prepares to finalise a shortlist of proposals by the end of June, Toshiba shares rose by up to 6.5% on Thursday.

The same sources claim that KKR & Co Inc (KKR.N), Baring Private Equity Asia, Blackstone Inc (BX.N), Bain Capital, Brookfield Asset Management (BAMa.TO), MBK Partners, Apollo Global Management and CVC Capital Partners have all made offers.

Late last year, the ailing multinational giant had announced plans to split into three separate companies, with a completion date of March 2024. But in February, unexpected opposition from shareholders had the company propose a new restructuring plan to split their devices business and infrastructure business down the middle, again to no success.

The potential deal is being played out against the backdrop of a waning Japanese market, with the yen at a 24-year low of 136.71 on Wednesday morning.

The Bank of Japan has faced criticism for its policy of keeping interest rates low even as the United States Federal Reserve is set to raise interest by another 0.75 points in July.

Japanese tech giant Fujitsu is investing £22 million into a research and development centre in the north west of England.

Phase one of the project is already underway with a Centre for Cognitive and Advanced Technologies (C-Cat) set to be established by the end of the year.

The C-Cat foundation will aim to import emerging technologies from Japan. Through the establishment of the centre, Fujitsu will also aim to create over 200 "high-skilled" jobs over the next year and potentially more as the project develops.

Initially, the project will operate from Fujitsu's Manchester offices and draw from its long-standing partnership with the University of Manchester. Eventually, the C-Cat will expand into a permanent campus with a final location to be announced in the Autumn.

The centre, which will be led by emerging technology expert Dr Keith Dear, will focus on a range of emerging technologies, such as quantum, AI, and digital twin technology, to provide a direct link to work in Japan so that the UK can benefit from the country's leadership in areas such as supercomputing.

This is the first announcement to come from the 'Free Trade Agreement' that was signed by the UK and Japan in October 2020. Greater collaboration in science and technology were key areas of the deal, with the aim to enhance the UK's status as a superpower in those fields.

"We share the UK government's ambitions to thrive as a science and technology superpower," Fujitsu's global CTO, Vivek Mahajan said. "We recognise the potential of the growing partnership between the UK and Japan, and we will look to contribute to this by building the C-CAT as an innovation bridge between the two countries. The establishment of the Centre for Cognitive and Advanced Technologies here demonstrates the UK's importance in our global mission to create a more sustainable world through innovation."

The timeframe for large-scale enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformations has been slashed from months, and in some cases years, to just a matter of weeks.

Such programmes of change might be multi-staged and traditionally required intense planning and execution that takes place over up to a decade. However, a combination of conditions including the aftermath of COVID-19 has sparked businesses into moving fast.

“We’ve got examples of six weeks; of going from as-is to there in six weeks,” said SAP customer success lead and member of the SAP SE Executive, Scott Russell. “Now that is incredibly rapid.”

Speaking at SAP Sapphire, the Hague, Russell highlighted how the market has shifted considerably as soon as over the last 18 months, adding this movement is being driven by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Many customers of SAP’s newly launched RISE platform, for example, are mid-sized firms looking to implement rapid ERP transformations to keep up with the competition.

“[Businesses] are willing now to just move,” Russell continued. “Actually, I’ve seen programmes where they haven’t perfectly defined everything, but they’re moving and they will be agile enough to adapt as they go because they know that to wait is to give their competitors an advantage that they’re no longer prepared to do.”

“We just don’t see ERP long-term implementations anymore. The market doesn’t want to implement that way. We certainly don’t want to; we want to help them get time-to-value even if it’s in a multi-step journey.”

He echoed comments delivered by SAP president EMEA North, Rohit Nagarajan, who stressed in his keynote address that nobody was questioning whether or not transformation was necessary anymore.

Scott reinforced this by suggesting the biggest factor driving decisions right now is the fear of standing still. At the c-level, especially, executives are fearful of not changing, although are being held back by the barriers of culture and convention, particularly the established processes that already exist within their businesses.

Pushed further, Russell said the biggest concerns among its customers was, indeed, their CEOs and c-level executives dragging their feet. That behavioural and cultural change, specifically, was something they needed to overcome, in order to commit to and appreciate the benefit of undergoing fast-paced digital transformation projects.

For about as long as computers have existed, conversations around IT have been almost entirely based on specifications; how much network throughput a switch can handle, how many megahertz a processor runs at, how much storage capacity a server has. These so-called ‘speeds and feeds’ are often the primary factor by which a product is judged.

Intel had a big part in driving this paradigm. As an early innovator in the field of semiconductors, the company was one of the key forces behind the PC boom in the 1980s, providing the processor for the seminal IBM PC. From there, the company’s engineers continued to push the technical sophistication of its components forward, popularising multi-core processors and pioneering simultaneous multi-threading. To this day, core count, clock speed, TDP and other technical metrics remain at the centre of many conversations between technologists, engineers and assorted geeks.

So what does it mean when Intel puts on an entire conference - including several product launches - and spends almost no time discussing technical details?

This week, the company gathered a selection of partners and customers in Dallas, Texas for Intel Vision 2022, the first iteration of a new annual conference focused on Intel’s enterprise and business offerings. However, rather than focusing on its Xeon server portfolio or its range of 12th-generation vPro-enabled processors, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger spent most of his time emphasising the ways in which its technologies could be used as part of a wider IT stack to accelerate transformation. It should be noted that this event is geared towards customers and partners, rather than specifically targeting developers and sysadmins, but this is still telling; rather than hardware capabilities, Intel has determined that business outcomes are what attendees want to hear about.

A chip on the shoulder

What makes this all the more surprising is that Intel’s engineers have been busy, and some interesting new hardware is rolling off the production lines, not least of which are the first dedicated GPUs in the company’s history. The new Arc A-series graphics chips (codenamed ‘Alchemist’) are just starting to come to market; mobile SOCs have started shipping as part of systems from Intel’s OEM partners, while the fully-fledged desktop card will be coming later this summer. This represents a significant evolution for the silicon manufacturer. Although the integrated GPUs built into its Intel Core processors mean it’s the largest manufacturer of graphics chips by volume, this is the first time that Intel has ever explored the discrete graphics market.

“We're launching a major business in the accelerated computing and graphics area; one that we were derelict in not participating in for a decade plus,” Gelsinger says. “Customers want a viable alternative to Nvidia in that space - we're going to create it.”

While this characterisation of the market does somewhat overlook the presence of AMD’s Radeon GPU range, Gelsinger is correct in his assessment that Nvidia has a notable stranglehold on the discrete GPU market. The company has cemented its position as the de facto standard for graphics cards - but Intel may have an ace up its sleeve here. With control over both CPU and GPU elements, Intel can introduce more engineering innovation, getting more out of both compute elements by managing the interplay between them.

The first SKUs of its new 4th-gen Xeon Scalable server processors have also now started rolling out to OEMs and system builders, with the first 4th-gen infrastructure pencilled in for release in Q3 or Q4. This server chip refresh promises big things, with built-in accelerators for AI, cryptography, networking and database workloads, but scant information is available on the forthcoming SKUs, and with such major developments in motion, the fact that hardware specifications weren’t a main focus is remarkable.

It’s possible that Intel is making a conscious effort to avoid direct comparisons with some of its key rivals; the company is facing increasing competition on almost every front, with AMD and Nvidia making particular inroads into Intel’s vital data centre business. Specifically calling out performance details or specifications leaves the company open to being one-upped on those numbers, and as Gelsinger himself admits, the company has ceded ground in that area over the last few years.

