Opinion

Opinion

Information management

• How digital-twin technology could revolutionise the healthcare industry

  Digital-twin technology is not new, but in many industries it is still regarded as novel and is often misunderstood  Continue Reading

• Harness data to make better business conversations

  Productive business conversations require a data culture underpinned by data literacy and balanced by humanistic values  Continue Reading

• Lessons from Lisbon: Reflections on a week at Web Summit

  Russ Shaw, founder and CEO of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, assesses the key takeaways of Web Summit 2021  Continue Reading

• Watching me, watching you – challenging the rise of digital surveillance at work

  Unprecedented levels of digital monitoring at work is embedding a culture of surveillance, despite workers’ opposition to the practices, says Prospect Union  Continue Reading

• Reaching the data gold standard: dream or reality?

  The pandemic has forced businesses to adopt digital technology at a record pace but most organisations find themselves at the beginning of a long journey towards making the most of their data  Continue Reading

• Building better data foundations to make the most of AI

  The UK government's national artificial intelligence strategy relies on businesses putting in place the foundations for better use of data – EY research highlights the challenges ahead  Continue Reading

• UK AI strategy focused on economic growth, resilience and ethics

  Chris Eastham of law firm Fieldfisher looks at the government’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and the merits of the 10-year plan and its approach  Continue Reading

• UK data plans aim to boost growth but will they isolate the UK from its international friends?

  The UK government has made strong statements about the nation’s post-Brexit data strategy but must be careful not to undermine its global credibility  Continue Reading

• Putting data at the heart of policymaking will accelerate London’s recovery

  A new initiative to encourage better data sharing between London’s private and public sectors can play an important role in recovering from the pandemic  Continue Reading

• Using geospatial data to unlock innovation in the property sector

  Louise Weale from Ordnance Survey argues that geospatial data is key to unlocking business innovation in the property sector  Continue Reading

• How CIOs can help their organisations accelerate digital transformation

  Companies need to win the trust of their customers to gather the data they need to transform their businesses  Continue Reading

• Why a data-driven world should consider an oath of ethics

  The Hippocratic Oath is perhaps the most widely known of Greek medical texts – and such an oath is needed in data science  Continue Reading

• Can we rely on AI?

  As artificial intelligence comes increasingly to bear on human lives, how ought we to address social and ethical concerns? Is a tighter symbiosis between human systems and AI systems the way forward?  Continue Reading

• Digital bootcamp initiative could kickstart new thinking about technology skills

  The government’s digital bootcamps initiative could help begin to shift the way we think about the roles of technology professionals  Continue Reading

• How to tackle intellectual property crime

  Crimes against intellectual property are big business for organised crime groups, commercial competitors and foreign states alike. In the first of a series of legal columns, David Cowan offers a practical approach  Continue Reading

• Employees must be given the right to disconnect

  As enterprises increasingly turn to workplace monitoring technologies and more of the workforce moves to remote or hybrid working, unions are campaigning for workers’ ‘right to disconnect’ and not engage in digitally enabled work after hours  Continue Reading

• Why the London Data Charter could be a foundation stone in the city’s recovery

  London First’s director of connectivity and competitiveness, David Lutton, explains why data is at the core of the capital’s recovery plan  Continue Reading

• Data-driven innovation needs trustworthy governance

  The pandemic has given us a glimpse of what data-driven technology can do for society – and we cannot go back to the status quo  Continue Reading

• Healthcare digitisation at point financial services was in 1990s

  For all the talk about digitised healthcare, the sector is only where banking was in the 1990s. How can it catch up? Can the Covid-19 pandemic crisis be a catalyst?  Continue Reading

• Let’s build on the innovation shown by UK tech during pandemic

  The UK’s technology sector has innovated and shown leadership through the Covid-19 crisis, particularly with developments in AI. It is now time to maintain and build on that progress, so the UK remains a global force in tech innovation  Continue Reading

• Data has never been more important for London

  As London looks to 2021 and a hoped-for recovery after Covid-19, responsible data sharing and data-driven decision-making become ever more important to the future for all the capital’s businesses  Continue Reading

• Love (and impact sourcing) in the time of Covid

  Amanda Lewis, a lawyer specialising in IT outsourcing, describes the diversity and inclusion work of Digital Divide Data  Continue Reading

• What will it take for humanity to fully understand tech?

