In Depth

In Depth

Business intelligence and analytics

• Unstructured data storage – on-prem vs cloud vs hybrid

  We look at storage for unstructured data on-premise, in the cloud and across multiple locations. There are advantages to a hybrid approach, but there can be hidden costs, too  Continue Reading

• Employee experience joins CX for total enterprise view

  Total experience is emerging to join up employee and customer experience for organisations intent on being holistic and progressive  Continue Reading

• Embedded analytics emerges to offer new level of business intelligence

  Analytics suppliers are increasingly offering embedded analytics, based inside applications, often real-time, and driven by APIs as a way to get to next level of business intelligence  Continue Reading

• How IoT and digital twins could help CIOs meet ESG pledges

  Many local authorities have set ambitious net-zero targets. Can IoT technology, allied to digital twinning, help CIOs hit them?  Continue Reading

• Tech sector efforts to root out forced labour are failing

  Digitally mapping supply chains to identify forced labour and slavery is no longer a technology problem for the IT sector, but a lack of government enforcement and corporate inaction are major barriers to effective change  Continue Reading

• Composability set to be next big thing for digital experience platforms

  Digital experience platforms are the latest word in increasing customer loyalty by engaging across all channels. Gaining real-time views of customers while managing data compliantly is critical  Continue Reading

• How to track greenhouse gas emissions

  Companies from a range of sectors, as well as public authorities, are using software and data analytics to track greenhouse gas emissions, partly to meet new regulatory demands  Continue Reading

• Data gravity: What is it and how to manage it

  Data gravity can attract increasing amounts of data, and brings with it onerous management overheads. We look at how to mitigate data gravity in datacentre and cloud  Continue Reading

• How algorithmic automation could manage workers ethically

  Managing workers by algorithm and automated process has generated ethical problems aplenty. Can such means be pressed into the service for a more ethical mode of worker management? We find out  Continue Reading

• Enterprises shore up supply chain resilience with data

  Using data to gain better visibility over their supply chains and forge closer connections between disparate links is helping organisations respond to disruptions faster  Continue Reading

• Industry clouds are all the rage, but are they driven by marketing or customer need?

  Industry clouds – cloud applications designed for specific sectors – are fashionable staples of supplier marketing, but are they what corporate IT is demanding?  Continue Reading

• Dynamic workforce planning gains ground in more turbulent economy

  Some organisations are developing dynamic workforce planning approaches to cope with increasing economic turbulence and change – the South Central Ambulance Service is one  Continue Reading

• How data analytics drives wind turbine power generation

  Data analytics and related software lies behind the burgeoning wind turbine industry, with predictive maintenance to the fore. We find out how  Continue Reading

• Best-of-breed cloud ERP applications proffer a modern strategy

  How organisations are using best-of-breed SaaS products to fill gaps in their enterprise application strategy and deliver a modern approach to ERP  Continue Reading

• Why some data-driven decisions are not to be trusted

  Companies often express the desire to be data-driven – but what if the data isn’t right? Data democratisation could be part of the solution  Continue Reading

• Christal Bemont, Talend CEO: Show up as yourself

  Christal Bemont, CEO of data management firm Talend, reflects on coming through difficult times in solidarity with co-workers, and how data quality assumes a heightened significance in the digital era  Continue Reading

• Evolving a data integration strategy

  Linking IT systems together is never going away, but the approach CIOs adopt is key to ensuring relevant data feeds the decision-making process  Continue Reading

• Four emerging data integration trends to assess

  To accelerate their performance in data integration, companies are evaluating and adopting a range of contributing technologies  Continue Reading

• Data integration dogged by complexity and vital to business

  Integrating data is one of the thorniest challenges in business intelligence and analytics – achieving it is technically and organisationally complex, while it is gaining in importance all the time  Continue Reading

• How to make AI greener and more efficient

  Artificial intelligence promises both to combat the ill effects of climate change and to make the emergency worse with excessive energy use. How can AI be made greener?  Continue Reading