“Due to our capacity limitations, in many cases, we didn’t lose market share; we gave market share [away], where we just didn't have the capacity to supply against what our customers wanted. We also had our own execution issues, Where in some markets, we were not delivering the best products.”

On the other hand, this move away from shouting about core speeds and thread counts is a reflection of a wider shift within the IT industry: the rise of ‘outcome-driven IT’. Business and technology leaders now care less and less about the tin in their data centre racks, and much more about the applications that are running on it; they want to know that their infrastructure is going to meet their needs, and it doesn’t really matter what configuration it’s using to do that.

Indeed, many CTOs are no longer using physical data centres at all - as Gelsinger is well aware of. After spending many years as Intel’s CTO - helping to drive innovations including Wi-Fi, USB, and both the Intel Core and Intel Xeon ranges - he became the president of EMC, and then CEO of VMware, where he bore first-hand witness to the explosion of cloud computing and the impact that it had on the way businesses consume technology. Under his leadership, VMware went from being focused largely on on-premise data centres to developing a broad suite of cloud-enabled software platforms.

Cards on the table

Evidently, Gelsinger is hoping to repeat this trick a second time, because there was one area where Intel’s keynote presentation did highlight the technical capabilities of its products: a series of hardware units aimed squarely at cloud service providers. The most popular announcement was around the company’s Arctic Sound M data centre GPUs, first unveiled back in February.

This PCIe 4.0 card will come in two versions: a 150W unit aimed at maximising performance and a 75W model designed for high-density multipurpose deployments. Both are optimised to deliver compute-intensive server-side capabiltites such as cloud gaming, media streaming, VDI, machine learning model training, inference, other tasks which have become popular use-cases for GPU compute.

The new cards are coming in Q3, with partner-built systems from Dell, HPE, Cisco, Supermicro and other key OEMs, and Intel also announced that it was extending its roadmap for IPUs through to 2026, with 400GB and 800GB models coming in later generations.

IPUs - or Infrastructure Processing Units - are hardware modules which allow the offloading of various processing tasks involved with running a large, complex data centre, such as storage management, virtual switching and security monitoring. They’re particularly useful for cloud providers managing a large multi-tenant environment, as they can be used to free up CPU cycles which can then be sold to customers.

These products are underpinned by what Intel is calling One API - a consistent underlying platform across its enterprise CPU & GPU portfolio that provides a unified programming environment across the kernel as well as performance libraries. It’s built to integrate with open source standards and tools, and is designed to ensure that customers can use the same code across both on-premise Xeon servers and Intel instances running in the public cloud.

Both Arctic Sound M and the company’s IPU portfolio are interesting developments for cloud service providers, telcos and any organisation managing highly-complex systems - but they’re not as relevant outside that ecosystem. This, combined with the emphasis on supporting multi-cloud deployments, reads as an acknowledgement that although there will always be a need for physical hardware, it’s not necessarily a growth market in the long term.

Spirit in the sky

Software is a different story though, and another learning that Gelsinger has taken from his time with VMware is that software has enormous power - not just from a commercial perspective, but as “the soul of the data centre”. To hear the devoutly religious CEO tell it, this insight is one of the most valuable things that he’s bringing back with him to Intel.

“Sometimes I ask myself that question philosophically: why did God have me lead a software company for eight years? Right? And now I’m back at a silicon company.”

This divine plan has led Gelsinger - together with Intel’s CTO Greg Lavender - to implement a “software-first strategy” that will see the company pushing deeper into the IT stack. To do this, Intel will capitalise on its existing data centre footprint and combine this with a range of software products designed to speed up or improve management, administration and optimisation of server infrastructure.

Gelsinger points out that despite ostensibly running a hardware manufacturer, he now has more software developers under his command than he did when he was in charge of VMware, and this mirrors the shifting priorities of the IT landscape.

“if you think over the last 40 years of our careers in the industry, we went from hardware being two to one to software revenue; now it's three to one software revenue to hardware. The role of software has become dramatically more important, and we don't believe that changes.”

One early example of this in practice is Granulate, a small software company that provides software to automatically analyse and optimise Linux-based server processes. Intel acquired Granulate last month, and according to Gelsinger, that’s just the start.

“We're going to do more SaaS; More SaaS acquisitions as well,” he says. “You'll see us pulling silicon differentiation through SaaS services that we're making broadly available to the industry. And my simple formula is ‘silicon plus software, [or] SaaS, equals solutions’ - and you're going to see us doing a lot more of that solutioning.”

Taken together, what all these elements make clear is that Intel is a company in transition. Its intention to focus on the business market is writ large, but rather than falling back on pushing iron, the goal appears to be to reinvent itself as a full-stack platform provider. Regardless of whether customers’ workloads are running on-prem, in the cloud or at the edge, Intel is planning to use its insight into the silicon they’re running on to approach their infrastructure challenges from a holistic, end-to-end perspective.

As a company that has historically been known first and foremost for the physical engineering of its hardware, Intel’s newfound enthusiasm for the wider world of software and cloud solutions may feel a little like turkeys buying shares in a christmas tree farm - but Pat Gelsinger is nothing if not an astute observer of which way the winds of change are blowing. Intel may be the house that chips built, but if he thinks that the future lies beyond pure silicon, then there’s a good chance that he’s probably right.

Founded in Germany, Celonis is a data processing company that’s been operating in the UK for six years. For the first five of these, though, the company predominantly ran a sales operation. This all changed a year ago when it picked up the pace and decided to rapidly expand its business here.

The firm, which gives businesses a real-time data-driven overview of their ongoing processes then recommends improvements to their systems, now has 60 customers and 170 UK employees, with plans to further expand over the next 12 months.

With major hubs in Spain and North America, Celonis certainly has global expansion plans, explains Nick Mitchell, its vice president and country manager in the UK and Ireland. It recently opened a Japanese office late last year, for example, while breaking into the US is also important. The UK, though, offers a unique opportunity for the company, and expansion, in the face of Brexit and other challenges, is critical to its long-term ambitions.

Why Celonis is expanding in the UK

The key reason for expanding in the UK centres around the technology market really picking up, says Mitchell. This is driving an expansion in its go-to-market operations, which means not only acquiring new customers but supporting existing customers too. Last year, for instance, the company grew its UK customer base by 250% (36 companies).

UK expansion is also in aid of the UK’s amazing talent pool, Mitchell adds. As part of its recent UK growth, the data processing company has grown its corporate functions too. Its EMEA leadership teams across its services and customer value businesses are based in the UK, alongside its head of talent acquisition and global head of culture and leadership.

Among its UK cliental, Celonis counts on those in the manufacturing sector, such as the Midlands-based Delphi Technologies. It provides its products to automotive manufacturers and processing and packaging companies too. Celonis has also broken into the utilities and retail markets in the last year, alongside claims of a burgeoning financial services influence with 11 customers in this space versus none a year ago. Lastly, it services the public sector. Despite the overall UK picture looking positive, one of Celonis’ key targets for the year ahead is to grow its presence in Ireland, as it’s currently not doing any business there whatsoever.

Keeping up with the pace of change

In 2021, Celonis raised $1 billion in funding, part of which was used to acquire Lenses.io to bring its real-time streaming data tools to the company. Mitchell says Lenses.io had a fairly big operation running out of the UK, and that all employees are now “happily engaged” with Celonis now. “I think we will continue to be acquisitive, so watch this space,” he hints.

