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In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, where technological advancements are reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace, the cloud has emerged as a beacon of innovation and efficiency. European businesses and governments have keenly embraced cloud technologies, harnessing their transformative potential to optimize operations, drive collaboration, and stay ahead of a dynamic digital market.

At the forefront of this cloud revolution is the concept of Industry Clouds – specialized platforms, applications, and services that offer industry-specific capabilities and operational prowess, revolutionizing how businesses across diverse sectors operate and excel.

A Shift in Cloud Dynamics: The Rise of Industry Clouds in Europe

The maturity of the cloud market in Europe has been steadily progressing, and forward-thinking organizations are strategically leveraging the unique advantages offered by different cloud platforms, applications, and services. The region’s robust infrastructure, bolstered by data protection regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), combined with the presence of established local cloud service providers, has expedited the adoption of cloud solutions across various industries.

Innovation, collaboration, and operational efficiency have become the driving forces behind European businesses’ embrace of cloud technology. Notably, the emergence of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies has allowed organizations to tailor their cloud environments to their specific industry needs, adhere to local regulations, and fuel complex digital businesses that thrive on flexible infrastructure.

This holistic approach goes beyond mere migration, and moving out of legacy environments, looking for cost-efficiency, but marks a pivotal shift toward industry-specific solutions.

Empowering the Leadership: CTOs and CIOs in the Cloud Era

As cloud maturity advances, the roles of Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) and Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are undergoing a transformation. These decision-makers are no longer concerned solely with operational efficiency and scalability; they are now focused on strategic cloud implementation that drives tangible business outcomes.

The modern CTO and CIO are in search of solutions that not only streamline operations but also cater to the unique demands of their industries, thereby enhancing value for money and competitive advantage.

This shift in focus has paved the way for Industry Clouds to take center stage. As cloud providers, enterprise software vendors, and industry organizations fine-tune their offerings to align with specific sectors, CTOs and CIOs are empowered to harness cloud technologies that are tailor-made for their industries, sub-sectors and even use cases.

Deciphering Industry Clouds: Defining the Landscape

Industry Clouds, as distinguished from their conventional counterparts, are cloud-based platforms, applications, or services designed to offer industry-specific insights, technology, and operational capabilities. The hallmark of Industry Clouds lies in their vertical integration, modularity, collaboration features, and the potential to foster network effects. These specialized clouds encompass a range of services, including SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, DaaS, and various business operations-as-a-service.

What sets Industry Clouds apart are their unique characteristics. These clouds provide a suite of tools that agnostic cloud platforms and enterprise SaaS solutions simply cannot replicate. The focal technology capabilities encompass:

  1. Industry-specific data models
  2. Industry-tailored business process capabilities
  3. Pre-built blueprints and configuration templates
  4. Governance capabilities, including compliance and regulatory alignment
  5. Cross-industry collaboration options for seamless data sharing
  6. Specialized AI and analytics capabilities, including Gen AI
  7. Marketplace functionalities for optimized sourcing
  8. A PaaS platform for customized extensions and add-ons

These capabilities underpin the value proposition of Industry Clouds, allowing organizations to tap into solutions that are purpose-built for their sectors.

Navigating the Landscape: European Industry Clouds Research

The European Industry Clouds Research is a comprehensive exploration of industry-specific solutions. This research delves into the offerings of Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), competitive landscapes, adoption best practices across industries, and other critical aspects of these specialized platforms, applications, and services.

While the focus is primarily on CSP offerings, it also encompasses insights from industry players such as Siemens and Dassault, albeit in a more limited scope. Notably, the research excludes non-business solutions ecosystems, like government shared/community cloud platforms or collective standard-promoting platforms.

The research also extends into the realm of Cross-Industry approach, comparing and contrasting adoption rates across different sectors, evaluating offerings per industry, and dissecting the strategies of Cloud Service Providers, consulting organizations, and enterprise software vendors. This comprehensive exploration ensures a holistic understanding of Industry Clouds’ impact on various industries.

Industry Clouds vs. Industry Ecosystems: Navigating Complexity

Industry Clouds and Industry Ecosystems, while interconnected, are distinct concepts that play unique roles in driving innovation and business efficiency. An Industry Cloud Platform is a specialized, industry-tailored digital service offering data, blueprints, and industry knowledge to optimize operations within a specific sector.

In contrast, Industry Ecosystems encompass a broader network of businesses, partners, and stakeholders, promoting collaboration, innovation, and value creation on a larger scale. While Industry Clouds offer targeted solutions, Industry Ecosystems foster a collaborative environment that transcends organizational boundaries, nurturing multi-way value generation flows.

Embracing the Future: Leveraging Industry Clouds for European Business Acceleration and Resiliency

As European businesses continue to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape, Industry Clouds have emerged as a powerful tool to drive operational excellence, innovation, and competitive advantage. By tailoring cloud solutions to meet industry-specific needs, organizations are harnessing the full potential of cloud technology to create a transformative impact.

As we move forward, it is imperative for businesses to recognize and leverage the unparalleled benefits of Industry Clouds and Industry Ecosystems, ensuring sustainable growth and staying at the forefront of digital evolution.

To know more, please reach out to Anielle Guedes.

September through December are busy months for IDC analysts. Industry and tech vendor conferences and events are happening every week. Only over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be traveling first to Rome and then to Portugal and, every time I travel, I try to think of my carbon footprint.

