In a vitriolic campaign season, one of the few things that the candidates could agree on was their desire to see more spending on the highways, rail lines, ports and dams that make up our national infrastructure. Relatively early in the campaign season, Donald J. Trump met Hillary Clinton’s announcement of a huge infrastructure package, worth $275 billion, by announcing one that would be more than twice as big.

On election night, it was this promise, more than any other issue, that he returned to. “We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals,” he said in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night.

Infrastructure is an appealing cause because it provides a straightforward way for the government to inject money into the economy and build the foundation for longer term economic growth. But some economists say returns from infrastructure spending are likely to be much less pronounced than they were in the past, in part because the highest yielding infrastructure is already in place. Looking at infrastructure data from different sources provides conflicting pictures of what needs to be done, but it is a topic worth examining from as many perspectives as possible.

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While it is always important to reach out to and attract new customers, it is likewise imperative that you work to maintain your existing customers. Customer loyalty is essential to any successful business enterprise, even more so when you are first starting out with your business. All it takes is one customer who is unsatisfied with your business or product to scare away a dozen others.

In this social media age, bad reviews can quickly and easily reach hundreds if not thousands of prospective customers. As review sites such as Yelp have become increasingly popular and powerful, it has become even more important to make certain that you respond appropriately to bad customer reviews. While you cannot always prevent bad reviews, if you respond correctly, you can help to mitigate their damage and even convert a customer with a bad experience into a loyal customer.

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Innovation is the great way to success in this digital age. The path of innovation in business means doing something different, smarter or better that will make a positive difference in terms of value, quality or productivity by using emerging or proved technologies of the world. The technology which has already proved itself in last two decades is of course the information technology (IT). It has dramatically changed the lives of the individuals and organisations. Currently online shopping, digital marketing, social networking, digital communication and cloud computing etc are the best examples of change which came through the wave of information technology. Now accurate business planning, effective marketing, global sales, systematic management, real time monitoring, instant customer support and long term business growth cannot be achieved at the optimum level without IT.

The importance of IT in Business

The success of every business depends on certain factors. Some of which are accurate analysis, choosing the right technology and the future vision. Research from the last two decade has proved that those organisations that do invest in technology and choose the path of innovation increase their market share, financial figures and overall competitiveness. Information technology is the only technology which provides you the opportunity to analyse specific data and plan your business journey accordingly. It also provides you many tools which can solve complex problems and plan the scalability (future growth) of your business. In the modern age, it is proved that digital marketing is a great tool which let you promote your products or services to the global market while sitting in the comfort of your remote office or home. And thanks to the cloud computing and modern communication which enable you to form a global organisation, manage and monitor its virtual offices all over the world. Now I will briefly explain how information technology plays a vital role in different phases of business.

Decision Making

Speed and accuracy are at the heart of making right decision for your business. Every successful organisation has to go through a comprehensive market research process which enables management to make the right decision.  Market research can be done in many ways through online surveys, forums, blogs, group discussions using World Wide Web and of course through in-person interviews as well. Currently Big data, Google Analytics and Microsoft CRM Dynamics are also great tools to extract useful information which can impact on decision making. These online tools not only provide real time responses from the potential audience but also ensure the accuracy of data by minimising the risk of human errors.

Marketing and Business Growth

The heart of the business success lies in its marketing which enables the management to identify its target audience first and then observe their trends and needs. The overall marketing covers public relation, advertising, promotion and sales which subsequently impact on business growth. Many types of marketing can help you reach your potential customers. But I will briefly explain digital marketing here which was the dream in the past without Internet technology. Digital Marketing is a modern phenomenon which let you promote your products or services all over the world. It is a broad term which includes many concepts like search engine optimisation (SEO), pay per click (PPC), blogging, discussion forum, email shot, SMS, MMS, social media marketing and Smartphone app advertisement etc. Currently web market is booming at a very fast pace because most of the entrepreneurs have understood that the long term success in business is not possible without digital presence on the internet. Millions of new websites are being added on the internet every year.

Customer Support and Satisfaction

Higher level of customer satisfaction is the key to success which cannot be achieved without a real time customer support process. Business success depends on knowing its customers needs, trends, behaviours and satisfaction level. Effective communication is the best tool to understand the customer demands, problems and their solutions. Thanks to the Internet Technology that has enabled us to communicate with millions of potential or existing customer in the real time. IT provides many channels to communicate with the customer without going out in snow or rain. Some of these channels are email, webinar, social media, member portals, online newsletters and text or multimedia messaging through the smart phone.  Enterprise organisations normally use customer relationship management systems (CRM) to hold valuable data for understanding customer behaviours and future needs.