  The failure of the coronavirus contact-tracing system, due to limits set by an old Excel format, demonstrates a failure of technology to cope with human reliance  Continue Reading

• Gartner: Balance safety, privacy and productivity when employees return to the workplace

  Organisations may decide that data collection can help keep employees safe in a Covid-secure workplace – but employers must consider all the privacy and productivity implications  Continue Reading

• The new age of supply chains post-Covid

  Supply chain managers have been predicting the future for years. Now manufacturers are relying on insights to inform their decision-making  Continue Reading

• Data institutions play critical role in solving global social problems

  Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the Open Data Institute, argues that a new breed of data institutions have a key role to play in unlocking the social and economic value of data  Continue Reading

• How to build a smart city from the ruins of Covid-19

  The London Data Commission is working to open up data about the capital to help regeneration and growth post-pandemic  Continue Reading

• Taking back control of government data mustn’t leave the public in the dark

  Boris Johnson has quietly transferred control over government data to Number 10, without explaining why. The public deserves more involvement in how their personal data is being used, says Labour  Continue Reading

• How Schrems II will impact data sharing between the UK and the US

  At the end of this year, the UK will no longer be subject to the EU’s treaties, opening the way for it and the US to finalise a new trade relationship. Could the UK leave EU data protection standards behind?  Continue Reading

• Building trust in the future of London’s data

  Sharing data by default could turbocharge London’s potential for radical improvements across the ecosystem, according to London First’s director of connectivity and competitiveness, David Lutton  Continue Reading

• Is our drinking data-driven?

  Caroline Carruthers, CEO of Carruthers and Jackson, cogitates on the balance between gut and data in making personal risk decisions, ahead of a CDO summer school  Continue Reading

• The pandemic has made UK government rethink its relationship with data

  Data has been essential to fighting the coronavirus outbreak, and the forthcoming National Data Strategy promises to place data at the heart of the UK's economic recovery  Continue Reading

• Is data interoperability the key to unlocking IoT value?

  Much of the hype around the internet of things focuses on smart devices, but the best IoT initiatives will be those led by business need and data  Continue Reading

• What women can do for data and what data can do for women

  For her work during wartime, Florence Nightingale is remembered as a founding giant of British statistics. Those who follow in her footsteps are using data to tackle the greatest health challenge of our time  Continue Reading

• Why UK needs independent oversight body for contact-tracing app

  The public needs and deserves clarity, and not just assurances, over the UK’s Covid-19 contact-tracing app  Continue Reading

• Too many data sources and too little consistency

  One of the biggest concerns that businesses have about their data is its quality, and quality of data is a governance issue  Continue Reading

• The importance of data accuracy in the fight against Covid-19

  With the right data, individuals and organisations can make the most informed decisions to keep people safer through the coronavirus pandemic and restart the economy at the right time and place  Continue Reading

• Coronavirus and privacy – finding the middle ground

  Data collection has a role to play in fighting the deadly Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, but governments need to be accountable for how it is used  Continue Reading

• Our data is making us ‘richer’ – even if it’s the tech companies getting rich

  How much do we value our personal data, and how does that compare to the value we think we get from companies like Facebook and Google exploiting that data?  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Optimise data-centric strategies with AI

  The belief that effective perimeter security is the best way to protect data is a fallacy that is being repeatedly exposed. We must recognise the need for a data-centric security model to protect data from both internal and external threats, but ...  Continue Reading

• Security Think Tank: Focus on metrics to manage risk

  How can security professionals help their organisations move from traditional governance, risk and compliance to integrated risk management that integrates risk activities from across an organisation to enable better strategic decision making?  Continue Reading

• If data really is the new oil, the raw materials need a different economic approach

  The International Monetary Fund is the latest to say that data is the new oil – the change agent in the economy – but striking it rich is a complicated matter  Continue Reading

• Regulators globally are shaping up to rein in Facebook

  We need to move fast and fix Facebook, before it breaks us  Continue Reading

• Are there any positives from the first year of GDPR?

  A year has passed since the new EU data protection law came into force. What have we learned in that time that can help organisations deliver benefits from the regulation?  Continue Reading

• The winter of AI discontent – thoughts on trends in tech ethics

  All organisations need to consider the ethics of their technology use, especially as artificial intelligence tools become more mainstream  Continue Reading

• Building Britain’s national digital twin

  The tech sector and wider industry are coming together to create a “digital twin” of Britain to help improve the nation’s physical infrastructure – and you can help  Continue Reading

• Facebook’s high-stakes privacy gamble goes to Dublin court

  A high-wire gamble with billions in compensation at stake for European internet users – part of a complex case between Facebook and the Irish information commissioner – hides challenge to the unlawfulness of US state internet surveillance  Continue Reading

• Putting the UK at the forefront of ethics and innovation in AI and data

  The announcement of high-profile members of the UK's Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation is another step for the government's commitment to be a global leader in AI, says secretary of state  Continue Reading