Going to Rome is a no brainer, I’ll drive my hybrid car to the train station, then ride a commuter train to Milan, then a high-speed train to Rome, and eventually the subway to the hotel; I’ll ride electric end-to-end. Going to Lisbon, there’s no choice, I need to fly, unless I fancy spending two days on a bus. So, my carbon footprint will be much higher. True, Lisbon is much farther away than Rome, but still the average carbon emissions of a flight are much higher than those of a train.

Air travel executives know that policymakers, investors and passengers are expecting them to be more ambitious in terms of their environmental sustainability targets and are taking actions.

 

Download eBook: Sustainability in EMEA: Opportunities for Tech Vendors, Challenges for Tech Buyers

 

The Three Horizons of Sustainable Air Travel

In the immediate aftermath of COVID, somebody thought that doing more work, learning, getting entertained remotely would replace a lot of air travel, hence reduce emissions. But air travel came back with a vengeance.

Therefore, air travel executives need to rely on other levers to increase sustainability. One of the most critical is technology innovation. Technology innovation will play a strategic role to make air travel more sustainable through three waves.

  • In the long-term, electric and hybrid electric propulsion aircraft will drastically reduce both carbon emission and noise pollution. But although air taxis are already technically possible, long-haul electric flight is at the research stage.
  • In the medium-term, alternative fuels will reduce, but not eliminate emissions, and by 2030, they will not represent only about 10% of all consumption, according to the International Energy Agency.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) will help – for instance, AI is being applied to accelerate the discovery of alternative fuels, digital twins are used to design and develop electric engines for aircrafts – but they won’t be the critical enablers. These medium-to-long term changes will be dependent on biochemical, mechanical, and electrical engineering developments.

  • In the short-term, it will be a whole different story. ICT will be strategic to make air travel more sustainable. From designing and operating more fuel-efficient routes, by integrating traffic control systems, such as the Single European Sky, which is expected to cut carbon emissions by around 10% per year, to applying AI and machine learning to reduce taxi time – American airlines intelligent gating program is providing the capability to save more than a minute of taxi time per flight. From implementing more sophisticated data collection and analytics to report scope one, two and three emissions more accurately and then offset them, to reducing airports’ energy consumption. From sharing data among airlines, global distribution systems, online travel agencies and brick-and-more travel agencies to nudge passengers to buy environmental sustainability products and packages, to partnering with railways to replace short-haul flights or better connect airports.

 

Register for the webcast: Sustainability in EMEA: The Challenge of Moving from Ambition to Action

 

I consider myself a quite environmentally conscious person, but then when I look back at my twenty plus years career in the ICT industry, I took so many flights that make my environmental conscience feel guilty. I hope that I’ll be able to travel on an electric powered airplane, someday.

In the meantime, there are plenty of opportunities to embrace ICT innovations to make air travel more sustainable. To learn more about airlines’ sustainability and other strategic and operational innovations enabled technology, take a look at IDC’s global research on the industry.

Massimiliano Claps - Research Director - IDC

Analyst Profile
Massimiliano (Max) Claps is the research director for the Worldwide National Government Platforms and Technologies research in IDC's Government Insights practice. In this role, Max provides research and advisory services to technology suppliers and national civilian government senior leaders in the US and globally. Specific areas of research include improving government digital experiences, data and data sharing, AI and automation, cloud-enabled system modernization, the future of government work, and data protection and digital sovereignty to drive social, economic, and environmental outcomes for agencies and the public.

The satellite world is changing fast. Elon Musk has shown that he can make Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite broadband a serious operational success to consumers and his Starlink venture has more than one and half million users and says it is on its way to operational breakeven.

With more than 5,000 spacecraft in orbit as of August 2023 across 100 launches, its success is broadening the attraction of satellite broadband from the niche it was before and is such that it looks likely that Starlink will dominate the satellite broadband arena to the same degree that SpaceX dominates the commercial launcher business.

At the same time work of the 3GPP technical standards group is integrating satellite communications within 5G as LEO satellite systems bring down satellite signal latency to almost the same level as that of terrestrial cellular.

In the earlier satellite world dominated by geostationary operators, European telcos and CSPs could choose to work with regional players such as Eutelsat which were owned mainly neutral local entities.

With Starlink they need to decide whether they want to work with a colourful and unpredictable entrepreneur who is yin to the yang of infrastructure cooperatives on which telcos liked to base their networks before.

Starlink is showing it will move into all the satellite markets its LEO system can provide for – from consumer broadband and serving people in mobile homes and remotely located businesses it is already into maritime service and airliner WiFi with, just as crucially, direct to device {D2D) service looming up soon, where smartphones can communicate directly with LEO satellites. And that’s not to mention military use in Ukraine.

The principal LEO option to Starlink is unlikely to be European. While Europe has one LEO operator, OneWeb, it has much less capacity than Starlink, a higher cost base, and will focus on wholesaling capacity for government and some business applications. A similar approach can be expected from the EU-backed IRIS2 LEO system, still on the drawing board.

Instead, the main LEO competitor will also be one owned by an American billionaire, Jeff Bezos, through his Kuiper system, which is beginning to gear up for service next year. While way behind Starlink, and appearing to target a narrower range of services, Bezos has committed to billions in launches and looks set to challenge Starlink in some services. Its prototype receivers are small enough to be easily portable.

Apple is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its tie up with Globalstar to offer emergency satellite messaging. This service is already available across much of Europe. Its phone manufacturer rivals are in the process of responding, and this will set in train the move to full voice and data direct smartphone to satellite service (D2D).

The two current potential options in D2D to Starlink are two US-based startups, AST SpaceMobile and Lynk, both fairly long shot ventures which intend to configure their specialised satellites to work with smartphones. The potential revenue from D2D is being hyped in many quarters, but cellular operators still need to offer it, or their rivals will leave them behind.

