E-Business

IDC’s New Research to Help CIOs Adjust Speed

Published

8 years ago

February 17, 2016

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International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts that in 2016, CIOs will face their biggest crisis in leadership as they struggle to adjust to the speed and needs demanded by digitally empowered business transformation.

To help today’s senior IT professionals in this effort, IDC on Wednesday distributed Leading in 3D: Creating a Culture of Continuous Transformation at the CIO Summit 2016 Middle East: Leading Your Organization’s Digital Transformation.

To complement this executive brief, IDC has published a IDC MaturityScape Benchmark report, IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Leading in 3D in the United States (Doc #US40995716).

The study presents the results of IDC’s 2015 Leading in 3D MaturityScape Benchmark Survey and serves as a supplement to IDC MaturityScape: Leading in 3D (Doc #US40933616).

Leading in 3D: Creating a Culture of Continuous Transformation

The biggest question facing today’s CIO is how to drive innovation with the business while driving operational excellence with existing IT systems.

IDC believes a closer collaboration between IT innovation and IT operations is essential to success.

However, a great divide has surfaced: business innovation initiatives are taking place separately from and without connection to the infrastructure, systems, processes, and people currently fulfilling the enterprise’s existing mission.

This two-pronged, siloed approach breeds sub-optimal performance within the entire IT organization. Instead, IDC asserts that every CIO must take actions to ensure the IT organization is an effective partner in the digital transformation of the business.

To help CIOs in partnering with, and further educating, the business, IDC has introduced the Leading in 3D Framework which focuses on the following dimensions: Innovate — Partner with the business to create digital innovations; Integrate — Transition new technologies into stable business services; Incorporate — Evolve existing technology platforms continuously by infusing new skills, techniques, and culture.

IDC predicts that through 2018, two-thirds of CIOs will have embraced Leading in 3D. According to Meredith Whalen, Senior Vice President, IT Executive and Industry Research, “Successful CIOs of the future will be judged by their ability to manage all three of the connected disciplines – innovate, integrate, incorporate – on a continuous basis while anticipating the next wave of digital transformation. IT leadership will need to forge a lasting collaboration with business partners to drive the transformation engine – from old to new, from unstable to stable, and from experimental to operational. We believe that while CIOs face their biggest crisis in leadership, on the other side awaits an IT organization that is primed for the innovative and adaptive world of the digital economy.”

IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Leading in 3D in the United States

Written as a complement to IDC MaturityScape: Leading in 3D, this MaturityScape benchmark report will enable organizations to work with IDC to assess their maturity level in supporting digital transformation (DX) against industry benchmarks and foster the leading in 3D maturity needed to compete in the era of 3rd Platform-driven DX.

IDC believes that today, CIOs have the opportunity to lead in DX and, at the same time, elevate their role from an order taker to an innovation partner. But they must take a hard look at themselves and assess their ability to partner in DX innovation, to optimize integration, and to incorporate change.

According to this report, the path to being a DX leader requires the management of a continuous transition. It is essential for technology leaders to meet the new business need to innovate while delivering predictability, reliability, and operational excellence. The new research enables information and technology leaders to identify four key disciplines of leadership in need of improvement to support DX: Digital vision — as a critical driver of the leadership mission; Innovation — as a partner to the business in fostering IT-enabled innovation; Integration — as the owner of the agile processes that transition new platforms to become stable business services that are the key to DX success; Incorporation — as a reliable and secure service provider for the established suite of IT-based products and services.

As part of the new survey, information and technology leaders were asked to self-assess their approach to digital vision, innovation, integration, and incorporation in the context of their overall ability to support DX. Based on this result, IDC segmented organizations into two categories: Survivors — Organizations where DX leadership, in aggregate, did not meet expectations or did not create any new opportunities; Thrivers — Organizations where DX leadership, in aggregate, exceeded expectations and created competitive advantage.

According to the survey’s results: 52% of “digital thrivers” aggressively use emerging technologies to create new businesses; 52% of “digital thrivers” have a focus on growing digital revenue exponentially; 43% of “digital thrivers” have a three to five year information roadmap designed to disrupt one’s industry; 53% of IT organizations that are “thriving” are highly responsive and collaborate in real time across the enterprise; 58% of IT organizations that are “thriving” have an IT culture that excels at experimentation in every part of the business; 51% of IT organizations that are “thriving” have a hyper focus on user experience as a differentiator from competitors.