Celonis now plans to target more companies on the Forbes 2000 and FTSE 350 lists. In terms of the Forbes 2000 it has around 27% of those registered in the UK and Ireland on its books but there’s still a lot to go after. “The great thing about our technology is it's in every department, every process within every business within every vertical is part of our target market,” Mitchell explains. “Even when we're in a big business, a big bank or a big consumer goods or a big retail company, we have the ability to expand across finance, procurement, supply chain, front office, and manufacturing.”

The firm also plans to expand its partner ecosystem. It has signed up with many big organisations like Accenture, IBM, PwC, Deloitte, and Cognizant. They use Celonis’ technology in-house to help their business, but also in their consultant operations with their customers. “In the UK, IBM is actually putting every single graduate that joins their business through Celonis training as they come through the door,” Mitchell highlights. “So we're becoming quite an important technology in that ecosystem estate.”

Lots of jobs, not enough talent

Although the company’s headquarters are in London, Celonis’ employees are actually based all over the country. The firm also pursues a remote working policy whereby 30-40% of the team are in the office at any one time. Mitchell underlines working arrangements can be very flexible.

Despite plans to double its workforce in the next two years, meanwhile, Mitchell admits the UK technology market is busy, with many vacancies but not enough skilled people. “We really need to be bringing on younger talent, educated [people], taking people straight out of education, attracting them to the technology space,” says Mitchell, “as opposed to other options that they would have, and helping them foster great careers.”

The UK is a highly competitive market, but Mitchell believes Celonis has the right formula for people to join it. It’ll hire roles in sales, such as in customer delivery and value functions, to help its expansion, while also carrying out a lot of global marketing from the UK too. It has a growing team, with much of the talent acquisition growing out of the UK to serve the rest of Europe, and other markets.

Mitchell adds the company is also working with academic institutions to excite people about the prospect of process mining and execution management – and growing that capability. It hopes this won’t only grow Celonis financially but also swell its talent pool.

Should Celonis expect a Brexit boon?

Perhaps contrary to what many might assume, Celonis has reinforced its UK operations following Brexit largely in light of the strong market. There are plenty of potential customers for Celonis to target, and, at the same time, it can grow its operations as more clients take up its product – or at least that’s the plan. Indeed, he admits Brexit is causing difficulties in the UK marketplace, especially when it comes to the skills shortage.

As for whether Brexit has caused Celonis any problems in terms of data protection laws, Mitchell says the company operates a flexible model through which customers can choose where their data is stored across the main data providers. This includes IBM and Red Hat, who the company has a strong relationship with. Customers are able to choose which data provider they prefer, and Celonis works with them to ensure they’re familiar with their security arrangements.

Along the horizon, the UK government has considered scrapping UK GDPR and replacing it with a new data protection framework. This could affect adequacy arrangements with the EU down the line, although by storing data locally, Celonis’ customers should be protected from disruption.

When it comes to other challenges, Mitchell points to Russia’s war on Ukraine, which is significantly impacting the UK market. Many UK-based companies are having to reduce operations in both countries, and are being hit in terms of revenue and personnel. “They’re having to do lots of things around that and we’re looking to support them to see how we can help make their businesses more efficient,” he explains.

Ultimately, growing an organisation’s presence in the UK is no easy feat, no matter for how long a business has planted roots in the country. If other companies are looking to establish themselves in the UK, Mitchell recommends they don’t underestimate the sophistication of competitors in the market. He also suggests ensuring companies looking to settle here have an amazing story to tell in order to attract the right talent. He underlines talent is extremely important, as businesses ultimately need to persuade the most talented workers to lend them their skills and knowledge.

Microsoft has launched a new free service to help small organisations understand their technology needs and their best options when it comes to devices and software.

The tech giant’s Business Consultation service allows small organisations in the UK to book a one-on-one appointment to connect online with a product expert through video, chat, or audio call. The expert will listen to their needs, answer their questions, and provide personalised solutions. Alternatively, they can also have an in-person consultation at the Microsoft Experience Centre in London without having to book an appointment.

After finding the Microsoft product for the organisation, the tech giant also hopes to help it through every step of the setup and deployment process.

Microsoft is introducing this as it found that businesses with one to 25 employees need help with reaching new audiences, taking their business online, basic IT needs, and upskilling, according to research from the tech giant and the Boston Consulting Group. The study revealed that around 40% of businesses with one to 25 employees cite challenges in selecting digital solutions. 73% of them prefer human assistance when choosing products and value post-purchase support.

The company has also partnered with InSignLanguage to provide British Sign Language interpreters for the consultations in Microsoft Teams, while captions can also be used during the conversation.

“We recognise that organisations across the UK may need more personalised support as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and ways of working change,” said Joy Attuh, senior hub manager at Microsoft UK. “The free Business Consultation service can help with digital transformation plans by deploying cloud-based technology tools and services such as Microsoft 365 and Dynamics to empower employees and unlock growth. Microsoft will be there every step of the way to answer questions and guide customers to find the solutions they need.”

Consultations are available to businesses between 9am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. They last up to an hour but follow-up calls can be booked.

This comes after Microsoft launched a standalone tier of Microsoft Teams aimed at small businesses in December 2021. Teams Essentials offers unlimited group meetings for up to 30 hours and can support up to 300 participants for £3 per user, per month. Each user will also have 10GB of cloud storage. It’s being offered as a standalone service with no need for users to subscribe to an Office 365 bundle.

Lenovo has pledged to recruit 12,000 research and development (R&D) professionals over the next three years as the company looks to expand into cloud and edge computing.

By reaching that target the company will double its current R&D staff numbers.

The Chinese laptop manufacturer brought in around 5,000 employees during the 2021/22 fiscal year to support research for new IT architectures of edge computing. The recruitment drive is part of a transformation strategy to move from a "devices company" to a global technology powerhouse that will include developing "services and solutions", according to Lenovo's CEO, Yuanquing Yang.

Its proposed R&D teams will work on new products and business models, developing edge computing technologies and other IT trends, such as the metaverse and heterogeneous computing, to help future proof the company.

"My vision for Lenovo's innovation is to become one of the world's leading ICT companies, a pioneer and enabler of intelligent transformation," Yang said. "Client-Edge-Cloud-Network-Intelligence" architecture, with a three-track approach to focus on short, medium and long-term payback. Our intention is to optimise between technology with quick market returns and foundational research, and between continuous improvement and breakthrough innovation."

Heavy investments into R&D usually come from profit increases, particularly for tech companies that seek to keep ahead of emerging technologies. In the case of Lenovo, the announcement follows a sustained period of growth with an increase in laptop shipments throughout the pandemic. It brought in $640 million of net income for the third quarter, which is a 63% increase year-on-year.

However, its expansion plans are also being tied to sustainability targets with a commitment to achieve net-zero by 2050. The company is partnering with the Science Based Target Initiative to establish a set of goals to support its strategy. The firm also reports that it exceeded its 2020 emissions reduction targets a whole year ahead of schedule.

The UK's technology industry is worth $1 trillion after a surge of growth throughout the pandemic.

Dealroom figures suggest the tech sector doubled in value in 2020 to $942 billion and continued to see growth in both private and public markets throughout 2021.

Investment in the UK's tech sector has always been quite plentiful with an estimated £4.8 billion of venture capital flowing into the country in 2019. But it saw a significant rise as the UK went into lockdown and technology and digital services took on more importance.

However, the figures suggest that the UK has seen an especially impressive rise compared to other countries, with its latest valuation more than double that of Germany and five times larger than France, according to Dealroom. The US and China are the only other countries that can claim $1 trillion valuations for their respective tech industries.

