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The Best Tech Podcasts for IT Pros

What are the best Tech podcasts for IT pros? If it’s true that we are what we eat, then it might also be worth entertaining the idea that we are what we listen to. We’ve put together a list with a few tech-related podcasts that should be part of any IT professional’s audio library.  

From interviews with subject matter experts to business news analysis and futurism. This list has everything you’ll need to give you an edge in your career journey. Best of all? It’s all free. 

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Best tech podcasts for IT Pros

Recode Decode 

There are few names in tech journalism that are as prominent as Kara Swisher’s. After making a career covering high-level cases around Silicon Valley, the U.S. reporter started Recode Decode in 2015. But what was originally a tech-exclusive interview show has now transcended into the broader public realm. Snatching AdWeek’s best podcast of 2019 prize.   

Thrice a week, Swisher interviews tech executives, politicians and public personalities to discuss their big ideas about changing the world. As an IT professional, it’s important to keep an open mind. Swisher’s show is a great way of expanding your horizons.   

You can start with this episode on how the global lockdown will forever impact the way we work. 

If you are looking for a more tech-focused approach, the Recode Decode brand is also host to other, more targeted tech podcasts. We recommend you check out Reset, a show on how and why tech is changing everything.   

Start with this episode on the future of work and the role of technology in it.  

WSJ’s The Future of Everything 

Speaking of how tech will shape our future – make sure you give a try to this Wall Street Journal podcast. The Future of Everything features interviews and analysis by the newspaper’s best reporters, exploring, together with industry pioneers, how technology and science are changing every aspect of life and business.  

If you want to keep tab on the tech innovations and trends transforming your industry and others, this is your show. A great way of staying ahead of events and the competition. 

You can start with this episode on the future of artificial intelligence

This Week in Tech 

If you’d like to focus more on the present, This Week in Tech with Leo Laporte is a good show to stay up-to-date with industry news. From mergers and acquisitions to product and software releases, this popular podcast makes honour to its name by looking at the past week in tech news.  

This is your go-to show if you enjoy a mix of straight-up business news and other, softer news stories like Elon Musk’s new son, X Æ A-12, and how his name should be pronounced.     

Here’s their latest episode.  

Clockwise 

Delving deeper into the user side of technology, Clockwise proposes a rather quick-paced and original format. Under 30 minutes, 4 panellists discuss 4 tech topics impacting society and business — from how COVID-19 contact tracing technology works to remote troubleshooting tips for IT pros. 

The show combines actionable insight and information with good humour and commentary on the everyday life of tech professionals. An excellent lunch companion.  

You can start with their latest episode, the topics of which include a post-pandemic wish list of tech changes and a recap of the best (and worst) phishing attempts.  

IDG’s CIO Podcasts 

If you are at a managerial level or in charge of IT strategy and operations, IDG’s CIO Podcasts can be very helpful. Packed with interviews with CIOs and IT leaders, the podcasts are a great way of keeping track of IT management best practices.  

The publication has two separate podcasts series for the U.K. and North America.  

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IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

Industry Snapshot: Microsoft’s Momentum

Microsoft’s Momentum. It was not that long ago that Microsoft seemed on track to take a more secondary role in the future of enterprise technology. Software sales had been sluggish for some time, and the company seemed unable to keep up with the pace of innovation of its competitors. Well, things change quickly, especially in IT. 

To the surprise of some, Microsoft has managed to bounce back in just a few years. It has delivered its finest OS to date, Windows 10, created a new line of successful hardware products like the Surface, and become one of the top contenders in the cloud wars.  

We look at the most recent developments and headlines involving the U.S. company. 

Microsoft’s Momentum

Global lockdown and cloud momentum 

We have recently discussed how the surge in remote work caused by COVID-19 has helped the cloud industry. Microsoft is, of course, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the current situation. Finding itself incredibly well-positioned with cloud collaboration tools ranging from Azure to Microsoft Teams.  

The Redmond, Virginia company just posted its Q3 2020 earnings, delivering 59% growth for Azure sales and taking its share of the global cloud market up to a 17%. The second place after Amazon. This steady expansion is forcing Microsoft to grow their overall cloud infrastructure.  