“IT organizations have an important role to play in digital transformation. The challenge many face is the need to overhaul IT culture, service management, vendor management and operations in order to be an effective partner in digital transformation,” said Whalen. “While there is a significant amount of change that must take place in a short period of time, those IT organizations that can master this will find themselves in a virtuous cycle of innovation. Such IT organizations will be able to drive the initiatives that shape future business models and create best-in-industry digital products and services.”

IDC found the majority of organizations surveyed have yet to establish the capabilities to lead enterprise-wide DX initiatives and are still at the opportunistic and repeatable stages.

IDC asserts the ability to lead enterprise DX requires making choices about whether the business can or should adapt to a rapidly changing digitally enabled ecosystem. Information and technology leaders need to create a digital vision for their company and champion a strategic approach to digital transformation to effectively compete.

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E-Business

Presidential Tax Reforms Committee Moves to Boost BPO Business in Nigeria

Published

2 days ago

June 1, 2024

Chike Onwuegbuchi

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Worried by the dwindling fortune of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) business in the country, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee has identified the impediments to its growth and moves to remove them to ensure that the country takes a pride place in the sector.

Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the committee, said at a workshop for journalist in Lagos on Thursday that his committee identified tax structure in the country which hinders international organizations from hiring Nigerians living in the country to work for them.

“Our existing tax structure demands that any company outside of Nigeria that hires Nigerians living in the country to work remotely will be expected to pay tax on the company’s income as well as on the income of the Nigerian working for the company.

“This tax structure has pushed overseas companies away from Nigeria to countries such as India and Philippines that their BPO sector have grown exponentially. With the removal of tax on the company’s income, we have created a level playing ground for BPO business to flourish in the country,” he said.

It would be recalled that Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, director general, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) had put the worth of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) ecosystem in the country at $285.8Million.

According to Inuwa, “today, Nigeria Outsourcing sector worth $285.8M employing 16,540 Nigerians mostly living in Nigeria and working for companies outside Nigeria.

“We started in 2020 with a strategy and engaged with the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to develop the strategy and some of them started operations in the mid of 2020 and we want to expand this because we believe the sector will create more jobs than any other sector in Nigeria”.

Oyedele, added that his committee has proposed a single digit number of 8 taxes to be collected by all the tiers of governments in the country.

“One of the critical challenges facing the tax system in Nigeria is the shockingly high level of non-compliance as a result of low tax morale. Tax Morale is the willingness to comply with taxes and the belief that tax evasion is wrong,” he noted.

He said the principle behind these is to do away with nuisance taxes with very low revenue yield, high cost of collection and ultimate burden on the poor and small businesses.

“Focus on high revenue yielding taxes, that are broad-based and relatively ease to collect. Merge taxes and levies that are imposed on the same or substantially similar tax base. Institutionalize the tax harmonization reform to ensure sustainability,” he stated.

According to him, “the outcomes expected include; Eliminate informal & implicit taxes, harmonise tax administration, rationalize tax incentives, leverage technology and big data, modernise customs administration, simplify compliance, optimise resources and government assets.

Budget better – Restructure the budget (classify items under infrastructure; human capital investment; personnel cost, headcount & productivity; administrative overheads; debt service & sinking funds), fully implemented zero based budgeting, and introduce long term appropriation.

Spend better – Tackle systemic corruption, prioritise spending on basic needs to address multidimensional poverty, restrict borrowing to productive spending and self-financing projects, leverage PPP and equity financing for viable projects, enhance public procurement effectiveness.

Manage better – Leverage technology for revenue, debt, and expenditure management. Adhere to fiscal rules and benchmark with strict penalties for violations. Establish a national fiscal risk framework and processes to prevent, detect, and correct financial infractions.

Report better – Harmonise and standardise reporting, provide transparent and timely information, enhance audit & internal control, administer consequences.

The eight proposed taxes are; Income Tax; Value Added Tax; Property tax; Customs duties; Excise tax; Stamp duties; Special levy and Harmonised levy.

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E-Business

NDPC Investigates 40 Financial Sector Operators over Data Breach

Published

3 days ago

May 30, 2024

Comms Week

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Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has said it is investigating 40 banks, insurance companies, stock brokers and other operators in the financial sector over customers’ data breach.

Dr Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner and CEO, who disclosed this at a breakfast meeting with Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs) in Lagos, said the commission would sanction the erring financial sector operators if found guilty.

Conquering the clouds on a journey to Ta Xua with the team – Road Trip Vietnam Team – Nếm TV

Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) mandates FG to collect 2% of annual turnover of any organisation guilty of data breach.

