IBA Group Attends European Software & Solutions Summit
On April 14, IBA Group attended the European Software & Solutions Summit and the European IT & Software Excellence Awards organized by IT Europa.
More than 100 delegates from over 20 countries gathered at the European Software & Solutions Summit in London. According to Alan Norman, Managing Director of IT Europa Publications, the summit's aim was “to look inside the software industry to review major trends, examine the particular legislative pressure on Europe's software industry, and explore the all–important issue of building value in actual business”.
The events' program included keynotes, breakouts and roundtable discussions. Representatives of Frost & Sullivan, IBM, and the Center for Data Innovation delivered the keynote reports, covering the impact of the digital age on the traditional manufacturing and distribution marketplaces. The speakers also explored how the Digital Age that is referred to as the Age of the Customer is changing the way the organizations operate and the customers consume.
Frost & Sullivan spoke of the global forces that impact business, economy, society, and personal lives. The sub–trends include connectivity and convergence (cloud, Internet of Things), robotics, and infrastructures (smart manufacturing).
Marketplaces are growing beyond B2C, producing new business models. The peer–to–peer (P2P) model has gained momentum, for instance, peer–to–peer lending and funding have emerged. New patterns come to life, such as Marketplace–as–a Service (MaaS). The main benefit of the MaaS model lies in the companies' ability to launch quickly cloud marketplaces or e–stores.
Leading banks are integrating disruptive innovations and moving to FinTech. The financial technology, also known as FinTech enables banking organizations to make financial services more efficient.
In addition, technology augments learning. A research by Frost & Sullivan revealed the growth of augmented e–learning in 2016, providing transition from a traditional instructional model to a more collaborative model.
IBM spoke of the singularity concept. According to IBM, robots will augment rather than replace humans. Robots will be able to analyze ambiguous data, and we need to rethink of what we do in our roles and prepare for the future.
The issue of big data was mentioned in almost every report at the summit. For instance, healthcare produces a vast amount of information, including patient records, research, and articles. Expertise will be democratized and doctors will be able to provide virtual medical assistance.
In disaster relief, one needs to analyze an array of data to foresee storms, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Demographic information is important for retailers who plan to set up business.
Traffic information is needed to build smart cities. Examples of smart cities are an irrigation system in Barcelona and a mobile application for blind people to find their way in a subway.
Data is a core differentiator. Those who have data can come with the ideas on how to use them. The current economy is an API economy, a marketplace driven by data that uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to reach customers.
After the European Software & Solutions Summit, the European IT & Software Excellence Awards dinner was held to honor the winners of the contest. The IBA Group's project that was included in the list of finalists in the ISV category Information & Document Management Solution of the Year did not win an award. Earlier, IBA Group was selected a winner of the European IT & Software Excellence Awards in 2015, 2014, 2012, and 2011.
Tags:
