Business intelligence and analytics

15 common data science techniques to know and use

Data scientists use a variety of statistical and analytical techniques to analyze data sets. Here are 15 popular classification, regression and clustering methods. Continue Reading

Alan Turing Institute appoints global advisory board to aid digital identity schemes project

The Alan Turing Institute announces an international advisory board for a project investigating digital identity schemes, with a view to building the technology and organisational infrastructure to sustain them as trustworthy Continue Reading

DCMS’s Whittingdale: National Data Strategy enters post-consultation phase

Minister for media and data tells TechUK’s Digital Ethics summit that the long-awaited national data strategy has entered a new, post-consultation phase, and that the UK is set to show international leadership on digital and data in 2021 Continue Reading

The data science process: 6 key steps on analytics applications

The data science process includes a set of steps that data scientists take to gather, prepare and analyze data and present the analytics results to business users. Continue Reading

Government data quality framework geared to overcome poorly organised data

The Office for National Statistics has published guidelines aimed at improving “disorganised” public sector data Continue Reading

Dreamforce 2020: Hyperforce shifts Salesforce to public cloud

Salesforce COO Bret Taylor announced “Hyperforce” during Marc Benioff’s opening keynote at the virtual version of the supplier’s 2020 Dreamforce event in San Francisco Continue Reading

S/4 Hana projects come off back burner, but skills shortage impedes progress

UK and Ireland SAP User Group members set to ramp up S/4 ERP migration projects, but skills shortage and retirement of SAP managers in user organisations are a concern Continue Reading

Salesforce confirms rumoured Slack acquisition on eve of Dreamforce 2020

Salesforce has announced a $27.7bn stock and cash acquisition of Slack ahead of the virtual iteration of its Dreamforce 2020 event 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

How retailers are using technology to survive

In this week’s Computer Weekly, with high street retailers struggling to survive, we look at how technology can keep stores relevant. Everyone is focusing on flash storage, but hard disk drives are still an essential part of the IT toolkit. And we examine the latest developments in the ongoing Post Office Horizon IT scandal. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

MI5 accused of withholding surveillance compliance failures from cabinet minister

MI5 withheld high-risk concerns about its ability to comply with legislation from the home secretary when it submitted applications for surveillance warrants, NGOs Privacy International and Liberty claimed last week Continue Reading

CW Nordics: Bank branch closures continue as digital banking grows

Sweden’s Handelsbanken is cutting its branch network by nearly half, which means more money will be invested in IT. But it’s not just Sweden and the Nordics – banks across the world are watching the fintech industry demonstrate to consumers what banking can be like if the right technology is in place. Also in this issue, read about the Norwegian government’s decision not to implement an outright ban on the use of 5G equipment supplied by China's Huawei. Continue Reading

Tony Blair Institute and Oracle combine to launch cloud-based vaccine management in Africa

The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) and Oracle have combined to launch a vaccine management programme in several African countries Continue Reading

Scottish government unveils strategy for digital planning

Scotland’s government has published a document that describes its strategy for the digitisation of the nation’s planning system Continue Reading

UK government Geospatial Commission stipulates actions to exploit location data

Report outlines some actions public bodies and companies can take to make better economic use of location data 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

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

Automated image recognition: How using ‘free’ photos on the internet can lead to lawsuits and fines

Germany-based photographer Marco Verch uses computer scripts to populate the internet with topical images and photographs. People and companies who make mistakes in following the complex licensing terms of his ‘free to share and adapt’ photographs receive threatening ‘legal’ demands Continue Reading

Privacy advocates call for European probe into Palantir

Dutch group SOMI is trying to raise awareness of Palantir’s data privacy practices and how it works with European government agencies Continue Reading

CW Benelux: Dutch Alzheimer’s app helps dementia patients

An app aimed at helping dementia patients and their families has been developed by the Alzheimer Society in the Netherlands. Also in this issue, read about a Belgian startup's app based on blockchain technology to help container handling at ports, and why Rabobank ditched its legacy backup. Continue Reading

Winners of female-only data hackathon announced

Several firms banded together to run a virtual female-only hackathon to encourage data analysts to use Covid-19 data to solve pandemic-related problems Continue Reading

DCMS’s Whittingdale: National data strategy not tied to EU trade deal

Minister tells ODI Summit that national data strategy is nearly finished and will fuel UK economic growth post-Brexit and post-pandemic Continue Reading

Quarter of UKISUG members plan S/4 Hana migration by 2022

Research by UK and Ireland SAP User Group and analyst firm shows SAP customer base still moving slowly to S/4 Hana Continue Reading

