Several interesting pieces of research were published this last week. Forter launched its inaugural 2023 Consumer Trust Premium Report. The research explores how consumers truly feel about their online shopping experiences. Other reports came from Accenture, Access Legal, Asana, FourKites, Globant, Kensu, Planview, PlanviewRamco Systems, Screen Dragon and Xero.
Accenture
Accenture published “The Cyber-Resilient CEO”, based on a survey of 1,000 CEOs from large organizations globally. The report noted that 60% of CEOs said their organizations don’t incorporate cybersecurity into business strategies, services or products from the outset. While 44% of the CEOs believe that cybersecurity requires episodic intervention rather than ongoing attention.
Despite 90% of CEOs saying they consider cybersecurity a differentiating factor for their products or services to help them build trust among customers, only 15% have dedicated board meetings for discussing cybersecurity issues. Generative AI is, if anything, making things worse. 64% of CEOs surveyed said that cybercriminals could use generative AI to create sophisticated and hard-to-detect cyberattacks, such as phishing scams, social engineering attacks and automated hacks.
Paolo Dal Cin, Global Lead of Accenture Security, commented, “The acceleration of generative AI makes it even more essential for organizations to take measures to ensure the security of their data and digital assets. Unfortunately, it is often only after they experience a material cyber incident that they elevate cybersecurity to a board-level and C-suite priority and expand expectations beyond technology functions to better protect their organizations. Integrating cybersecurity risk into an enterprise risk management framework is the key to ensuring better security, regulatory compliance, business protection and customer trust.”
Valerie Abend, Global Cybersecurity Strategy Lead at Accenture Security, said, “The constantly evolving and never-ending threat landscape is creating a wide gap between CEOs’ increasing awareness of the business impact of cyberattacks and their lack of confidence to mitigate them. This should be a wake-up call for all those in the C-suite. To close the cyber-resiliency gap, cybersecurity should be viewed as an organization-wide priority—with the right processes for reporting; the involvement of employees at all levels; and greater commitment from and accountability across the C-suite and the board.”
Access Legal
Access Legal revealed findings from the Conveyancing Landscape Insight Report 2023. It found that property transactions in England and Wales went back to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. After falling house prices during COVID and the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday saw transactions exceed one million the previous year.
Key findings included:
- There were more than 840,000 residential transactions in 2022, down from over one million in 2021.
- Conveyancers in many parts of England and Wales were able to reduce their completion performance times in 2022 by, on average, a day or more from the previous year.
- The profile of the market has remained resilient. In 2022, the largest 7% of firms completed almost half of all purchases (49%).
Mike Connelly, Commercial Director at Access Legal and Founder of Legal Bricks, said, “The data in our report aligns with what we hear from our customers—the market has moved back to a normal level of activity, like we saw back in 2019. Much of the evolution in the industry over the last two years has been driven around the use of technology and integration.
“The challenge or opportunity for firms is how they can maintain their price points while improving client experience with a simpler and quicker conveyancing journey. Transaction times have become quite protracted and while improved slightly in 2022, we still have an opportunity to streamline processes and improve service levels to clients while maintaining prices.”
ADP
ADP published the US National Employment report for September. Private sector employment increased by 89,000 jobs in September. Annual pay was up 5.9% year-over-year. September showed the slowest pace of growth since January 2021, when private employers shed jobs. Large establishments drove the slowdown, losing 83,000 jobs and wiping out gains they made in August.
Nela Richardson, Chief Economist of ADP, commented, “We are seeing a steepening decline in jobs this month. Additionally, we are seeing a steady decline in wages in the past 12 months.”
Asana
Asana launched The Work Innovation Score, a proprietary, first-of-its-kind AI-driven benchmark developed by its AI. The Work Innovation Score enables companies to benchmark their performance against industry peers across four key metrics: cohesion (how well employees work together), velocity (how quickly work moves forward), resilience (stability during employee turnover), and capacity (employee bandwidth). The Work Innovation Score is calculated through proprietary Asana neural networks, informed by Asana’s Work Graph data.
Federico Torreti, Head of Product for AWS AppFabric at AWS, commented, “Asana’s Work Innovation Score provides a lens into how teams work together, predicting challenges in how employees are collaborating in order to proactively address them. At AWS and through our joint research with Asana’s Work Innovation Lab, we’ve seen that employees are struggling with ‘collaboration overload,’ which comes at the cost of productivity.”