Resource Management and Globalisation

Resource management plays a crucial role in business success. When it comes to medium or large organisation, it is very hard for the top management to manage all the resources manually. These resources may include tangible, financial or human resources etc. Information technology has played a vital role in automating such complex problems by introducing user friendly solutions. A decade ago, most of the resource management solutions were desktop based. Thanks to the internet and cloud technology which enables software engineers to introduce cloud based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solutions. Now, the managers can manage or monitor their organisational resources virtually anywhere in the world by using their personal computer, laptops, tablets or Smartphone. This concept has introduced the idea of globalisation. Most of multinational companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, McDonalds etc) in the world use these cloud based solutions to manage their virtual or physical offices and staff worldwide.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/role-information-technology-business-success-abid-afzal-butt

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The Society for Information Management (SIM) recently released their 2017 trends analysis. They reflect the continuing evolution of business trends being information technology trends. Moreover, IT has increasingly become a priority for most businesses. SIM notes that IT budgets have increased this year by an average of 4.15%, short of last year’s increase of 4.6%, but positive nevertheless.

The report also notes that IT professionals’ salaries have risen by 3.5%, and  IT staff hiring has also increased. The shift of budgets to cloud computing from hardware and software continues, and are likely to increase again in the year ahead.

IT executives highlight three top concerns:

Business alignment

This has been the top priority for four years running. It was listed as the top priority for IT leaders among 41.7% of those executives polled.

Security

36% of IT leaders noted security as their top concern. Remarkably, just four years ago, security was listed as the ninth area of concern. Higher profile security breaches and increased emphasis on the topic by the executive teams and boards of companies will mean that this concern is likely to remain high for IT executives.

IT skill shortages

24% of IT leaders indicated that skills shortages were the top concern. The concern center around technical skills like analytics, software development, cybersecurity and cloud-centric skill, but increasingly, there is concern regarding the paucity of soft skills.

IT leaders are increasingly taking on more strategic responsibilities. This is aided by the fact that 46.3% of CIOs now report to the CEO, according to the SIM report. This is compared to 28.6% who report to CFOs and 16.8% who report to COOs. CIOs now meet with various members of the C-suite on a weekly basis. This represents great progress for the function.

SIM concludes that other than the CEO, the CIO has the most complex, broad, and diverse set of responsibilities. This is demonstrated by the need to think to the future in aiding the strategies of every division of the company. CIOs must also help drive the innovation agenda for the company while also focusing on risk mitigation associated with security investments. The simultaneous focus on risk taking (a necessity with innovation activities) and risk mitigation is but one demonstration of the complexity of the role. The progress made in the function suggests that more CIOs are up to the challenge.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2016/11/21/cios-top-three-concerns-for-2017-alignment-security-skill-shortages/#1b370e944f0a

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My last post studied how the mentality around VoIP is far from legacy telephony, and how it has implications that go beyond this major transition. Legacy telephony has been intertwined with many personnel for ages, and if asked, they wouldn’t see much reason to switch. For them, there’s no problem to fix, unless of course your phone system is failing, and the status quo is just fine.

On the other hand, decision makers – either IT or management – may have very good explanations to accept VoIP, and the impact on employees needs to be considered. Making the move will largely be transparent to employees, even to the point where if they weren’t told anything, they may never notice. However, that can be risky, especially in terms of earned trust if things don’t go to plan.

That’s unlikely to happen, the IT will be better off with a more constructive approach that will please everyone in the end. You’re utilizing VoIP for good reasons, and when employees experience the profits that come with this change – even if they’re unexpected – your movement from legacy to the world of IP will get off on the right foot. Over the course of my research, I have come by many benefits, and I’ll outline some examples – things employees will love – with three here and three more in my next post.

#1 – Basic User Experience

If your workers are rooted in the pre-Internet world, must have been using desk phones for a long time already and probably the same one for most of it. In fact, it’s not unusual for desk phones to be the longest-serving means in use for communication or getting work done. Perhaps the fax machine has been there a little longer, but there’s probably just one of those in the office. In terms of what’s on the desk, personal computers turn over every few years, but desk phones last forever. Many employees are using their mobile phones more than anything on their desk, but these turn over even faster than PCs.

Your desk phones may have a very high level of familiarity, and even though they all look similar, each employee has a personal connection to “their” phone. Unless it’s useless already or becomes a hazard to use, they won’t see a reason to change. If their job requires a lot of phone usage, it will be significant to know that the basic user experience will stay the same when VoIP comes.

