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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise- lets make it practical ( part 5 – Adaptive Cybersecurity )

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise- lets make it practical ( part 5 – Adaptive Cybersecurity )

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise- lets make it practical ( part 5 – Adaptive Cybersecurity )

In today’s world, where businesses and individuals rely heavily on technology for communication, data storage and financial transactions, cybersecurity is of utmost importance.  Serious security breaches are reported  weekly in the news.  Organisations involved, suffer from bad press, loss of revenue, loss of customer trust and are frequently exposed to large fines and lawsuits.  Cyber threats are constantly evolving and traditional security measures may not always be enough to protect against them.  Working from home during the pandemic also contributed to a significant increase in cybersecurity incidents due to increased cloud spend and usage.

In 2020 / 2021 security incidents:

  • Increased by 188% overall
  • Grew by 402% in retail
  • Grew by 230% in manufacturing
  • Grew by 205% in government

No longer are we just trying to prevent security vulnerabilities – the key is to detect vulnerabilities as soon as possible and action remediation based on vulnerability priority and impact. 

Security teams currently deploy security scanners to detect infrastructure vulnerabilities.  These scanners provide lists of thousands of devices and their vulnerabilities, usually in the form of IP addresses and common vulnerability exposure identifiers. This requires the Operations team to perform extensive, time-consuming, manual analysis.  They then need to set priorities and remediate the vulnerabilities either through deployment of a patch or a configuration change.  This can be an arduous task that involves mapping vulnerabilities to remediation actions, figuring out which devices relate to which business services and prioritising the actions needed.

Challenges experienced in current security estates include:

  • Vulnerabilities remain unpatched for long durations
  • Separate security and operations responsibilities, in which the security team scans for vulnerabilities and hands list to IT Ops to fix
  • IT Ops does manual analysis of vulnerabilities and prioritisation, often based only on severity of the vulnerability
  • IT Ops manually prepares patches, opens tickets, gets approvals, schedules, and executes patching
  • Large, complex and dynamic environments hard to keep under compliance due to a lack of policy enforcement
  • Services across multiple cloud platforms complicate the secure configuration of resources
  • Widespread adoption of containers, microservices, and agile methodologies has increased the speed at which Dev teams release potentially non-compliant updates

Advanced targeted attacks make prevention-centric strategies obsoletAccording to Gartner the 4 stages of an adaptive cyber security architecture are:

Adaptive Cybersecurity is the evolution of security functions that can automatically sense, detect, react and respond to access requests, authentication needs and outside and inside threats, and meet regulatory requirements.  The Adaptive Cybersecurity tenet is focused on using advanced security technologies, such as threat intelligence, behavioural analytics and machine learning, to automatically detect and respond to security threats.  By automating these tasks, organisations can reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents. 

BMC is a leading provider of IT solutions, and their Adaptive Cybersecurity solution is designed to provide businesses with a comprehensive and proactive approach to security.

Some key features and benefits of BMC Adaptive Cybersecurity solutions:

  • Automated ingestion of vulnerability scan data, matched against remediation
  • Automated prioritisation of response based upon multiple criteria and identification of potential blind spots and enrichment of vulnerability data with service context
  • An automated end-to-end compliance and remediation process that covers cloud components (AWS, Azure, Chef, Docker), Servers and Networks over hybrid environments
  • Extensive out-of-the-box policies based on recent CIS best practices, as well as custom policy creation
  • Automated patching and remediation
  • Centralised management: The solution provides businesses with a centralised dashboard that allows them to monitor their entire security infrastructure from a single location. This makes it easier to identify potential security risks and take appropriate action.
  • Cloud-native architecture: BMC Adaptive Cybersecurity is built on a cloud-native architecture, which allows businesses to easily scale their security measures as their needs evolve. This also means that businesses can benefit from the latest security updates and patches without having to manually install them.
  • Compliance management: BMC Adaptive Cybersecurity helps businesses comply with industry regulations and standards, such as HIPAA and PCI-DSS. This can help businesses avoid costly fines and penalties

 

Positive Business Outcomes when implementing an adaptive cyber security operation:

