Latest News from Amitabh Apte

Multi-Channel Retailing Takes a New Meaning with Retail Apps

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:38:39 EST

Retail Reference Architecture, it's evolution and real-life pragmatic implementations happens to be one of my key interest area. So far on this blog I have discussed the concept of Retail Reference Architecture, proposed a concise yet complete Simplified Retail Reference Architecture and also shared some of the innovations from real-life implementations of Retailers such as ASOS. As a matter of fact I do follow fortunes of ASOS with great interest. To me this is a bold, new take on the science of retailing (...some might call is an Art of Retailing) which combines best practices from innovator's such as Amazon.com and presents a unique and deceptively simple business model. This post shares some of my further observations about ASOS and more importantly how they continue to lead the innovative use of Information Technology in the retail space.

Retail and Financial Services

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:33:02 EDT

Who handles bulk of the Cash on UK High Street? Who manages bulk of the financial transactions going through the ever-growing ECommerce industry? As you would have guessed the answer is not Banks and Financial institutions, the answer is Retailers. Put all together, the retail operators handle more cash as well as card transaction on the UK High Street as well as in the ECommerce world. And there are indications that, retailers will be making most of this strength and make further inroads in offering financial services.

Will Your Organization Need a CIO by 2020?

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:45:00 EDT

The title of my new post is provocative. Why would I ask such a question, especially after covering number of CIO surveys, trends, leading CIO thought leaders and underlining the strategic importance of IT in this very blog? I am asking this question because the IT Landscape as you and I know it, it changing and very fast. Even by IT industry standards the pace of recent developments is remarkable. The business technology is undergoing rapid evolution. And the central argument which I am presenting here is that the conventional role of CIO or CIO function as it stands today will either be ineffective, redundant or out-dated and hence not required by end of this decade.

The State of CIO

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:29:54 EDT

These days I am presenting the analysis of the State of CIO in this blog. So far I have summarised insights from a successful CIO in my 50 Things to Know Becoming CIO post, followed by analysis of the Priorities and Focus for 2012 and beyond based on the Harvey Nash CIO Survey. In this post I will be analysing and summarising another influential industry survey from IBM.

How to Love Your Outsourcing Partner

Thu, 12 May 2011 17:00:28 EDT

In the latest sign of an economic recovery and a pickup in government spending, Hewlett-Packard has been awarded a multi-year contract worth up to $2.5 billion to provide technology services to NASA. In another strategic outsourcing deal Nokia will outsource its Symbian software activities to Accenture, transferring 3,000 employees to the company in the process, as it moves its focus to making phones running on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system. It seems that the tough economic climate has revived the technology outsourcing activity as businesses reduce costs and focus on their core operations. But how do you approach outsourcing if you are a CIO, CTO leading the Technology function of your organisation? What are the best practices? And what basics do you focus on? What lessons have we learnt from first and second generation of outsourcers?

Cloud Computing Technology Is Now Music to Our Ears

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:30:00 EDT

Earlier this week Amazon launched new cloud based consumer service called the “Cloud Drive” accompanied by media player titled “Cloud Player”. Together they offer consumers an ability to store, upload, listen and download music (which they may pre-own or buy on Amazon) from most devices. Amazon is the first major internet or Media Company to make such a commercial offer as both Apple and Google are rumoured to be working on similar offering in near future. Amazon promises to enable customers to store music in the cloud and play it on any Android phone, Android tablet, Mac or PC, wherever they are. Customers can upload their music library to Amazon Cloud Drive and can save any new Amazon MP3 purchases directly to their Amazon Cloud Drive for free. It can be argued that this offer should be extendable to other media type such as ebooks, documents etc. though Amazon does not seem to market it specifically.

It's Official - Google Is Now Part of the Travel Ecosystem

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:34:06 EDT

Google acquiring ITA is an exciting development in the travel technology space. It opens up the ecosystem which is currently dominated by the GDS players. How exactly it will benefit the travelling passengers or new entrepreneurs to launch new innovative travel solutions is not yet known. The nirvana state from my perspective is the emergence of "Travel Apps Store" which will make creation and consumption of new Travel business and technology applications much more easy and interesting. Is Google - ITA a right step in that direction? Absolutely yes.

