Business Agility – Staying Ahead in Today's Digital Economy
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Transcript of Business Agility – Staying Ahead in Today's Digital Economy
POST-EVENTREPORT
20July2017,ThursdayMarinaMandarinSingapore
POSTEVENTREPORT
DiscussionSummary
BusinessAgility—StayingAheadinToday’sDigitalEconomy
CIOAcademyAsia(CIOAA),inassociationwithIBMSingapore,organisedaCIOExecutiveBriefingoverlunchon20JulyatHotelMarinaMandarin.
Morethan20CIOsandITleadersparticipatedinthisprivatelycuratedeventtodiscussneweconomiclandscapeandtechnologiesthatcouldhelpbusinessesbecomeagileinthefast-changinganddynamicdigitaleconomy.
Inhiswelcomeaddress,Mr.P.Ramakrishna,theDeputyCEOofCIOAA,welcomedalltheparticipatingCIOstotheExecutiveBriefing.
“What’sfuellingthisneedforbusinessagility?Businesscyclesaregettingshorter,thingsaremovingfastandthisislargelyduetothepervasiveandagilenatureoftechdisruptions,”hesaid.“Today,systemsareinterconnectedonlineandcompaniesaregatheringvoluminousamountofdatafordecisionmaking.Asaresult,newbusinessmodelsandtechplatformsarecausingintensecompetitionforbusinesses.”
Businessescancopewiththesedisruptionsthroughtraitssuchasadaptability,flexibilityand(achievinga)balance,hesurmised.
FromMainframestoCloudandBlockchain
DeliveringtheopeningremarksonbehalfofIBM,Ms.Lum Seow Khun,DirectionforIndustryandTransformation,IBMSingapore,saidthatIBM’sjourneystartedinSingaporewaybackin1962whenmainframeswereincorporatedintotheITsystemsbytheCentralProvidentFund(CPF)Board.Wehavecomealongwaysincethen,asIBMhasannouncedanewmainframe,shesaid.Thisnewmachine,IBMZ,isastateoftheartmainframe—itisencryptedforsecurity.Itiscapableofrunning12billionencryptedtransactionsaday.IBMclaimedthatitsnewmainframecanencryptdataatarate18timesfasterthanotherplatforms.
ReferringtoIBM’snewcapabilities,sheexhortedtheCIOstoadapttechnologiessuchascloud,cognitive,andtheInternetofThings(IoT)thatcould helpthemintheirtransformationjourney.
EngineeringaCognitiveArchitecturetodeliver
differentiatedoutcomes
Deliveringtheday’sfirstkeynote,Mr.DavidBate,VicePresident,IBMHybridCloud,AsiaPacific,saidthatthemainframewastheoriginal‘cloud’andhowthecloudtechnologyhasevolvedfromthentonow(withIBMZ,ithasreallycomealongway!).
Hesaidthattoday,businessesarevulnerabletoseismicshifts,citingthefactthatbetween2000andnow,morethan50%oftheFortune500companieshavefailed.Healsonotedthatthereisahighattritionrateamongstartups,andformostofthem,survivingthefirst10monthsofitsexistenceisthebiggestchallenge.
Towininthisenvironment,youmustdotwothings,hesuggested:one,turndataintoinsightsandtwo,improvecustomerexperience.“Businessesneedtoconnectdisparatedataandcreatenewopportunities,”hesuggested.“Applycognitivetoenhancedataintelligenceexponentially.”
Hegavetheexampleofusingdatatoderiveinformationaboutstoragespaceonshelvesinaretailstore.Thisisachievedbytrainingthesystemtodetectwhetherthereisspaceinthestoreroom.IBMWatsoncanaccomplishthiskindofcognitivework.
EnumeratingthevirtuesoftheIBM’scognitivetechnology(IBMWatson),Mr.BatesaidthatIBMbringstogethermoredataandcognitivecapabilitieswithanopencloudplatform.Itisbuiltforthecognitivearea,itis“Open”andincontrolandhasindustryexpertiseanddeliverycredentials.
IBMhasbuiltthemostcompleteandintegratedplatformforinnovation,hesaid.IBMBluemix hasalltheelementsthatbusinessesneedtosucceedtoday—application,data,AIandapps,solutionsandservices.Itfeaturesover150toolsandservicesspanningcategoriesofbigdata,mobile,cognitivecomputing,analytics,security,blockchain andInternetofThings.
Forexample,Blockchain isoneoftheadvancedservicesavailabletodevelopersonIBMBluemix,onwhichmorethan120,000appsarelaunchedeverymonth.
TheapplicationofIBM’sofferingsaremakingprofoundimpact.HereferredtothespecialBumrungradHospitalinThailandandhowIBM’scognitivetechnologyhaselevatedtheabilityofitsphysicians.HealsomentionedIBMWatson’sperformancewithorganisationssuchasMemorialSloanKettering,FreshTurf,Kenovo (personalisedtrendlist)andZumata (cognitivechatbots).