  • Reduced or eliminated risk of breach
  • Reduced duration of exposure to vulnerabilities
  • Reduced risk of unmanaged devices
  • Decreased effort spent analysing and patching
  • Reduced audit effort
  • Risk and cost reduction: Maintain compliance quickly, with pre-configured compliance policies for detection and enforcement
  • Reduced risk and exposure of patched systems
  • Reduced effort in pre- and post-patching activity
  • Reduced effort to track and report against remediation SLAs and to create audit and compliance reports
  • Reduced vulnerability exposure
  • Reduce manual vulnerability remediation tasks

Anticipating threats before they happen and quickly jumping into action when they do, is a key component of the digital transformation of every business.  Adopting an Adaptive Cybersecurity approach is just one tenet of the Autonomous Digital Enterprise, a forward-looking vision of the future state of business. Companies that want to not only survive but thrive as their business evolves must include the latest security measures and enabling technologies in their planning.

 

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – Lets make it practical (Part 4 – Automation Everywhere)

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – Lets make it practical (Part 4 – Automation Everywhere)

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – Lets make it practical (Part 4 – Automation Everywhere)

In Part 1 the BMC ADE was introduced.  A future-state business framework to help organisations successfully transform through Actionable Insights, Business Agility and Customer Centricity. In the series we step through the 5 Technology Tenets that enables the ADE.

The speed of technological change goes hand-in-hand with exponential complexity, encasing great value, often responsible for stalled digital transformation initiatives.

The tenet, Automation Everywhere, helps business embrace new and emerging technologies and harness the value from explosive data growth.

BMC delivers automation capabilities to all areas of IT Operations and Business Operations.  Efficiencies, speed & agility, and elevated customer experience are fuelled by AI-driven automation and the orchestration of business and IT processes.

Automation Everywhere applies technologies like AI and ML to service and operations management, SecOps, DevOps and cloud initiatives, delivering amazing benefits across your business.

Why this tenet is important to business….

There are several challenges for the intelligent automation agenda:

  • Businesses struggle with process fragmentation, slowing down transformation.
  • IT is overwhelmed by the flood of technology changes and the elevated demand from business to deliver innovative new solutions.
  • Skills shortage is a real and present danger to digital transformation.
  • Lack of Executive alignment and support can cause transformation and innovation to stall.
  • No clear and unified automation and orchestration strategy. Only a third have one.
  • Resistance to change.

The key focus areas for the BMC Automation Everywhere Tenet maps nicely to the latest Gartner Market Guide for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms (SOAPs).

Four Focus areas to drive your automation everywhere agenda:

Automation today is highly fragmented, but over the course of the next five years, these four main segments that have AI at the core will emerge:

  • Hyper Automation is the automation of systems to drive even greater efficiency and reduce the chance of errors or issues across IT and OT, led by RPA and business process management, or BPM.
  • AI for IT operations, or AIOps, supports full stack monitoring with observability and evolves to automated, intelligent actionability.
  • Enterprise service management supports automated IT service management (ITSM) and extends to service and asset management with collaborative AI/virtual assistants as the core component.
  • The evolution of DevOps to Enterprise DevOps.

The fusion of AI and Machine Learning (ML) with automation is a major focus for businesses all round and is being looked at in support of the three central themes of the ADE – actionable insights, business agility, customer centricity

 

What is your Automation Goal?

AI-powered service management to drive faster resolution

Automated, AI-driven service management (AISM) capabilities enable faster, more accurate, and more efficient ways of delivering service innovations.

  • Migrate to modern service management for a 361% ROI
  • Boost agent productivity and resolve tickets faster
  • Maximise employee self-sufficiency with customer-quality experiences and intelligent self-service

BMC Helix Cognitive Automation capabilities

 

Real-time operational insight, anomaly detection, root cause isolation, and remediation

Leverage artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) to identify patterns in monitoring and capacity, data across IT operations, and DevOps environments for real-time, enterprise-wide insights.

  • Minimise service downtime with context-based anomaly detection
  • Lower MTTR with automated event correlation and management
  • Reduce event noise for clear visibility to critical issues
  • Use service-centric root cause isolation to take corrective action and optimise performance and availability

AIOps Automation Examples

 

Application and data workflow orchestration

Application workflow as a service, available where you need it, when you need it.

