#WhatIhavelearnedtoday-28012021

What is Cloud?

Cloud services are applications that run on the internet rather than on a company's own servers. An example of a cloud service would be email--you can access your email anywhere in the world from your mobile device or computer because the email is served from the Cloud.

One of the benefits of cloud services is that companies can scale applications to include new features and services quickly and easily--and often at a cost advantage. This agility is highly beneficial to organisations undergoing transformation, including but not limited to mergers and acquisitions.

There are a few types of cloud services, including:Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)--This means a provider enables a company to access hardware and software on its servers to run the organisation's application. The type of application is totally up to the company. An example of IaaS is web hosting.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)--PaaS incorporates IaaS, but can also include infrastructure services such as run-time system libraries, programming languages and operating systems. It is a place where customers can develop, test and deploy their own applications.

Software as a Service (SaaS)--SaaS companies provide fully functional web applications to its customers on demand. Typically meant for business users, examples of SaaS services include web conferencing, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, email, time management and project tracking.

Recovery as a Service (RaaS)--RaaS solutions allow companies to recover applications and data such as files and databases (and more) in the case of a disaster. These services provide disaster recovery, backup and business continuity so that an organisation can reduce downtime due to some major failure, such as a hurricane or blizzard.

What is 3D printing (3DP) ?

Imagine a day when an artificial bone can be created and implanted in a person who has osteoporosis or cancer? The day is here and the technology to do such an operation is 3D printing (3DP), or additive manufacturing.

3D printing is exactly what it sounds like: a three-dimensional object is printed by a machine using a digital model (blueprint), adding a layer to the object with each pass. There are various types of 3D printers - some printers use a nozzle to lay down melted plastic on the printing platform, while others use lasers to melt metal or plastic to produce the item.

There are a number of industries using 3DP:Aerospace - to manufacture high-performance parts

• Automotive - to create custom jigs and fixtures
• Design - to create prototypes of product designs for review and revision
• Education - to create scaled replicas for students to gain practical experience
• Entertainment - to create cinema movie props
• Healthcare - to create hearing aids and other custom prosthetics
• Robotics - to create custom parts for new robotic mechanisms
• Tooling - to create custom parts for industrial tooling

3DP has both benefits and limitations. Benefits include the low cost of entry, customisation of products, ability to create complex products efficiently, low-cost rapid prototyping and the ability to print with a wide range of materials, including plastic and metal. There can be limitations: printed parts may be weaker and more brittle than bulk material, high costs for large production runs, limited accuracy and tolerances and post-processing is often required.

What is Data Governance?

Data governance is a data management concept concerning the capability that enables an organisation to ensure that high data quality exists throughout the complete lifecycle of the data.

What is Drones ?

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), were once solely used in military endeavors, that is not so today. But not so today. Drones are flying, or swimming, their way into industries you'd never think would have use for them.

Today, drones are delivering medicine to rural parts of the world. They're performing search-and-rescue missions for victims of natural disasters. They're submerging in water to monitor the health of water turbines for power utility companies and they're used in construction, real estate and even police departments for monitoring build sites, taking photos of homes for sale and directing law enforcement to troubled areas. In the insurance industry, drones can be used to take photos needed to file claims.

These vehicles (some as small as the palm of your hand) have sensors on them that provide information on the state of the craft―location, position, and distance to other objects. Some are equipped with cameras, GPS, or other apparatus, depending on the purpose of the drone.

Drones can be piloted by a human (which is your typical, non-commercial use) or can be piloted by a computer.

What is Data acquisition (DA) ?

Today's world is full of data, and companies that can capitalise on data often have a strong market presence. To fully utilise data, there are three things companies need to do: obtain the data, analyse it, and act on it.

Data acquisition (DA) is the process of gathering information and storing it into a database for action at some later point. Obtaining data, especially big data, can help companies move faster than competitors and draw more market share.

In terms of customer acquisition and retention, data is a major player and you don't have to look too far to find the major players in the data acquisition game. Many large tech companies make large amounts of money from the data they acquire from their users. Exchanging their free services for users' information, these firms acquire data for their algorithms and, in turn, target advertisements and recommendations for their paying customers. Insurance companies can mine data to look at trends in claims rates among customer segments, and adjust their pricing and products accordingly.

