NEWS
Nordic enterprises transform
IT, stabilise operations via next-
gen application development
British
businesses’
failure to put
employees at
heart of data
strategy costing
£10 billion in
lost productivity
A
report from Qlik and Accenture, The
Human Impact of Data Literacy,
conducted on behalf of The Data Literacy
Project, found that while most organisations
understand the incredible opportunity
of data, a gap has emerged between
organisations’ aspirations to be data-driven
and their employees’ ability to create
business value with data.
E
nterprises in the Nordic countries are
using next-generation application
development providers to transform
their IT infrastructures, stabilise their
operations and improve customer
satisfaction, according to a report
published by Information Services Group
(ISG), a leading global technology
research and advisory firm.
The 2019 ISG Provider Lens Next-
Gen Application Development &
Maintenance (ADM) Services Report
for the Nordics finds companies in the
region embracing automation in their
application development processes, with
an increasing use of Machine Learning
(ML) helping to identify and predict
incidents. As the number of incidents
decrease, ADM service providers are
pushing the benefits to their enterprise
clients by optimising costs and focusing
on continuous quality improvements.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and
Machine Learning algorithms are also
generating cognitive and predictive
analytics insights for Nordic enterprises,
including automated business modelling
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INTELLIGENTCIO
and business process migration, the
report states.
Nordic enterprises are also interested in
agile development processes, but service
providers must show differentiated
capabilities to attract attention in
the market, says the report. Many
service providers are scaling their agile
practices to drive organisation-wide
agile transformation for their clients.
Distributed agile teams are becoming
popular in the Nordics, with distributed
teams often delivering higher productivity
and levels of commitment than
collocated teams, the report adds.
“Application outsourcing has evolved
from a traditional development approach
into one using disruptive, agile-based
operating models, making the core
development model a direct competitive
advantage for many enterprises,” said Jan
Erik Aase, Director and Global Leader, ISG
Provider Lens Research. “Enterprise client
requirements are currently led by mobile
and other emerging technologies, which
are fuelling the transformation of the
application services landscape.”
Data is a gold mine that can fuel a culture
of innovation and growth. However, when
employees struggle to make sense of data,
productivity and business value can be
affected. The survey of 1,000 UK employees
found that each year, companies lose an
average of almost an entire working week (34
hours) per employee due to procrastination
and sick leave as a result of stress caused by
information, data and technology issues. This
is costing British firms over £10 billion in lost
productivity every single year.
First, despite 81% of UK workers recognising
data as an asset, few are using it to inform
decision-making. Only 17% of surveyed
employees believe they’re fully prepared to
use data effectively when going into their
current role and the same number report
being confident in their data literacy skills – i.e.
their ability to read, understand, question and
work with data. Second, a lack of data skills is
shrinking productivity. An eye-opening 67%
of workers report feeling overwhelmed or
unhappy when working with data, impacting
their overall performance. Some overwhelmed
employees will go to further lengths to avoid
using data, with 19% stating that they will
find an alternative method to complete the
task without using data.
To succeed in the data revolution, business
leaders must help employees become more
confident and comfortable in using data
insights to make decisions.
www.intelligentcio.com