  • Deliver business-critical services in production on time, every time
  • Orchestrate application and data workflows for on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud infrastructures
  • Accelerate business agility, collaboration and new technology adoption by integrating into any DevOps automation tool chain with ‘as-code’ interfaces

Typical Workflow Orchestration Examples

  

Refer to our previous article on the many different routes to automation where we explained different angles to deliver automation everywhere.  This article will help you pick the right focus areas for your automation journey.

Positive Outcomes when you practice the Automation Everywhere principles:

  • Optimise resource and skills investment
  • Increase capacity on demand
  • Increase speed of service delivery and support
  • Maximise accuracy
  • Maximise availability
  • Improve business process compliance
  • Improve controls
  • Improve auditability
  • Enhance security
  • Deliver business intelligence

Enable digital transformation

Business, industrial and technology processes, tasks and workflows must be orchestrated, controlled, and executed by software, to augment or possibly replace human analysis, judgement, decisions, and control.

The Automation Everywhere Tenet has a direct and positive contribution towards each of the other tenets.

To be successful, your organisation needs to achieve operational excellence across all five technology tenets. This is how you become an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of BMC’s Automation Everywhere Tenet, please reach out to André Esterhuysen at New Island Technologies.

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 3 – Transcendent Customer Experience)

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 3 – Transcendent Customer Experience)

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 3 – Transcendent Customer Experience)

In Part 1 we said that organisations need to transform the way they operate to realise the 3 key trades of success: Agility, Customer Centricity and Actionable insights. In Part 3 of our series the focus is on Technology Tenets and specifically Transcendent Customer Experience.  Transcendent Customer Experience talks directly to all three traits of success.

Personal Customer Experience is key in surviving, but also to gain the edge on competitors.  Consumers and employees are not brand ambassadors anymore – they will go to where they get the best offering with the best experience and best service. 

The Transcendent Customer Experience tenet leverage business data with key insights across technology, employees and tools to provide this personalised experience.

According to research done by Acquia – “Deliver CX they expect – Customer Experience Trends Report” more than 60% of customers abandon a brand when their online experience is poor.  The same is true for employees.  In this article we can read customer as employee.

So – what do customers/employees want from organisations? 

The experience consumers gained by using the online platform in the retail example we covered in Part 1, indicated that convenience with great service was the key in retaining customers / employees.  A building block for convenience is personalisation.  In order to personalise an offering, organisations depend on data, an understanding of the customer, their preferences in the channels they opt to use when interacting with the organisation and behaviour.

  • Employees want easy interaction and simplified ways to perform their duties – this interaction must be available across platforms. – email, phone, portal, mobile application, chatbot.
  • Employees need a single place for answers – this includes access to Knowledge, IT requests and Business requests (HR, Legal Facilities etc.).
  • Employees need to be able to easily interact with the support channels.
  • Employees need fast and accurate fulfilment of their requests as well as resolution of incidents.
  • The service must be available when they require it – 8:00-17:00 is not good enough.
  • The service must be tailored to the employee.
  • The service must provide a pleasant experience.
  • The service must add value to the employee.
  • The service provider must be knowledgeable or have access to information to assist.
  • The service must keep the employee up to date on the requests throughout the process.

How do organisations go about implementing a Transcendent Customer Experience?

  • Implement an employee first strategy.
  • Prioritise personalisation.
  • Implement Self-Help.
  • Implement Automation Everywhere in support.
  • Use historical data to understand behaviour and preferences – optimise the experience by enhancing the insights gained from the data.
  • Evolve the offerings ensuring employee satisfaction.
  • Enable a multi-channel interaction.

BMC Solutions assist organisations to mature to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise with:

  • BMC Helix Chatbot – Omnichannel interaction understanding intent and personalising offerings.
  • BMC Helix Digital Workplace – Single Enterprise Service Catalogue spanning IT and Business.
  • BMC Helix Business Workflow – Business request such as HR, Legal and Facilities.
  • BMC Helix IT Service Management – IT request fulfilment integrated into an Enterprise Service Catalogue.
  • BMC Helix Knowledge Management – Organisational Knowledge for self help.
  • The above all focused on enhancing customer experience, optimising operations and reduce risk and cost.

