Latest Reports

• Business Continuity Fears Favor Growth in Data Center Outsourcing

  As IT organizations try to “get out of the data center business,” companies are turning to service providers to make up the difference. However, the amount of the data center workload that companies are outsourcing has been volatile, with rather large swings over the past few years. Why is this so? The COVID-19 pandemic led to an inflection in data center outsourcing. However, those swings should lessen over the next couple of years with the growth of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and the cloud. In 2023, it is likely that areas where businesses increased their outsourcing in the last three years will return to pre-pandemic levels. This Research Byte discusses the changes in data center outsourcing over the last five years.

  July, 2023

• Rain or Shine, IT Budgets Refuse Decline

  The IT spending outlook for 2023 can best be described with the old British slogan, “keep calm and carry on.” For at least a year, enterprises have been expecting the recessionary shoe to drop as central banks raised interest rates to fight inflation. War in Ukraine and increasingly brittle supply chains have not helped. By now, we would have expected more companies to be cautiously preserving cash, preparing for a recession. And yet, for the most part, businesses are not cutting IT budgets. This research byte is a brief description of some of the findings in our IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2023/2024 study.

  July, 2023

• Life and Annuities Insurance: Reshaping Customer Experience with Digital Technology

  Amid evolving customer demands, the life and annuities (L&A) insurance industry has been under pressure to offer personalized digital experiences and launch innovative insurance products to tap into new customer segments. To alleviate this pressure, L&A insurers are adopting digital technologies to overcome legacy challenges, augment distribution channels, and enhance customer experience. They are also streamlining operations and launching sustainable insurance products. As this requires a strong insurance domain knowledge and technological expertise, L&A insurers are collaborating with service providers for digital transformation. Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our Life and Annuities Insurance Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and Life and Annuities Insurance Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™, respectively.

  July, 2023

• Impact of Generative AI on Content Moderation

  Generative AI has revolutionized content creation, leading to an explosion of content across various platforms. However, this rapid growth also brings challenges in content moderation. Traditional content moderation tools, primarily keyword or tagging-based, struggle to understand the increasing sophistication of AI-generated content in mimicking human language and intent. To address these challenges, the emergence of content moderation tools based on generative AI offers a more comprehensive understanding of contextualized intent. In this report, we discuss the trends, challenges, and potential solutions in content moderation for AI-generated content.

  July, 2023

• Salesforce Helps Enterprises Boost Service Efficiency and Marketing Effectiveness

  Enterprises adopt Salesforce to enhance customer experience by automating sales, service, marketing, and commerce operations, unifying data from various business functions and customer touchpoints, and improving data visualization. This creates a holistic view of customers, improving customer service efficiency and enabling targeted marketing campaigns. Organizations deploy specialized solutions to incorporate industry-specific configurations while addressing business challenges, such as creating automated workflows, strengthening stakeholder collaboration, and improving customer data visibility. Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in our Salesforce Services 2023 Market Insights™ and Salesforce Services 2023 RadarView™, respectively.

  June, 2023

• AR/VR/XR Services: Accelerating the Journey to the Metaverse

  The increased enterprise interest in AR/VR/XR over the past year driven by the introduction of the metaverse has led to heightened conversations with service providers. Businesses sought to understand how these technologies could enhance their processes, improve productivity, and provide immersive experiences to their customers. Although the initial hype around the metaverse has subsided, the enterprise demand for features such as personalized digital avatars, metaverse-specific marketing content, and blockchain-powered virtual marketplaces is growing. Both demand-side and supply-side trends are covered in Avasant’s AR/VR/XR Services 2023 Market Insights™ and AR/VR/XR Services 2023 RadarView™, respectively.

  June, 2023

• Media and Entertainment Digital Services: Leveraging Digital Technology to Drive Innovation and Bolster Customer Experience

  To adapt to evolving customer demands, media and entertainment (M&E) firms are investing in digital technologies to provide personalized and immersive content to users and enhance the customer experience. In addition, regulatory requirements and customer preference for climate-conscious firms are compelling M&E enterprises to embrace ESG as a fundamental way of doing business. As a result, M&E companies are utilizing emerging technologies to offer low-latency immersive content and enhance customer experience while mitigating churn. Both demand- and supply-side trends are covered in Avasant’s Media and Entertainment Digital Services 2023–2024 Market Insights™ and Media and Entertainment Digital Services 2023–2024 RadarView™, respectively.

  June, 2023

• Leveraging Generative AI in Human Capital Management

  This article explores how integrating generative AI solutions in human capital management (HCM) platforms is improving HR processes. Leading HR platform providers, such as SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle, UKG, ADP, and Workday, are embracing generative AI to enhance job posting, candidate screening, employee upskilling, and personalized employee experiences. By automating tasks like job description creation and resume screening, generative AI solutions save time and improve accuracy. Moreover, employees can benefit from tailored learning recommendations and receive personalized experiences based on their preferences and career goals. However, although this integration brings a great potential, it is important to address data privacy, algorithmic biases, and transparency in decision-making to ensure the ethical and responsible use of generative AI in HCM solutions.

  June, 2023

• Disaster Recovery Outsourcing Makes Up for Scarcity of Skills

  If there were any doubts about the need for disaster recovery planning, these were dispelled over the past few years. A worldwide pandemic, power outages, wars, and cyberattacks exposed organizations that were not fully prepared. But what if the IT organization does not have the resources or the capability to do it all in-house? For this reason, many organizations are turning to disaster recovery providers to fill the gap. This Research Byte analyzes the five-year trend in disaster recovery outsourcing.

  June, 2023

• IoT Shows Little Growth in Adoption Despite High ROI

  The Internet of Things (IoT) is a maturing technology, and for many years it has promised benefits such as reduced labor costs and improved business processes. However, our data is showing a trend that is common with other technologies as they mature. The adoption and investment of IoT projects have remained low. In fact, IoT appears to lag most technologies. This Research Byte examines the potential causes.

  June, 2023

• Communications Staffing Ratio Falls Despite Growing Complexity

  Hybrid work is making corporate communications systems more complicated as cloud-based communications solutions and the advancing presence of AI reshape the role of communications support staff members. Nevertheless, IT organizations have been able to manage this growing complexity without adding to communications systems support staffing. This Research Byte provides a summary of our full report on communications support staffing ratios.

  June, 2023

• What Exactly is Digital Engineering and Who is a True Digital Engineering Partner?

  Both B2B and B2C products have become smarter and more connected, requiring real-time integration and interaction between hardware and software components. To develop connected products and digitize the engineering and manufacturing life cycle, enterprises need an amalgamation of product and software engineering capabilities through digital engineering. While digital engineering is a growing domain, it is crucial that the ecosystem players, especially engineering and manufacturing companies, get the essence of digital engineering right to realize its true potential.

  June, 2023