The company announced this week it will be investing billions of dollars in new data centers in Poland and New Zealand. It also presented an upcoming — and significant – update to the integration of VMware cloud solutions into Azure.  

Microsoft is betting big not only on cloud infrastructure and third-party support. But also on cloud security – a major concern for the modern digital enterprise. The company revealed this week a new hacking challenge for Azure Sphere. Promising a total of $200K in bounty for those who can break into the system.   

Software consolidation 

Although it’s been almost a year since Microsoft released its last big update for Windows 10. The company announced no major upgrades or changes for the upcoming May 2020 update. Furthermore, and in response to the global pandemic, as of May 1st, the company will limit the scope of its updates to security fixes. For how long? We don’t know exactly. Altogether, this makes analysts and industry experts think that Windows 10 has reached a maturity state. And that it will not change much more. 

Ironically, this consolidation comes at the same time that Microsoft is shifting its strategy for Windows 10X. What was going to be the dual-screen variant of the OS is now being redirected towards a more simplified, one-screen version. The move signals Microsoft’s intention to compete more head-on with Google’s Chromebook. Which holds a big share of the business and education market. 

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IT’s Pivotal Role in a Post-Pandemic World

IT’s Pivotal Role in a Post-Pandemic WorldOne of the few positive outcomes of this global health and economic crisis will be the collective realisation of what really matters. Overnight, the world stopped. Our lives were stripped of all the fluff, forcing us to re-evaluate priorities and hold onto the essentials. A stable income, health, human contact.  

The same is true for the enterprise world. Businesses had to scrap their 2020 roadmap and start anew, trimming down costs and adjusting short- and mid-term goals. Those lucky enough to be in an industry where remote work makes sense have done their best to stay operational. This struggle, in turn, has further highlighted the strategic importance of one particular department – IT.  

IT’s Pivotal Role in a Post-Pandemic World

Accelerating digital transformation 

For some, the road to digital transformation has been a shorter and bumpier ride than expected. The sudden need for company-wide telework has caught them unprepared, without the necessary infrastructure or processes in place. But the surge in demand for IT services has put a strain on even the best-prepared organisations.  

Collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and cloud services have experienced lag and other issues. Forcing providers to implement new measures and double down on personnel. Traditional retailers have turned to online sales, whereas pure e-commerce players and multichannel operators are expanding their overall organisational structure.  

All of this is only made possible by technology investments and the development of IT teams. Furthermore, the current situation offers a good reminder of technology’s key role in ensuring companies can quickly adapt to changing circumstances.  

Ensuring cybersecurity  

As we have discussed in the past, a home-based workforce has made it easier for attackers to exploit weaknesses in enterprise networks. Not to say that business leaders were unaware of the dangers of cyberthreats before. Cybersecurity has long been in the top list of worries for CIOs. 

However, the risks — and stakes — are now higher than ever. Companies are putting a renewed focus on the importance of implementing appropriate protocols and tools, from VPNs to cloud security. The push to guarantee business continuity is making organisations compete for the best security specialists. Accentuating an already pervasive shortage of skilled talent.  

Navigating uncharted waters 

But not all challenges that businesses face are as straightforward. New regulatory landscapes; like the ones brought forth by GPDR and the UK’s upcoming IR35; can be difficult for companies to figure out.  

For example, those speeding up digital transformation might not be fully aware of the ins and outs of data privacy laws and inadvertently commit malpractice. Again, technological tools like enterprise automation can be decisive in helping organisations manage the unknown and limit exposure. IT departments can employ digital workers to comb through data sets or carry out other time-consuming tasks to ensure compliance with current regulations.  

Additionally, IT can greatly help enterprises deal with evolving economic and market scenarios. Machine learning and other types of AI software are great allies in the search of new areas of business. Helping sales teams identify leads and allowing for more accurate predictions. 

IT’s Pivotal Role in a Post-Pandemic World : Numbers don’t lie 

Recent studies suggest that business leaders know perfectly well that IT is set to play a pivotal role in the COVID-19 aftermath. Yes — IDC expects a 2.7% decline in worldwide IT spending this year. But this data must not be taken out of context.  

All seems to indicate that CFOs are, as usual, exercising caution and limiting overall spending across the organisation. However, it looks like most companies recognise the strategic importance of technology by prioritising IT spending over other areas. This sentiment was echoed in a recent poll by Imperial College Business School, which revealed that 48% of businesses were planning to prioritise the hiring of IT professionals in the coming months.  

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IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

5 Keys to Adapt Your IT Talent Strategy to the Current Reality

Discover our 5 keys to adapt your IT Talent Strategy to the current reality. Here are 5 things you should keep in mind.

It seems it was ages ago that we were wrapping up 2019 and getting ready for a new year. It was the perfect time to look at emerging trends and future business needs, to make resolutions and establish goals for the year ahead. However, the global pandemic is forcing us to scrap many of those plans. We must adjust to the current economic and social reality, and so does our talent strategy.

As an IT decision-maker, your success depends very much on the performance of your teams. Now more than ever, you need to mobilize the right skills, at the right time, and at the right cost.

To do this, you must re-evaluate your existing talent strategy. You must anticipate your skills needs and set up concrete measures to attract, recruit, retain and develop that talent — both to weather the crisis and for when the storm is over. 

Identify your main challenges

Alright, so it’s your team that determines your success. But how do you find and recruit top performers when the tech & IT talent market is suffering from a heavy talent shortage and everyone is competing for the same candidates? Who should you prioritise hiring given the uncertainty of the situation?

All key departments in a company should have a talent strategy in place, but it is all the more necessary for IT since the talent war is raging much more than in other areas. For instance, an expert in an area of expertise such as cybersecurity often receives several offers for permanent jobs or freelance assignments every week — or even every day.

Be aware of these issues to anticipate your needs and define the best possible plan of action (difficulty levels to recruit a particular profile, salary levels, etc.).

Another of the Keys to Adapt Your IT Talent Strategy: Be flexible with your recruiting approach

You know how fast everything goes in the world of IT, especially given the massive shift to remote work. In this perspective, you must ensure that you are able to quickly adapt by working both with stable resources, who know the long-term challenges of your business, and with resources that can be mobilised quickly and on more specific issues.

The solution is often to use both internal and external talent, including freelance IT consultants. They make it possible to bring in skills that are often specific on certain technical subjects, without too restrictive a commitment over time. They also have the benefit of bringing a “new” and external look which can be beneficial to the team already in place and stimulate rapid change.

Leverage soft skills to accelerate your projects

More and more, soft skills are making a difference among IT professionals. The IT department is at the heart of digital transformation and must be an engine of change in the company. Especially in today’s climate, IT teams must be composed of people capable of adapting, communicating, and sometimes even evangelizing to encourage the adoption of new tools or uses.

Hard skills are obviously fundamental, but the lifespan of acquired skills is getting shorter and shorter, and times of crisis call for something more than technique. As an IT decision-maker, you must make sure that your recruitment and talent development strategy focuses on people as the primary performance lever.

A good CIO or a good IT leader shows leadership, creativity and a daring vision — even an entrepreneurial spirit. You must look for these qualities in your IT team leaders and members to ensure the success of your projects.

Are you recruiting developers? Choose candidates who demonstrate emotional intelligence and who will be able to put themselves in the shoes of the user. Beyond the technical mastery of the targeted computer languages, make sure that the curiosity, the method, the initiative and the critical thinking of your candidates are evaluated in the recruitment process.

For more information on the topic, check out this article outlining the 5 most sought-after soft skills in IT.

Beyond recruitment: talent retention and development

It is no longer enough to know how to identify and attract the best profiles to have an effective talent strategy: you have to make sure you know how to keep and develop the right IT professionals who constitute your teams. Especially in a crisis like the one that is unfolding.

You might be tempted to cut staff loose and settle for short-than-best experts to reduce costs. That can be a big mistake. Your employees are your greatest asset and you should protect them and nurture them as much as possible. Focus on retaining your best talent, on future-proofing your existing team. You will be thankful for it once the crisis ends and you have all the competitive advantages of a robust IT team.

