From the early days of steam power, through the growth of automated production lines powered by electricity, and right up to the use of computer technology and robotics, manufacturing has been at the vanguard of innovation and technological development. It’s not just an historical phenomenon though. It’s an evolution that continues—with innovative manufacturers now building on cloud technologies to connect …
Technology and Business Review: Week of April 8, 2017
Our favorite time of week is the time we spend curating the latest technology news that affects business and how we work. Here’s what caught our attention this week—driverless cars, shopping experiences, phishing attacks that continue to plague enterprises big and small, Microsoft’s Azure Stack preview that provides support for Azure Functions and App Service. Self-driving and electric cars are …
Recap of Google’s Next ’17 Event
At Next ’17 Google announced 100 new products, partnerships, and services at the three-day event. A few of my highlights are below. They are a mix of G Suite related as well as Cloud services-related things that are geared to what we’re doing with machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts over at our sister company, XVA Labs. Here’s my download— …
The Ethical Side of Artificial Intelligence
Once upon a time, the biggest threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI) was that it might create robots who would steal parts of our human workload. But today, as AI becomes even smarter—in many cases able to read social queues and emotions even better than humans—many are starting to worry AI could take over humanity altogether. Stephen Hawking once said …
Enterprise Mobility: Eliminating the Need for Traditional Offices
So long water cooler conversations! With new technologies supporting enterprise mobility, the traditional office space and all the rituals that went along with it are going the way of the dinosaur. Today’s businesses acknowledge the important role mobility can play in improving productivity, cutting costs, and offering even greater flexibility to a freedom-hungry workforce. I dare say the collapse of …
Making Data-Backed Decisions
It used to be that the best people in business seemed to have a gut instinct about the perfect deal. It was like magic, leaving all of us to wonder how we could sprinkle the same fairy dust on our own projects to be similarly successful. Fast forward a couple decades, and gut instincts are being replaced by hard data. …
Technology’s Influence on the Customer Journey
It is undeniable that technology is changing and shaping the world around us. The customer journey is no exception. Retailers are being forced to reevaluate their marketing strategies thanks to emerging technological trends. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are at the forefront in creating new ways for companies to reach consumers without them ever having to leave their …
Gamification, Not Just for Employees but Customers Too!
Pokémon GO was annoyingly addictive. (I speak from experience.) But even more than that, it was marketing at its best. The game got Pikachu back on the maps of children and adults alike—literally—and is estimated to have earned $500 million in just 60 days. If gamification can do that for a child’s card game, imagine what it could do for …
Technology and Business Review: April 1, 2017
Amazon continues its march toward domination, this time in the grocery industry, Publicis and Microsoft partner, doubling down on adding AI to agency service offerings, Microsoft and the Internet of Things (IoT). There’s more going on in the world of tech and business, and this weekly review features the things that got our attention. Here you go— Amazon debuts AmazonFresh …
HIPAA and Encryption: The Best Practices
The number of data breaches in the healthcare industry is growing exponentially—and the breaches are becoming more severe. This phenomenon can be attributed to the increased black-market resale value for stolen medical records and personal health information (PHI), as well as the sophistication of cybercriminals. As a result of these risks—and of all the HIPAA penalties, legal costs, reputational damage, …