In today’s fast-paced digital age, providing a transcendent customer experience is essential for any business looking to thrive.  To achieve this, it’s important to have a strong technology tenet in place that guides all aspects of your customer-facing operations.

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An escape into the Wild

An escape into the Wild

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An escape into the Wild

They say an elephant never forgets. What they don’t tell you is, you never forget an elephant.”-Bill Murray 

And that sums up our entire adventure! As I write this, I’m recalling all individual moments we had being in the wild. Laughter, fear but overall, an Ele-phantastic time!

New Islanders and the BMC team went to Glen Afric Country Lodge for a fun filled game drive. Being together did not only generate conversations around the growth and profitable plans for the future, but allowed us to engage and catch up. Being hybrid workers comes with its perks but also doesn’t allow us to see each other as often, so when we do, we make the most of it. Our tour guide gave us an educational tour of the Ellies and predators. We learnt really interesting facts about the cat family and saw the beautiful creatures in their natural grace. Enjoy the images we took!

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 2- Technology tenets explained)

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 2- Technology tenets explained)

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical (Part 2- Technology tenets explained)

In Part 1 we said that organisations need to transform the way they operate to realise the 3 key trades of success: Agility, Customer Centricity and Actionable insights.

The Autonomous digital Enterprise will exploit valuable data with automation and intelligence to optimise business operations, create new routes to revenue and a clear pathway to innovation.  Operational-and Digital transformation are key changes organisations will make in order to survive.

The BMC Autonomous Digital Enterprise is a framework that helps organisations create an IT environment that is self-managing, self-optimising, and self-healing.

In Part 1 we had a practical look at Innovation and Digital business domains – Adoption required within the operating model of an organisation.  Technology however is changing the way we operate, but technology is also the thing being changed.  The ADE comprises interconnected technology-enabled systems that operate with minimal human intervention.    In part 2 we will discuss the technology tenets required to transform to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise. 

There are 5 key technology tenets that underpin any Autonomous Digital Enterprise:

  • Transcendent Customer Experience
  • Automation Everywhere
  • Enterprise DevOps
  • Data Driver Business
  • Adaptive Cyber Security

Transcendent Customer Experience

Personal Customer Experience is key in surviving, but also to gain the edge on competitors.  Consumers and employees are not brand ambassadors anymore – they will go to where they get the best offering with the best experience and best service. 

The Transcendent Customer Experience tenet leverage business data with key insights across technology, employees and tools to provide this personalised experience.

Automation Everywhere

In order to gain the benefits of actionable data insights and best customer experience, automation everywhere is required.  Automation brings IT and business operations closer together – this allows business to provide automated services focusing on increased efficiencies and customer experience.  Automation everywhere enables a scalable business offering, data-driven decisions based on historical interactions, enhanced quality, optimisation of resources and less manual labour.  This tenet is focused on automating the management and maintenance of IT systems, including monitoring, troubleshooting, and incident response.  By automating these tasks, organisations can reduce the need for human intervention, which can help to improve efficiency and reduce the risk of human error.

Enterprise DevOps

Organisations need to be agile in their offerings provided to customers.  This require continued innovation in offerings with updated and new functionality.  Being able to quickly and efficiently plan, develop, test, deploy and support/operate application offerings is key in providing value and enhanced customer experience.  Enterprise Devops focus on the application lifecycle and ensure optimised released cycles and quality.

Data driven Business

We all agree data is the “gold” of the future.  This holds very true for data generated in IT Systems.  Making business and operational decisions based on insights using transaction, event, forecast and business metric allow organisations to predict future requirements, business opportunity and possible new revenue streams.  Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are required to understand the data, the data sources and how this data will add value to better operations, create efficiencies and provide better insights, ensuring better customer experience.