BBVA creates market information infrastructure on AWS cloud

Spanish bank BBVA is using Amazon Web Services to give its traders better access to market data following a project which also involved data provider Bloomberg Continue Reading

Mastercard: Looks like a tech firm, acts like a tech firm, is a tech firm

Financial services giant finds itself in a prominent position as the volume of digital transactions increases 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

Nordic countries to develop common digital system

Common digital platform will help small and medium-sized enterprises across the Nordic region with data sharing Continue Reading

EU to introduce data-sharing measures with US in weeks

The European Commission is to issue updated standard contractual clauses (SCCs) that will allow organisations in the EU to exchange data with the US, but they may arrive too late to incorporate into UK law Continue Reading

The UK government’s ‘flawed and misleading’ Covid-19 data

In this week’s Computer Weekly, the coronavirus data relied upon by the UK government is ‘flawed and misleading’ say experts – we examine the implications. Ikea talks about how it turned to the cloud to deal with the impact of the pandemic. And we look at the digital transformation underway at credit card giant Capital One. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Pet project: How Pets at Home cares for customers with data analytics

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the chief data officer of Pets at Home, about using data analytics to care for customers. British Airways had its GDPR fine reduced to just £20m – we ask what this means for data protection regulation. And we look at GPT3, the language prediction tool that could revolutionise AI. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

SAP Q3 2020 results: revenue down 4%, cloud silver lining hailed

SAP’s third quarter 2020 results stated a 4% year-on-year reduction in revenue, with an 11% increase in cloud revenue lightening the gloom 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

How SATS is streamlining procurement

Singapore-based supplier of ground handling and food services is deploying what it calls ‘touchless procurement’ Continue Reading

Serco and Sitel contact-tracing contracts agreed to be penalty-free for underperformance

Penalties for underperformance were not included in NHS contact-tracing contracts with Serco and Sitel, it has emerged from questions to the Department of Health by Conservative MP David Davis 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

NHS England issues integrated cloud ERP procurement advice call

NHS England is calling on software suppliers for advice concerning the feasibility of moving and integrating its ERP systems in cloud infrastructure Continue Reading

CDO interview: Pets at Home uses data analytics to further petcare ‘ecosystem’

Robert Kent, chief data officer for Pets at Home, describes how he has built a data analytics team and technology stack to enhance the petcare company’s understanding of its customers Continue Reading

NetSuite CEO Goldberg: Growing in the house of Oracle

NetSuite CEO Evan Goldberg briefs analysts and press on the eve of the supplier’s annual, this year virtual, conference 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

Benelux ports use blockchain in major efficiency drive

Belgian startup T-Mining develops application based on blockchain technology to make container handling safer and more efficient Continue Reading

Location intelligence: Geospatial technology’s vital role in the UK’s housing crisis

This is a guest blogpost by Stuart Bonthrone, Chief Executive, Esri UK. The UK’s housing crisis has reached a crunch point over recent years - and it’s now estimated that a massive 345,000 new ... Continue Reading

Oracle OpenWorld 2020: Miranda – business model changes are driving turn to cloud

Steve Miranda, who leads Oracle applications development globally, spoke to Computer Weekly ahead of his keynote at the virtual version of OpenWorld. Supply chain management and customer experience are vectors where improvements are being made, he said Continue Reading

Over two million Brits using open banking

Data shows more than two million people in the UK are now taking control of their financial data through open banking Continue Reading

Tibco eyes growth in emerging APAC markets

Tibco’s regional head honcho, Erich Gerber, sees massive potential in Asia’s large population and thirst for technology, including advanced analytics tools that will help businesses glean actionable insights 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

Coronavirus shows inadequacy of rear-view mirror planning

Looking at historical data has hampered businesses’ attempts to move forward effectively during the pandemic Continue Reading

Can banks solve money laundering puzzle through technology?

Banks face a huge challenge in identifying and stopping money laundering without interfering with police investigations Continue Reading

Can Arm stay strong under Nvidia?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine the implications of the controversial acquisition of UK chip leader Arm by US rival Nvidia. Black Lives Matter has raised awareness of social inequalities, but is the tech sector becoming more diverse? And we ask if business software can learn from the addictive nature of social apps. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

CIO interview: Julie Berry of Saffery Champness advances business advisory role for IT

Julie Berry, IT director at accountancy firm Saffery Champness, describes how her team has enhanced its advisory role to the business, in part through the implementation of a cloud-based document management system Continue Reading

