As with other data-intensive technologies, collecting and analyzing data from Internet of Things (IoT) deployments requires sound data management strategies and tactics. Col­lecting and analyzing this data can be generalized to include three distinct processes: (1) data collection and storage, (2) data integration, and (3) data analysis (see Figure 1). In this Advisor, we examine each of these processes.

Extracting business agility from a big data strategy requires an all-encompassing, holistic approach to the technology, the analytics, and all other aspects of an organization.

Effective CIOs must demonstrate both operational and strategic leadership. Although it is unclear how and when CIOs make the transition from operational to strategic leadership, we argue that the transition depends on the accumulation of transitional capital. Timing and sequencing of CIO actions are critical to the accumulation of this transitional capital. Thus, strategic CIO leadership is earned and is contingent upon actions of the CIO in building operational excellence and social capital, sequencing and kairotic timing of these actions to accumulate transitional capital, and achieving acceptance by the top management team.

What is the role of a Major Incident Manager (MIM)? Should he or she be technically skilled or business savvy or process oriented? This Advisor suggests some core competencies for MIMs. 

A remarkable variety of process models for design thinking exists, with differences in the amount of phases, visual representations of the process, and terminology used. The various institutions and consultants that use and teach the method each have their own way of presenting it. Furthermore, many companies that implement design thinking devise their own process to fit their specific situation. Despite their apparent differences, most of the process models are very similar when it comes to their activities and tools.

Based on budgeting plans revealed in our survey that asked 103 organizations about their efforts to utilize blockchain technology, 2018 could prove a breakout year for organizations getting their blockchain initiatives underway.

Insurtechs are not going away, so it is essential for incumbents to strategize and leverage the insurtechs to address those areas considered important by customers and where the insurtechs add significant value (e.g., advanced analytics, enhanced customer experience). At the same time, it is critical that small and medium-sized insurance companies ensure that any investments made will deliver expected results and de-risk themselves to the desired extent. To achieve these goals, the incumbents need to develop a clear strategy to guide their engagement with insurtechs, beginning with a holistic approach.

Though innovation and disruptive technologies are mentioned as key themes for most organizations, many times the focus seems to divert to incremental improvements rather than preparing for major breakthroughs that could disrupt and add value to the market, economy, customers, and industry.

The emergence of CX design as a key discipline practiced by many organizations has opened up some questions about how it relates to business architecture.

Enterprise architecture aligns technology architecture capabilities with business architecture processes and services. Historically, this alignment embraced monolithic structures, including operational systems and data warehouses supported by relational databases and flat files. With today’s Internet of Things (IoT) and all the connected devices it involves, solution design offers new opportunities, even though designs can be more challenging.

Connected insurance (from wearables usage to mobile health appli­cations) presents great potential for both the insurer and the insured. Such potential should be harnessed in a profitable way by targeting less risky clients and presenting them with an improved, better-priced value proposition. For this to happen, insurance companies will have to seek partners from both the technological innovation sphere and the medical field, keeping in mind that insurance’s role in the health system is changing from payer to player.

Many long-standing problems like technical debt owe their longevity to two factors — not dealing effectively with their causes and not dealing effectively with their resilience. Because what limits our ability to deal with technical debt might not be technical, it is useful to explore possible psychological and political sources of the longevity of the technical debt problem. This Advisor takes a close look at five problem areas and suggests the ­outlines of a program for managing technical debt.

In this Advisor, we present the approach taken to set a roadmap for the journey of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (OTE), the incumbent telecom operator in Greece, toward digital transformation.

This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal (CBTJ) takes a wide look at insurtech. It looks at trends and opportu­nities and offers a suite of solutions — from several perspectives — about how to leverage emerging technologies in insurance models and processes.

We believe that having a successful, well-connected, and respected enterprise architecture (EA) group with experienced enterprise architects is critically important in an organization’s effort to become a successful digital business. EA provides an approach for understanding and managing the complexity of digital transformation.

How do end-user organizations feel about the potential for blockchain to disrupt their industries and lines of business? A Cutter Consortium survey that asked 103 organizations about their efforts to utilize blockchain technology helps provide some insight into this question.

Today’s leaders are racing to reconfigure their organi­zations to be more adaptive and competitive. However, when looking for guidance on how to do that, they will discover two competing schools of thought in the Agile community: “First fix the culture” and “First fix the org structure.” In reality, this debate between a culture-first or structure-first strategy is misguided. Leaders need to encourage a conversation that incorporates both perspectives. Through this two-sided conversation, they can guide an organizational transition that is both meaningful and sustainable.

In this Advisor, we report on research carried out at the State Street/University College Cork Advanced Technology Centre in Cork, Ireland. The challenge we address in our work is how to leverage and nurture the diversity of the crowd while still ensuring the crowd behaves in a safe, responsible, and informed manner.

There are several key challenges that prevent companies from pursuing innovation effectively by using emerging and disruptive technology trends. In this Advisor, we explore these challenges and offer some key strategic questions for innovation planning.

In this Advisor, we discuss the conceptual reference model, which provides the foundation needed for any “connection” architecture, capability, or project. A conceptual reference model defines the terms and concepts used by the enterprise and the communities in which the enterprise operates. It is referenced by other strategic, operational, and architectural assets as a way to federate and pivot between different processes, communities, schemas, and systems without coupling them together.

This Advisor examines the way the data collected over the IIoT ecosystem of interconnected humans and machines can be collected, managed, and exploited. The authors focus particularly on a concept they call "enterprise personal analytics" (EPA) and provide a digital transformation roadmap companies can use to adopt EPA.

This Advisor provides a framework for scaling up innovation so that new ideas are not presented by just one team or segment of the organization, they are accumulated from every nook and corner. 

Businesses judge innovation in terms of the value it provides in either handling existing problems or tapping into new opportunities. A frameork such as BDFAB is most helpful in channeling an organization’s innovation efforts.

Analyzing your own team’s maturity is often difficult. It is tempting to inflate one’s team skills and capabilities in multiple areas. Therefore, before you conclude that you know the stage of your program, I urge you to measure conservatively.

The customer experience (CX) design and business architecture (BA) teams receive mutual benefit from working with each other. There can and should be a direct relationship (or “cross-mapping”) made between the artifacts produced by the CX design and BA teams. One of the most common and beneficial approaches is to cross-map customer journeys (at the phase level) to value streams and capabilities.