Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 26 | Page 12

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 12 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