Some specific steps that you can take:

  • Create a sense of belonging — especially important with everyone working from home
  • Make your current and future projects attractive and take advantage of online development opportunities
  • Reassure your employees. Make sure they know they are appreciated and that you have their back.
  • Facilitate the management of work-life balance now more than ever
  • Put special attention on internal communication. Transparency here is also crucial

Remember that these initiatives must concern internal talent, but also external employees. The increasingly frequent hybridization of teams, made up of both freelancers and “classic” employees, means measures must be implemented across the board.  

Another key area of focus you should put particular emphasis on the onboarding of new recruits. The successful integration of an employee is always the foundation for successful collaboration, but, with less and less human interaction, it is necessary to make an extra effort in this area.

You must ensure that appropriate onboarding processes and tools are in place. Again, treat outsiders like you treat employees and make sure that freelancers are well integrated into the team.

The last of the Keys to Adapt Your IT Talent Strategy: Seek the support of the right partners

Defining talent strategy is key to your department’s success. But it is not an easy feat in these strange times, especially if you are not a recruitment specialist. Here, a trusted recruitment partner can be decisive. It may be wise to seek the guidance of a third-party actor who knows the market well and understands your specific problems and needs — someone capable of supporting you today and in the long term.

It is also necessary to work in collaboration with other departments within your company: HR for the entire employer brand part, Purchasing for relations with external service providers, etc.

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Industry Snapshot: Cloud’s Winning Proposition

Some businesses are thriving amid the global turmoil caused by the spread of COVID-19. Whereas whole economic sectors are falling victim to the effects of a quarantined population and the fall in demand, others find themselves in a privileged position to face this once-in-a-century crisis. This competitive advantage is particularly noticeable in areas like technology.

U.S. oil prices have turned negative for the first time in history. Traditional retailers are struggling to stay afloat, drastically cutting down expected profits for the second half of the year while delivering disappointing first-quarter results. At the same time, online retail moguls like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have seen their net worth skyrocket since the lockdown began.

With the surge in remote work and internet traffic, businesses need IT now more than ever. Videoconferencing services and other collaboration tools are booming, while the rise in digital operations has multiplied the number of cyber threats and accentuated the cybersecurity skills shortage.

But that’s not all.

Facing a new reality

Many organisations were not ready for the sudden shift to digital and decentralised ways of working. For some, digital transformation went overnight from being a mid-term goal to a bare necessity. They were either relying too much on on-premise storage and computing, or perhaps they were simply not ready to have most of their employees working from home at the same time. This change in demand has propelled cloud services forward, with more and more clients signing up for access to IaaS and PaaS solutions.

The big winners

There are no clearer signs of the cloud’s buoyant momentum that the good results the top industry players have achieved during the first quarter. Even if overall company performance is not as strong.

IBM has seen the pandemic thwart what otherwise would have been a solid quarter of growth. However, the company claims hybrid cloud adoption has spiked as a direct result of the pandemic. IBM’s (and by extension Red Hat’s) platform and containerization offerings allow companies to quickly deploy and easily escalate business-critical applications – a major advantage in today’s everchanging situation.

German ERP powerhouse SAP has also managed to maintain strong cloud bookings. The company even managed to increase overall revenue. SAP S/4HANA gained an additional 300 customers in Q1, bringing the total up to 14,100 accounts. That’s a 23% increase from the same time last year. The results further demonstrate S/4HANA’s growing momentum and as the deadline to migrate to the newer ERP system approaches.

Additionally, and in what is another tell-tale sign of the health of the industry, Alibaba announced it will be investing $28 billion to expand its cloud infrastructure and semiconductor business. That’s over half of its revenue for the past fiscal year.  

Cloud providers and their customers are betting big on the cloud’s potential to protect company operations and speed up the recovery process once the crisis is over.

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DSI challenges IT Decision-makers

Finding security experts in the COVID-19 crisis: a major challenge for IT departments

How to find the good security experts? About a third of the world’s population is estimated to be currently under confinement to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. As a result, businesses across the globe are resorting to remote work to continue operations in those areas where that is possible. This is adding unprecedented amounts of stress to already understaffed IT departments. 