What's more, this growth is set to continue, with UK tech companies raising over £6 billion in the first three months of 2022. More than half of that was raised by Fintech firms, according to Dealroom, with FNZ, Checkout.com and GoCardless accounting for £3.3 billion.

Further research by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), published last year, also found that the UK's digital sector is on track to add £190 billion in value to the UK economy and create nearly 700,000 jobs over the next three years.

Digital Minister Chris Philip announced the figures at the West Midlands Tech Review, in Birmingham, an event that celebrates the region's tech successes and opportunities.

"Every corner of the country has contributed to the sector's success including the West Midlands whose digital ecosystem is set to keep growing by at least £2.7 billion by 2025 and create 52,000 additional jobs," Philip said.

The tech prowess of the West Midlands is set to be showcased through a £24 million Business and Tourism Programme that's part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The aim is to use the high profile of the athletics event to drive inward investments and export opportunities between the West Midlands and Commonwealth markets.

This automatically-generated transcript is taken from the IT Pro Podcast episode ‘Transforming a business from the ground up'. To listen to the full episode, click here. We apologise for any errors.

Adam Shepherd

Hi, I'm Adam Shepherd.

Hugh Armitage

And I'm Hugh Armitage.

Adam

And you're listening to the IT Pro Podcast, where this week we're looking at what really happens when established processes meet the need for digital transformation.

Hugh

Organisations throughout the country and across the world have been grappling with the task of modernising their business processes and technology infrastructure for years. But the realities of running a transformation project can often be more complicated than they first appear.

Adam

Organisations with a long history may have considerable technical depth to contend with, for example, and the leadership that's particularly set in its ways may take some convincing before they can be brought around to the benefits of newer platforms or ways of working.

Hugh

This week, we're joined by Rita Bullivant, director of IT and change at the Melton Building Society to talk about her efforts to transform the technology of this long established organisation, including some of the challenges she's faced and her plans for the future of the business.

Adam

Rita, it's a pleasure to have you with us.

Rita Bullivant

Thank you. Nice to see you. And nice to be here.

Hugh

So Rita, can you tell us a little bit about your role at Melton Building Society?

Rita

Yes, certainly. I joined the Society in March 2020. And within a few weeks of arriving, Boris announced the first COVID lockdown. So I went from being somebody new, who had some time to digest and understand what was going on around me into an emergency. What are we going to do, how we go to work, oh my God, situation.

Adam

Wow.

Rita

My responsibilities in the role are twofold. I lead the IT conversation; that is all about running our business, making sure we've got the right tools, that were safe, not not under the scrutiny of cyber criminals, and evolving our business, helping it to meet its meet its business targets. The other part of my job is all about change and transformation. When I was appointed, it was very clear to me that there needed to be a really big review of what the business wanted to do. And therefore what the technology toolkit that was required to help the business meet its goals. Lockdown in many ways helped me accelerate that conversation. The business I joined hadn't had any meaningful IT investment for over a decade. For example, the email system was Lotus Notes. And it was housed in our storage solution. So every time there was a problem with storage, which was end of life, our email system went down. And that was our only communication vehicle, apart from our desk phones, of course, but with four digit extension. There was there was a lot to do immediately. And so the difficulty was deciding what to do first, I had anticipated coming in and forming a really nice IT strategy over a five year period for the board to sign up to. And I was faced with, you know, we need to do something, we need to do it fast. And we need to carry on working. And so the decision was that we focus on our people and collaborative tools first.

Adam

So what were the first things on your to do list in terms of modernization?

Rita

There's a lot, a very large amount of technical debt that I inherited within the platform. So as I just touched on earlier, we decided to in the strategy recommend that we focus on collaboration. So we immediately purchased an Office 365 licence. And then percolated all the tools, one by one that that brings. The size of the business dictates really the direction of technology we go in. It's really important for businesses like the society who haven't invested for a very long time, not to be overly ambitious, to take things, piecemeal, one step at a time. So we invested in Microsoft Teams first, we put a bolt on system with it called soft phones, which allowed our staff to work from home, contact customers, talk to each other. So that's where we started. We then removed Lotus Notes, brought in Outlook, everything else that comes with that. And it was interesting for me because I had never worked somewhere where I couldn't read my emails at home in the evening. That was the culture that the society operated in.

Adam

I mean, that's one way to get work life balance, I suppose.

Rita

Yes, it was.

Hugh

So how quickly did you turn that around? Especially with the Teams after a lockdown was announced.

Rita

So Microsoft Teams implemented in two weeks, I have a, I had a very good team. They were really keen to break out of the culture, the technical culture we worked under. So we put Teams in. And that signalled to everybody that we were on a journey. You know, there were only a handful of people that had laptops, they were all C-level and above. We had a handful of VPN licences. So unless you physically came to work, you couldn't work. That was, that was what we were tackling. But now, you know, most of our staff, I think 90% of our staff have laptops, they've got Teams at home. We're a very modern workforce now. And culturally, that was a bit of a journey as well for us because it was something we needed to move toward, very quickly. And we didn't have much time to orient people's minds. And I know that sounds a bit strange, because in today's world, you know, the Y Gen is in the workforce, everybody expects everything to happen on their mobile devices. But in this environment, that mindset was left at the doorstep. And when you came in, you had a desktop. And you had a desk phone, and to orient people to merge that technology ability, with the time they have you know, the boundaries blur a bit, don't they? When you're mobile? And that's where we were trying to get to, right in the heart of lockdown.

Hugh

Were people receptive to that? I mean, the employees and then, and then sort of the execs as well.

Rita

Oh, absolutely. Everybody was 100% behind us. I say 100%, there was a handful of staff that that struggled. But we understood that, and we were patient and helped. You know, we wrote crib sheets, and we helped people, or when we were issuing the laptops, for example, people came into the IT team room, they were shown how to use a laptop. Might sound silly in big organisations but you know, we wanted to make sure that people were comfortable taking equipment into their homes and doing work they weren't used to doing at home, at home. We had a couple of members of the team that didn't, you know, have all the equipment that was required. But you know, we helped out with that. And in hindsight, you know, COVID was a terrible, worldwide event. But this, you know, I always look for silver linings. And this was one of the silver linings for me where it forced our business to readdress its attitude towards technology and its ability to modernise ourselves.

Adam

So you mentioned that you kind of came into the business with, you know, a five year plan in mind for the organisation to start kind of rolling out some of these modernization and transformation initiatives on a presumably a much slower scale.

Rita

Yes.

Adam

How long do you think it would have taken you to or taking the organisation rather, to get to where you are now, if it hadn't been for COVID?

Rita

I think the five year plan would have played out as a five year plan. COVID actually forced the acceleration. So we formed a programme of work and called it Project Foundation. Because foundationally there was a lot to do. The first phase of that finished last year, it was all about people, collaboration tools that help them, equipment, the mindset around hybrid working, all of that. The second phase is all about our network. You know, the things IT people worry about. We've introduced SD WAN, which is an a first in the industry, we've completely overhauled how we deliver mobility in terms of Wi Fi, in the building at head office, across our branches, you know, our branch staff will soon have, you know, reliable Wi Fi rather than a little router in the corner in the hallway. So and we'll be finished with it in May. And so something that I planned would take five years; I mean, these are milestones. We're going to finish way before time, and we're really pleased, of course, with that comes pressure on the business to run as well as change. There's all the investment that was planned over a period require, you know, needing to be spent earlier than the finance team would like. But it's all for the greater good.

