Industry news

2022 had proven challenging for Australia, with economic turmoil and market volatility in the face of supply chain issues, political conflicts, and talent acquisition and retention difficulties, according to robotic process auttomation provider SS&C Blue Prism.

SS&C Blue Prism says organisation leaders should prepare for challenges around procuring talent, building the right flexible workplace culture, and delivering operational resilience. 

“To help organisations achieve IA success, leaders from the global SS&C Blue Prism team predict the following trends will become key priorities in 2023:

Read more on IT Wire here.

What’s riskier: a lion that’s about to pounce on you, or an iceberg melting away in the distance?

Both pose a threat to human life. But our ability to perceive and act on the long-term danger falters in comparison to our readiness to grab a spear or rock to deter the big cat.  

Our ability to focus on our immediate surroundings was once a handy mechanism to stay alive. Now, this short-term bias could be putting the world at risk. While we’re well aware of the challenges ahead, acting on them is a different story. The urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted dramatic changes, from lockdowns to virtual working; the slow-burn crisis of climate change has not had the same effect.

Read more on Zurich Insurance here.

• Zurich launches the fourth edition of its global startup competition, the Zurich Innovation Championship
• Startups can sign up here until Feb. 27 in five categories expected to shape the future of insurance
• First three editions have resulted in 30 ongoing collaborations globally

Find out more on Zurich Insurance here.

ShardSecure, a leading provider of cloud data security and resilience software, has formed a new alliance with KPMG LLP in the United States. KPMG LLP is one of the top cyber consulting and advisory firms globally.

KPMG LLP will bundle ShardSecure's Microshard™ solution with cloud security service offerings in the US. This will provide a robust cloud security solution for our joint enterprise customers. KPMG also intends to support ShardSecure on go-to-market strategy to meet the growing need for data protection, privacy, and resilience in the cloud using jointly developed cloud security solution offerings.

Read more on PR Newswire here.

New survey from KPMG reveals how employers' ESG record is influencing employment decisions for almost half of UK office workers.

A third of 18 to 24 year-olds have rejected a job offer based on the prospective employers' environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in favour of more environmentally friendly roles - fuelling a growing trend dubbed "climate quitting" by KPMG.

The consultancy giant today published the results of a survey of 6,000 UK adult office workers, students, apprentices, and those who have left higher education in the past six months, which found that almost half - 46% - of those quizzed want the company they work for to demonstrate green credentials.

Read more on Investment Week here.

Cognizant is to acquire Wilmslow-headquartered former Little British Battler (LBB) Mobica as it looks to enhance its IoT software development capabilities.

We first looked at Mobica back in 2012 when they formed part of our 'Little British Battler' initiative (see here) – indeed at the time we were particularly impressed with the way the top team ‘walked the walk’ as well as ‘talked the talk’. Fast forward eleven years and they have talked and walked themselves into a deal with acquisitive SI Cognizant who is looking to expand its IoT embedded software engineering capabilities. Sensible stuff given that IoT has become one of the hottest parts of the SITS market.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

London based start-up GoodVision Ltd, which provides an AI driven Advanced Traffic Analytics Platform, has raised €2.7m in funding to further scale and grow the business.

GoodVision provides automation tools for all stages of traffic projects, from AI traffic data collection to traffic modelling and real-time traffic control. The company was founded in 2017 by Daniel Stofan and Lukas Hruby and has raised €3.7m in funding to date. The latest round was led by Lead Ventures, with participation from Credo Ventures, and Bulgarian Sofia Angels Ventures.

The company’s main product is its ‘Video Insights platform’, a SaaS traffic analytics platform that automates the traffic data collection from existing camera infrastructure and provides deep traffic analytics for calibrating traffic models. They also offer products for real time traffic video analytics and video storage. Existing clients include Arup, Jacobs and the New Zealand Transport Agency.

Read more on TechMarketView here.

On the back of Proxima's newest CPO report, in which the industry's leading voices share their insights on the year ahead, the procurement specialist outlines the key trends impacting the commercial environment.

Proxima recently released its latest CPO report in which the industry’s leading voices share their insights on the year ahead. In this article, Proxima outlines the key trends impacting the commercial environment.

Read more on CSW here.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is the UK’s biggest procurement organisation. It uses its commercial expertise to help buyers in central government, and across the public and third sectors.

With inflation surging, and ever growing financial pressures on many organisations, there has arguably never been a tougher time to be charged with making budgets go further – particularly across the public sector. This is especially the case for public sector organisations considering their IT spend, with so many looking to digitally transform in the light of changing work patterns and consumer behaviour post pandemic.

Read more on CIPS Supply Management here.

There’s been quite a bit of hype about the metaverse — it’s the next big thing, it will transform how companies engage with customers and it will alter the way we do business. The metaverse simply integrates the physical and digital worlds, enhancing both through virtual worlds or simple contextual overlays. While companies currently interact with customers via multiple channels — mobile devices, desktop computers, email, social media and chatbots — leveraging the metaverse helps companies create immersive and interactive retail experiences for customers.

What those advanced interactive features will look like is still under development. What we do know, according to IDC analyst Ramon Llamas, is that they’ll be available across devices. “That includes via VR/AR glasses, smartphones, tablets and PCs, chat rooms with video, but also probably via up-and-coming things like holograms, digital signage, digital assets and digital content.”

Read more on Retail Touchpoints here.