Old habits die hard, and if they view VoIP as being new, complex technology, there could be a lot of uneasiness around something that’s important to them. While that may be a precise description of VoIP, the good news is that VoIP is designed to imitate the legacy telephony experience, not replace it with a new one. Everything works the same as before, and in some cases, even the pre-sets. When they discover that, their apprehension about new technology will melt away and they won’t miss a beat with their new IP phones.

#2 – Visual Voicemail

In terms of new features that essentially make VoIP a better experience, this is hands-down the one that everyone will love. For long-time legacy telephony users, this will be a great development since they can now stay current on missed calls when away from their desk. Since legacy systems operate independent of the data network, there is no intelligence to route messages beyond where your desk phone sits.

On the other hand, VoIP shares the same network as all your other applications and by integrating the phone system with your desktop, you can receive notifications about missed calls from any broadband connection. This alone will be well received by employees, but there’s more to take into consideration. These alerts will include an MP3 file of the message, so there’s no need to call into your phone system to recover the message. Not only that, but because it uses a digital file, it can be easily shared with others. There’s even more to like about visual voicemail, but based on these examples, it’s not hard to see why employees will love this feature.

#3 – Low Cost

This matters more to the employer and it’s probably the most attractive feature for clients when going to VoIP. Low cost international long distance calling rates is another attraction for residential VoIP, but the psychology is different since costs are being incurred. Generally speaking, the vast majority of long distance needs for SMBs is domestic, and on this front, there are two things employees will really like.

First, time is not a factor since these calls are unmetered. If a sales call or a customer support call runs longer than usual, there’s no need to worry about the charges eating into their operating budget. Similarly, meticulous employees may be genuinely concerned about wasting their employer’s money, so now they don’t have to feel guilty if a long distance call runs longer than expected.

Second, this situation makes life easier for some employees that are working from home. In cases where employees pay for their phone line out of pocket and then chargeback the costs for repayment, they no longer need to track domestic long distance charges, which could be extensive for sales or technical support people. With VoIP, the only add-on charges will be international LD, but that’s usually minor, and otherwise, these types of employees will love how this simplifies managing their phone service.
Source: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/voip-news/three-things-employees-will-love-about-voip-71443

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Advantages of IP PBX when compared to Analog/Digital PBX (IP PBX Vs Traditional PBX):

1. Single Network: This is one of the biggest advantages of of IP Telephony systems. Traditional PBX require their own network and it is quite expensive to build a separate telephone network spanning the entire premises. With IP Telephony, the Computer Network can be used to carry voice calls along with data and the IP Phones connect directly to Network Switch Ports using Cat 5/6 Cables. Most of the IP Phones come with an inbuilt two-port switch that eliminate additional switch ports and cables required for their connectivity. Redundancy is an issue, and the IP Phones stop working if the computer network is down, but redundancy can be built into IP networks using technologies like Link Aggregation, RSTP, etc.

2. Inter-branch Calls: If IP Telephony has been deployed in multiple branches (in different locations) of the same company, it is possible to use MPLS Networks/ Internet Leased Lines (With Unlimited Usage plans) to transmit voice calls over the WAN IP Network. This way, the inter-branch calls would not incur additional costs.

3. Long Distance Calls: Its possible to terminate SIP Trunks from ITSP’s (Internet Telephony Service Providers) directly to the IP PBX. So, international calls and long distance calls can be made through the Internet for lower cost. Concepts like DISA (Direct Inward Station Access) allow a user to dial to the corporate IP PBX (from anywhere using a PSTN Phone/ GSM Cell Phone) and access the IP Trunks connected to it, to make long distance calls at reduced rates.

4. Easier Management: The Analog/ Digital PBX is difficult to manage. Some of them can only be managed using complex CLI Commands that are proprietary to each vendor. But an IP PBX generally has a web based GUI (Graphical User Interface) console to manage/ configure/ make changes to many of its functions. This makes it easier for administrators to manage an IP PBX. Users may even be given a custom web-page which they could use to login and set their own preferences.

5. Soft-Switch: Some IP PBX models come as down-loadable software that can run on standard computer servers. These are called Soft-Switches. Soft Switch based IP PBX have a lot of advantages. There are some open-source based Soft-switches that can be downloaded free of cost (Like Asterisk, Trixbox, FreePBX, etc).

6. Cell Phone/ Land Line Integration: You can download a SIP Client on your Cell Phone (that supports this feature) to receive land line calls on your cell phone itself, through a Wi-Fi Network. So, your cell phone can become your mobile land-line extension!