Adaptive Cyber Security

No longer are we just trying to prevent security vulnerabilities, but the key is to detect vulnerabilities as soon as possible and action remediation based on vulnerability priority and impact.  Security, Service Management and IT Operations teams need to work closer together to ensure quick response.  This tenet is focused on using advanced security technologies, such as threat intelligence, behavioural analytics, and machine learning, to automatically detect and respond to security threats.  By automating these tasks, organisations can reduce the risk of data breaches and other security incidents.

By implementing the five tenets of the BMC Autonomous Digital Enterprise, organisations can create an IT environment that is more efficient, more secure, and more responsive to the needs of users.  This can help to improve the overall performance of the organisation, increase business agility, and reduce costs.

We will cover each of the technology tenets in detail during the rest of the “Let’s make ADE Practical” series.

Contact Marten van Heerden for more information around Autonomous Digital Enterprises and how BMC support this transformation.

 

 

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The more things change, the more they stay the same…if you can keep up!

The more things change, the more they stay the same…if you can keep up!

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The more things change, the more they stay the same…if you can keep up!

André Esterhuysen – Digital Business Automation Consultant, New Island Technologies

It is easy to look at your surroundings and think…nothing much has changed. However, if you stop and think a little, you quickly realise how much has changed and how you learned, evolved, and adapted to these very changes without even being aware.

In business and in technology the rate of change is extreme, and everyone keeps on learning and adapting to stay ahead.

We don't even have to look back decades to realize the enormous pace of change in the business and technology landscapes we live in. A recent article of Ayman Sayed echoes this very same sentiment. This article emphasises a critical aspect of change…it is an invitation for innovation and each of us can use it to our advantage.

Please see Ayman Sayed’s recent article here.

Technological changes over the past few years

To realize just how much has changed, let’s take a brief tour of the changes in the technological landscape over the past few years.

Tech that changed the world in the past 5 years.

  • Artificial intelligence – Although this has been around for many years, and mostly active behind the scenes it has become much more prevalent in more mainstream environments.
    • We used to see AI applied to the areas of fraud management, revenue assurance, complex financial systems and in scientific fields.
    • Today we see it hitting the headlines of every publication out there, technical or not; thanks in part to OpenAI’s ChatGPT being put in the hands of the public at large…although this same public will also be quick to point out that it has been right here for a couple of years already.
  • Internet of Things (IoT): IoT has expanded, with more devices becoming connected to the internet. We now have smart homes, smart cities, and even smart clothing. This has allowed for greater convenience and automation in our lives. IoT or Industrial IoT has equally claimed its spot as mandatory in every business out there, retail, logistics, manufacturing, mining, and the list goes on.
    • The popularity of IoT over the past 5 years has been remarkable. Thanks to the advancement of technology, consumer demand and new business opportunities, IoT & IIoT has seen rapid growth and uptake in the market.
  • 5G: The fifth generation of wireless technology promises faster internet speeds, lower latency, and greater capacity for connected devices.  We saw this come to South African shores with Vodacom launching first in 2020, with MTN and Rain releasing their 5G in the same year.
    • I noticed the impact connectivity has had on banking and retail specifically over the past 3 years…maybe in part due to a global pandemic.  I hardly ever transact with cash anymore. Street vendors, Saturday markets, parking attendants and home call services were all traditionally cash based operations and all of these now offer the option of electronic payment mechanisms.  This is thanks to widespread fast internet connectivity…and industry that was ready to embrace the change.
  • Cloud Technology: It is many things to many people.  The one common factor is that everybody uses it.  Yes, it is not new anymore and has been around for a long time now, but the last five years have seen massive change and massive uptake across industries.
    • Cloud first strategy is not a strange concept anymore, and certainly not only for the digitally born businesses out there. Overall, cloud technology has undergone significant changes in the past five years, with increased adoption, advancements in technology, new deployment models, improved security, and the emergence of edge computing.
  • Blockchain: I must mention blockchain. It may still be a developing technology and is ever too often mistaken for the thing that makes cryptocurrencies work.  Blockchain as a technology is much more than just the technology behind cryptocurrencies.
    • Some of the real blockchain use cases for businesses today are supply chain management, identity management, voting systems, smart contracts, and decentralized finance platforms.  This remains an interesting technology to watch and stay close to.