MemorialSloanKetteringcliniciansandanalystsarepartneringwithIBMtotrainWatsonOncologytointerpretcancerpatients’clinicalinformationandidentifyindividualized,evidence-basedtreatmentoptionsthatleverageourspecialists’decadesofexperienceandresearch.
Inacontextlikethis,‘Agility’becausecrucialforanybusinesstosurvive—theabilitytorespondwithspeedtothechallengesthatarebeingposedinthemarketbythelikesofUberandAirbnb—thebiggestdisruptorsthathavebecometextbookreferencecases.
“Humanadaptabilityhasfallenbehindthepaceofchangesetbytechnology,”hesaid.TheanswertothisrateoftechnologicalevolutionanddisruptionistheapplicationofAI– AugmentedIntelligence(abettertermtouseinsteadofjustArtificialIntelligence)
ArtificialIntelligence(AI)andChatbots
Mr.TeeChinWee,VPofInformationTechnology,PrudentialAssuranceCompanySingapore,sharedafewcasestudiesaboutsuccessfulinnovationprojectsinvolvingAI.
Underliningtheimportanceofdataandcognitivecomputing,hesaidthatmostsuccessfulcompaniesarepractisingdata-drivendecision-makingtoday.
DiscussionSummary
HegavetheexampleofaChineseinsurer,Zhong HaninChina(whichhad$1.5bHKIPO).Thiscompanysold100millionpoliciesinadayinChina,usingAIandmobilityaskeytechnologies.
Today,customersareatthecentreofeverybusiness,hesaid.Tosucceedinthecurrentenvironment,businessesneedtofocusonmobilityanduserexperience;multichannelcustomermanagement,workflowandautomation,anddataandanalytics,washisadvice.
Startsmall,dreambig
Mr.WeefurtheradvisedtheCIOstostartsmallanddreambig.Hehasappliedthisapproachsuccessfullytohisowncompany’swork.HiscompanybuiltaChatbot calledAskPru.Amongotherthings,itreducedthecustomercallvolumeby30%.
HiscompanyalsousesPredictiveanalyticstopayclaims,andtherearesystemsinplacetoprovideinstantclaimapprovals,hesaid.
Blockchains andLastMileFulfillment
ThelastpresentationwasbyaSingapore-basedstartup,FreshTurf.It’sco-founderKevinLimsaidthathisstartup tackleslastmilefulfilment.IthasdevelopedsolutionssuchasCentralisedlockermanagementsystem(SGLockerDeployment)andhasincorporatedBlockchain technology:builtonBluemix,IBM'scloudplatform,IBMandFreshTurf havebeenworkingonadistributedledgerplatformprototypespecificallydesignedtomanagecommercialtransactionsbetweenmerchants,logisticvendors,lockercompaniesandconsumerstomaketheofferingsecure.
Thestartup hasbeenworkingwithwithIBMBluemix Garagenetwork.UsingIBMCloudandBlockchaintechnologies,FreshTurf hascreatedanetworkofstoragelockersforshippingandparceldeliverythroughoutSingapore.Thislockerledgernetworkisdesignedtohelpimprovethe"lastmile"ofdeliveryservicesforconsumersandbusinesses,orthefinallegofapackage'sjourneytoacustomer'shome.
DiscussionSummary
TheprogrammeendedwithapaneldiscussionwhichcomprisedofPanelModeratorMr.Ramakrishna,andparticipantssuchasMr.Kalyan Madala,CTO,IBMSingapore,Mr.Wee,andMr.Lim.
Eachparticipanttalkedabouttheirinterpretationoftheterm,agility.Mr.Limsaiditwasthe“abilitytohackquickly,andhaveshorterdevelopmentcycles.”
ToMr.Madala,agilitywasabouttappingintomarketopportunity. “Ifyoufeelthepainpoints,andareabletorespondtothemquickly,thenitisagility,”hesaid.
ForMr.Wee,what’smoreimportantiswhatthecustomerwants.Speakinginthecontextoftheinsuranceindustry,whilehepraisedtechnology,hewasnotforitall.“Weneedtohavebalance,aswehavebothtypesofcustomers(whoaretechsavvyandwhoarenot).Onedayit(insuranceprocesses)mightallbeautomated,buttheremightstillbeahumanelementtosettleclaims.”
TheeventendedwithaQ&Awiththeaudience,whoshowedagreatinterestinthecasestudiesandhowIBM’stechnologieswereleveragedtomakethebusinessesagile.
DiscussionSummary
Confidential©2017.CIOAcademyPteLtd.Allrightsreserved.Neitherthisreportnoranypartofitmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,recordingorotherwisewithoutthepriorpermissionofCIOAcademyPteLtd.
MorephotosfromtheeventcanbefoundinCIOAcademyAsiaFabcebook page:https://www.facebook.com/pg/cioacademyasia/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1591692830883486
EventPhotos