Adam

So you've mentioned some details about the society's infrastructure, particularly around things like Lotus Notes running on a on a storage array and whatnot, which I'm sure is giving many of our listeners palpitations, just thinking about - what kind of, what kind of situation was the organization's back end infrastructure in in terms of some of the, let's say, technological plumbing that finance organisations need in order to deliver services to their clients.

Rita

So the answer might strike you as a little bit strange. The plumbing was fine, it worked. But it needed a huge amount of eyeballing constantly. So every time we thought something was about to go wrong, somebody had to gallop in and attend to a wire or a cable or a server. We found all sorts of solutions that had been cobbled together that that worked, but weren't what we would call in the industry best practice. And so the job infrastructurally was to unpick that and start overlaying on top of it fit for purpose solutions, and that was across the board, whether you talk about SAN, the Wi Fi, the network, our you know, server room, there was a, when I first went in on my first day, I asked to go into the server room, and there was a pile of cables on the floor that were red in colour, nobody had any idea what they were for. And the pile was two foot high. Because I measured it.

Adam

Oh my lord. That's, that's bonkers.

Rita

But you know. So we had to attend to it very, very quickly. And there were lots of these. It was great fun, don't get me wrong, I hadn't faced into any any situation like this before. And before I came to the society, I knew what I was getting into. And there was, you know, things that I thrive on, are learning new things, facing into problems that need to be solved. I get really interested and excited by things like this. Weird.

Hugh

Was there anything that took you completely by surprise, surprise, apart from the enormous pile of cables?

Rita

Lotus Notes! So on my first day, I'd come from an organisation that was completely modern. Everything was in Amazon, HCL was the supplier. I'd been to India every year to see them and you know, supplier management. And suddenly I was in an organisation that was at the opposite end, technology solution wise. Yes, it was Lotus Notes on my first day, I got my login to the email system, expecting Outlook to fire up. And I didn't know how to use Lotus Notes, I really didn't, I had to be shown. And then you do the show me how what the wires and gubbins looks like and then did a trail back to the SAN. And I was like, Oh my goodness.

Hugh

Did the company understand how much of a journey they had to go on?

Rita

I talk to them at very high level, what I need to be mindful of is that for 10 years, there's been no technology conversation. So the way I approach the subject is about business goals. It's about what we can afford. It's about keeping safe. And it's about data. The fourth pillar we're facing into now. And when you manage the storyboard in an appropriate way to the audience, the message is received. If I started talking about SD WANs, SANs and you know, soft phone capability, I would just lose the audience and therefore not you know, achieve the goal of getting the, gaining the agreement and the finance to do the work.

Adam

Yeah, cuz the last thing you want to do, when you're instituting this kind of plan is spook the the board and kind of throw a huge amount of jargon and acronyms at them. Because having them on side for that kind of project, I would imagine is completely essential.

Rita

It's vital.

Adam

Yeah, and you need to, they need to be able to conceptualise what it is you're trying to do.

Rita

Yeah, absolutely. I also have to remember that until I arrived, as far as they aware, there wasn't really a problem.

Adam

Yeah, one of those situations where, you know, they're just like, what, you mean everyone doesn't just use Lotus Notes and has no email capability at home? This is completely normal, isn't it?

Rita

Yes, it was an interesting time having that conversation. But yeah, I managed to in the first, you know, strategy conversation we had later later that year, the strategy was approved. It's very pleasing.

Adam

And have you found that any members of the board have really taken to this new kind of digital way of working? Or has it still been kind of very tentatively adopted, let's say?

Rita

I think there's, there's a little bit of both there. We, as as the society has reformed itself, and put itself on a transformational journey, we've acquired more board members who are interested in technology. So we've, we've mixed our board up as well. So there is a huge amount of interest. You know, one of the things that we did last year was completely change the way the board team connect with us. No longer do they use their personal email addresses for, for work, you know, it's actually a society email address. It sounds very fundamental. But these conversations haven't been held previously, they've got, you know, company devices; previously, they used their own or, you know, devices, they've been issued by the society that somebody had bought from Curry's, which was the reality of the situation. So we are, you know, I think, entering the phase in our transformation lifecycle where we're ready to really take off like rockets, because, you know, the fundamental work is finished almost.

Adam

And I'd imagine a lot of these initiatives will put the organisation on a much stronger footing in terms of things like cybersecurity and things like risk profiles, which, you know, for the financial services sector, obviously, are hugely, hugely important.

Rita

Yes, there are, the programme, the foundational programme had so many facets to it, cyber was one of them, we filled in a self assessment and asked an external party to look at it, we got some feedback, none of it was a surprise. And the programme was formed that the the board was signed up to, to address some of the weaknesses, one of the biggest things that's happened in the society is that IT and change have a place, a seat, which previously it didn't, it was hidden amongst finance, which, you know, traditionally IT can be reporting into finance, but here, you know, there's there's a seat for IT and change, you know, the board look at reporting from IT and change, have a conversation. So I'm really pleased about how the conversation has moved forward,

Hugh

Have the changes that you've implemented so far, started to affect the way you deliver services to your customers? I imagine there's a lot of customers who have been your customers for years and decades, and how's it affecting them? And are they responding to the changes in the company?

Rita

We have started on that journey, the first phase of our transformation, it was all about collaboration, and our people and our core product toolkit, we're moving into the customer area now. So we have, and I can't name them, but we've contracted with a FinTech, who've delivered us a really fantastic solution for onboarding customers. Now there, the customer journey with them only goes so far. And now we're looking into what we can do with the second part. So as a customer, you can borrow from us, and you can have a savings account with us. Once you've borrowed from us, we would really like to walk alongside you in your lifecycle journey. And so we're looking for ways and solutions to do that. But not only that, we're looking inwardly about our data position. You know, we I've seen many, many organisations want to harness the data that is available, and can help with that conversation with customers and always look for IT tools, which is perfectly normal. However, before we go to market to find a tool that can help us with customer insights, because that's what we're talking about here. Businesses need to understand that they need to stop operating in data silos. You know, when I when I talk about data silos, I mean finance have their own data set that they need, marketing have theirs, IT have theirs, the ops team have theirs, but as a business to be successfully helping the customer and ourselves, we need that one customer view. We need to understand all the data, not just the bit we're interested in. Once we've got to that position, we can then go off and harness whatever toolkit we want the technology to, to give to us. So we're on that journey.

Adam

Yeah, breaking down those silos is one of the most, I don't know if challenging is the right word, but certainly one of the highest priority initiatives, for most organisations that we speak to that are looking at digital transformation, and particularly operational transformation in terms of things like business process, and all of that kind of stuff, getting those joined up workflows between departments is really, really important. And a lot of the time, it's not about technology, so much as it is about organisational attitudes and strategies and getting everyone talking to each other. Even if that's just, you know, sharing a spreadsheet between different departments, is often the first step, you know, before you start thinking about, you know, data lakes and pipelines and platforms and all of this kind of, yeah, admittedly very impressive stuff. It's, it's usually not the first step that an organisation has to take.