The Shrinking Book Ecosystem

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:47:41 EDT

With the ever-increasing popularity and acceptance of tablets, ebook readers, etc., it is little surprise that the traditional form of paper books and it's ecosystem is coming under immense pressure to survive and remain profitable. How long will the paper book and related industries, merchants, suppliers and consumers be able to resist the onslaught of electronic media alternatives? Or though it will shrink it will manage to survive by sticking to its core characteristics? There was news here in the UK a couple days back about HMV considering selling off Waterstone's, the popular book chain. HMV struggling in it's traditional media market is not a new story. The way we consume media, music, movies and news has been changing for the past several years. The businesses which adopt have a chance to succeed. The ones who don't will struggle. Analysts have been writing about the truth is that the music industry is in a near-death spiral. According to Forrester Research, U.S. music sales and licensing revenues plummeted from $14.6 billion in 1999 to less than half that figure - just $6.3 billion - a decade later. The print industry is struggling equally spectacularly. In the US alone the newspaper industry is losing billions of dollars through loss of advert revenue, a large extent to online, electronic and social media channels.

Why IBM Is Right About HP Strategy

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:59:09 EDT

HP Chief Executive Officer Léo Apotheker recently outlined new corporate strategy which fundamentally changes the roadmap for HP as we have known it. Some analysts are calling it a “seismic shift”. I am not sure I will use those words in light of recent events. However I do agree that this seems to be a bold departure from HP’s recent and current market strategies. Hence I think it is important to understand and analyse this shift if you are a CIO or CTO from consumer perspective.

Enterprise Architecture - Different Perspectives

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 13:17:04 EDT

I had the pleasure to host a session by Dr Tim O’Neill at the British Computer Society’s Enterprise Architecture Specialist Group a few weeks ago. Dr O’Neill offered some fresh perspectives on the practice of Enterprise Architecture which in turn triggered some thoughts and impressions in my mind. Summarizing those thoughts in this post for the Enterprise Architecture community referencing purposes. Wooden Dollars of Business & IT Engagement - Enterprise Architecture is often seen as an enabler or framework for business and IT alignment. But should we really stick with this view going forward? The very notion sends wrong message that business and IT are not aligned. May be this also creates an “us and them” culture unintentionally as IT attempts to bridge the so called gap with “them – the business”. Business does not need Enterprise Architecture, it needs value and outcomes from the EA function. I have been writing about this flawed concept for some time now.

How Social Media Is Powering Next-Generation Air Travel Apps

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:24:00 EST

Based on my personal experience of over eight years of working in the air travel transport industry, I am a firm believer that this industry has been a technology pioneer on a number of fronts. The rest of the world has caught up with Cloud Computing only for the past few years but if you talk to an Air Travel Transport veteran about the Innovation of Cloud, just be very careful and be ready to duck for a cover. The reason being he might throw a book of IATA messages at you which have been encoded by Air Travel Transport Industry's very own Cloud providers such as Amadeus, SITA, Sabre for many years ago! Whether it is offering transaction based computing model or volume based billing, this Industry has been doing this for decades, it did not wait for Cloud revolution to hit us.

The State of CIO

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Retail and Financial Services

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

How to Love Your Outsourcing Partner

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

Will Your Organisation Need a CIO by 2020?

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 EST

The title of my new blog post is provocative. Why would I ask such a question, especially after covering number of CIO surveys, trends, leading CIO thought leaders and underlining the strategic importance of IT in this very blog? I am asking this question because the IT Landscape as you and I know it, it changing and very fast. Even by IT industry standards the pace of recent developments is remarkable. The business technology is undergoing rapid evolution. And the central argument which I am presenting here is that the conventional role of CIO or CIO function as it stands today will either be ineffective, redundant or out-dated and hence not required by end of this decade.