Industry news

I heard someone say recently that companies that have not yet started to create environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports are data-rich but information-poor. So true.

These organizations have utility bills, data on workforce demographics, training metrics, customer privacy and data security policies, commitments to human rights, sourcing and supplier diversity statistics, and countless other sources flying around their data ecosystem, but no ESG insights or reports.

Read more on Accesswire here.

Murielle Lorilloux, EU Cluster and Enterprise Americas & Asia Pacific Director, Vodafone Business, and Eva Kaili, Vice President of the European Parliament share their priorities to secure an inclusive, sustainable, and economically successful society.

Read the full interview on The Parliment here.

Global law firm Ashurst LLP is launching a virtual experience programme for students, as part of an initiative to promote access to careers in the NewLaw division of the firm.  

The free-to-access programme offers students the chance to increase their commercial awareness through experiencing an alternative legal career path to encourage innovation in an ever-evolving legal market. 

Students will complete tasks that replicate the work of the Ashurst Advance team, allowing them to gain an understanding of how to shape and manage a NewLaw service delivery model for a client's lending project. 

Read more on LawCareers.net here.

Apple’s manufacturing partners will be made to participate in yearly audits to keep tabs on how their efforts to decarbonise their production lines are progressing, as part of the consumer electronics giant’s push to become carbon-neutral across its entire global supply chain.

The process will see the firm’s manufacturing partners put under greater pressure to curb the Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions generated by their Apple-related workloads, with the firm stating that it wants to work with organisations that are “working with urgency and making measurable progress towards decarbonisation”.

Read more on ComputerWeekly here.

Public sector-focused sovereign cloud provider UKCloud has been placed into liquidation more than a year after its accounts revealed that the firm was in need of a £30m funding injection to continue trading.

Winding-up orders for UKCloud and its parent company, Virtual Infrastructure Group, were issued on Tuesday 25 October 2022, and Gareth Jonathan Allen has been appointed official receiver by the court to oversee the liquidation of both parties.

According to sources who spoke to Computer Weekly on condition of anonymity, the Cabinet Office is understood to have started briefing the firm’s customers at the start of this month to begin transitioning to new suppliers in anticipation of the company collapsing within three weeks.

Read more on ComputerWeekly here.

Robotic process automation (RPA) software is used to coordinate the use of one or multiple robots along a specific process or set of processes. This now includes highly skilled functions such as product assembly, welding, and finishing. Additionally, RPA software is the glue that brings together business processes with organizational workflows and the actions of intelligent automation. RPA software also encompasses bots used for such things as chat and many office productivity functions. 

Read more on eweek here.

Transformation is going nowhere in a hurry; it’s still the number one business critical project among major enterprises around the world. But succeeding with your transformation project is easier said than done. Adrian Odds, Marketing & Innovation Director at the agency CDS, believes a simple focus on a few core areas could make all the difference…

Digital transformation is difficult. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And a lack of C-suite leadership may be the single biggest risk factor in whether your ‘transformation’ will succeed or fail. But the second biggest consideration is most likely to be a failure to design your change – and the new services that sit around it – with the human needs of your internal and external customers at the centre.

Read more on CEO.Digital here.

Global Supply Chains have been under increasing pressure over the last few years triggered by the pandemic and subsequently made worse by raw material and skills shortages, the war in Ukraine, an energy crisis and ratcheting inflation. Supply Chains that were optimised for cost and quality of service are having to increasingly accommodate the need for resilience and the necessity of sustainability. Such a challenging environment is however, presenting opportunities for Software and IT Services (SITS) providers where technology will have a significant role to play in offering solutions to the plethora of threats and risks.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

• Supply chain shortages are causing widespread manufacturing disruptions.

• Procurement from suppliers should not rest solely on cost savings, but also on revenue impact.

• Business leaders must develop incentives that recognize protecting continuity of supply chains.

Read more on World Economic Forum here.

Considering a supply chain transformation? Many companies are, as the supply chain impacts their top and bottom lines. In fact, the effects are not only on revenues and costs but also on cash flows.

Being critical for the company's profitable growth, supply chain transformations can become a vehicle for greater earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization; improved cash flows; and higher customer satisfaction.

Read more on Forbes here.