Executive Exchange Editor's Corner

A new IBM global study has discovered the enterprises that are building a more flexible workplace are realizing substantial improvements in employee productivity while reducing costs.  The report on the study issued by IBM’s Center for Applied Insights indicates that one segment of the sample — which the report labels forward thinkers — are reporting productivity gains and cost savings up to 20%.  The report provides insights as to what the forward thinkers are doing to deliver benefits greater than others in the study.  While the study found that their enterprises tended to have a high percentage of remote workers and were required to support the greatest number of devices, it also found that these enterprises started with the development of a comprehensive enterprise workplace and mobility strategy.  In addition, they have also demonstrated a willingness to turn to outsourcing or managed services to help manage the flexible workplace and to support an increasingly remote and mobile workforce.

As the move to greater flexibility and mobility of the workforce advances, 74% of the CIOs and IT Managers interviewed for the study indicated that they are placing greater priority on the flexible workplace compared to other investments over the next 12 months. They understand that supporting and securing remote work is a challenge that they must address — for not only are the benefits real, but workers are also demanding greater flexibility in where they work and the type of devices they use.  These workers need to have access to the same critical applications and data from mobile devices as they have had in the office.

The report also emphasizes the critical elements of the flexible workplace: mobility, collaboration, support, and security, and includes key questions that need to be answered in order to increase productivity, reduce costs, and maintain security.

IBM’s own workforce is highly mobile with thousands of office-based employees moving out of IBM locations to work more closely with clients or in home offices.  And, in the short video below, which recounts IBM’s experience in building a truly mobile enterprise, it’s clear that this move toward greater mobility will continue to build momentum.

You can access the report — Achieving Success with a Flexible Workplace — here.  And, you can also explore the range of Mobility Services that IBM offers to help clients build the flexible workplace.

IBM has just released its fifth comprehensive survey of CEOs from around the world.  Based on face-to-face interviews with over 1,700 top business and public sector executives in 64 countries, the 2012 Global IBM CEO Study provides insights into what’s on the mind of leaders today and how they’re addressing the challenges that lie ahead.

The full study report, Leading through Connections, or a shorter executive summary can be downloaded from the CEO Study website, which provides additional information and research reports that support the findings of the study.

More than ever, leaders are recognizing the importance of establishing, maintaining, and nurturing connections — with employees, customers, and business partners:

For some time, businesses have been refining and optimizing their networks of suppliers and partners. They’re streamlining supply chains and creating massive back-office efficiencies. But something just as meaningful has been happening in the marketplace — the sudden convergence of the digital, social and mobile spheres — connecting customers, employees and partners in new ways to organizations and to each other. These changes put pressure on the front office to digitize and adapt but also create opportunities for the organization to innovate and lead.

The Global CEO Study website includes video interviews of CEOs, as well as case studies and related thought-provoking papers that can help leaders successfully steer their organizations.

As the world becomes more interconnected and dependent on information technology, security is a persistent concern that must be addressed not just with eternal vigilance, but with new approaches, tools, and leadership.  Many forward-thinking enterprises are addressing leadership by naming a CISO — Chief Information Security Officer.

IBM has just completed an assessment of CISOs and other executives charged with protecting vital information assets to find out how they’re protecting the enterprise and what’s on their minds as they look to the future. They indicate clearly that security is commanding the attention of the leadership team, and they’re seeing spending on security increase to meet the challenge.

IBM’s Center for Applied Insights, which gathered and analyzed the assessment data and wrote the report, found that information security leaders could be clustered into one of three broad groups: Influencers, Protectors, and Responders.

The Influencers see their security organizations as progressive, ranking themselves highly in both maturity and preparedness. These security leaders have both business influence and authority – and are becoming a strategic voice in the enterprise.

With explosive growth in connectivity and collaboration, information security is becoming increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Yet, some security organizations are rising to the challenge. Our research reveals a distinct pattern of progression – and distinguishing traits of those that are most confident and capable.

These forward-thinkers are taking a more proactive, integrated and strategic approach to security, highlighting models worth emulating and the emerging business leadership role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).

To download a copy of the 2012 Chief Information Security Officer Assessment report, visit the Security and Resilience website on ibm.com.

It was just about one year ago when Watson, the game-playing supercomputer system developed by IBM Research, won the Jeopardy! challenge with human grand champions.  The effort to create Watson wasn’t about game playing — but ultimately about solving real problems like providing better medical care and treating chronic diseases.