Rita

That's absolutely true. We've been doing lots and lots of things, you've probably deduced that. This week, we rebranded ourselves and launched it into the big wide world. And as part of that evolution, our entire workforce has been through a series of workshops where the delegates are cross functional, and we've allowed people to talk to each other about what the new brand means and therefore what our values are going to be, therefore, how are we going to work with each other? And then we've introduced the concept of you know, digitising our toolkit further, refreshing our physical estate, you know, there's a really big transformational ladder for everyone to climb in our business. And you're absolutely right. It's not just about process, it's a cultural thing for me. If we culturally achieve that collaboration across the business, I think, from a day to day working life point of view, it will become second nature to people to collaborate. At the moment, there is no need, because of the way we're structured, because of the way our building is, because of the way our systems are. They're not end to end, they're not integrated. We have human capital, in our business that in the outside world in bigger businesses actually is an API or a middleware bit. That's what we're facing into.

Hugh

And Rita, finally, what are you moving on to next with your strategic plan?

Rita

Oh, well, we're moving into a really exciting phase, we're looking next at overhauling our building, head office, overhauling the branch network that's associated with our business. In the county and beyond. We are looking for solutions to replace existing systems so we can have more meaningful customer data so we can have better relationships with our customers. There's quite a lot. We're looking forward to hardening our cyber posture as well this year, which is again, a very interesting project with a number of partners involved. So yes, it's a never ending job. The transformation programme.

Hugh

Doesn't sound like you're going to be bored for a while.

Rita

Interesting, more interesting times ahead.

Adam

Well, sadly, we're going to have to wrap it up there as we are out of time for this week's show. But we'd like to thank the Melton Building Society's Rita Bullivant for joining us.

Rita

Thank you very much. It was an interesting conversation.

Adam

It was indeed!

Hugh

Lovely to have you. You can find links to all the topics we've spoken about today in the show notes and even more on our website at itpro.co.uk.

Adam

You can also follow us on social media as well as subscribe to our daily newsletter.

Hugh

Don't forget to subscribe to the IT Pro Podcast wherever you find podcasts. And if you're enjoying the show, leave us a rating and a review.

Adam

We'll be back next week with more analysis from the world of IT but until then, goodbye.

Hugh

Bye.

Transforming a business isn’t an easy task at the best of times; organisational inertia, complicated project timelines and budgetary constraints are all among the obstacles that an incoming IT leader will have to deal with when trying to enact their vision. It’s even more challenging, however, when that business is still using technology that’s several decades out of date.

This week, we’re talking to Rita Bullivant, director of IT and change for Melton Building Society, about her experiences with modernising a legacy organisation, the challenges involved in building a transformation programme from the ground up, and what to do with a business that still uses Lotus Notes.

Highlights

“We found all sorts of solutions that had been cobbled together, that worked, but weren't what we would call in the industry best practice. And so the job, infrastructurally, was to unpick that and start overlaying on top of it fit for purpose solutions - and that was across the board, whether you talk about SAN, the Wi-Fi, the network, our server room… When I first went in on my first day, I asked to go into the server room, and there was a pile of cables on the floor that were red in colour; nobody had any idea what they were for. And the pile was two feet high. Because I measured it.”

“The business I joined hadn't had any meaningful IT investment for over a decade. For example, the email system was Lotus Notes. And it was housed in our storage solution. So every time there was a problem with storage, which was end of life, our email system went down. And that was our only communication vehicle, apart from our desk phones, of course, with four digit extensions.”

“The size of the business dictates really the direction of technology we go in. It's really important for businesses like the society who haven't invested for a very long time, not to be overly ambitious, to take things, piecemeal, one step at a time. So we invested in Microsoft Teams first, we put a bolt on system with it called soft phones, which allowed our staff to work from home, contact customers, talk to each other. So that's where we started.”

Read the full transcript here.

Footnotes

• What is digital transformation?
• The key pillars of a digital transformation strategy
• How coronavirus has accelerated the digital transformation of Britain's public sector
• What is SD-WAN?
• The IT Pro Podcast: How to automate your business
• Microsoft delays Office 365 and Microsoft 365 price hike
• What is VoIP? How to choose the perfect system
• The IT Pro Podcast: Why is email still a thing?
• Four ways CIOs can drive digital transformation
• Microsoft Teams review: A no-brainer for Microsoft shops

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A recent study by the IDC found that the organisations that were increasing their revenue the most were the ones that had invested more heavily in new technology solutions. Not only that, it was noted that this has been enabled through flexible payment options, allowing for sustainable, flexible and secure IT.

The companies that are considered to be the digital leaders have shown themselves to adopt a wide range of digital platforms across their transformation, including AIOps, multi cloud, automation and digital trust.

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Apple is reportedly planning a new service that will allow businesses to accept payments using an iPhone without the need for extra hardware.

The new feature has been in development since 2020, following Apple's acquisition of Canadian startup Mobeewave for around $100 million, according to a report from Bloomberg. Mobeewave previously developed technology for smartphones to accept payments with a tap of a credit card.

The system is likely to use the iPhone’s near field communications (NFC) chip that it currently uses for Apple Pay. This is seen as a boost for small businesses as currently to accept an order on an iPhone, merchants must use third-party payment terminals that plug into the device or communicate with it via Bluetooth.

The new feature, however, will effectively create a payment terminal inside the device and remove the need for additional hardware. Users will be able to accept payments with a tap of a credit card or another iPhone onto the back of their device.

This could be bad news for payment providers that use the iPhone to facilitate sales, like Block’s Square. If Apple requires merchants to use Apple Pay or its own payment processing system to use the technology, this would shut out other providers.

For now, it’s unclear whether the new payment functionality will be part of Apple Pay, although Bloomberg has reported that the team building the feature have been working with Apple’s payment division since the Mobeewave acquisition.

Apple could potentially start introducing the feature in a software update in the coming months. It’s expected to release its first beta version of iOS 15.4 soon, with a potential final release for consumers in the spring.

IT Pro has contacted Apple and Square for comment.

The technology is yet another example of Apple's attempt to dig further into the small business space. The company recently launched a new package of support services designed to help SMB IT teams manage their employee devices in November last year. The package includes 24/7 phone support for IT managers and end-users, business iCloud storage, device management capabilities, and on-site repairs for businesses of 500 employees or fewer.

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Nokia has signed a strategic partnership with Ooredoo Group to offer an array of technologies to its customers in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

In addition to expanding Ooredoo's existing network, Nokia will introduce new 5G services under the five-year agreement. The firm will also offer RAN, core, optics, IP, and microwave technologies.

A major part of Nokia's 5G deployment plan includes rolling out its AirScale RAN equipment in North Africa and Southeast Asia. The deal also includes technical support and digital deployment services to speed up time to market.

Ooredoo Group managing director Aziz Aluthman Fakhroo said: “This renewed contract is testimony to our growing partnership with Nokia to modernize and expand our network by rolling out world-class 4G and 5G services across North Africa and Southeast Asia.

"Thanks to Nokia’s advanced technology, our customers will be able to experience faster speeds and enhanced response times as well as more bandwidth.”

Ooredoo will also gain zero-touch automation capabilities from Nokia's cloud-native Core software. Additionally, Nokia's Cloud Packet Core, Voice Core, Registers, Policy Controller, Signaling, and Cloud Platform will allow Ooredoo to implement new network slicing services across healthcare, smart cities, banking, transportation, and the public sector.

Through zero-touch transparent photonic networking, Nokia's optical solutions will ensure greater network flexibility and operational automation. The firm's microwave solutions support new spectrums such as E-band.

Nokia president and CEO Pekka Lundmark said: “We are excited to continue delivering robust networks to Ooredoo’s customers. This new five-year deal will accelerate the benefits of Nokia’s technology – including 5G – for consumers in Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia and will enable businesses to digitalize and innovate with new services.

"The move to 5G will drive radical transformation across industries, communities and public services and we are proud to continue supporting Ooredoo Group on this journey.”