It will take a few years before full D2D becomes a widespread service, but fixed – or portable – LEO access is already becoming a sizeable business in several countries around the world. In Alaska for instance Starlink is having a major impact on the provision of broadband service as it brings a better satellite service at reasonably affordable prices to outlying places than they ever had on offer before. In Australia, where there are reported to be 120,000 Starlink subscribers, Telstra has incorporated the service into its cellular pay plans.

Starlink already has regulatory approval in 33 European countries, so regional telcos and cellular operators have to decide how they will work with it. Should they play If you can’t beat them, join them, as Telefonica has recently done, deciding to work with Starlink in Spain and its coverage areas in Latin America.

With three cellular operators in most major European markets, those that sign up with Starlink first in each countries are likely to gain an advantage. In the past Musk has not shown himself keen to work with foreign partners, but with Starlink, where he needs to bring foreign markets onstream fast to produce income from otherwise unused satellite capacity, his approach looks different.

More broadly, European telcos need to resolve how they want to be involved themselves in several satellite areas over the new few years, as some other big technological possibilities loom, key among them satellite connectivity for smart driving in vehicles. Do they want satellite to just complement their own networks, or do they want to integrate it within them, for instance incorporating low latency LEO into cellular backhaul. Which use cases do they want to address? They have a lot of local marketing heft, and those with cellular networks retail outlets to sell reception hardware.

The tie-ups telcos decide on now may have a big influence on who they work with later when the business becomes substantial.

Time for all European telcos and CSPs to have a policy in place of what they want to do in including satellite into their service plans for the next few years.

B2B marketing is a dynamic landscape, ever evolving to embrace new trends and technologies. In this era of rapid change, some tools that were once staples are now being questioned for their relevance. One such tool that often finds itself in the spotlight is the whitepaper. Is the whitepaper, which has been a longstanding champion of B2B marketing, losing its efficacy?

The Evolution of B2B Marketing Tools

As the B2B marketing terrain changes, there’s a natural inclination to wonder whether certain tools have outlived their usefulness. The whitepaper, often associated with in-depth technical content, has been a trusted resource for businesses seeking to educate their audiences. However, with the rise of new content formats and the ever-decreasing attention span of audiences, there’s a growing concern about the viability of the whitepaper in capturing and retaining attention.

The Role of Whitepapers in Modern B2B Content Marketing

While it’s true that attention spans are shorter and content formats have diversified, the whitepaper still holds a significant place in B2B marketing. Its value lies in its ability to provide comprehensive, authoritative information on complex topics. Whitepapers serve as a bridge between technical knowledge and business insights, catering to decision-makers who seek a deeper understanding before committing to a solution. In other words, the information in a whitepaper can’t be easily accessed in a search engine search, making it an invaluable resource for informed decision-making in the intricate landscape of B2B transactions.

Harnessing the Power of Whitepapers

To make whitepapers effective in the modern B2B landscape, a strategic approach is essential. First and foremost, it’s crucial to identify your target audience and tailor your content to their needs. In an era where personalization reigns supreme, crafting whitepapers that speak directly to your audience’s pain points and aspirations can set you apart. Additionally, leveraging engaging visuals, infographics, and interactive elements can transform a traditional whitepaper into an immersive experience that resonates.

Interesting Read: Anti-Trend Guide – Proven Strategies for B2B Tech Marketers Amidst Trend Overload

The Relevance of Performance Marketing Calculators

Amid discussions about the future of whitepapers, the role of data-driven insights cannot be underestimated. Enter IDC’s complimentary performance marketing calculator, a tool that offers clarity and quantifiable results in the marketing realm. This calculator, based on historical data and average channel results, provides a practical approach to measure the effectiveness of various marketing channels. By utilizing this complimentary tool, B2B marketers can gauge the impact of their whitepaper campaigns alongside other strategies.

Imagine having a content marketing tool that takes you through the effectiveness of key marketing channels, offering insights based on real data. The performance marketing calculator does just that. It guides marketers through the results of an asset, achieved from email campaigns, social media efforts, content distribution, and more. This data-driven approach empowers B2B marketers to make informed decisions and optimize their strategies for maximum impact.

Test Drive IDC’s Complimentary Performance Marketing Calculator

Balancing Tradition and Innovation

In the world of B2B marketing, there’s a delicate balance between embracing innovation and respecting tradition. While the whitepaper may have faced questions about its relevance, it remains a potent tool when wielded strategically. To ensure its effectiveness, align your whitepaper with your target audience’s needs and preferences, and infuse it with modern elements that captivate attention.

Explore IDC Content Marketing Services

As you navigate the ever-changing landscape of B2B marketing, tools like the performance marketing calculator offer a compass. By assessing the effectiveness of your strategies, including the whitepaper, you can refine your approach and achieve quantifiable results. The whitepaper, when approached with creativity and backed by data insights, continues to be a valuable asset in your marketing arsenal. In a world of shifting trends, the whitepaper’s longevity lies in its ability to adapt, educate, and inspire action in the modern B2B audience.

Take the First Step Towards Maximizing Your Marketing Impact:

Explore IDC’s Effective Content Marketing Solutions

Adoption of Generative AI by European organizations is growing and will continue to grow in 2023 and beyond. According to IDC’s 2023 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending Survey, Wave 5, 20% of European organizations have already made significant investments in Generative AI, while an additional 58% say they are closely looking at the business opportunities the technology has to offer.