CIOs and other IT leaders find themselves racing against the clock to adapt the whole company’s infrastructure to a work-from-home scenario while tackling their biggest concern: cybersecurity. And for good reason – threats are increasing exponentially. 

But assembling the right security experts & security team is proving even more difficult than it usually is already. 

Security threats give no quarter  

Hackers are certainly not going to close shop because of a tiny microorganism. If anything, they are using it to their benefit. For instance; phishing emails; were already the most common form of attack experienced by organisations. But the past days have seen a great surge in attacks trying to lure employees into clicking on an email sent by “their boss” or containing virus-related information.  

Among the most reprehensible of attacks are those being experienced by health and medical institutions. Not even the World Health Organisation was spared, targeted earlier last month by a false-domain attack aimed at stealing passwords from agency staffers. The situation is so dire that a group of 400 security experts from international giants like Microsoft and Amazon has volunteered to fight hacking tied to the coronavirus.  

Yet that is not the main issue. The pressure being put on enterprise networks is quickly revealing system vulnerabilities. And especially for those companies least used to distributed work and that rely too much on local networks. In short, the soaring numbers of employees working from home are finally making most decision-makers aware of what IT leaders have been warning us for a while. The business world’s generalised lack of a comprehensive security policy and employee awareness training.    

Although effective measures like VPNs have gained adoption in recent years, problems generated by shadow IT and BYOD remain largely unresolved. Many staffers will be accessing company resources through their personal devices and networks in the coming weeks. Multiplying exponentially the potential points of entry for attackers.  

Experts are becoming even harder to find 

In turn, this increase in cyberthreats is exacerbating the skill and personnel shortages the security sector was already experiencing. According to a recent study by ISC, the global security industry lacks more than 4 million security professionals. The world’s security workforce would need to grow 145% yearly just to meet the demand for skilled talent.  

The shortage of skills impacts some of the most critical roles within IT security. Such as those related to identifying threats or patching and updating vulnerable systems. However, the deficit is more acute in areas tied to rapidly emerging or evolving technologies. For instance, and in this WFH crisis more than ever, security in multi-cloud environments is key. Unfortunately, few organisations have dedicated cloud security experts or proper encryption protocols for their data in the cloud.   

Not surprisingly, the cost of security expertise has also become a problem as the lack of skilled talent drives wages up. And so the vicious circle goes.   

Hire or outsource? 

With everyone battling over the same security experts. Defining a solid talent strategy and identifying the right partners can make the difference; between a multi-million breach and your department’s success.  

Regarding your talent strategy, you first need to decide whether you want to expand your team or rely on the temporary help of consultants. If you had been planning on bringing more people on board for some time, this might be the perfect time to create new permanent positions or fill vacant ones.  

On the other hand, calling on a freelancer will most likely allow you to speed up the selection process and provide a quicker response to the crisis. Working with an independent contractor can also help you secure exactly the skills you need at a more competitive cost. As the freelance talent market tends to be more agile and flexible. 

No matter which option you are leaning towards, don’t hesitate to seek the guidance and help of talent experts. Time is of the essence in the cybersecurity wars. Partnering up with the right IT staffing specialists will not only allow you to access the best talent; it will help you secure it before another company closes the deal.  

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How to Work from Home in Times of COVID-19

Business activity is going remote as countries across the globe step up measures to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus. Accordingly, companies in economic sectors that allow for telework have turned to remote collaboration tools to protect the health of both their employees and operations. How to work from home in this period?

In today’s digital age, we have plenty of resources to coordinate effectively without the need to be in the same physical location. In fact, remote work has been part of people’s lives for quite a while now.  

Whether it is to facilitate the cooperation between teams in different offices and countries. Or to allow us to work while we are on the move, technology offers us more flexibility than ever before. Some firms are even starting to allow their employees to work from home one or two days per week if they choose to do so. While remote work is common amongst the quickly growing freelance community.  

However, never before so many people have had to work remotely at the same time. Some of us are simply not used to working outside of an office or would like to know how to do it more effectively.  

Well, we have put together a quick guide to help you get the most of your time at home and remain productive in the days or weeks to come. And remember — it will all be over soon. Stay positive. We will make it through all together.  

