News, views and reviews from NZ’s tech sector No Images? Click here Dear , In this age of rapid transformation, PR spin and fake news, it can be hard to separate the hype from reality. Case in point? Blockchain. Right now, few technologies are being hyped harder. According to one report, just the inclusion of the word ‘blockchain’ in a company's name is enough to raise its stock price significantly. Seriously - the Long Island Iced Tea Corp - a tea company - changed its name to 'the Long Blockchain Corp' and saw its share prices rise by 300 percent almost overnight. That hype - or at least that disconnect from reality - is on vivid display in a new report from Gartner which finds few CIOs actually pursuing blockchain-enabled business solutions in any meaningful way. According to the report just one percent of CIOs have a blockchain adoption programme within their organisation, with a mere eight percent having any plans whatsoever to do so. So let’s take a breath. Yup, blockchain is poised to be truly transformative. From finance to property, smart contracts to smart cities, we're just beginning to grasp what impact distributed ledger tech will have. But we’re not there yet, and for the average business looking at practical solutions for the problems they face today, that’s still the bottom line. In other news:
And in this week’s deep dive, food safety company AsureQuality was struggling with an aging - and practically unused - legacy intranet. They wanted a lighter, easier-to-maintain solution to run in conjunction with Office 365, and with the help of Intergen, they found it. Now internal collaboration and communication is soaring - even across locations - and the company is free to pursue an ambitious new information management project. Happy reading, Jonathan Cotton Gartner: Blockchain "massively hyped"Despite the hype, most CIOs have no interest in the tech, nor any plans to develop it... Only one percent of CIOs have any kind of blockchain adoption within their organisations according to Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey. “This year’s Gartner CIO Survey provides factual evidence about the massively hyped state of blockchain adoption and deployment.” Welcome to the New Intelligence Era (courtesy of SAP)SAP continues to target APAC with new Singapore Leonardo Centre launch. iStart was there to check it out... Singapore is an economic hub,” said SAP APJ president Scott Russell. “Now SAP is looking to make it an innovation hub too. “Innovation for its own sake is worthless. It’s the application of insight that matters to customers.” ServiceNow takes on next least popular departmentIT service management provider has HR in its sights to extend footprint… The vendor, better known for the rapid growth it has achieved in IT service management circles, has announced a range of findings from global research into the use of digital in HR. “Top talent can work anywhere, and they are choosing companies that embrace advanced technology to make work simpler, faster, and better…” Report: The NZ tourism industry undergoes its big tech transformationAccording to research by MYOB, technology is the trend du jour reshaping the local tourism sector... The new MYOB Business Monitor survey shows that half of the country’s tourism businesses believe technology will significantly change the way they operate in the next 10 years. “Tourism agencies are using anonymous mobile data and big data analytics to better understand how tourists travel around our country.” The AI dilemma: What is AI’s role in customer service?AI brings speed and cost efficiency to business processes. But what about empathy?... As consumers, our only encounters with AI in customer service are likely to be through chatbots. “AI brings speed and cost efficiency whereas humans provide empathy and emotional intelligence.” Building efficiency and better utilising Office 365 with SNAP 365Needing to retire an end of life intranet and wanting to leverage their Office 365 investment, AsureQuality agreed SNAP 365 was the solution... AsureQuality provides food safety and biosecurity services to the food and primary production sectors worldwide. “Our people have a reason to go to OneAQ to get the latest news about our company. Our CEO is using Yammer for his weekly newsletter.” This week's sponsor: Upcoming events: > Techweek 2018 | May 11-27 | Various locations iStart is proudly supported by these leading Latest Buyer's Guides ERP Buyer's Guide | CRM Buyer's Guide | HR/HCM Buyer's Guide | BI Buyer's Guide Privacy statement: We have sent this weekly eNewsletter to you at your e-mail address: [email address suppressed]. iStart will never share your e-mail address, but you may from time to time receive other event invitations or partner communications from us. You can opt out of these by managing your subscription preferences, where you can also update your e-mail address and other details. Find out more about iStart | Advertise with iStart | Subscribe
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