Our data from the above survey highlights three areas in which automation and especially Generative AI is already making an impact on European businesses and their workforce:

  • GenAI for Skill Shortage Offsetting: As of June 2023, 78% of European companies report that they have deployed or are at least piloting automation technologies to offset labor shortages.
  • GenAI as Labor Replacement: 28% of European leaders have already discussed replacing employee positions with automation; 78% plan to replace up to 20% of their workforce with “digital colleagues”.
  • GenAI for Employee Augmentation: For those using automation to augment workers (not replace them), generative AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Bard and Copilot paired with data analytics and Project Management tools will be key to improving employee productivity.

Implementing AI driven technology solutions drives operational efficiencies only if they involve the workforce. Employees’ fear of losing jobs to automation is justified because the level of trust between workers and employers on job status has been eroded by companies’ readiness to lay off staff. Therefore, the use of Generative AI within the organization requires education and communication across the organization on what it is, how it will be used, and what its benefits are.

Building trust within your workforce starts with honesty. In most cases, automation will result in job losses, be clear about that. However – organizations that make the most of GenAI limit the number of employees they let go and instead refocus the affected employees into more useful and strategic work.

Many become users of Gen AI who understand the intricacies of newly automated tasks. They can not only capture ways to make automated work more effective but also implement insights to make better and faster decisions and choices. In summary: the implementation of Gen AI will drive work transformation at an exponential pace.

Register for the Webcast: Five Ways to Unlock a Purposeful, Automated Future of Work in EMEA

 

To successfully manage the cultural impact GenAI will have on your workforce, the following concerns need to be addressed with diligence and ethical integrity:

  1. GenAI Governance. The greater the depth and breadth of the AI solution, the more important it is to have a governance structure. Test that uses of Gen AI are working correctly, output is dependable and permissible, and the strategy/roadmap is resilient, transparent, and secure. The better the governance model the more employees can trust using their company’s automation tools.
  2. Change in Employee Roles. An organization’s work model will be affected after the implementation of specific Gen AI use cases. Where possible, employees doing repetitive work should now be shifted to doing more meaningful work. This will mean a reduction in staff, but also an increased need for trained staff supporting new business processes through Gen AI
  3. Training and Reskilling. The technology expertise required to implement AI tools must be considered in the earliest planning stages. The staff replaced by automation should re-focus on value-added work. This often requires internal upskilling or reskilling to perform more strategic tasks within the organization.

Workforce automation has grown in importance for organizations seeking greater flexibility while providing more meaningful work for employees, reducing costs, providing predictable processes for low value-add tasks, and increasing ROI. Generative AI especially is by no means a magic tool, but it can make a difference when implemented properly.

Taking the time to test out assumptions, pilot relevant use cases, and developing a mid to ling term plan is worth the time. The outcome is a more efficient, effective workplace and engaged workforce.

To fully realize the potential of GenAI, companies need to invest in frameworks which guide talent development and innovative business models that will create value for their customers, as well as their workforce.

Meike Escherich - Associate Research Director, European Future of Work - IDC

Analyst Profile
Meike Escherich is an associate research director with IDC's European Future of Work practice, based in the UK. In this role, she provides coverage of key technology trends across the Future of Work, specializing in how to enable and foster teamwork in a flexible work environment. Her research looks at how technologies influence workers' skills and behaviors, organizational culture, worker experience and how the workspace itself is enabling the future enterprise.

Complexity of the Issue and Value Chain

“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.” –  said the Italian operatic tenor, Luciano Pavarotti.

Indeed, it is not just about satisfying a primary need, eating is nowadays more and more associated with a healthy and sustainable choice. Along the need-value continuum, the food value chain (FVC) reveals the complexity deriving from the high impact on human-wellbeing, society and the planet, the different sectors involved, without underestimating the intrinsic characteristics of food: meaning highly perishable products, that follow the nature’s life cycle.

In the grocery and restaurant sectors, for instance, the low profit margins of food are counterbalanced by other factors, such as territorial proximity with farmers and producers (Km0), the demographic concentrations and different profiles and nutritional habits of end consumers.

Food quality and safety can be at risk from different “contact points”, uncontrolled used of pesticides and/or antibiotics, cold-chain rupture, cross-contamination, inadequate storage and packaging, improper sanitary practices and international standard, spoiled ingredients, even natural disasters. These will, ultimately, impact consumers’ habits, choices, health, and wellbeing.

Beyond that, food loss and food waste call for supranational social responsibility as a guiding principle with a clear deadline: globally, there is a commitment to halve food waste by 2023.

As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) clearly states on their website, “14% of food valued at an estimated USD400 billion is lost from harvest up to, excluding retail. 17% more is wasted at the retail and consumer levels (UNEP 2021).” Also, in 2022, as part of the “Farm to Fork Strategy”, the EU relaunched the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste (FLW) and aims to operate until 2026.

Scaling Technology in the Value Chain

Leveraging technology to the benefit of safe and security across the food value chain cycle, from production and distribution to the end consumer, to ensure food quality, products traceability, and healthy habits while lowering food waste for a sustainable economic, social and environmental ecosystem is possible if the right technologies are implemented in the right way.

Circularity is intrinsically embedded in the production-distribution-consumption life cycle framework while technology, and in some cases ethic, can be applied across the different processes of the food supply chain: from production, through distribution, to the final consumer with the aim to control and, ultimately, eliminate food waste and losses.