• How to create a sustainable continuous learning culture

  How can organisations create a continuous learning culture that will militate against the so-called great resignation? We explore, using Vodafone and Deutsche Bank as cases in point  Continue Reading

• University of Edinburgh extends IoT data science to south-east Scottish pupils

  The University of Edinburgh is part of a 15-year mission to educate the data scientists of tomorrow among school pupils in its south-east Scotland sphere  Continue Reading

• Fuzzy logic: The challenge of building data science teams

  In the face of a dearth of data science talent, and a crippling lack of diversity in the pool as it is, what are companies doing to build, manage and keep data science teams together? We find out  Continue Reading

• SMEs step up e-commerce ventures under shadow of Covid

  A raft of smaller retailers have stepped up their e-commerce businesses during the pandemic, ranging from books to candles, rugs to togs  Continue Reading

• Mining for intelligence: Why business process intelligence makes for agility

  Business process improvement is a never-ending quest for betterment that can be lit up by a new generation of process mining software. We take a deep dive  Continue Reading

• IT’s role in sustainability for a resilient supply chain

  A circular economy is among the long-term measures needed to combat climate change. This requires data transparency across supply chains  Continue Reading

• How software can help clean up emission-intensive industries

  The potential to reduce emissions by making heavy industries and commercial buildings more efficient using software is immense. We explore the field  Continue Reading

• How companies are rethinking digital customer experience in wake of pandemic

  The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed much digital rhetoric as hollow, as companies are now rethinking the digital customer experience, leveraging instant messaging and other tools  Continue Reading

• What lies beyond the data warehouse?

  Has the traditional data warehouse finally reached the end of its life? If so, what will follow it? Will it be a hybrid? We find out  Continue Reading

• AI more likely to complement than replace predictive analytics

  The discipline of predictive analytics is likely to increase in importance as it is complemented by artificial intelligence. NHS and National Express case studies prove the point  Continue Reading

• Oracle Fusion cloud applications pathways tend towards pragmatic

  Oracle’s full suite of cloud applications can be a pragmatic step-by-step journey for customers – we look at some examples  Continue Reading

• Lakehouse concept aims to merge data lake and data warehouse

  Data lakes are big, amorphous and difficult to access, while data warehouses are costly and aimed at structured data. The data lakehouse aims at analytics in an age of unstructured data  Continue Reading

• Real-time analytics begins to find business vocation

  Continuous real-time analytics, operating at sub-second speed, are finding real-world applicability across industry sectors, such as retail, transport and banking. Their value crux: can businesses act on the signals provided?  Continue Reading

• Covid-accelerated recruitment digitisation to gain sophistication with hybrid models

  Recruitment has had to go remote and digital during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and looks set to fill out and become more sophisticated as hybrid models of working emerge  Continue Reading

• Computational storage: What is it? Why now, what for, who from?

  Computational storage is an emerging architecture category, in which compute is put near storage to address I/O bottlenecks resulting from large volumes of data  Continue Reading

• Deploying productivity monitoring software ethically

  While software that tracks the activities of staff can be helpful to companies with a remote workforce, managers must consider employees’ concerns and privacy  Continue Reading

• Customer experience market made leap forward during pandemic

  The discipline of customer experience management made significant advances during the Covid-19 crisis, according to practitioners and advocates  Continue Reading

• How the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium sequenced Sars-Cov-2

  Consortium of universities and other institutions has harnessed datasets, analytics and cloud computing to sequence Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, in a blisteringly short time  Continue Reading

• How robotic process automation is getting smarter as it evolves

  Robotic process automation is evolving, adding artificial intelligence layers that render it more resilient and agile. What are its limitations and prospects?  Continue Reading

• Data warehouse storage: Has cloud made on-premise obsolete?