7. Fixed Mobile Convergence: As an enhancement to the above mentioned point, it is possible to automatically shift between Wi-Fi Networks and Cellular Networks by using a technology called Fixed Mobile Convergence. So, when you are attending a land line call on your cell phone using the Wi-Fi network and you suddenly move out of the office, the call can continue on a cellular network!

8. Wi-Fi Phones: Wireless Networks (Wi-Fi) are very popular, and can be found almost in every company. It is possible to use special Wi-Fi based Phones to attend to land line calls from where ever you are, within the company premises (Wi-Fi Zone). The DECT standard followed by Digital PBX also allows to do something similar, but a separate and a dedicated digital wireless network is required to enable the same. There are a lot of advantages of VoWLAN (Voice Over Wireless LAN) technology when compared to DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology).

9. IP Phones/ Soft Phones: IP Phones may be costlier than analog phones, but IP Phones have a lot of advantages over analog phones like easy movement from one place to another (while still retaining the extension number), Connecting to Internet using inbuilt browsers, Down-load ring-tones, etc.  IP PBX support Soft-Phones that are software programs which can be run on a computer and they have a number of advantages over IP Hard-phones.These soft-phones can be used along with headset/mic to receive all your land-line calls directly from your desktop PC.

10. Encryption: IP PBX / IP Phones are capable of encrypting conversations by using techniques like sRTP (Secure Real Time Protocol). Though this technique is not used often, it can be used to deter hackers from listening to voice calls over the IP Network.

11. IP Faxing: IP PBX support IP Faxing which, among other things, can be used to receive and send faxes directly from a computer.

12. Analog Trunks/ Analog Phones: Analog/ Digital Trunks like ISDN / PRI Lines / FXO Lines etc from the Telephony Service provider can be directly terminated on an IP PBX. Similarly, Analog Fax Machines and Analog Phones can also be connected to an IP PBX. Both use devices called Analog Telephony Adapters (ATA). The main advantage with ATA is the fact that it can be present anywhere on the network. For example, if an Optical Fiber Cable connects to an individual department, the ATA can be placed in that department to connect the FXO/FXS trunk and subscriber terminals directly, while communicating back to the IP PBX over the IP Network (Using the Optical Fiber Cable).

13. Video Calls: With an IP PBX, it is possible to make video calls along with audio calls over the IP network. There areVideo Phones that can be used for this purpose, and some IP PBX vendors support this functionality.

14. Unified Communications: Unified Communications (Or UC) is an emerging field in IP Telephony that integrates multiple ways of communications like voice calls, video calls, voice mail, email, fax messaging, Instant Messaging, Cell Phones, etc and allows the user to use one mode of communication to communicate with other modes, seamlessly.

15. Call Recording: Often, you may want to record certain voice calls for future reference. In analog/digital PBX, a separate line needs to be connected from each phone (in parallel) to an expensive equipment called Voice Logger. But with certain IP PBX models, call recording is an inbuilt function and can be activated by the user through their IP phone/ PC interface whenever required.

16. Presence/ Instant Messaging (IM): Some IP PBX models come with built-in Instant messaging function that can be used along with a PC based interface. This is similar to the web based IM that we are familiar with. The instant messaging function includes presence information which enables the caller to see if the user is available and their preferred mode of communication at that point of time.

17. Speech Recognition: Speech Recognition, is another emerging technology that has successfully been integrated with IP PBX which recognizes voice input (speech) directly from a caller to perform a desired action. For example, a caller could call the board number of a company and say the name of the person whom he wants to talk to, for the IP PBX to fetch the extension number from a database and forward the call to that extension automatically.

18. Meet Me Conference: Only simple built-in conference facilities are available with Analog/ Digital EPABX. Even that is restricted to 3-8 party conference calls at a given point of time. But IP PBX can enable a Meet-Me Conference(sometimes included as a default functionality) which allows many users to dial into a conference room to enable multi-conference calls. There can be multiple such conference rooms and multiple callers in each conference room. The users could even be given a security pass code that authorizes them to enter the conference call.

19. QoS & Voice Compression: Since IP Telephony shares the same network as computers and other IT equipments, the available bandwidth often needs to be shared between multiple type of devices. But fortunately, up to 10 Gigabit Ethernet bandwidth is available for the IP Network backbone today, which is sufficient for most enterprise applications. Further, Network Switches support QoS policies to be applied to IP Phones and voice related applications so that real time latency sensitive voice traffic can be given priority over data traffic. Various Voice Compression CODECS are available to compress voice signals over the IP Network.

20. Remote Maintenance: Both IP PBX and IP Phones can be accessed remotely (with sufficient authorization, perhaps over VPN Networks) for making configuration changes and monitoring purposes from anywhere over the Internet. The analog PBX might support remote access in a limited way, but analog/digital phones cannot be accessed from a remote location.