Marketers are also big consumers of data. In marketing, data helps by providing insights into such things as what content to provide at each stage of the sales cycle to potential customers. It also increases conversion rates, and provides insights into lowering the customer acquisition cost and increasing the customer lifetime value, to name a few things.

What is Intelligent process automation (IPA) / robotics ?

Automation is the latest technology trend that is being met with a mixture of excitement and fear. While it may be great to have some of our rote and redundant tasks assumed by automation, our instincts have us questioning whether our jobs are at stake and whether or not automation, or even robots, for that matter, will take over. Are jobs changing as a result of technology? Yes. Going away? Not so fast!

Intelligent process automation (IPA) is technology that incorporates robots and/or software to automate routine sets of procedures. The main purpose is to free humans from repetitive work, thereby creating efficiencies and improving productivity. Robots and/or software perform the tasks that people would normally have done. Natural language processing, artificial intelligence, voice recognition, and machine learning enhance what robots and IPA software can do and help them to learn to grow their skills, turning routine tasks into more advanced processes.

Part of the IPA umbrella is robotic process automation (RPA) and robotic desktop automation (RDA). In simplistic terms, RPA uses machine-to-machine communication while RDA uses human-to-machine communication. RPA, also known as unattended RPA, allows a robot to process its tasks without human intervention. For example, if you have a back-office function such as updating records, an unattended RPA can process those updates when scheduled to do so, requiring no human assistance. RDA, also known as attended RPA, allows the robot to process tasks upon requests from a person. One example is a call center agent who speaks with the customer while the RDA fetches account information the agent will need for the call. Other examples of RDAs include personal assistant devices such as Siri and Alexa.

What is Application Development (AD)?

Application development (AD) follows a series of steps to take a concept to fruition, called the systems (or software) development lifecycle (SDLC). Typical steps in the SDLC include gathering requirements, analysing the needs and creating functional requirements, designing prototypes, coding, testing, implementation, integration and support. Apps are used widely in the insurance industry to help customers manage their policies as well as submit and monitor the status of claims.

App development, as it also is known, may refer to programs written for mobile devices or for computers to perform different tasks that a business requires. Mobile devices can include personal digital assistants, enterprise digital assistants or mobile phones, while computers such as laptops, desktops and enterprise systems often run business software.

There are three common types of application development: waterfall, agile, and rapid (or RAD).

In waterfall AD, the entire project is separated into phases. Each phase is completed before the next phase can begin. The main benefit of waterfall is management control of the project, its functionality and its timelines. This was the prevalent form of software development for decades.

Agile, which was created as a form of app development in the early 2000s, breaks a project into incremental pieces and short timeframes (called sprints) that a cross-functional team works on together, not just programmers. One of its benefits is the ability to deliver software functionality to users independently--meaning not having to wait for an entire project to be coded, tested and implemented before delivering the solution to the customer.

RAD, which is based on agile, focuses on creating working software that is tested and adjusted based on user feedback. Key benefits of RAD include faster turnaround time and flexibility for incorporating changing requirements to more closely align the resulting application to users' needs.

What is Journey Mapping?

As a consumer, we don't tend to think a lot about the experience we have when we enter a store. But you can believe that someone else has paid attention to every last detail of your visit. That's what journey mapping is all about―how a customer experiences a brand, from the initial moment of introduction through continued engagement and long-term loyalty.

Journey mapping doesn't just apply to brick-and-mortar stores, or even just retail. The tools for mapping a consumer or user's experience can be used for just about any situation in today's marketplace. For example, hospitals pay attention to patient stays, as well as family and friends' visits. Websites pay attention to how you find them, what you do when you are on the site, and lay the groundwork for getting you to return. Insurance companies pay particular attention to how customers choose their insurance companies and products, the experience of submitting and monitoring a claim, and how they make the decision to stay with an insurance company or look for a new provider.

So, what exactly is a journey map? It's a visual representation of the needs, pain points, and buying decisions of your customer. The tools to create that journey are endless―you can use something as simple as Post-It notes on a wall, to infographics or sophisticated software. The important thing is to capture the customer's story as he/she moves through and interacts with a brand.

Key components of a journey map can include personas, touchpoints, and channels, to name a few. A persona is a character sketch of your customer, including pain points and what drives the customer to make a purchase, for example. Touchpoints include the areas where the customer interacts with the brand and channels are the medium by which the customer has those touchpoints, be it your website, on an app, or in a store.