• UK winners and losers in digital tech

  The UK's retail and telecoms companies are among the best in the world at digital technology, but a survey of digital leaders shows there is still room for improvement for many UK firms  Continue Reading

• Why the government should rethink the UK’s surveillance laws

  The European Court of Human Rights has made clear that the Snoopers’ Charter is an unlawful violation of people’s rights and freedoms  Continue Reading

• How design thinking will affect today’s analysts

  A user research manager at Tableau Software explains the import of an eye-tracking survey, focused on understanding how humans consume dashboards  Continue Reading

• AI: Black boxes and the boardroom

  Computers can and do make mistakes and AI is only as good its training so relying purely on machine intelligence to make critical decisions is risky  Continue Reading

• Beyond GDPR: ePrivacy could have an even greater impact on mobile

  From how we monitor air pollution and manage our public transport systems, to how we enable connected cars and the next generation of 5G mobile services, the forthcoming ePR could have a lasting impact on European society  Continue Reading

• Digital transformation is just business change

  Don't always start with the technology if you're driving transformation, but always start with the business  Continue Reading

• Big data skills shortages – and how to work around them

  Businesses are finding it hard to recruit enough people with big data and analytics skills, but for CIOs there are alternative strategies to consider  Continue Reading

• Ethics and tech – a double-edged sword

  Just because a business activity is legal doesn’t mean it will be acceptable to customers, as the ethical debates in tech are proving  Continue Reading

• Hacking the internet of things just got easier – it’s time to look at your security

  Are you taking security for internet-connected devices seriously enough?  Continue Reading

• Blockchain: Paving the way for broad adoption

  The foundations have been laid for organisations to begin standardising on the technology, talent and platforms that will drive future blockchain initiatives  Continue Reading

• Driving digitisation: open standards in process automation

  Organisations often can’t take advantage of advances in digital technology due to the lack of interoperability in their IT systems in different facilities, but open standards promise a way forward  Continue Reading

• Open data, democracy and public service reform

  Discussion around reforming public services is as important as better information sharing rules if government is to make the most of public data  Continue Reading

• How will the UK supercharge its digital economy?

  The country needs to focus on the key issues it faces to make the most of the opportunities presented by the digital revolution  Continue Reading

• Max Schrems’s mass surveillance complaint knocked back another year or two by Irish judge

  Irish data protection commissioner Helen Dixon has neatly avoided having to deal with the US surveillance of Facebook users in Europe by referring a complaint by Austrian lawyer Max Schrems to the European Court of Justice  Continue Reading

• More hospitals in APAC adopting IT to bolster patient care

  Healthcare providers in the APAC region are looking to the cloud and big data analytics to enhance services and lower cost  Continue Reading

• The children of the digital revolution

  Digital professionals are emerging as the source of expertise within the agile enterprise. They understand how to use digital technologies, starting small then building big  Continue Reading

• The Data Protection Bill is about securing UK data leadership

  The UK's new data protection legislation is vital to a successful Brexit and for continued UK leadership in technology  Continue Reading

• The digital revolution: push or pull?

  The “digital revolution” has parallels with the 1889 Land Rush in Oklahoma. Some succeeded, some failed and others wished they had never set off on the journey  Continue Reading

• Let’s have some more straight talking on AI and robotics

  How do you ensure artificial intelligence grows with your business and does not turn into an assortment of technologies that may be fantastic but don’t integrate or scale well?  Continue Reading

• Understanding the economic value of your personal data

  Your personal data is worthless – it's only when it's processed by the Facebooks or Googles of this world that it has business value  Continue Reading

• Emerging technologies: How can you cut through the noise?

  Technology leaders need to focus the raw potential of emerging technology into a set of priorities with measurable, tangible business impacts  Continue Reading

• What would Mr Tulkinghorn think?

  Law firms have begun to use AI in the review and analysis of data, which has profound implications for way law firms deliver services to their clients  Continue Reading

• How AI is disrupting the role of call centres and call centre staff

  Artificial intelligence could eliminate many white-collar jobs in coming decades. Its effects are already being felt in the call centre industry, but there is still no substitute for the human touch  Continue Reading

• Telcos need real-time analytics strategies to capitalise on big data

  In order to capitalise on the value from big data and operate as intelligent businesses, telcos must develop real-time analytics strategies, advises Accenture  Continue Reading

• The digital opportunity for CIOs

  CIOs have a unique opportunity to lead the digital strategy in their organisations, but they have to move quickly to make sure they have the right skills and infrastructure in place  Continue Reading

• Open data in the public sector – what’s next?