“With The Work Innovation Score and services like AWS AppFabric—which connects multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications for better security, management, and productivity—companies have new visibility into how to streamline collaboration and productivity to drive employee impact and gain a competitive advantage.”
The Work Innovation Score is available to Asana Enterprise Customers.
FourKites
In a new report entitled “Data-Driven Decisions: Why Many Supply Chains Are Falling Behind,” FourKites looked to identify how businesses in the UK are digitizing their supply chains.
- 72% recognize the importance of connecting disparate supply chain data
- 42% plan to invest in technology over the next six to 12 months
- 48% of respondents say their supply chain digitization is sub-par
- 43% say they have no single source of truth for their data
- Only 45% of respondents are using supply chain data to make strategic decisions
- 14% aren’t using supply chain data at all to make decisions
Fabrizio Brasca, FourKite’s Chief Strategy Officer, said, “Two-thirds of responding companies are using supply chain data only for simple, day-to-day tasks — many have yet to realize the opportunity to look at their supply chain end-to-end to make informed, strategic decisions.
“At the root of this issue is the ongoing struggle to fully digitize the supply chain and have a single source of data. For instance, with a real-time view of inventory levels across facilities, supply chain leaders can proactively mitigate the risk of stockouts and prevent orders from being cut, leading to a better end-customer experience.”
Globant
Globant has published “Unbelievable Skills: How AI is Changing the Role of the Modern Marketer.” This report focuses on the role of AI in the marketing industry. It notes how generative AI is changing the marketer’s role.
Key findings included:
- Artificial intelligence (AI) is reinventing the role of the modern marketer and revolutionizing the way we work, becoming a transformative force that drives customer engagement, optimizes campaigns, and enables personalized experiences
- AI in marketing will surge from $6.5 billion in 2019 to $29.79 billion by 2025
- 90% of market researchers say that AI will significantly impact their industry within five years, but only 30% say they know what that will look like
Pepe Chamorro, Global Head of Globant Create, stated, “With AI-based tools, we are able to analyze vast amounts of data to gain valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This allows us to deliver highly targeted and relevant content, recommendations, and offers to each customer, improving customer satisfaction and most likely success rates.”
AI’s ongoing evolution promises to bring even more transformative changes to the marketing landscape. Trends on the rise, like AI-powered voice search, image recognition, and predictive advertising, will reshape how marketers interact with customers. This technology is not just a passing trend but a powerful tool that reshapes the marketing landscape. It’s been used for years, even without most people knowing it. As a marketer, embracing AI can give the brand a competitive edge, now and in the future.
Intuit
Intuit published its QuickBooks Small Business Index annual reports for Canada, the UK and the US. The report finds that in 2023, while overall employment levels have trended upward in Canada, the US, and the UK, small business employment has been less resilient. Using anonymized data from more than 3.4 million Intuit QuickBooks customers and surveys of more than 5,000 small businesses in Canada, the US and the UK, the report looks at how small businesses are responding to these challenges. It examines the relationships between small business growth, access to capital, and use of digital technology.
The report delves into the differences and similarities between the three Anglophone economies. Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit said, “Becoming an entrepreneur is a bold decision. Given the significant impact new and growing small businesses have on job creation, innovation, and the economy, policymakers and industry leaders should be equally bold in creating an environment where small businesses can grow and thrive. We remain focused on working across the industry to create new and innovative ways to serve our customers and help solve their most pressing challenges.”
Kensu
Kensu a report titled “The State of Data Observability” based on a study conducted by CDO Magazine. The report reveals only 7% could resolve data issues before they impact users. That data pipeline issues are wasting internal resources (57%), adding stress (55%), and creating conflicts with data consumers (58%). 39% of data teams spend between 20 and 40% of their time fixing data pipelines. 51% say it takes a few hours to resolve a single incident, and 36% a few days or more.
Based on the findings, the data observability market will reach maturity in 2024. With 37% planning to implement a data observability tool in the next 12 months and 35% in the next 2-5 years.
Steve Wanamaker, CDO Magazine Founder and Publisher, said, “As the consequences of data pipeline issues to data teams rise, so does the need for data observability – which is evidenced in the research published with Kensu today. As the first report of its kind, the State of Data Observability 2023 provides a snapshot of the market from the perspective of global data leadership.”
Eleanor Treharne-Jones, Chief Executive Officer at Kensu, commented, “The results from this research confirm the value Data Observability brings to data teams across organizations and the necessity to incorporate data observability into a data strategy framework. Ensuring trust in data is essential to data-driven decision-making and foundational to the success of generative AI.”