Challenges of the Food Supply Chain’s Core Process

Leveraging the competencies and industries’ key trends, we have identified the top challenges that businesses and institutions need to consider:

Production & Design

Fresh products (fruits, vegetables, etc.) provenance intersects with different sectors, from agriculture and manufacturing to large scale food retail trade and stores. At the same time, the use of unusual ingredients, as insects, as well as the production of lab-grown food from cellular agriculture and genetically modified crops/livestock raise questions around the sustainability of methods used, such as maintaining freshness of products and ensuring traceability.

Climate change and increasing urbanization are also important challenges affecting the availability and productivity of farmland. This might have severe impacts on food security and overall quality of life.

Distribution

Track and trace perishable items, assuring the integrity of the cold chain are critical use cases for guaranteeing food safety and provenance. The establishment of food control systems is essential to maintain a safe and trustworthy food supply, protect public health, and ensure consumer confidence in the food they consume.

Strengthening collaboration between producers and retailers to enhance transparency while assuring confidentiality on food shelf life is crucial in achieving these goals.

Consumption

Food waste, food surplus management in the consumer industry includes food and grocery stores as well as restaurants and coffee shops. In most cases, food packaging is associated with shelf-life monitoring for disposing what have not been sold or just reducing or re-using certain food packages.

Also, food security, food safety and healthy nutrition need to be compliant with existing regulations, such as the European General Food Law Regulation, and agencies, such as the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Where Can Technology Help

The field of food production is in constant development, seeking for innovative approaches and technologies to produce food more efficiently, distributing focused on the reduction of losses and do consume in a way that privileges the health of consumers and waste minimizing. Here we highlight the technologies employed in the three core processes along the food value chain:

Production & Design

Computer vision for field monitoring, IoT in agricultural devices and equipment to the internet for real-time monitoring and data collection, enabling farmers to make data-driven decisions, agrivoltaics to provide protection from environmental extreme events. Also, other technologies playing a role in food production are vertical farming and controlled environment food production, using artificial lighting and climate control to maximize production in limited spaces and reduce the environmental impact.

Robotics is automating tasks such as planting, harvesting, sorting, and packaging, reducing labor costs and increasing overall efficiency.

Distribution

Eco-friendly and biodegradable materials to replace traditional plastic packaging, enabling a circular approach to food packaging. Tracking, tracing and monitoring technology into food packaging to ensure freshness, temperature, and shelf life, extending the product’s longevity. IoT sensors providing for real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors during transportation and storage, ensuring food quality and safety.  

Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to optimize supply chain logistics, inventory management, and demand forecasting. Moreover, autonomous delivery vehicles and drones are being tested for last-mile delivery of food products, which has the potential to reduce delivery times and costs.

Consumption

AI-enabled prediction of retail shelf-life for food to mobile-friendly technologies that allows customers to buy and collect food boxes from cafés, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers that otherwise would go to waste, but are still under the expiration date. On the food safety side, advanced food testing methods, pathogen detection using AI and optical recognition, and food traceability systems to identify and prevent contamination issues.

Mobile apps, NFC and QR codes on packaging were being used to provide consumers with detailed product information, including sourcing, certifications, and nutritional data.

 

This all encompasses a continuous spectrum of need and value within the food sector, where the intricacies of the food value chain (FVC) are illuminated, showcasing their profound impact on human well-being, society, and the environment, involving various sectors, and acknowledging the inherent complexities of food itself. Simultaneously, food quality and safety face vulnerabilities from multiple “contact points,” including unchecked pesticide or antibiotic usage, disruptions in the cold chain, cross-contamination risks, inadequate storage and packaging, improper hygiene practices, international standards compliance, spoiled ingredients, and even natural disasters.

Furthermore, addressing food loss and waste necessitates a global social responsibility commitment, aiming to cut food waste in half. To solve for those complex challenges, the field of food production, consumption, and distribution, must continually evolve exploring innovative approaches and technologies that enhance the efficiency of processes at the same time create a new industry based off the interactions of the food value chain (FVC) stakeholders. AI & machine learning, IoT sensors, robotics, and even data & analytics are the service of a more productive, higher quality, healthier food ecosystem.

If you want to know more about the cross-industry research, access the European Verticals: Use Cases and Strategies

Mainframes are a staple of the European enterprise. They’re reliable, powerful, have been around for decades, and many organizations continue to use them for their most crucial business functions. Mainframe apps are common among information-intensive industries areas such as banking, government, healthcare, insurance, or utilities.

With the rise of new technologies like the cloud and low-cost servers, many predicted the mainframe’s demise. But guess what? It’s still alive and kicking, and here’s why.

Unmatched Performance: Mainframes excel at high-speed transaction processing. They handle enormous volumes of transactions swiftly and cost-effectively. This is why banks rely on them for core operations. Transactions like credit card processing and ATM withdrawals happen seamlessly, thanks to mainframes. They’re also the power behind those overnight batch runs for processing customer statements and reports.

Data Handling Prowess: Mainframes have the muscle to handle multiple terabytes of data effortlessly – the capability is vital in sectors like government, healthcare, or insurance.

Ability to Adopt: YES! Mainframes have adapted to stay relevant. Once bound to COBOL and proprietary OS, they now embrace modern programming languages like Python, Java, JavaScript, and C++. This multilingual flexibility allows them to use sophisticated tools from the x86 server world.

AI and Machine Learning: With support for languages like Scala, Python, TensorFlow, and Apache SparkML, they make interesting hosts for machine learning. It has become possible to integrate valuable mainframe data with analytics platforms, eliminating the need for data off-loading.

Security Supremacy: Mainframes rule when it comes to security. Their processing power allows for high end-to-end encryption without performance sacrifices.