For more on how Watson and other technology solutions can help advance healthcare, visit the Smarter Healthcare site.  The short video below offers additional insights on how Watson can be deployed to help solve medical problems.

One hundred years ago, America was roused from a two year recession by new technologies that helped spur a century of growth.  On the OpEd page of The Wall Street Journal, there’s an interesting piece about three emerging technology trends that will shape the years ahead — The Coming Tech-led Boom.  Co-authors Mark Mills (a physicist and founder of the Digital Power Group) and Julio Ottino (the  dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University) believe that Big Data, Smart Manufacturing and ubiquitous Mobile Communications will play major roles in kick starting the next era of economic growth.

Information technology has entered a big-data era. Processing power and data storage are virtually free. A hand-held device, the iPhone, has computing power that shames the 1970s-era IBM mainframe. The Internet is evolving into the “cloud”—a network of thousands of data centers any one of which makes a 1990 supercomputer look antediluvian. From social media to medical revolutions anchored in metadata analyses, wherein astronomical feats of data crunching enable heretofore unimaginable services and businesses, we are on the cusp of unimaginable new markets.

Big Data presents both great opportunities and a challenge to be managed.  The challenge is dealing with the massive increase in digital information and storing it efficiently and securely so that it can be mined for deep insights that can guide decision making.  With 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day, this is no small challenge. You can explore Big Data concepts and applications here.

The next trend that Mills and Ottino foresee is Smart Manufacturing — improvements that will be made not just by smarter supply chains, but by fundamental advances in materials science. They foresee engineers starting the design process at the molecular level and creating new materials that increase quality and reduce costs.  They also believe that 3D Printing will play a major role — providing the ability to custom-make parts and someday entire products in a process somewhat similar to ink jet printing, which I wrote about here a year ago: Print me a car.

Their final key trend is wireless communications, which every day is connecting more of the world’s people and giving them the ability to interact as never before.

Mills and Ottino also believe that the USA is poised to benefit from these three trends because of demographics, the country’s dynamic culture, and the diversity of our educational system. 

All in all, it’s an interesting and hopeful article — and  is available in The Wall Street Journal’s Opinion section. While the Journal’s full content is generally only available to its subscriber base, this piece is fully accessible today.

In 2011, IBM was awarded 6,180 U.S. patents — the most in its history, and for the 19th year in a row, more than any other organization worldwide:

IBM’s ongoing commitment to invention and innovation has helped it outpace all other information technology companies:

Today’s announcement includes a snapshot of four of the new patents awarded in the past year.

Bernard Meyerson, vice president of Innovation at IBM Research and an IBM fellow, has noted these results in a blog post and believes that today’s announcement should serve as a wake up call for others — especially since the composition of the other nine companies making up the top ten has changed from prior years. 

Meyerson’s post also outlines the four key steps that comprise the formula IBM uses to spur sustained innovation:

• Tap into global talent pools
• Collaborate across borders
• Share resources and ideas
• Improve science and math skills

IBM has published a survey of over 4,000 IT professionals, faculty members and students, who are members of the developerWorks community, to assemble a consensus view on the future of critical technology initiatives including business analytics, cloud computing, mobile devices and applications, and social business tools.  The results are available in the IBM Tech Trends Report — a helpful roadmap to the future of technology.

Similar to the last two global surveys of CIOs released by IBM, the IT professionals in this survey expect business analytics will be the most-adopted technology and that the demand for IT skills in this area will be high.  The respondents also predict how they expect organizations to use analytics tools and insights.

IBM has established Analytics Solution Centers around the globe to help customers learn more about the promise and potential of using analytics to drive faster and better decision making.

If you are interested in scheduling a briefing at one of the centers, you can go here to access links to the individuals responsible for the schedules at these centers.  You might also find it convenient to attend a virtual briefing at the IBM Virtual Analytics Solution Center.  You can access six different presentations in the Main Auditorium that address various aspects of the value that analytics can help create.

At the end of each year, the research scientists in IBM Labs around the world conjure up five innovations that will take hold over the next five years and change the way we all work and live.  The 2011 edition of 5 in 5 is out and predicts significant changes in energy production, a continued expansion of mobile devices and access, analytics that help sort through the clutter of everyday life, and the end of passwords.

The IBM 5 in 5 site has information on these trends and offers you a chance to engage in the discussion.  It also includes a look back at the 5 in 5 predictions going back to 2006.  Since it’s been five years since 2006, you can review the 5 in 5 from that year and determine how close they are to coming true.

The video below provides a quick look at the 2011 5 in 5 predictions.