“We have beamed our search light on 40 players in the financial sector. We have written to them to explain why they have not been complying with data regulations and we may sanction them if they ‘re found guilty”, Dr Olatunji said.

The NDPC boss said the erring companies had been given 21 days to answer why they should not be sanctioned.

He also disclosed that licences of some inactive DPCOs would be revoked by year end while some new ones would be licensed.

He disclosed that there are over 500,000 data processors organisations in Nigeria, adding that all of them would be monitored on how they handle data of Nigerians.

While warning companies and government agencies collecting data of Nigerians in their course of operations against mishandling those data, he also assured Nigerians of adequate data protection.

He said though the commission was not afraid of lawsuits, it would not in any way trample on the rights of any organisation.

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E-Business

Cybersecurity Skills Shortage Ranked as Biggest Risk to MSPs, Clients

Published

5 days ago

May 29, 2024

Ugo Onwuaso

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Sophos, a global leader of innovative security solutions that defeat cyberattacks, has released its inaugural “MSP Perspectives 2024” survey report, which found that the biggest day-to-day challenge facing Managed Service Providers (MSP) is keeping up with the latest cybersecurity solutions/technologies, cited by 39% of the MSPs surveyed.

Alongside this, MSPs indicated that hiring new cybersecurity analysts to keep up with customer growth and keep pace with the latest cyberthreats were also top challenges.

The survey also reveals that MSPs perceive the shortage of in-house cybersecurity skills to be the single biggest cybersecurity risk to both their own business and their clients’ organizations.

MSPs also perceive stolen access data and credentials and unpatched vulnerabilities to be amongst the biggest security risks to their customers.

The latest State of Ransomware 2024 report found that nearly a third (29%) of ransomware attacks started with compromised credentials, showing the prevalence of this entry vector.

“The speed of innovation across the cybersecurity battleground means it’s harder than ever for MSPs to keep up with threats and the cyber controls designed to stop them.

“When you couple this with a global skills shortage, which has made it infinitely more difficult for many MSPs to attract and retain cybersecurity analyst resources, its unsurprising that MSPs feel unable to keep pace with the changing threat landscape,” said Scott Barlow vice president of MSP at Sophos.

“This is all compounded by the need for 24×7 coverage as indicated in our 2023 Active Adversary report for Tech Leaders, which finds that 91% of ransomware attacks now happen out of business hours.”

In response to this complex threat landscape, there is growing demand for managed detection and response (MDR) services to provide always-on coverage. Currently 81% of MSPs offer an MDR service, and almost all (97%) MSPs that do not currently offer MDR plan to add it to their portfolio in the coming years.

Reflecting the shortage of in-house cybersecurity skills, 66% of MSPs use a third-party vendor to deliver the MDR service and a further 15% deliver jointly through their own SOC and a third-party vendor.

Topping the list of essential capabilities in a third-party MDR provider is the ability to provide a 24/7 incident response service.

MSPs are also streamlining their cybersecurity partnerships, working with a small number of vendors.

The study revealed that over half (53%) of MSPs work with just one or two cybersecurity vendors, rising to 83% that use between one and five.

Reflecting the effort and overhead of running multiple platforms, MSPs estimate that they could cut their day-to-day management time by 48% if they could manage all their cybersecurity tools from a single platform.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

· 99% of MSPs report an increase in demand for cyber insurance-related support, with the most common requests including clients wanting to implement an MDR service to improve their insurability (47%) or to receive help completing their insurance application (45%).

· MSPs want flexibility from their MDR provider, with 71% saying it is “essential or very important” that the vendor can use telemetry from their existing security tools for threat detection and response.

· MSPs in the U.S. lead the way in MDR service provision with almost all (94%) already offering MDR, compared to 70% in Germany, 62% in the U.K., and 58% in Australia.

“While MSPs have a huge job to do in protecting their customers against fast moving adversaries, there’s tremendous opportunity to grow their business and profitability if they can find the right security set up.

“The data shows that MSPs are strengthening their proposition and reducing overheads by amalgamating the platforms they use and engaging with third-party MDR vendors to expand their service offerings.

“As they look to build their security offering of the future, they should prioritize vendors that can offer a complete portfolio of industry-best, fully managed security services and solutions,” continued Barlow.

Data for the MSP Perspectives 2024 report comes from a vendor-agnostic survey of 350 MSPs across the U.S. (200), U.K. (50), Germany (50) and Australia (50). The survey was commissioned by Sophos and conducted by research house Vanson Bourne in March 2024.

Read the MSP Perspectives 2024 report for global findings and data by sector on Sophos.com.

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