21. Hosted IP PBX: With an IP PBX, its possible to host the IP PBX Software (with a service provider) and register your IP Phones to the hosted IP PBX in their premises over the Internet. The service providers take care of the hardware/ software and maintenance of the hosted IP PBX, while charging a monthly fee for the Service.

22. Voice Mail/ IVR: Though Voice Mail functionality is available in an analog/ digital PBX as well, there is a limitation on the number of hours of voice mail that can be recorded. IP PBX use Servers/ Computer based disks to store voice mail and hence have more voice mail storage capacity. An IP PBX can even send a notification email to the user when a new voice mail is recorded. Advanced Interactive Voice Response (IVR) creation / customization can be done relatively easier and the tree structure changed frequently using IP PBX.

23. Help-desk/ Call Center functionalities: Some basic call center/ help desk functionalities can be built in to IP PBX like Call Queuing, Group Ringing, Automatic Call Distribution, etc.

24. Database Integration: A Number of interesting applications can be enabled by integrating databases (like MySQL, etc) with IP PBX. An IP PBX can be programmed to fetch certain database entries, when requested by the users, by pressing certain key combinations guided by an IVR – Interactive Voice Response. Mobile Banking is a good example of an application enabled by IP PBX through Database Integration.

25. Application Programming Interface (API): External programs and applications can interface with IP PBX using the Application Programming Interface that is provided by many IP PBX vendors. For example, when a customer is ringing the help-desk of a certain company, the IP PBX recognizes that it is a regular customer (via the phone number), fetches recent orders and their current status and displays them on the screen of the help-desk employee. So, even before the employee picks up the phone, he/she might be acquainted with the required information to answer the call! This is enabled by integrating the Customer Relationship Management Application with an IP PBX using API

Source: http://www.excitingip.com/1945/ip-pbx-vs-traditional-pbx-advantages-of-ip-pbx-over-analogdigital-pbx/

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Gartner, Inc.

Increasingly, the world is becoming an intelligent, digitally enabled mesh of people, things and services. Technology will be embedded in everything in the digital business of the future, and ordinary people will experience a digitally-enabled world where the lines between what is real and what is digital blur.

Rich digital services will be delivered to everything, and intelligence will be embedded in everything behind the scenes. We call this mesh of people, devices, content and services the intelligent digital mesh, and this forms the basis for our Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017.

Intelligent

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning have reached a critical tipping point and will increasingly augment and extend virtually every technology enabled service, thing or application. Creating intelligent systems that learn, adapt and potentially act autonomously rather than simply execute predefined instructions is primarily battleground for technology vendors through at least 2020.

Trend No. 1: AI & Advanced Machine Learning

AI and machine learning, which include technologies such as deep learning, neural networks and natural-language processing, can also encompass more advanced systems that understand, learn, predict, adapt and potentially operate autonomously. Systems can learn and change future behavior, leading to the creation of more intelligent devices and programs.  The combination of extensive parallel processing power, advanced algorithms and massive data sets to feed the algorithms has unleased this new era.

 

In banking, you could use AI and machine-learning techniques to model current real-time transactions, as well as predictive models of transactions based on their likelihood of being fraudulent. Organizations seeking to drive digital innovation with this trend should evaluate a number of business scenarios in which AI and machine learning could drive clear and specific business value and consider experimenting with one or two high-impact scenarios.

Trend No. 2: Intelligent Apps

Intelligent apps, which include technologies like virtual personal assistants (VPAs), have the potential to transform the workplace by making everyday tasks easier (prioritizing emails) and its users more effective (highlighting important content and interactions). However, intelligent apps are not limited to new digital assistants – every existing software category from security tooling to enterprise applications such as marketing or enterprise resource planning (ERP) will be infused with AI enabled capabilities. Using AI, technology providers will focus on three areas — advanced analytics, AI-powered and increasingly autonomous business processes and AI-powered immersive, conversational and continuous interfaces. By 2018, Gartner expects most of the world’s largest 200 companies to exploit intelligent apps and utilize the full toolkit of big data and analytics tools to refine their offers and improve customer experience.

Trend No. 3: Intelligent Things

New intelligent things generally fall into three categories: robots, drones and autonomous vehicles. Each of these areas will evolve to impact a larger segment of the market and support a new phase of digital business but these represent only one facet of intelligent things. Existing things including Internet of Things (IoT) devices will become intelligent things delivering the power of AI enabled systems everywhere including the home, office, factory floor, and medical facility.