DBS taps AI and data analytics in intelligent banking move

Singaporean bank has started using artificial intelligence and analytics to provide customers with hyper-personalised insights and recommendations, to win more market share 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

Government IT leaders on how Covid crisis will shape future delivery

At a TechUK Building the Smarter State event, government IT leaders shared their experience of the coronavirus crisis, and their thinking about how future service delivery will aim to be more joined-up for citizens 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

CW APAC: Buyer’s guide to business intelligence and data analytics

Businesses today are seeking to discover, interpret, extract and communicate meaningful patterns in data to increase efficiency and better serve their customers. In this handbook, focused on the use of business intelligence and data analytics in the Asia-Pacific region, Computer Weekly looks at some examples of how making sense of data makes good business sense. 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

Lorca security scaleups to get Splunk data expertise

Lorca inducts Splunk onto its co-marketing programme, giving security scaleups access to new data expertise Continue Reading

How data has helped in the fight against coronavirus

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to the Office for National Statistics about the important role data plays in the battle against Covid-19. We also look at the speedy deployment of the Scottish contact-tracing app and report on a discussion about the UK government’s delayed response to its digital identity consultation. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

UK’s ‘historic’ trade deal with Japan promises advantages to tech industry, says TechUK

TechUK was among the organisations that have welcome the ‘historic’ trade deal between the UK and Japan that is expected to boost trade by £15bn a year Continue Reading

NTT taps data analytics and cloud for Tour de France

NTT’s analytics and cloud capabilities stood up to the test amid crashes and poor weather conditions during the first stage of this year’s Tour de France Continue Reading

Coronavirus: APAC organisations speed up innovation

Innovation has become easier than before, with the most innovative organisations expecting to recover from the impact of the pandemic in less than six months, new Microsoft-commissioned study finds Continue Reading

Government publishes long-promised national data strategy

The government has published a national data strategy aimed at fostering innovation and increasing economic growth. It will also appoint 10 data fellows each year to work in the orbit of Number 10, and create 500 analyst jobs by 2021 Continue Reading

HotelBeds uses API management platform to reduce cost

HotelBeds has switched from its legacy suppler to a licensed service in an effort to reduce API management costs after traffic doubles Continue Reading

Insurers accept they were slow to adopt digital

Insurance companies know they must prioritise digital investment and are planning in-house development to help make up lost ground Continue Reading

How Bank Mandiri is driving the use of big data analytics

Indonesia’s largest bank has built a big data platform to track transactions and monitor the health of its workforce, among other big data analytics initiatives Continue Reading

How India’s Tata Capital is expanding its digital footprint

Tata Group’s financial services arm has been migrating branch walk-ins and voice calls to self-service digital channels staffed by chatbots as it expands its digital footprint Continue Reading

NHS gets £50m in AI funding for digital pathology

Government funding package focuses on earlier diagnosis of cancer in the West Midlands, north of England and London Continue Reading

Office for National Statistics defines better cross-government data linkage

ONS review of data-linking practices across government is consistent with Cummings and Johnson drive to put data in command of government Continue Reading

How Citi is democratising access to data

Global financial institution Citi puts people at the centre of its data analytics initiatives and collaborates with users to drive adoption and success Continue Reading

Tour de France 2020 fans to get virtual experience delivered by NTT

This year’s Tour de France was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. IT services company NTT has teamed up with event organiser ASO to offer a virtual experience to fans who cannot be at the roadside Continue Reading

CW Nordics: Bergen’s tech hub seeks global success

Norway’s second-largest city, Bergen, is building a tech ecosystem that is beginning its development with a focus on the city’s industrial heritage. Also in this issue, read why now might be the time for businesses to consider how they will invest in outsourcing IT once the Covid-19 pandemic wanes. And read how Norway’s government has had to backtrack on a law that removed tax relief on energy consumption at datacentres that process cryptocurrency mining. Continue Reading

Salesforce Q2 2020: Benioff says crisis will speed growth

Salesforce announces 29% year-on-year revenue growth for the second quarter, and grieves for Dreamforce 2020 Continue Reading

Intel’s DAOS tops the IO500 speed challenge for HPC storage

Following on from Lustre, Intel’s DAOS is an object storage-based system with that is designed specifically for use with Optane for metadata and SSD for bulk storage in HPC environments Continue Reading

Ethics of AI algorithms under examination

Sebastian Klovig Skelton’s article in this week’s CW ezine issue, ‘Auditing for algorithmic discrimination’ could hardly be more timely. The fall-out from the algorithmic exams fiascos of recent ... Continue Reading