So, if they are perfect, why aren’t they? Because they can also become very expensive to maintain, and often just can’t keep up with the demands of the modern world.

That’s why more and more European organizations are modernizing their mainframe applications. Skillfully done, modernization offers all the benefits of a mainframe without the drawbacks. It can help you with:

Saving cost: Maintaining mainframes isn’t cheap. There are hardware, software, and skilled personnel costs. Modernization might seem like a costly adventure, but it actually leads to significant savings in the long run.

Improving scalability and agility: Mainframes aren’t inherently scalable, which is a problem in today’s ever-changing business landscape. Migrating to new platforms allows for easier scaling and adaptation to shifting workloads.

Enhancing integration: Mainframes often use legacy technologies that make integration with modern systems and cloud services a headache. Modernization lets you embrace agile development methodologies, microservices, and containerization, making it easier to adapt and release new features.

Attracting talent: As older IT professionals retire; mainframe expertise is becoming scarcer. Modern technologies attract a larger talent pool, making it easier to find skilled professionals for modernized systems. And it is easier to maintain necessary apps.

Improving UX: Users expect web-based interfaces, mobile compatibility, and responsive design.

Mainframes struggle with this, but modernization can provide a competitive edge by improving the user experience. And modernization doesn’t have to be painful. Here are a few tips to make your mainframe modernization journey if not fun, then surely more painless:

  • Start small: Don’t try to modernize everything at once. Start with a few key elements and then gradually work your way to the rest.
  • Get help from a trusted partner: There are several companies that specialize in mainframe modernization. They can help you assess your needs, develop a plan, and execute the migration.
  • Do your research: There are a lot of different mainframe modernization options available. Do your research and choose the one that’s right for you, but be creative, don’t be afraid to think outside the box and come up with your own approach.
  • Set realistic expectations: Modernization is a complex process. Don’t expect it to happen overnight.
  • Be patient: There will be challenges along the way. Be patient and don’t give up.

Will there be challenges? There will be. Modernization can be a costly undertaking, but it’s important to remember that the cost of not modernizing can be even higher. Modernization is a complex process that requires careful planning and execution. There is always some risk involved in any major IT project. Modernization is no exception. And surely, there is a shortage of skilled professionals with the knowledge and experience to modernize mainframe applications.

Mainframe applications are here to stay, but modernization is essential for staying competitive in today’s digital era. Whether you choose to recompile with emulators, migrate gradually, focus on component-level changes, or opt for lifting and shifting, the key is to adapt while preserving what makes mainframes valuable.

 

To see how European organizations approach mainframe apps modernizations, please read:

Mainframe and Cloud 1/3: What Do European Organizations Plan to Do with Mainframe Applications in the Context of Cloud?

Mainframe and Cloud 2/3: What Strategies Are European Organizations Employing to Migrate Mainframe Applications to the Cloud?

Mainframe and Cloud 3/3: Why Do Some European Companies Have No Plans to Migrate Their Mainframe Applications to the Cloud?

 

To see what it means for service providers, please read:

Turning Challenges into Success – Mainframe App Modernization Offers Opportunities for IT Services Providers

Ewa Zborowska - Research Director, AI, Europe - IDC

Analyst Profile
Ewa Zborowska is an experienced technology professional with 25 years of expertise in the European IT industry. Since 2003, she has been a member of the IDC team, based in Warsaw, researching IT services markets. In 2018, she joined the European team with a specific emphasis on cloud and AI. Ewa is currently the lead analyst for IDC’s European Artificial Intelligence Innovations and Strategies CIS.

Sales teams today are in a period of transitioning. They are used to selling horizontally, targeting IT departments and emphasizing product features and benefits. However, their role is rapidly evolving due to transformative shifts in the technology industry, changing buyer behaviors, the emergence of diverse personas, and an increasing demand for a value-based and outcome-oriented approach.

In this dynamic landscape, having a robust sales enablement strategy and leveraging effective sales enablement tools becomes paramount in ensuring that sales teams are equipped with the necessary strategies, tools, and insights to navigate this transformation seamlessly.

As sales professionals adapt to this evolving landscape, a comprehensive sales enablement strategy and the right sales enablement tools, become a practical guide, steering them towards success.

Understanding Sales Enablement

Sales enablement exists to enhance the effectiveness of sales teams. Sales Enablement professionals focus on the strategic alignment of sales and marketing efforts through the implementation of processes, tools, and content. This critical function ensures that the right information reaches the right people at the right time, enabling tech sales representatives to engage with prospects in a meaningful and personalized manner.

Did you know IDC has a Sales Enablement practice? It was created to empower organizations to sell more effectively and to connect and align marketing and sales efforts. Is IDC’s Sales Enablement Practice for you?

12 Key Outcomes of Sales Enablement

Sales and Marketing Alignment: A harmonious synergy between sales and marketing teams leads to consistent messaging, efficient lead handoffs, and unified customer experience, eliminating any discrepancies between marketing efforts and sales engagements.

Messaging Continuity: The consistent delivery of messaging across diverse touchpoints establishes brand credibility and enhances customer trust, ensuring that the company’s narrative remains coherent and impactful.

Seamless Buyer Journey: Mapping the buyer journey and providing tailored content at each stage nurtures prospects effectively, guiding them through their decision-making process with relevant information.

Higher Yield on MQLs Received by Sales: Empowering sales teams to effectively nurture and convert Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) bolsters the return on marketing investments, transforming potential leads into valuable customers.

Elevated Above-the-Line Conversations: Equipped with insights and tools, sales representatives engage in strategic discussions that transcend product features, focusing on delivering value and solving overarching business challenges.