As intelligent things evolve and become more popular, they will shift from a stand-alone to a collaborative model in which intelligent things communicate with one another and act in concert to accomplish tasks. However, nontechnical issues such as liability and privacy, along with the complexity of creating highly specialized assistants, will slow embedded intelligence in some scenarios.

Digital

The lines between the digital and physical world continue to blur creating new opportunities for digital businesses. Look for the digital world to be an increasingly detailed reflection of the physical world and the digital world to appear as part of the physical world creating fertile ground for new business models and digitally enabled ecosystems.

Trend No. 4: Virtual & Augmented Reality

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) transform the way individuals interact with each other and with software systems creating an immersive environment. For example, VR can be used for training scenarios and remote experiences. AR, which enables a blending of the real and virtual worlds, means businesses can overlay graphics onto real-world objects, such as hidden wires on the image of a wall. Immersive experiences with AR and VR are reaching tipping points in terms of price and capability but will not replace other interface models. Over time AR and VR expand beyond visual immersion to include all human senses. Enterprises should look for targeted applications of VR and AR through 2020.

Trend No. 5: Digital Twin

Within three to five years, billions of things will be represented by digital twins, a dynamic software model of a physical thing or system. Using physics data on how the components of a thing operate and respond to the environment, as well as data provided by sensors in the physical world, a digital twin can be used to analyze and simulate real world conditions, responds to changes, improve operations and add value.

Digital twins function as proxies for the combination of skilled individuals (e.g., technicians) and traditional monitoring devices and controls (e.g., pressure gauges). Their proliferation will require a cultural change, as those who understand the maintenance of real-world things collaborate with data scientists and IT professionals. Digital twins of physical assets combined with digital representations of facilities and environments, as well as people, businesses and processes will enable an increasingly detailed digital representation of the real world for simulation, analysis and control.

Trend No. 6: Blockchain

Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger in which value exchange transactions (in bitcoin or other token) are sequentially grouped into blocks. Blockchain and distributed-ledger concepts are gaining traction because they hold the promise of transforming industry operating models in industries such as music distribution, identify verification and title registry. They promise a model to add trust to untrusted environments and reduce business friction by providing transparent access to the information in the chain.

While there is a great deal of interest the majority of blockchain initiatives are in alpha or beta phases and significant technology challenges exist.

Mesh

The mesh refers to the dynamic connection of people, processes, things and services supporting intelligent digital ecosystems. As the mesh evolves, the user experience fundamentally changes and the supporting technology and security architectures and platforms must change as well.

Trend No. 7: Conversational Systems

Conversational systems can range from simple informal, bidirectional text or voice conversations such as an answer to “What time is it?” to more complex interactions such as collecting oral testimony from crime witnesses to generate a sketch of a suspect. Conversational systems shift from a model where people adapt to computers to one where the computer “hears” and adapts to a person’s desired outcome. Conversational systems do not use text/voice as the exclusive interface but enable people and machines to use multiple modalities (e.g., sight, sound, tactile, etc.) to communicate across the digital device mesh (e.g., sensors, appliances, IoT systems).

Trend No. 8: Mesh App and Service Architecture

The intelligent digital mesh will require changes to the architecture, technology and tools used to develop solutions. The mesh app and service architecture (MASA) is a multichannel solution architecture that leverages cloud and serverless computing, containers and microservices as well as APIs and events to deliver modular, flexible and dynamic solutions. Solutions ultimately support multiple users in multiple roles using multiple devices and communicating over multiple networks. However, MASA is a long term architectural shift that requires significant changes to development tooling and best practices.

Trend No. 9: Digital Technology Platforms

Digital technology platforms are the building blocks for a digital business and are necessary to break into digital. Every organization will have some mix of five digital technology platforms: Information systems, customer experience, analytics and intelligence, the IoT and business ecosystems. In particular, new platforms and services for IoT, AI and conversational systems will be a key focus through 2020. Companies should identify how industry platforms will evolve and plan ways to evolve their platforms to meet the challenges of digital business.

Trend No. 10: Adaptive Security Architecture

The evolution of the intelligent digital mesh and digital technology platforms and application architectures means that security has to become fluid and adaptive. Security in the IoT environment is particularly challenging. Security teams need to work with application, solution and enterprise architects to consider security early in the design of applications or IoT solutions. Multilayered security and use of user and entity behavior analytics will become a requirement for virtually every enterprise.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2016/10/26/gartners-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2017/2/#4431dc3e3f9c

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China’s top-25 entry marks the first time a middle-income country has joined the highly developed economies that have historically dominated the top of the Global Innovation Index (GII) throughout its nine years of surveying the innovative capacity of 100-plus countries across the globe. China’s progression reflects the country’s improved innovation performance as well as methodological considerations such as improved innovation metrics in the GII.