If I look at these changes, I can say that complexity, data, and connectivity are three critical influencers that drive development in these technological fronts

So, if technology changed so much, what does this mean for your automation solutions?

Well, in short, if you have been using Control-M for your application and data workflow automation yesterday and today, you are in safe hands for tomorrow and beyond…

This is because BMC is committed to the continuous evolution of the control-M platform.

Control-M has had a long history of evolution and innovation, dating back to the early 90’s with proven ability to adapt to the changing business and technology landscapes.

BMC Control-M is a workload automation software solution that enables organisations to schedule, monitor, and manage their business processes, data pipelines and IT workloads. In the past five years, BMC Control-M has evolved to keep pace with the changes in AI, 5G, blockchain, and IoT technologies.

Here are some examples of the ways that BMC Control-M has evolved

Artificial Intelligence: BMC Control-M has incorporated AI capabilities to optimise and automate job scheduling and resource allocation. This helps to improve efficiency and reduce costs for organisations.  A great example is the AWS showcase where Control-M was used to orchestrate a data pipeline across a complex landscape including integration to machine learning and artificial intelligence on Amazon.

5G: With the advent of 5G networks, BMC Control-M has adapted to support the increased speed and connectivity offered by 5G. This includes support for more complex and data-intensive workloads. 5G puts even greater focus on a well-controlled data pipeline with the expansive nature of Edge and IIoT.

Blockchain: BMC Control-M has integrated with blockchain technology to enable secure and transparent tracking of job scheduling and workload management. This can help to prevent fraud, reduce errors, and increase efficiency.

IoT: BMC Control-M has also evolved to support the growing use of IoT devices and sensors. This includes the ability to monitor and manage IoT workloads, as well as integrating with IoT platforms for more comprehensive automation and management.  There are some really great use cases across logistics, transport, and retail industries where IoT data is transformed into great business insights and revenue to the bottom line.

Cloud: In 2020 BMC took another leap forward by releasing Helix Control-M.  BMC Helix Control-M is a SaaS platform for application workflow orchestration.  Helix Control-M brought a whole new angle on making data and application workflow orchestration even more agile.

The Cloud journey does not stop there… BMC increased support for multiple vendor cloud platforms and ensured that it stayed relevant and integrated to all the great new capabilities released on AWS, Azure and GCP.

Overall, BMC Control-M has continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of organisations in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI, 5G, blockchain, and IoT. By incorporating these technologies into its platform, BMC Control-M is helping organisations to stay ahead of the curve and maximize their operational efficiency.

As for what the future holds…I believe that the main technological developments will be more advancements in the fields identified earlier, AI, IoT, Cloud, Blockchain, connectivity.  These will evolve and become mainstream. We will see advances in computing power, think quantum computing and the application of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR & VR) remains an interesting topic as well.

Automation holds the key to unlocking the value.

The changes in technology over the next five years will have a significant impact on the application and data workflow orchestration solutions. This includes increased complexity, the emergence of new workflows, improved efficiency, improved security, and greater customisation. Organisations will need to adopt more advanced and customisable orchestration solutions to manage the increased complexity and improve efficiency, security, and customisation.
 

Takeaways

  • Be a perpetual student…of industry, technology, and the tools available to you.
  • Be change fit.
  • Stick with the tools that keep up – BMC Control-M and BMC Helix Control-M are perfectly positioned and have proven that it can stand the test of time and it can definitely keep up with the pace at which technology and business is evolving.
  • If you stay ahead, you won’t be caught in the dust.

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BMC Cares and Hearts with Hands Volunteer Day

BMC Cares and Hearts with Hands Volunteer Day

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BMC Cares and Hearts with Hands Volunteer Day

A helping hand is always welcome, and we had a great and fulfilling day at the Cradle of Hope having BMC join the the New Island Technologies team. 

On the 16th of January 2023, BMC and New Island Technologies had a volunteer day at the Cradle of Hope to decant food into smaller portions of 700. We took a detour at their new plot, which is one of their new centres where they can continue helping those in need. 