  There once was no alternative to building a data warehouse on-premise, but with cloud providers targeting analytics, building data warehouses on-site is looking obsolete  Continue Reading

• Anti-money laundering technology must operate in a collaborative ecosystem

  With new technologies making it easier for banks to spot money laundering activity, we look at why the problem persists at scale, finding that ecosystems and collaborative processes need to be built  Continue Reading

• AI projects yield little business value so far

  Artificial intelligence has been red hot in recent years, but it is generating precious little business value so far, although World Remit and Virgin Hyperloop have met with some success  Continue Reading

• Covid-19 and the art and science of data visualisation

  The pandemic has seen political leaders and civil servants using data visualisation like never before – but there is more to the art than meets the eye  Continue Reading

• Gaurav Dhillon: Silicon Valley is poised to grow up to seize a more spiritual future

  Gaurav Dhillon, co-founder of Informatica and founder CEO at SnapLogic, comes from a generation of Silicon Valley Indian immigrants who followed a scholarship route and have helped to shape the area’s tech companies. Here he reflects on his career ...  Continue Reading

• Data lake storage: Cloud vs on-premise data lakes

  The data lake is a fundamental concept of data management. But what type of storage do you need to build a data lake on and what are the pros and cons of on-premise vs the cloud?  Continue Reading

• Five key points about unstructured data storage on-prem and cloud

  We look at unstructured data, the myriad forms of data it comprises and the key storage options available, which include NAS and object storage on-prem and in the cloud  Continue Reading

• How to monitor remote workers humanely

  Monitoring employees who work remotely has taken on a whole extra dimension in the Covid-19 pandemic year of 2020. Financial services firms are among those which suggest ways of doing it humanely and legally  Continue Reading

• Get real: Live streaming analytics important to post-Covid growth, but not without good data

  Live streaming analytics could assume increased importance as a fuel for post-Covid growth, but not without good data  Continue Reading

• Extended reality software gets pandemic lift

  Extended reality software is not new, but the Covid-19 public health crisis has seen it take on a new lease of life as organisations face up to virtuality  Continue Reading

• Learning on the job when working from home

  Learning a new job and inducting hires when working from home has been tricky for employees and employers alike. We look at what workarounds have been adopted that could become the post-pandemic normal  Continue Reading

• Covid-19 crisis has speeded up contact centre digital transformation

  Pandemic has accelerated digital transformation in many business sectors, including contact centres such as those of the University of Huddersfield and UK Power Networks  Continue Reading

• Brain researchers get NVMe-over-RoCE for super-fast HPC storage

  French neurological researchers deploy Western Digital OpenFlex NVMe array for super-fast HPC storage with Ethernet-based NVMe-over-Fabrics connectivity across several floors  Continue Reading

• How crowd simulation modelling enables organisations to develop social distancing strategies

  Crowd simulation modelling has a role to play in maximising the Covid security of offices and other buildings by facilitating social distancing to help get people back to workplaces  Continue Reading

• BI not BS: how businesses are building futures with data analytics

  Business intelligence software is finding an intensified mission as companies try to forecast beyond the global Covid-19 health pandemic  Continue Reading

• UK government coronavirus data flawed and misleading

  Government Covid-19 coronavirus data has been a miasma of inexactitude, often basically flawed and misleading  Continue Reading

• Business process automation expansion could founder on IT drift from business focus

  Business process automation might find new territory to expand into as businesses have become bloated with excess processes since the 2008 crash. But has IT drifted out of business alignment again?  Continue Reading

• Covid crisis shifts supply chain management from efficiency to resilience

  Supply chain management seems to be changing profoundly as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds, possibly shifting from an economy of efficiency to resilience, harnessing trading networks, machine learning and robotic process automation  Continue Reading

• Digital experience management – web content management for the omnichannel age?

  Digital experience management represents an evolution of web content management for a more omnichannel commercial world. We explore its definition and applicability  Continue Reading

• APAC buyer’s guide to BI and analytics

  In this buyer’s guide, we look at the state of adoption of business intelligence and analytics tools, common use cases and other technology and business considerations  Continue Reading

• Decision points in storage for artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data

  Artificial intelligence and machine learning storage is not one-size-fits-all. Analytics work differs, and has varied storage requirements for capacity, latency, throughput and IOPS. We look at key decision points  Continue Reading

• Black Lives Matter, but do bots know that?

  The volume of content generated each day necessitates automated moderation to curate everything as it is published, ensuring offensive and objectionable material is blocked. But this only works if systems are adequately configured and reviewed  Continue Reading

• Computational storage: What is it and what are its key use cases?

  Computational storage brings the CPU to the storage and so boosts system performance by tackling processing tasks, such as near the edge or in AI/machine learning workloads  Continue Reading

• How HR robotics can be good for people

  The automation of human resources processes, some of which uses robotic process automation, can benefit humans, as a clutch of Nordic and UK organisations show  Continue Reading

• Fly by data: How service models drive data collaboration in aerospace

  Rolls-Royce has added collaborative data sharing to its fundamental business model shift to servitisation  Continue Reading

• Top 10 storage deployment stories of 2019

  Here are ComputerWeekly’s top 10 storage deployment stories for 2019, which see quite a move away from traditional SAN and NAS to hyper-converged, software-defined storage and object storage  Continue Reading

• What is QLC flash and what workloads it is good for?

  QLC flash offers low per-gigabyte costs and lots of capacity, but can be limited by endurance and I/O performance. It can be a good disk replacement for several workloads, however  Continue Reading

• Satellite firm SES saves millions with cloud project management tools

  Discover how satellite firm SES modernised project management with a cloud-based system from Precursive, based on live data and tailored in its reporting to different managerial roles  Continue Reading

• Search beyond search engines

  All-purpose search engines can have drawbacks for professional searchers. Technologies are emerging to take consultants, journalists, academics and others beyond search engines  Continue Reading

• Enhancing business purpose with privacy compliance

  Computer Weekly looks at the importance of building on basic GDPR compliance and making privacy a key foundation of business culture  Continue Reading

• A tale of two smart cities: Manchester and Australia’s Casey

  How local government needs to focus on immediate returns, not pie in the sky, for a smart city agenda  Continue Reading

• Better payroll automation is next frontier for HR software

  Traditionally, companies have treated payroll as a cost centre, and so it has lagged behind the likes of talent management. But if you don’t pay the talent on time, you will pay a price  Continue Reading

• How tech leads local government innovation in Vienna, Helsinki and Belfast

  Digital leaders in the cities of Vienna, Helsinki and Belfast are innovating new services to help citizens and local economies  Continue Reading

• Universities use data analytics to tackle student mental health

  UK universities turn to data analytics software to tackle student mental health. Are there duty of care lessons for other sectors?  Continue Reading

• Facebook’s privacy game – how Zuckerberg backtracked on promises to protect personal data

  Facebook promised its users privacy then quietly abandoned its promises in pursuit of profits. Now it faces antitrust regulation  Continue Reading

• Unstructured data compliance: Obstacles and solutions

  Stored unstructured data could be a black hole full of unknown risk. We look at the key dangers to compliance in unstructured data and some ways of mitigating the risks  Continue Reading

• AI storage: Machine learning, deep learning and storage needs

  Artificial intelligence workloads impact storage, with NVMe flash needed for GPU processing at the highest levels of performance – and there are other choices right through the AI data lifecycle  Continue Reading

• Silicon Valley startups look to plug gaps in data value chain

  A group of California-based startups and early-stage data management companies are promising CIOs ways to plug gaps in the data-to-insight value chain  Continue Reading

• How modern business intelligence shapes up to big data

  Business intelligence and analytics strategies have evolved in recent years in the face of big data. Here, we get a supplier CEO perspective, some analyst counsel, and testimony from Nationwide, Schroders and King  Continue Reading

• West Midlands Police turns to predictive analytics

  Force is developing a system to identify potential perpetrators of violent crime and aims to target resources – but how viable is the system and what are the challenges?  Continue Reading

• Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky talks strategy

  Tableau’s CEO, Adam Selipsky, talks strategy and business intelligence trends with Computer Weekly. He asserts enterprise relevance for Tableau, predicts BI tools consolidation and a ubiquitous user base for analytics  Continue Reading