How to work from home: Take care of yourself 

First things first. It goes without saying, but – stay safe and take care of yourself. Your health and that of those around you is the key priority in moments like these. Follow at all times the safety guidelines outlined by the World Health Organization and act responsibly if you start showing symptoms.  

Maintain a good level of hygiene – wash your hands often, avoid cross-contamination – and make sure to eat healthy and get enough rest. Consider daily physical exercise to boost your immune system and stay in shape. Check out this list of free online resources if you are looking for some inspiration.  

Additionally, stay informed. Check the news at least a couple of times a day to make sure you are aware of the latest developments and official measures. Avoid checking the news constantly or obsessively, as this will only increase your stress levels.  


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Establish a daily routine 

Mental health and self-organization are equally important. Routine plays a key role in our lives, helping us structure our day and giving us a sense of being in control. You should not abandon your usual routines just because you are working from home. Adapt your usual schedule to this new environment, and even come up with different ways of organizing your day to help you be more productive.  

Wake up early, have a proper breakfast. Perhaps read a bit or have a chat with your flatmates or family before starting your day. Take breaks during the day to exercise or clear your head. Practice your cooking skills now that you have more time.  

It might be tempting to work in your pyjamas, but showering and dressing up as if you were going into the office will help you get in working mode. If you can’t avoid putting on your comfy pants, accompany them with something like a button-up shirt or blouse.  

Define limits 

Compartmentalize. One of the trickiest aspects of working from home is keeping your professional and personal lives separate, whether you live alone or with relatives or roommates. You need to delimitate the space and set up a working space that feels different from the rest of the house. You might not have a lot of space, but a simple, organized table will do the trick.  

Try installing your home office in a room with enough natural light and as far away from recreational areas as possible. Avoid working from the couch or bed, and only resort to these spaces when your working day is over. Turn off the TV while you are working and avoid unnecessary distractions. Make sure your family and friends are aware of your schedule to minimize disruption.  

Communicate 

Now more than ever, communication is vital. Working in an office provides a sense of community without requiring constant interaction. With its lack of physical presence, teleworking demands some extra effort to keep teams connected and cohesive.  

Make sure to check in periodically with your manager and colleagues to let them know what you are working on. Take a moment to ask them about their day and how they are dealing with remote work. Set up regular video calls and meetings to get some face time. Share an interesting or funny article. 

 Basically, do what you would normally do by the coffee machine or water cooler. Nurture those social bonds.   

The same applies to your clients and other stakeholders. It is important to let them know that you are still there and ready to assist them in everything that you can. When in doubt if you are communicating too much or not enough, remember – it is always safer to overcommunicate.  

Set goals and stay positive 

Finally, last point about how to work from home, is to establish some short- and mid-term goals that you would like to achieve in these upcoming days. It is the thought of the finish line that keeps the marathon runner going.  

As days go by and being constantly at home becomes harder, having clear goals in mind becomes very important. What would you like to achieve in the next weeks, both professionally and in your personal life? Would you like to get in better shape, finish a project at work, learn a new language? The clearer those goals are, the more focused you will be.  

Think about setting up shared targets for your whole team or department. Sharing a goal helps get everyone on the same page, increasing productivity and reinforcing the connection between coworkers.  

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IT Careers: Towards a Freelancisation of Permanent Tech Roles?

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IT Decision-makers Tips & errors to avoid

The Case for Automation in Software Development

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has made great strides in the enterprise world over the past few years. According to Gartner’s most recent study on the topic,  90% of robotic process automation (RPA) vendors will offer generative-AI-assisted automation by 2025. The rapid growth of automation (and here the case of automation in software development) is not only prompting significant media buzz around its promising capabilities, but also raising concerns about its long-term impact on overall employment.


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AI in the workplace: productivity gains and fears of trust

Surely, companies are increasingly relying on virtual employees — from chatbots to AI-powered personal assistants — to increase productivity and lessen the burden imposed on staff by time-consuming and repetitive tasks better left to machine learning algorithms. However, as it tends to be the case with artificial intelligence, there exists a generalised mistrust of synthetic agents and their overblown potential to replace humans.