To see how you can also give a helping hand, please head over to their website https://thecradleofhope.org/

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Graduation Lunch at The Cradle of Hope

Graduation Lunch at The Cradle of Hope

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Graduation Lunch at The Cradle of Hope

As the Hearts with Hands foundation, we strive to ensure that we make a difference, whether big or small and try to put a smile on peoples faces. We also want to encourage others to take this journey with us.

Hearts with Hands contributed contributed to the children’s graduation, along with their parents, by sponsoring a nice lunch at Spur which took place on the 3rd of December 2022. With such a huge celebration for the children, it would only be right to end their day with some laughs, good food and bonding time with the family.

if you would like to contribute to the Cradle of Hope, visit their website https://thecradleofhope.org/

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical

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The Autonomous Digital Enterprise – let’s make it practical

To be successful in today’s world, companies must harvest and exploit valuable data with automation and intelligence to optimise business operations, create new routes to revenue, and clear a pathway to innovation.  This requires a clear strategy and investment in Digital Transformation.

The Autonomous Digital Enterprise is the framework for the successful future enterprise.  It’s a digital-first business with distinct technology tenets and operating model characteristics that support transformation through actionable insights, business agility, and customer centricity.

There are 5 key areas that will assist an ADE to create value to its shareholders and customers.

In Part 1 we explore the Operating Model ADE businesses need to adopt.

  • Innovation in the Eco System
  • Digital Business Domains
  • Best Practices in Environmental, social and governance
  • Workplace Transformation
  • IT Centers of Excellence

Let’s have a look at how Innovation in the Eco System and Digital Business domains in the Retail industry created value to customers and future-proofed business success.

Traditionally we as consumers needed to go to a retail store to procure goods.  This process was time consuming and mostly a grouch exercise.

To be more customer centric, retail industries realised that transformation is required and a new Digital Business domain within the current business is required.  – The beginning of on-line shopping.

The on-line shopping function can now be run as an autonomous business within the business. – An integrated technology and operations business within the business.

This on-line shopping experience spans across customer interaction, store and warehouse stock management, digital payment platforms, store systems, staff, delivery, and logistics. 

An example of Innovation and a successful Digital Business Domain within an existing business is what a large retailer in South Africa achieved.  This retailer guarantees delivery of your purchases within 60 minutes with an easy-to-use interactive online application.  The innovation demonstrated by this retailer allowed them to capture 75% market share of the online-retail business.

Some benefits realised:

  • Majority market share
  • Increased revenue
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Brand ambassadors – everybody talks about the sixty minutes
  • Consumer buying Data (buying patterns, spend, brand preferences etc.)
  • Stock insights – what stock, where and when
  • Better Supply Chain Logistics planning

This Digital Business domain within the existing business transformed the retailer as well as consumers.  The way we interact with retail has changed.  Our run of the mill purchases will mostly be done on the online platform and we might just visit the retail store for something specific or on ad-hoc occasions.

Innovation in the eco-system allowed this retailer to capture the 3 trades of success for an ADE – Agility, Customer Centricity, Actionable Insights.

Agility  – allowed them to do more business during the pandemic than any other retailer.

Customer Centricity – Easy access via a customer centric online application.  Not only is the application intuitive, but consumers can interact with the retailer during and after placing the order – swapping goods if required. The Customer is continuously informed of the status of the order, including notifications on when to expect the delivery.

Actionable Insights – the retailer has access to a wealth of information.  Buying patterns, stock requirements and logistic requirements.  This data can now be used to better the buying experience for the consumer as well as better planning and management of stock levels and supply chain logistics.

Innovation requires technology and technology drives innovation.

In the rest of the series – “Let’s make ADE practical” we will explore the technology tenets required to enable organisations to mature to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

 

Contact Marten van Heerden at New Island Technologies for more information around Autonomous Digital Enterprises and how BMC support this transformation.

 

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In the World of Manufacturing the Automated Wins

In the World of Manufacturing the Automated Wins

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In the World of Manufacturing the Automated Wins

André Esterhuysen – Digital Business Automation Consultant, New Island Technologies

Digital Business Automation has the potential to finally help manufacturers breach the gap between IT and manufacturing operations to harness the power of convergence of these environments.