• Southern Water’s centralised data team geared for silo busting

  Southern Water has centralised its data specialists and overhauled its data management and business intelligence technology to support business decision-making at scale  Continue Reading

• How ASEAN firms can tap storage analytics to improve operations

  With storage systems becoming more heterogeneous and siloed, some organisations in ASEAN are turning to storage analytics to reduce costs and address storage issues before they occur  Continue Reading

• Storage 101: Structured data and its storage needs

  Structured data is declining as a proportion of all data but its importance to business applications and its organised nature make its storage requirements very specific  Continue Reading

• A new era of collaboration for the NHS

  Great Ormond Street Hospital's new research and innovation unit, Drive, marks a significant shift towards greater collaboration between NHS organisations and third-party industry partners  Continue Reading

• Software requirements for international aid go beyond cloud and apps

  Aid workers in extreme situations don’t always have stable access to the software they need over the cloud. Find out how they work around this  Continue Reading

• Doorstep challenge: How retailers are innovating on delivery and fulfilment

  Every retailer selling online in 2018 needs great shipping options for customers who have got used to an expanding list of choices. How are some retailers developing the proposition, and where does technology fit into the equation?  Continue Reading

• Employers turn to wearable technology to help staff manage work-life balance

  Companies are realising that there are sound business reasons for ensuring their employees get enough sleep and exercise, so they are turning to wearable technology to help their staff stay healthy, despite the pressures of work  Continue Reading

• WD-40 oils sales and finance processes in Europe with Epicor

  WD-40 has automated its business processes with Epicor ERP, finding the system’s service-oriented architecture good for providing flexibility in the company’s business growth  Continue Reading

• AI elevates predictive maintenance for Kone and ThyssenKrupp

  Kone and ThyssenKrupp are using artificial intelligence to improve predictive maintenance of their lifts and escalators  Continue Reading

• Siemens success sets the scene for growth in process mining

  German industrial conglomerate Siemens has turned to process mining to reveal inefficiencies in the way it pays suppliers, organises logistics and runs order-to-cash processes  Continue Reading

• Silicon Valley startups home in on pressing value from data

  A slew of California-based startup and early-stage data analytics companies are promising CIOs better ways to get value from their investments in databases and analytics  Continue Reading

• Customer analytics applications add artificial intelligence to reduce market ‘friction’

  Customer analytics applications developers are seeking to add layers of intelligence to improve sellers’ interactions with buyers  Continue Reading

• Put the customer first and reap the reward

  How businesses can develop a granular understanding of their customers’ needs in a hyper-connected world  Continue Reading

• Smart speakers open new windows into customer behaviour for CRM

  Voice recognition has become a new frontier for customer relationship management. What does the new voice channel mean for understanding consumers and how will voice data integrate with existing customer intelligence?  Continue Reading

• The death of the mainframe is greatly exaggerated, says CA

  With mainframe software tools forming a key part of its overall growth strategy, CA Technologies remains proud of its mainframe heritage  Continue Reading

• Formula 1: Mercedes team turns to big data in quest for victory in Grand Prix

  Data analytics could help Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team gain an edge on rival Ferrari during the 2017 and 2018 Grand Prix season. Its head of IT, Matt Harris, reveals the team’s plans  Continue Reading

• Data management: What does the future hold?

  We explore how firms are replacing transactional database management systems with new database architectures  Continue Reading

• Côte banishes planning ‘pain and anguish’ from menu with Anaplan

  Restaurant chain has replaced spreadsheets with Anaplan financial planning software as it seeks more strategic control over growth  Continue Reading

• MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor speaks about ‘expanding universe’ of BI

  Co-founder and CEO of MicroStrategy takes the long view on business intelligence and sees its universe expanding with mobile technologies  Continue Reading

• The Macedonian surveillance scandal that brought down a government

  Macedonia has been accused of using surveillance technology for covert spying - the subsequent political protests were instrumental in the ruling party losing power after 10 years  Continue Reading