  Public bodies have made important strides in open data – but there is still a long way to go to fully realise the benefits and opportunities  Continue Reading

• The UK needs a data infrastructure

  Public data needs to be open and protected, and should be treated as part of our critical national infrastructure  Continue Reading

• Investigatory Powers Bill – the case for mass surveillance

  As the Investigatory Powers Bill goes through its final stages in Parliament, a former GCHQ intelligence officer puts the case for the bulk surveillance powers contained in the legislation  Continue Reading

• A Good American: a personal take on mass surveillance

  Director Friedrich Moser draws some conclusions on mass surveillance from his groundbreaking documentary on the work of NSA whistleblower, Bill Binney  Continue Reading

• KYC: a financial services business enabler

  In the financial services arena, know your customer (KYC) is set to emerge as a key strategic element of organisations’ business models  Continue Reading

• It’s not too late to turn the tide on Investigatory Powers Bill

  The government has set David Anderson QC an almost impossible task in his review of the sweeping bulk powers proposed in the Investigatory Powers Bill – but it is not too late to make a difference  Continue Reading

• A day in the life of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

  Britain's most secretive court combined the surreal with the deadly serious, as it debated the legality of bulk data collection by MI5, MI6 and GCHQ  Continue Reading

• Brexit offers chance for UK to become a ‘data haven’

  Could the UK become a a safe place for both cloud and big data after it leaves the EU?  Continue Reading

• Blockchain and the CIO: a new model for IT

  The most important emerging technology for the enterprise – and therefore the CIO – is not big data, the social web, artificial intelligence, robotics or the cloud – it’s blockchain  Continue Reading

• Graph databases: What are the benefits for CIOs?

  With enterprise interest in graph databases on the rise, Clive Longbottom explains why some businesses are favouring them over relational setups  Continue Reading

• The consumerisation of machine intelligence

  Machine intelligence is improving fast – as demonstrated by Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo success – and IT leaders need to plan for its effect on enterprise IT  Continue Reading

• How to transition to a cloud-based analytics environment

  Accenture Digital consultants say businesses can be more agile by way of cloud-based analytics  Continue Reading

• Wearable technology creates opportunities for retailers

  Wearable technology allows taxis to offer commuters a ride when it is raining, and restaurants' to tailor their dishes to customers' weight-loss plans.  Continue Reading

• Don’t think that Brexit will save you from the EU data protection rules

  The EU General Data Protection Regulation will still apply to UK companies dealing with the EU, regardless of whether the UK remains in the union  Continue Reading

• EU moves towards digital single market with online content portability

  Lawyers Chris Watson and Tom Scourfield explain how the EU is moving towards the creation of a digital single market with its proposal for online content portability  Continue Reading

• Life on the edge: The benefits of using micro datacentres

  Enterprises are demanding faster access to applications and ever more processing power. Could edge datacentres fill the gap?  Continue Reading

• How insight-driven enterprises use data to strategic advantage

  Accenture managing directors Nick Millman and Ray Eitel-Porter distil steps for enterprises to turn data into business insight from the firm’s consultancy  Continue Reading

• Will people be at the heart of your business transformation?

  Areas of the business that hold workforce data face a huge opportunity to help their organisations accelerate end-to-end transformation and increase their odds of success  Continue Reading

• Robots will transform, not replace, human work

  Claims that robots will steal our jobs are commonplace – but humans will find themselves working side by side with robots, rather than being replaced by them  Continue Reading

• If government wants city devolution to succeed, cities need to use data

  Developing smart data-driven cities needs to be a priority if the government's devolution policy is to succeed  Continue Reading

• When a slowdown in IT budgets is a good thing

  IT budgets will grow at their slowest rate for four years in 2016, yet companies are spending more on digital technology  Continue Reading

• Digital platform more than taxi service: Uber as app economy paradigm?

  Uber’s significance may lie more in its being a data-rich platform that taps into unused human economic resources than in its role as a passenger pickup service  Continue Reading

• Why it pays to get messy with big data

  Big data does not have to be perfect to give useful insights. The ability to make messy data usable quickly could become business critical  Continue Reading

• Democratise internet of things data analytics with virtualisation

  Accenture Labs authors contend that data virtualisation can unlock business value from the IoT  Continue Reading

• The problem of smart cities and connectivity in the UK

  Only once leaders develop a framework for local economic and societal development can the “smart city” buzz can evolve into “intelligent communities”  Continue Reading

• How the Consumer Rights Act will affect the digital industry

  Consumer legislation has been updated to take into account the unique nature of digital content – but what does it mean for technology suppliers?  Continue Reading

• Can the IT department fix personal data?

  Disruptive technologies can help solve the problem of managing personal data, but IT needs to team up with marketing and finance teams to make it work  Continue Reading