UK-based fintech Atom bank has introduced a four-day working week for all its employees with no change in salary.

The landmark move for the company cements it as the UK's largest firm to shift to a four-day working week in which staff work fewer hours than they did on a five-day schedule.

All 430 of Atom bank's employees will benefit from the change which came into effect on 1 November 2021. The hours worked per week will reduce from 37.5 to 34 with the duration of work days increasing slightly.

Atom believes the shift will benefit the physical and mental health of employees and lead to greater business productivity. Employees had previously expressed a desire to work more flexibly because of changing work environments brought on due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atom said most of its staff have chosen to adopt the new working week which will see most employees either take Monday or Friday as their third rest day of the week.

The four-day week will now be the default for all staff except for those working in operational and services roles, Atom said, whose out-of-office day will be determined on a less rigid basis to ensure uninterrupted customer service.

Atom will also continue to offer customer support across all seven days of the week.

"We believe the 20th-century concept of a five-day week is, in many cases, no longer fit for purpose for 21st-century businesses," said Mark Mullen, CEO at Atom. "Its introduction originally allowed for the establishment of the weekend, with all the benefits for employees this entailed. At Atom, we feel the time is right for the next evolution in the world of work.

“A four-day week will provide our employees with more opportunities to pursue their passions, spend time with their families, and build a healthier work/life balance," he added. "We firmly believe that this will prove beneficial for our employees’ wellbeing and happiness and that it will have an equally positive impact on business productivity and customer experience."

Atom's approach to a four-day week is a unique one that stands to benefit employees more than those in other four-day week firms.

In 2020, UK supermarket Morrisons also announced plans to shift to a four-day working week, keeping employee pay the same, but it was only for head office staff, and they also had to work one Saturday per month to recoup the lost time.

The notion of a four-day working week, and other overhauls of conventional working culture, has been popularised in recent years with the pandemic providing a poignant reminder to some that a more flexible approach to work may be the beneficial option.

Earlier this year, the 'Big Four' professional services giant KPMG launched its 'four-day fortnight' approach to flexible working.

The approach followed a business-wide consultation with employees with the overwhelming majority preferring to work flexibly. Key aspects of flexible working for employees were a lack of commute and being able to spend more time at home.

The company's four-day fortnight involves workers picking which four days over the course of a two-week period they work in the office.

KPMG also gave staff two-and-a-half hours off per week over the summer to promote wellbeing.

Iceland and New Zealand are famous case studies for nationwide four-day working weeks, with both reporting resounding success particularly in areas such as perception of stress, work-life balance, and productivity.

Scotland most recently announced that it too would trial a four-day working week without loss of pay. Spain also announced a four-day week trial earlier this year with workers spending just 32 hours per week in their roles.

Nike has become one of the first major brands to enter the "metaverse" with a virtual world modeled after its headquarters launched on video game platform Roblox.

'Nikeland' is free for anyone to visit, provided you have a Roblox account and allows consumers to create an avatar they can decorate with real Nike products. Once inside the virtual space, users can play games like tag, the Floor is Lava, and Dodgeball, as well as ones designed by creators.

The avatars are controlled by accelerometers in users' mobile devices which transfer offline movement to online play. Nike suggests this allows real-life movement in the digital space.

Since Facebook announced its metaverse plans in October, the idea has become one of the biggest buzzwords in tech with companies such as Microsoft also talking up plans for virtual worlds. Globally, the metaverse market is expected to bring in over $6 billion for 2021 and more than $40 billion by 2026, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

"Nike created this bespoke world with the backdrop of its world headquarters and inside Roblox's immersive 3D space, building on its goal to turn sport and play into a lifestyle," the sportswear maker said.

The virtual world will also offer rewards with blue ribbons and gold medals for various tasks and challenges, such as finding 'Easter eggs'. What's more, the blue ribbons can be used to gain more building materials for users to develop their own personal spaces - called 'yards' - whereas gold medals can unlock new Nike products.

Nike's virtual world will also be brought to life at the company's New York hub with a special Snapchat lens. This will allow people visiting the kids' floor of the store to walk into an augmented reality version, which will include signature avatars, games, and Nikeland Easter egg hunts.

Spotify has announced it will acquire leading audiobook distributor Findaway to expand its portfolio of audio products available to Spotify subscribers.

The move marks the latest expansion for the music giant, arguably the most significant acquisition the company has made since it acquired Anchor and Gimlet in 2019 to bolster its podcast offering.

Findaway's technology is expected to accelerate Spotify's first foray into the growing audiobooks market and help scale its catalogue of books on the platform.

Spotify claimed the partnership will help drive new revenue streams available to publishers and authors, and work to remove current limitations faced by audio-based storytellers. The move is also thought to open up new audiences for publishers to reach, Spotify said.

In addition to offering audiobooks on the platform, Spotify also said it plans to bring its expertise in content personalisation and discovery to Findaway's library of distributed audiobooks - the largest currently in the market.

Spotify announced plans to innovate on Findaway's platform further to fine tune the format, delivery, and tools available to creators.

"It’s Spotify’s ambition to be the destination for all things audio both for listeners and creators," said Gustav Söderström, chief research and development officer at Spotify. "The acquisition of Findaway will accelerate Spotify’s presence in the audiobook space and will help us more quickly meet that ambition.

"We’re excited to combine Findaway’s team, best-in-class technology platform, and robust audiobook catalogue with Spotify’s expertise to revolutionise the audiobook space as we did with music and podcasts.”

The deal is expected to complete in Q4 2021, subject to regulatory approval.

"Together with Spotify we have the opportunity to innovate and democratise the audiobook ecosystem,” said Findaway Founder & CEO Mitch Kroll. “We founded Findaway with the recognition of the power of the spoken word through audiobooks and the unique opportunity to empower storytellers and connect them with listeners.

"We look forward to combining our leading technology tools and world-class team with the reach of Spotify’s platform to provide an enhanced audio experience for creators, publishers and listeners around the world,” he added.

Spotify is anticipating strong growth in the audiobook market, and has increased its 2027 forecasted growth from $3.3 billion (£2.4 billion) to $15 billion (£11.2 billion).

Following Spotify's work with podcasts over the past two years, the company is now forecast to narrowly overtake Apple Podcasts for the first time, in terms of total listenership, by the end of 2021, according to eMarketer.

In an earning call earlier this year, Spotify also announced substantial growth in monthly active users (up 22% to 365 million), overall subscribers (up 20% to 165 million), and podcast ad revenue, which was up 627% at the end of Q2.

Google Cloud has signed a 10-year cloud migration deal with global financial market exchange service CME Group.

The tech giant has also made a $1 billion equity investment in a new series convertible preferred stock of the Chicago-based financial organisation.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is the largest financial derivatives exchange in the world. It currently trades in asset classes such as currencies, energy, interest rates, and even cryptocurrencies.

Under the agreement, the CME Group will migrate its technology infrastructure to Google Cloud, with the move starting early in 2022. This will include all data and clearing services, with all of CME's markets eventually moving to the cloud.

The aim is to improve the service for participants with an easier on-boarding experience and a more expansive offering by scaling the infrastructure and optimising costs. This will include introductions to new products and services, such as risk mitigation tools, analytical features, and "user-centric" platforms. The two companies will also continue to explore ways to work together on go-to-market initiatives that deliver new innovations for CME Group's customers.

"CME Group has a century-long track record of helping investors access new markets and is known for innovation in financial markets," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. "Bringing together CME Group's best-in-class financial talent with Google Cloud's deep engineering expertise will help accelerate technological innovation in capital markets infrastructure."