Industry and LOB Persona Relevant Conversations: Customized content and messaging tailored to specific industries and Lines of Business (LOBs) resonate more deeply, forging connections that are conducive to conversion.

Navigating Multi-Stakeholder Selling: In intricate B2B sales environments, sales enablement empowers reps to navigate diverse stakeholders adeptly, aligning their pitches to address individual needs and concerns.

Cultivating Larger Transformative Deals: With a thorough grasp of customer pain points and solutions, sales enablement equips reps to articulate the value of substantial, transformative deals persuasively.

ROI and Value Conversations: Armed with pertinent tools and data, sales reps engage in meaningful dialogues about the anticipated Return on Investment (ROI) and the value proposition, instilling confidence in potential buyers.

Accelerated Pipeline Progression: Optimized processes and resources provided by sales enablement lead to streamlined pipeline progression, minimizing bottlenecks, and expediting the sales cycle.

Enhanced Conversion Ratios: Through focused training and content, sales enablement enhances conversion ratios by empowering sales representatives to adeptly address customer objections and concerns.

Effective Loyalty Management: Beyond closing deals, sales enablement promotes enduring customer loyalty through continuous value delivery, bolstering customer satisfaction and driving repeat business.

The role of sales enablement has transcended its supporting function to become an indispensable strategic driver of revenue growth. A well-structured sales enablement strategy, supported by purposeful tools, can align an organization’s sales and marketing efforts effectively, nurture customer engagement, and guide prospects through a seamless journey that culminates in higher conversions and enduring customer relationships.

Talk to an Expert About the Latest Sales Enablement Tools

In March 2022, IDC asked 885 European employees that had confessed to be looking for alternative employment about their motivation for doing so. The top reason was, unsurprisingly, better pay. What was more interesting was that “better working environment (i.e., a better employee experience)” was almost as high among the reasons for job change. It showed that today, work is less about paying the bills and advancing a career. It is much about personal development and fulfillment, as well as being a social and collaborative experience.

One year later, in March 2023, similar questions to 790 employees that were looking for a new job. The proportion of employees citing “better work environment / better corporate culture” was 48%, up from 42% the year before, and just 1% point behind “better pay”. So, not only are the ‘soft’ values important to employees, but they are becoming more and more important. Inflation could also play a role in this detachment from the “hard work” paradigm (i.e. hard as working hard to reach higher levels in the company / higher level of salary). The price increases undermined salaries and dream of the salary-based buying power that we saw previously.

Is it become the strenuous, ‘blue collar’ jobs are disappearing while ‘white collar’, knowledge worker jobs are taking over? The data does not support this hypothesis. All workers, regardless of whether they are desk workers or store/factory/field workers have “better pay” as the #1 motivation to look for a new job. Also, all workers have “better work environment / better corporate culture” as a key motivation for looking for a new job. Knowledge or desk workers are relatively interested in a better corporate culture, while store/factory/field workers are relatively interested in better teams / change of colleagues. Instead, it looks like all work types are becoming more knowledge intensive and bigger part of the individual identify, which prompts all employees to place higher value on work environment, culture, leadership, etc., as opposed to pay.

Dissecting “Employee Experience” to Understand Employee Work Motivation

In the March 2022 European employee survey, we also set out to understand which aspects of “employee experience” were more important to employees. We defined seven fundamental aspects of employee experience and asked the employees to rate these in terms of importance. We discovered that relatively ‘soft’ aspects of work, namely corporate culture and leadership & employer brand, were the most important factors of the seven, and more important for employees than we previously assumed.In the March 2023 European employee survey, we wanted to deep dive into the work culture and leadership aspects of the employee experience. In other words, we wanted to find out what was behind the emphasis on these topics among European employees. Again, we asked employees to rate the importance of a number of subtopics underneath work culture and leadership.

The result showed a remarkable drive amongst the employees for purpose in their work, for a sense of meaningful contribution, for personal development and for fairness. This applied to all types of workers, from desk workers over field workers to staff in stores/warehouses/factories. This drive for purpose implies a number of employee requirements around open communication, leadership integrity, fairness in recognition and compensation, etc. And these requirements are indeed reflected in the top aspects of the two pillars under investigation, work culture and leadership, respectively, as shown in the figures below.

General Implications for Organizations: New Leadership Styles Are Called For

Gone are the days of secluded top managers running organizations in separation from the myriad of employees carrying out instructions and work. Most management experts might comment that this ‘new’ style of open, visionary, and inclusive leadership have been practices for decades already. However, the results of both the 2022 and 2023 surveys suggest that most European organizations still have far to go. The survey data showed that the two most important employee experience pillars, “People-First Culture” and “Leadership and Employer Branding”, were also the two pillars with the largest gap between importance and employee’s rating of their current employer. In other words, the two pillars of the highest level of disappointment with the current employer.

The survey data also showed that for the detailed aspects of these two employee experience pillars, the most important aspects were also the aspects with the largest improvement potential. “Open and timely communication” sounds easy but is often very difficult to carry out successfully in practice. Among the general implications for organizations are:

  • Leadership development, especially in the area of soft skills, is critical.
  • Executive search must place higher emphasis on aspects such as empathy, integrity, and communication skills.
  • Enhancing work culture and leadership communication are new strategic areas where HR can make a difference for organizations.