In order for us to understand the importance of modern digital automation in the world of manufacturing we need to agree on a key theme…What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution / Industry 4.0 / 4IR…

I like the way that McKinsey puts it: “Industry 4.0—also called the Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR—is the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector, driven by disruptive trends including the rise of data and connectivity, analytics, human-machine interaction, and improvements in robotics.”

This concept applies to the way in which IT and manufacturing operations work together in a modern technology driven world.

The benefits of IT/OT convergence hit straight at the bottom line. It supports just-in-time manufacturing principles and improves the cost and resource efficiencies of manufacturing operations.

Robotics and automation have seen great strides being made into the manufacturing world…but this is mostly seen on the production floor, in other words, in the OT space.

IoT sensors and technology make it possible to gather real-time operational data that can drive advanced analytics and valuable insights, but this data does not easily break out of the operational technology domain to be leveraged in the IT domain.

We find that there is still a great divide between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT). There has been critical focus for decades to remove barriers between IT and OT to elevate manufacturing operations and drive new value from the siloed ecosystems and to unlock the value within data.

There are many reasons why this is still a hurdle today.

The convergence of IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) can fail for a variety of reasons. Some common challenges include:

Different priorities: IT systems are often focused on data management and analysis, while OT systems are focused on control and automation. Different organisational priorities make it difficult to align them.

Different technologies: IT and OT systems often use different technologies, which can make it difficult to integrate them. For example, IT systems may use TCP/IP protocols while OT systems use proprietary protocols.

Different security requirements: IT and OT systems have different security requirements. IT systems are typically focused on protecting data and networks, while OT systems are focused on maintaining the availability and reliability of critical systems and equipment.

Limited understanding of each other’s systems: Many IT professionals have limited understanding of OT systems, and vice versa. This lack of knowledge can make it difficult for IT and OT professionals to work together effectively.

I firmly believe that digital business automation is the answer to these challenges and the key ingredient to unlock the value of IT/OT convergence.

BMC Control-M can help breach the IT/OT gap.

Infrastructure, Application, Data & Process convergence can all be accomplished by introducing BMC Control-M.

Control-M can natively integrate most leading enterprise applications and data systems today and it also has advanced integration capabilities into other OT technologies that are perhaps less mainstream in the IT world.

Control-M makes it easy to build, define, schedule, manage, and monitor production workflows, ensuring visibility, reliability, and improving SLAs across diverse technology platforms.

Data is the cauldron where the most magic can be brewed for those manufacturers that can successfully extract, analyse, and monetise the data across the IT and OT verticals.

Refer to a previous blog, DATAOPS- GETTING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR DATA, for more details around the benefits Control-M delivers when managing data pipelines.

Benefits of Automation for Manufacturing

Automation can help with the convergence of IT and OT in several ways:

Standardisation: Automation can help standardise and simplify the integration of IT and OT systems by using common protocols and interfaces. This can make it easier to connect and exchange data between the systems.

Data management: Automation can help manage and analyse the large amounts of data generated by IT and OT systems.

Security: Automation can help improve the security of IT and OT systems by automating security protocols and implementing real-time monitoring and response.

Efficiency: Automation can help to improve the efficiency of IT and OT systems by automating repetitive tasks and reducing the need for manual intervention. Manufacturing processes are complex…a world that BMC Control-M understands and thrives in.

Monitoring and control: Automation can help monitor and control the performance of IT and OT systems, providing real-time visibility into the health of the systems and enabling quick identification and resolution of issues.

Automation can be used to build a bridge between IT and OT by providing a common platform, language and interface. This will make it easy for the IT and OT organisations to work together.

To win you need to think beyond piece-meal automation and make sure that you see the wood for the trees. Every piece of the IT/OT landscape is an intricate part in a complex machine and should always be evaluated in the context of the whole landscape.

Control-M as a Digital Business Automation Platform can help you pave the way to a converged IT / OT landscape.

Read this whitepaper to find out how BMC’s Modern Solutions help solve Manufacturing’s toughest challenges.

 

As always, please reach out to André Esterhuysen at New Island Technologies if you would like to know more.

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