As we have mentioned in the past, we should look at new technological developments from a more practical perspective rather than from a position of worry. Automation and artificial intelligence are tools that we can leverage to enhance the quality and speed of our work.

Embedded in the DevOps DNA

This is particularly true in a discipline like software engineering, which requires the full power of human ingenuity while also encompassing a series of tasks that burn through a lot of time and resources. Not surprisingly, automation is deeply ingrained within agile development methodologies and represents a big part of the day-to-day in DevOps.

In their effort to optimise software production pipelines, DevOps engineers take advantage of various automation tools that allow for faster, more robust development – although how much automation should exactly be involved in the process remains a cause of debate.

In any case, benefits of automation in software development are too great to ignore: speed, more resources and increased quality and security.   

Increased resource availability

Firstly, the continuous improvement and delivery (CI/CD) paradigm is an intensive process that involves many steps and requires increased collaboration between teams. Accordingly, automation has a great role to play to help with code testing, the updating of repositories and the integration of various software components.

Moreover, automation offers a possible solution for understaffed teams of developers. Skill and personnel shortages are a prevailing issue for the industry. Development teams can greatly benefit from eager bots and other automation tools tackling all those lower-level, time-consuming tasks.                                

Maintaining quality and app security together with speed

Given today’s accelerated and competitive product lifecycle and the need for companies to adapt to ever-changing markets, speed is key in the delivery of software solutions. However, it is hard to achieve optimum levels of speeds while preserving code integrity and ensuring security across your universe of solutions.  

Automation not only helps ensure the production of robust and quality code with fewer resources — it also leads to greater security standards by allowing developers to continuously monitor for vulnerabilities while maintaining the focus on higher-level aspects of software creation.

In fact, a recent report by Ponemon Institute and IBM revealed that organizations without security automation experienced in 2019 breach costs that were 95% higher than those companies with fully-deployed automation ($5.16 million average total cost of a breach without automation vs. $2.65 million for fully-deployed automation).


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Conclusion

This data underscores the ongoing significance of security automation in the contemporary cybersecurity landscape. As organizations grapple with evolving cyber threats and vulnerabilities, the adoption of automated security measures emerges as a key strategy for not only enhancing overall cybersecurity posture but also for minimizing the financial impact associated with data breaches. Therefore, as we progress into 2023, these insights serve as a compelling reminder for businesses to prioritize and invest in advanced security automation solutions to safeguard their digital assets and maintain resilience in the face of evolving cyber risks.

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Hiring an IT consultant IT Decision-makers

S/4HANA’s Growing Momentum

German ERP vendor SAP has kick-started the new decade with renewed strength. After undergoing a series of leadership changes in the past year, the company appears set on re-examining its product and strategy roadmaps based on customer feedback and more realistic self-assessment. Not surprisingly, it is S/4HANA – the new iteration of SAP’s core ERP system — the one leading the charge.

The firm was originally scheduled to discontinue support for its current ECC Business Suite in 2025, hoping the deadline would prompt a critical mass of its customers to transition to S/4HANA. However, after sluggish early adoption rates and mounting stakeholder pressure, the new leadership team decided back in February to give customers a much-needed extension.

Under the new roadmap, SAP ensures first-party support for ECC until 2030 – albeit free, general-access maintenance will be discontinued in 2027. At the same time, the company is future-proofing its customers’ investment in S/4HANA by promising platform support until the end of 2040.  

Although it is still early to tell the extent to which this new policy will impact adoption in the coming months, the measures have been well-received among the community. Additionally, the migration to S/4HANA is only poised to keep gaining momentum as digital transformation initiatives across the globe enter a more mature phase.  

Accelerating S/4HANA adoption

A few factors have been holding up widespread adoption of S/4HANA. First of all, there seems to be a generalised confusion around the benefits and specifics capabilities of S/4HANA. A recent study by Resulting IT revealed that SAP consultants are only marginally more knowledgeable in the platform than their clients.

The insight is pretty telling and suggests that SAP could have failed in its past efforts to communicate with its stakeholders and manage change. Thankfully, that problem has a relatively easy solution. The latest changes in leadership and the extension of ECC support signal the company’s awareness of this issue and increase confidence that it will be addressed.