Despite China’s rise, an “innovation divide” persists between developed and developing countries amid increasing awareness among policymakers that fostering innovation is crucial to a vibrant, competitive economy.

Innovation requires continuous investment. Before the 2009 crisis, research and development (R&D) expenditure grew at an annual pace of approximately 7%. GII 2016 data indicate that global R&D grew by only 4% in 2014. This was a result of slower growth in emerging economies and tighter R&D budgets in high-income economies – this remains a source of concern.

“Investing in innovation is critical to raising long-term economic growth,” says WIPO Director GeneralFrancis Gurry.  “In this current economic climate, uncovering new sources of growth and leveraging the opportunities raised by global innovation are priorities for all stakeholders.”

Among the GII 2016 leaders, four economies — Japan, the U.S., the UK, and Germany— stand out in “innovation quality,” a top-level indicator that looks at the caliber of universities, number of scientific publications and international patent filings. China moves to 17th place in innovation quality, making it the leader among middle-income economies for this indicator, followed by India which has overtaken Brazil.

Soumitra Dutta, Dean, Cornell College of Business, and co-editor of the report, points out: “Investing in improving innovation quality is essential for closing the innovation divide. While institutions create an essential supportive framework for doing so, economies need to focus on reforming education and growing their research capabilities to compete successfully in a rapidly changing globalized world.”

GII 2016 Theme: “Winning with Global Innovation”

The GII theme this year is “Winning with Global Innovation.” The report explores the rising share of innovation carried out via globalized innovation networks, finding that gains from global innovation can be shared more widely as cross-border flows of knowledge and talent are on the rise. The report also concludes that there is ample scope to expand global corporate and public R&D cooperation to foster future economic growth.

Bruno Lanvin, INSEAD Executive Director for Global Indices, and co-author of the report, underlines: “Some may see globalization as a trend in search of its ‘second breath.’ Yet, the relative contraction of international trade and investment flows does give even more strategic importance to the two sides of global innovation: on one hand, more emerging countries are becoming successful innovators, and on the other hand, an increasing share of innovation benefits stem from cross-border co-operation.”

At the national level, the report says that innovation policies should more explicitly favor international collaboration and the diffusion of knowledge across borders. New international governance structures should also aim to increase technology diffusion to and among developing countries.

Johan Aurik, Managing Partner and Chairman of GII Knowledge Partner A.T. Kearney, the global consultancy, says: “Digital has become a primary driver of strategy development and innovation for business in almost all sectors; I am convinced we are only at the beginning. Notably for established organizations, the challenge lies in finding ways to successfully innovate by using and transforming existing resources and business practices. Realizing success in today’s new landscape requires creative, forward-thinking strategies that embrace digital and address the need to change the fundamental ways of working in the company.”

Northern America

The U.S. (4^th) continues to be one of the world’s most-innovative nations, with particular strengths including the presence of firms conducting global R&D, the sophistication of its financial market, including venture capital, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, software spending, and the state of its innovation clusters. The U.S. scores lower, however, in expenditures on education, in tertiary education due to its low share of graduates in science and engineering, in energy efficiency, and in economy-wide investment and productivity critical to future growth.

Canada (15^th overall in the GII) has top scores in its regulatory environment, the ease of starting a business, the sophistication of its financial market, including venture capital, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, as well as in online creativity. Yet, Canada’s GII rankings had declined in previous years, with its fall from the top 10 due largely to methodological changes as well as comparatively weak performance in education and R&D expenditures, information and communication technology (ICT) services, energy efficiency, and, similarly to the U.S., in economy-wide investment and productivity figures.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Mauritius takes the top spot among all economies in the region (53rd), followed by South Africa (54th), Kenya (80th), Rwanda (83rd), Mozambique (84th), Botswana (90th), Namibia (93rd), and Malawi (98th).

Since 2012, Sub-Saharan Africa has counted more countries than any other region among the group of “innovation achievers” – countries that perform better than their level of development would predict. This year, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda stand out. Better rankings on the indicators for institutions, business sophistication, and knowledge and technology output have allowed the region to catch up to Central and Southern Asia, and to overtake Northern Africa and Western Asia.

Average regional performance shows strengths in the ease of starting a business, ICTs, business-model creation, and relative expenditure on education, with weaknesses in firms conducting global R&D, high-tech exports, the quality of local universities and number of scientific publications. In general, further efforts are required in Human capital, Research and Infrastructure.

As economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is slowing, the GII 2016 shows that Sub-Saharan Africa must preserve its current innovation momentum, while continuing to diversify economies away from oil production and commodity revenues.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Chile takes the top spot among all economies in the region (44^th) driven by good scores on the indicators for institutions, infrastructure and business sophistication, followed by Costa Rica (45th), Mexico (61st), Uruguay (62nd), and Colombia (63rd). Brazil is ranked 69th, with strengths in relevant education and R&D factors, the quality of its scientific publications, and high-tech manufacturing; yet relative weaknesses in its business environment (123rd), elements of tertiary education (111th) and, more generally, its ability to generate innovation outputs, and the creation of new businesses.

Latin America is a region with important untapped innovation potential. The GII rankings of local economies have not significantly improved relative to other regions in recent years, and no country in the region currently shows a performance higher than its GDP.

The report suggests that, as Latin America, and especially Brazil, have entered into a zone of economic turbulence, it is important to overcome short-term political and economic constraints and to redouble longer-term innovation commitments. Greater regional R&D and innovation cooperation can help the region in this process, as underlined in this year’s GII theme.

Central and Southern Asia

India, 66th, is the top-ranked economy in Central and Southern Asia, showing particular strengths in tertiary education and R&D, including global R&D intensive firms, the quality of its universities and scientific publications, its market sophistication and ICT service exports where it ranks first in the world. India also over-performs in innovation relative to its GDP. It ranks second on innovation quality amongst middle-income economies, overtaking Brazil. Relative weaknesses exist in the indicators for business environment, education expenditures, new business creations and the creative goods and services production.

“The commitment of India to innovation and improved innovation metrics is strong and growing, helping to improve the innovation environment.  This trend will help gradually lift India closer to other top-ranked innovation economies”, says Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).  Following India in the region are Kazakhstan (75th), the Islamic Republic of Iran (78th), Tajikistan (86th), Sri Lanka (91st), and Bhutan (96th).

Northern Africa and Western Asia

Of the top five GII performers in this region, two are from the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): United Arab Emirates (41st) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (49th). Many of the GCC countries are diversifying their economies following a decades-long dependence on oil, turning their focus towards more innovation-driven and diverse sources of growth and overcoming relative shortcomings in areas, such as Institutions, market and business sophistication.

“Innovation no longer occurs in silos, today it crosses borders and relies on collaboration between various entities to create a win-win prospect. The UAE is harnessing a globalized strategy to lead innovation internationally through its Smart City agenda and bring about a greater degree of convenience and satisfaction, and ultimately happiness, for all,” says Osman Sultan, Chief Executive Officer, du.

Israel (21st) – consistently the only economy among the overall top 25 GII rankings and in the top 10 for any GII  pillar — and Cyprus (31st) are the top two nations in the region for the fourth consecutive year. Turkey ranks 4th in the region in 2016 and 42nd overall. Armenia (60th) is the only economy in the region which outperforms relative to its GDP.

The region shows its highest average scores in ICT access and ICT-driven business model creation, as well as in e-government, and productivity growth. Less notable performances are seen in high-tech exports, patents, and the quality of publications.

South East Asia, East Asia, and Oceania

Singapore (6th), the Republic of Korea (11th), Hong Kong (China) (14th), Japan (16th), and New Zealand (17th) lead the rankings in this region. The majority of innovation leaders in the GII are in this region or Europe.

Among upper-middle-income economies, China (25th), Malaysia (35th), and Thailand (52nd) rank first in the region. Viet Nam (59th) maintains its top place among lower-middle-income economies, followed by the Philippines (74th,) and Indonesia (88th). Low-income economy Cambodia maintains its ranking in the top 100 economies overall (95th).

The region’s strongest average performance is in the number of teachers per pupils and productivity growth, with lower scores in R&D financed by foreign firms, ICT services exports and imports, and intellectual property receipts.

Europe

Fifteen of the top 25 economies in the GII come from Europe, including the top three.  Switzerland retains the top position for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Sweden (2nd), and the United Kingdom (3rd). Following these top 3 regional leaders are Finland (5th), Ireland (7th), Denmark (8th), the Netherlands (9th), and Germany (10th), which joins the top 10 in 2016.

Europe benefits from comparatively strong institutions and well-developed infrastructure, while room for improvement is found in business sophistication and knowledge and technology outputs. Europe does particularly well in environmental performance, ICT access, and school life expectancy. At the same time, there is room for improvement in R&D financed by businesses, R&D financed by foreign firms, high-tech exports, and international patent filings.

Source: http://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2016/article_0008.html

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