How Dell is leveraging data to reopen its offices

Dell Technologies has created a real-time dashboard to make sense of data about the Covid-19 coronavirus and safely guide its employees’ return to the workplace 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

Vodafone builds smart enterprise on SAP S/4 Hana

Holger Grewe, group head of corporate transformation, and Ignacio Garcia, CIO corporate systems, at Vodafone, convey how SAP S/4 Hana has been purposely implemented as part of an ongoing smart enterprise transformation Continue Reading

How Covid-19 elevated the datacentre

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we examine how datacentres and their workers became part of our critical national infrastructure due to the pandemic. Firms considering upgrading to SAP S/4 Hana face hefty bills – we look at how to keep costs down. And we analyse the increasing rate of applications being migrated to the cloud. 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

Spurring digitalisation in Singapore’s tourism sector

The Singapore Tourism Board has developed a digital pass and an analytics service, among other initiatives, to digitalise the city-state’s embattled tourism industry Continue Reading

Inside Juniper’s radical IT transformation

Western Australia’s aged care provider Juniper embarked on an aggressive strategy to completely transform its IT operations in just two years Continue Reading

20 top BI tools and how to choose the right one

To help you buy the right BI tool for your data analysis needs, here's a look at 20 leading technologies, the different types of BI software and key features to look for. Continue Reading

ICO launches guidance on AI and data protection

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published guidance aimed at rendering the application of machine learning to data compliant with data protection principles Continue Reading

IFS CEO Darren Roos: Customer investment in cloud and digital has held up during Covid

Business applications supplier’s chief executive tells Computer Weekly that business has been surprisingly good during the coronavirus crisis Continue Reading

Why supply chain visibility is key to APAC retailers

Having complete visibility over the supply chain will enable retailers to tide over the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and transform their businesses Continue Reading

Digital addiction, digital skills – Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Caroline Donnelly, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna discuss digital addiction and business software, digital skills and how Barnardo’s benefited from digital transformation Continue Reading

Data-driven digital transformation: five technology initiatives for the age of Covid-19

This is a guest blogpost by Rich Pugh, co-founder and chief data scientist, Mango Solutions The things we do not know about Covid-19 seem almost endless. There are no clear answers yet to some of ... Continue Reading

Avon calling: what happens when lockdown eliminates your business model?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we talk to global beauty brand Avon, to find out how it coped with a huge lockdown dilemma – how to adapt its door-to-door sales model when its reps couldn’t leave home. Our latest buyer’s guide examines the use of artificial intelligence in IT security. And we analyse the government’s decision to strip Huawei from the UK’s 5G network. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

How Australia is leading the charge in the Covid-19 fight

Researchers at the University of Queensland worked with IBM to develop a dashboard with machine-learning capabilities to analyse data for a global study on Covid-19 patients in intensive care Continue Reading

NUS develops e-skin system in neuromorphic computing breakthrough

The National University of Singapore has developed an electronic skin system that could give robots and prosthetic devices a sense of touch Continue Reading

What are the key BI team roles and responsibilities?

A business intelligence team helps an organization deploy, manage and use BI tools. Here are the primary roles on a BI team and an overview of their responsibilities and duties. 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

Majority of NHS trusts used analytics to track patient infection status during Covid-19 pandemic

Qlik research shows 84% of NHS trusts used data analytics to support patient care during the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, and suggests they could use that expertise to improve public health in the round Continue Reading

Pavilion adds object storage to NVMe Hyperparallel Flash Array

Pavilion responds to customer demand for object storage to support AI/ML, big data analytics workloads with multi-controller NMVe flash storage architecture 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

Swisscom taps Hitachi to improve network-based customer service

Pentaho product helps business customer service reps of Switzerland’s largest telecommunications company and leading IT services provider provide better, faster service through centralised hub Continue Reading

The privacy challenges of easing lockdown

In this week’s Computer Weekly, as pubs in the UK re-open after lockdown, we examine the privacy issues around collecting customer data for contact tracing. We look at how interconnected devices are revolutionising the manufacturing and engineering sectors. And we assess GDPR progress two years after its introduction. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Top data visualization techniques and how to best use them

BI and analytics teams and self-service BI users can choose from various types of data visualizations. Here are examples of 12, with advice on when to use them. Continue Reading

8 self-service BI best practices for larger organizations

Self-service BI programs can streamline the analytics process, but scaling one out to thousands of business users requires proper planning and project management. Continue Reading

Is digital art coming of age under Covid?

Israeli startup Niio is advancing a digital art platform comparable with Spotify. Is the digital medium for high art coming of age in these Covid times? 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