Implications for HCM Software Vendors: New Solution Types Will See High Demand

Software solutions also have a role to play in remediation of the current culture and leadership shortcomings. In many cases, new HCM solutions will be needed to improve processes related to communication, recognition, compensation, and recruiting. We see particular opportunities in the areas below:

  • Compensation management
  • Management development training
  • Pay gap and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) analytics
  • Employee engagement & rewards
  • Employee performance management
  • Recruiting solutions & applicant tracking solutions

 

Please see the following IDC studies (behind paywall) for more information:

Bo Lykkegaard - Associate VP for Software Research Europe - IDC

Analyst Profile
Bo Lykkegaard is associate vice president for the enterprise-software-related expertise centers in Europe. His team focuses on the $172 billion European software market, specifically on business applications, customer experience, business analytics, and artificial intelligence. Specific research areas include market analysis, competitive analysis, end-user case studies and surveys, thought leadership, and custom market models.

What drives your next purchase?

The quality of the product? The quality of the services you receive around that product? How the product or service makes you feel?

The answer is probably a bit of all of the above.

An IDC global research survey on Product and Service Innovation highlighted that leaders across industries like manufacturing, retail, healthcare, telecommunications, and oil and gas listed a primary business concern of increasing customer satisfaction and delivering successful products/services. When you drill down another layer, these same leaders of strategy from the service business noted that they needed to increase service-related revenues, focus on talent, and improve collaboration across the sales, marketing, engineering, and service functions.

And as noted by The Brookings Institution, in the US and other countries around the world, spend on services is greatly outpacing that of goods. The impact and importance of the service experience on the future viability of organizations can’t be overstated.

At a keynote I participated in last year, one senior service leader remarked “Our sales team can make the initial product sale, but each additional dollar of revenue will come because of exceptional service.” But if service and support are so crucial to revenue, profits, and the customer experience why do they often take a back seat to other business functions or technology investment areas?

In my mind, there are three key pieces of the service and support story that many organizations are missing today which is leading them to miss a major opportunity and a potential differentiator for their businesses:

  1. Human interactions still matter. The shift to automated services and customer support is nothing new. It has quite a bit of utility in terms of lowering the cost of service and increasing the speed of initial response. But often the move to automation in service puts the organization’s needs in front of the customer. For example, in field service, it is much more expedient to auto-schedule the closest technician with the right parts to execute a work order. But what if the customer prefers to have their favorite, trusted field engineer come out to service the machine and they are willing to wait for them? Organizations have forgotten that more often than not, people buy from people. The field service and customer support teams deliver more than just a response or a fix to a problem, they are the face and brand of the organization to the customer. The field service technician is the person who helps a business customer keep their production line going, the medical equipment engineer ensures that the hospital’s MRI machine is able to keep that patient appointment on time, and the customer service agent is the one on the other end of the line that can keep a sometimes lonely but loyal customer engaged. And this service talent is NOT a commodity it is the lifeblood of the organization.
  2. The competition is getting better at delivering service too. The service revenue goldmine is no longer a secret. Third-party service organizations are quickly learning how to service and maintain equipment and products that they did not make or install. Regulations, like the Right-to-Repair in the US and the European Data Act, will transform who gets access to product data, who can service or repair products, and what role the customer has in their own service experience. However, despite this opening of the service economy to new entrants, the manufacturer or primary service provider has a jumpstart on the competition based on selling the initial product and initiating the experience through installation or delivery. But this initial glue needs to be shored up and not eroded through the continued delivery of value within the service experience. Each touchpoint, whether mundane like receiving a bill payment or providing a meter read, is an opportunity to deliver wow experiences. Furthermore, this initial bond is a way to better understand what customers value with the service experience earlier on and should inform what future product/service offerings are provided and what types of interactions are enabled.
  3. Customers should be a part of the service team. We have all done it. Something breaks in your house or isn’t working to spec, so you pull up the web and search for a video on how to fix it or at least diagnose what is the problem. And if the fix is more complex than ‘unplug and plug it back in’, you know you have to reach out to the service provider or manufacturer. But what happens when that provider tells you the next available service technician won’t be able to come out for two weeks. If you’re like me, you are asking yourself why exactly did I buy this product from this company and I most likely won’t make that mistake again. But in some scenarios, organizations are starting to empower their customers to collaboratively resolve issues or at least more accurately diagnose the problem to ensure if a technician needs to go out they will fix the issue on that first visit. Now some people wonder if the customer is solving their own problem would they really be looking to pay a premium for this and is this a differentiable experience. I would say yes! Product and equipment downtime, especially in a B2B world, can be measured in thousands or millions of dollars. Even in the consumer world, your time is definitely valuable, and having an issue resolved quickly is a game changer. Having access to a collaborative support agent is much more valuable than just pulling a potentially inaccurately produced self-help video and trying to the DIY in an unsupported way.

Service is more than a money maker; it is a brand builder. Quality service outcomes are becoming a pathway to building customers for life and not just the moment. Customer service leaders and C-suite executives need to keep the focus on what is the definition of value to the customer and what can’t be easily replicated by the competition. Service outcomes and enhanced service experiences must become the core of the business.

For more information on the Future of Customer Experience, read our blog:

Learn More About the Future of Customer Experience

Aly Pinder - Research Vice President - IDC

Analyst Profile
As Research Vice President, Aftermarket Services Strategies, Aly Pinder Jr leads IDC research and analysis of the service and customer support market for the manufacturer, which includes topics such as field service, warranty operations, service parts management, and how these service areas impact the overall customer experience. Mr. Pinder Jr. establishes a roadmap for organizations to better understand how technology can transform service and support functions to drive exceptional customer experiences and customer value, profitable revenue growth, and improved efficiency in the field.