Understanding S/4HANA is crucial for its adoption. This might sound like an obvious requirement for buying into a new product, but it is especially important in S/4HANA. This is not a simple software update that can be installed over the weekend. The next-generation ERP suite implies a profound redesign in terms of architecture that requires companies to invest a lot of resources and re-evaluate internal processes to carry out the migration. On top of that, existing customers who have already invested a lot of money in ECC customizations will have to start from scratch.

Therefore, it is paramount that the decision to embark on a migration project stems from a solid business case if it wants to succeed. It is never easy to convince entire teams and organisations to change their processes, but trying to do so without strong arguments and a clear roadmap can be dangerous. Moving to S/4HANA is not exclusively an IT call. It requires that business leaders across the organisation are involved in the decision-making and willing to implement changes.

Time will tell how SAP’s renewed focus on S/4HANA translates into client adoption. However, recent announcements make us think the company is on the right track and the S/4HANA will only gain momentum from now on.

Is your company planning to move to S/4HANA but is still not sure when? You might want to hurry things up.

If you are a specialist in SAP technologies but still haven’t gotten your feet wet with S/4HANA, here is why and how you should do it.      

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IT Decision-makers Talent strategy

Industry Snapshot – IT Staffing

The staffing as a whole is undergoing a profound and rapid transformation brought about by technological disruption, a generational shift in the workforce and new economic trends. A €416-billion industry by 2018 global estimates, the sector is expected to grow by 3% in 20201 and will only increase in importance as the needs and challenges of a fast-evolving job market make it an essential part of the talent acquisition process. But what about the IT staffing sector in particular? One could say IT staffing enjoys all the benefits of the industry’s current situation while avoiding most of its downsides.  

The irruption of technology 

From job boards and professional networking platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn, to new corporate administrative tools such as vendor management systems (VMS), technology is shaking up the industry from head to tail. While some see this as a threat to the traditional staffing business model, 87% of recruitment professionals believe agencies should embrace digital transformation to remain competitive. Simultaneously, 55% of staffing firms expect their technology investments to increase in 2020.

There are many ways in which technology can help recruiters do a better job. For instance, artificial intelligence and networking platforms facilitate and accelerate the sourcing of candidates, which represents a major advantage in a field of work in which winning the race against the clock is a key factor of success.

IT staffing: Demand outweighs supply 

Skill obsolescence is a well-known side effect of progress. However, with new technologies emerging at a growing pace and changing the way businesses operate, the skill gap is rapidly widening. Not surprisingly, 77% of staffing professionals cite skills shortage as their top challenge. That is especially true for IT staffing.

In 2018, in fact, 49% of S&P 100 job postings were for only 39 roles. Most of these were vacancies for IT-related positions like software developers and computer systems engineers. As a critical function to businesses in the age of digital transformation, IT is one of the most understaffed and contested labour sectors.  

Moreover, the constant evolution of technology and its business applications ads a layer of complexity to the generalised and persistent shortage of skills experienced by the staffing industry. The newer the technology, the fewer qualified professionals available. The demand for expertise in fields like data science and cloud architecture, for instance, is impossible to meet.

As a result, many companies look to IT staffing agencies for help in identifying and securing tech talent. Another solution to the skills shortage is leaning on the burgeoning freelance community to supplement internal capabilities.

The importance of soft skills 

As it happens with more and more jobs, the IT sector is increasingly in need of professionals that can complement their technical knowledge with abilities like adaptability and interpersonal communication. Commonly referred to as soft skills, these capabilities have become crucial in a time of rapid and sudden business transformation. This is particularly true of IT professionals, who were traditionally judged by their technical skills and now need to demonstrate greater social and change-management competences. 

Knowing what each side needs 

The talent supply gap and the importance of freelancers offer, of course, a great opportunity for IT staffing companies. However, IT recruitment is a crowded space, with many companies and agencies often competing for the same candidates and positions. Thus, it becomes essential for agencies to have a deep understanding of the needs of both candidates to differentiate themselves from competitors and be able to deliver solutions quickly.  

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