IBM Think 2018 took place from March 19-22, bringing together nearly 40,000 business leaders and IT experts to attend multiple conferences and launches.  This is the largest event ever organized by IBM and of course, we attended!

IBM took the opportunity to make several announcements and share some compelling statistics:

IT is often left out of value creation in enterprises that are not in the IT field. This is due to the fact that most companies have been built on technical or industrial know-how, or even a service level.

Over the last decades, IT has permitted for all of these businesses to gain in efficiency and productivity, however, the IT department is still viewed as a support service and cost center.

Take for example businesses in transportation, furniture manufacturing, retail, or food distribution that have innovated thanks to IT and have passed to a superior level.

In 2017, companies will largely continue to invest in information technologies following a trend begun in 2012.

According to the CIO Tech Poll study, investments focus on two specific fields: analytics and security. CIO Adam Dennison said “Organizations continue to explore ways to conduct business smarter and protect assets and processes”.

In this context, we have identified 5 priorities for Canadian IT executives to position their projects in 2017 and to profit from IT.

After 90 published articles on our blog last year, here is a selection of 10 that attracted the most attention from our readers. Among the topics of interest are digital transformation and IT outsourcing (which we refer to as managed services).

These two points reflect both the increase in the presence of information technology in enterprises and the separation between value-added IT and the operational element. Increasingly, companies must focus on integrating various technology platforms to bring their business to the next level. At the same time, there is a strong tendency of shifting away infrastructure management to external partners, in order to devote internal resources to value-adding projects.

Happy reading!

SMBs must identify their IT challenges and priorities in order to achieve their goals and limit their risks. With an often limited flexibility, SMBs can’t afford to follow a trial and error approach, in IT or other departments.

Techaisle identified the top challenges and priorities for SMBs in 2016, and at the very least, it can be said how surprising many aspects are. Do you see the reality of your business reflected in these IT priorities and challenges or do you see things differently?

I invite you to share your views on this subject at the“Stratégie PME 2016” conference at kiosk 116.

Below is my analysis of the challenges and priorities in the IT field for SMBs in Quebec.

Modernization of IT assets is now determined by the rapid changes in today’s business requirements. Unfortunately, obsolescence eventually materializes on the IBM i systems (AS / 400), despite the efforts that have been made by IBM to ensure compatibility of applications on different generations of systems.

How to relax and contribute to innovation at the same time? Watch the 6 Ted Talks that we have selected for their relevance to the challenges that CIOs and other leading companies are facing so they can continue to innovate in a world increasingly focused on technology.

Some videos are less than 6 minutes, while others are 10 to 15 minutes. Watch them at your own leisure and according to your interests. Add this item to your favorites to be able to come back later when you want to be inspired, all are extremely interesting and motivating.

New technology trends have increasingly had major repercussions at the individual level of IT departments and businesses.

If the implications of these trends may seem distant for many Canadian business leaders, they should nevertheless be taken into account to allow the evolution of both the organization and the business models in the context of current digital transformation.

The latest research by Gartner, on key technologies for 2016 classifies 10 trends in 3 categories.

Managed IT Services remain relatively unknown to many companies. Yet, outsourcing IT can represent many benefits for executives looking to maximize time, profits and business processes, without compromising the security of their IT infrastructure.

Even today, the CEO, CFO’s and CIO’s of companies are reluctant to implement such a solution. The relative novelty of the offer, the fear of offending their IT team or the false belief that IT is a necessary evil in the company explains this widespread resistance.

Here are what leaders have to gain by letting go of some of these myths that ultimately limit the growth of their business.

Each year, the EMC World conference is positioned as a major IT event. It brings together professionals in our industry to discuss new developments and challenges in the digital age.

This popular event again surprised the attendees gathered with numerous important announcements.

Five major announcements particularly caught our attention when editing EMC World 2016, with a major theme of modernization of data centers.

1. The Dell family grows by acquiring EMC