The deal is seen as a big win for Google Cloud, which is aiming to close the gap between itself and Microsoft and AWS in the cloud services market. It also gives Google a foothold in the financial services sector, which is fast becoming a lucrative market for cloud computing.

Google's $1 billion investment in CME was in the form of "non-voting" preferred stock, which gives it an ownership stake, but no voting rights or say in how the CME is run.

Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that the Facebook Company will now be known as 'Meta', with its focus now directed towards bringing the CEO's metaverse vision to life.

The parent company of Facebook, which also covers brands like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus, was officially given a new name at its annual conference Connect 2021, forming a more distinctive umbrella company bearing closer resemblance to the likes of Alphabet.

While still overseeing its portfolio of global brands, Meta will work towards bringing Mark Zuckerberg's much publicised vision of the metaverse to life. The Meta CEO claims the "metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today’s online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can’t be together — and do things together you couldn’t do in the physical world".

Zuckerberg also said the metaverse will be a more immersive social media experience, where new environments can be built, virtual and augmented reality will take centre stage, and users will be able to do "almost anything they can imagine". Examples include playing games, working with multiple displays, watching TV, making personal video calls, and even attending concerts with friends.

All of this will be achieved using 'holograms' - virtual representations of physical things that users will no longer have to buy, like TVs and multiple work monitors, as mentioned previously.

Industry reaction

Amid Facebook's ongoing reputational crisis following the leak of 10,000 documents by former employee Frances Haugen, which led to a number of disparaging stories against the company, industry reaction to the news has been mixed.

Some experts feel the timing of the rebrand may be seen as particularly convenient given recent events plaguing the company's reputation.

“While it’ll help alleviate confusion by distinguishing Facebook’s parent company from its founding app, a name change doesn’t suddenly erase the systemic issues plaguing the company," said Mike Proulx, VP and research director at Forrester. "If Meta doesn’t address its issues beyond a defensive and superficial altitude, those same issues will occupy the metaverse.”

“The success of Meta’s metaverse strategy all comes down to trust," he added. "Forrester found that less than half — 41% — of online adults surveyed in the US say they trust Facebook (the company). In the UK it’s just 26%. If the majority of online adults don’t trust Facebook as a social media company, why would they trust it as a metaverse company? Without trust, Meta’s metaverse plans are already at risk.”

Others feel the rebrand will not be enough to restore customer trust in the company, especially given its history with the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

“Big tech companies are taking steps towards consent-led data strategies, such as embracing first-party data and the phasing out of third-party cookies," said Tom Bianchi, VP Marketing, EMEA, at Acquia. "But, given the scale of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the recent whistleblower revelations, it’s clear Facebook has a long way to go before it regains consumer confidence.

"Along with its redirection, Facebook needs to ensure that the positive steps it’s taking to improve data privacy and reduce misinformation need to be properly promoted to its users. While the metaverse is an exciting prospect and one that deserves column inches, Facebook needs to focus on rebuilding its foundations first and foremost."

The news was also met with mockery from certain corners of social media, with both individuals and big businesses competing for 'likes' at the umbrella company's expense.

Some pointed to the fact Meta couldn't secure an optimal handle on Instagram, a platform it owns, having to settle for @wearemeta.

Others took aim at the word 'Meta' itself, with the Wendy's fast food chain changing its account name to 'Meat' after many users claimed to have misread the word on first inspection.

A more positive outlook

Meta's rebrand seems to have made some progress in warming some corners of the industry. For example, prominent consumer technology leaker Jon Prosser announced that he was a fan of the Meta rebranding to his 400k+ following, adding that the Connect 2021 flagship announcement changed the way he felt about the CEO.

The future vision for a commute-less, largely hardware-less world where people can both work and play in a convenient, interactive environment is one that may excite some businesses too, especially now companies are in the early stages of exploring post-pandemic hybrid and fully remote approaches to work.

However, the main focus on the metaverse is the social element and how the gaming world will collide with social. The metaverse has the opportunity to overhaul the way in which people socialise virtually, which may not be a bad thing according to some.

"The 'Metaverse' doubters will be having to rethink after the Facebook rebrand," said Roxanne Harley, director of client strategy at Azerion. "As the gaming and social worlds combine, this is only a further indication that virtual worlds are here to stay and are on a trajectory to completely shake up how brands will interact and engage with audiences."

The West Midlands has been named the UK's fastest-growing tech sector, with the area set to create thousands of new digital jobs by the end of 2025.

The region has been recognised ahead of Birmingham Tech Week as a top performer for digital growth, with an estimated 52,000 digital roles set to be added to the area over the next four years, according to a report from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

It's also expected to generate at least £2.7 billion for the local economy by 2025, with tech companies in the West Midlands raising £454 million in venture capital funding already this year, compared to just £358 million last year. Tech vacancies have also increased, from 5,099 in December 2020 to 9,287 in October 2021.

Much of the region's success comes from Birmingham, with the city holding an average advertised salary of £51,774 for digital tech roles, according to recruitment site Adzuna. The highest paying jobs in the city include data architects, with an average advertised salary of £76,052, while technical architect and Python developer roles carry an average advertised salary of £74,043 and £63,480, respectively.

According to the analysis by Tech Nation, Birmingham is the second top-ranked city for cost of living versus salary for tech roles, with these positions making up 22% of all job openings in 2020 - growth of 17% compared to 2018. The city is also home to 1,308 startups, which are transforming industries such as ed-tech, digitisation and manufacturing

"As Birmingham Tech Week kicks off it's great to see the digital sector in the West Midlands entering a golden era," said digital minister Chris Philp. "There are high-quality and well-paid job opportunities for those who want to pursue a career in tech and the region is fast becoming a powerhouse of digital talent.

"We are determined to level up the country and we are working around the clock to back digital businesses with pro-innovation policies to boost digital skills and create jobs so everyone can benefit from this dynamic sector."

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services is set to launch on 1 November to help financial institutions use the Microsoft Cloud.

The new initiative integrates cloud services across Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Microsoft Power Platform, with new capabilities and customisations unique to financial services. It also has been designed to address the control frameworks and regulatory requirements facing the industry.

The platform provides financial institutions with a unified customer profile, easier customer onboarding, help with personalising customer interaction, and makes automation and collaboration across front and back-office easier. It also helps to identify and prevent fraud, protects the merchant services arms of financial institutions, carries out risk assurance and support, and helps organisations manage compliance requirements.

Microsoft hopes this will help financial institutions and industry partners to unlock value by optimising business processes through integrated collaboration and omnichannel communication capabilities, and enhance the customer experience through comprehensive customer insights and personalised interactions. It also helps accelerate products to market and removes data silos.

“This industry-specific cloud introduces new capabilities that unlock the power of the Microsoft Cloud to help innovate for responsible and sustainable growth,” said Bill Borden, corporate vice president of Worldwide Financial Services at Microsoft.

“Our industry cloud has a foundation of privacy, security, and regulatory compliance across Microsoft and our partner ecosystem, and it is built on an industry data model that enables interoperability and innovation.”

In September, Atos and IBM teamed up to create a new centre of excellence to help banks and insurance companies improve security and regulatory compliance when moving to the cloud. The platform aims to provide technical and financial services advice and expertise with Atos professionals trained on the IBM Cloud providing local language assistance. Atos will also offer automation services like Robotic Process Automation, AI-driven intelligent workflows, and business processes reengineering.