Planview
Planview announced the findings of a global study, “Bridging the gap: turning strategy into reality.” Conducted by Economist Impact, the research arm of The Economist and commissioned by Planview. The study uncovers common disconnects in strategy implementation, leading to failures in critical digital initiatives. The findings show a stark reality: if businesses do not accelerate efforts to close the gap between strategy and action, the consequences are significant: wasted work, sunk costs, failed digital transformations, and the threat of becoming obsolete.
Key findings included:
- Only 14% of executives expressed confidence in their company’s decision-making governance
- 84% of executives need to improve data-driven decision making
- 1/3 report challenges related to process, metrics, and data as critical hindrances in evaluating the progress of initiatives tied to business strategy
- 86% of respondents think their organization needs to improve accountability in strategy implementation
- 84% of respondents think their organization needs to improve goal-setting and performance-monitoring systems
- Critically, only 20% of executives are confident in the resources allocated for implementation
Razat Gaurav, CEO at Planview, commented, “With economic uncertainties, market disruptions, the rapid advancement of technologies like AI, and the growing digitalization imperative impacting every industry, the pace of change and complexity of decision-making is growing exponentially. Organizations across the globe are experiencing the realities of ‘adapt, evolve, or die,’ and yet only 15% of executives are confident in their company’s ability to adapt to change.
“Companies must be able to prioritize their initiatives in a capital and capacity constrained environment, quickly analyze and adapt their project and product initiatives, making critical decisions that drive important outcomes. The key is connecting company strategy and how work is executed across the business.”
Procore
78% of civil and infrastructure construction firms expect their project backlog to increase or remain the same over the next year, as new federal infrastructure funding ramps up. This is a key finding from a report from Procore Technologies, Inc. and the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).
Other findings included:
- Civil and infrastructure builders report an average increase of 25% in their backlogs
- 78% of firms expect that backlog to grow or remain level during the next twelve months
Sandra Benson, Vice President of Industry Strategy at Procore, commented, “With increased backlogs prompted by once-in-a-generation government investment in the US and Canada, civil and infrastructure organizations are on the precipice of historic projects across North America. To achieve these massive undertakings, while also navigating the ongoing labor shortage, companies will have to find innovative solutions, improve self-performance, and leverage clean data to build better.”
The report noted that 60% of project success factors were linked to workforce matters.
The top factors were:
- Material and labour costs (41%)
- Worker skills and training (40%)
- Project management (39%)
- Supply chain management (38%)
- Workflow efficiency (35%)
Stephen E. Sandherr, CEO of AGC, said, “Civil and infrastructure construction is poised to play a greater role in the advancement of the US economy than at any time in the past several decades. This report is essential to understanding the current state of civil and infrastructure companies, their challenges, and their potential is essential to making sure the opportunities ahead are captured to the fullest.”
Ramco Systems
Ramco Systems, together with Ecosystm, a Singapore headquartered digital research and advisory company, announced the release of a new eBook, “Can Employee Experience be Seamless in a Global Organisation?” The eBook contains findings from a study of 89 leading multinational organisations across the Asia Pacific.
Key findings included:
- 81% of respondents improved their employee experience through better employee compensation and benefits packages
- 83% of respondents achieved an enhanced level of employee experience through providing self-service/access to employee apps
- 59% of respondents introducing financial wellness measures for their employees
Sash Mukherjee, VP of Industry Insights, Ecosystm, said, “It is important to look at all functions that contribute to improving employee experience strategically – whether it is Finance, HR, Compliance, or Payroll. Organisations must empower these departments with the right AI-driven technologies that can automate their operational tasks and utilise them for strategic decisions on employee attraction and retention. Global organisations should be backed by global systems.”
Rohit Mathur, Head – Ramco Global Payroll & HR Solution, Ramco Systems, said, “Improving employee experience has become paramount in achieving business success. Organisations must take a multifaceted approach to enhancing their employee experience, which empowers employees professionally, emotionally and financially.
“Ramco’s focus on providing automation and transformation features like anomaly & reasoning engine, pro-active chatbots, self-explaining payslip, financial wellness services, and voice-based navigation powered by AI, ML & RPA is not only offering organizations a competitive edge but has also been helping them enhance employee well-being and overall experience.”
Screendragon
Screendragon published findings from The State of Creative Operations 2023 based on a survey of 100 creative leaders.
- Hybrid working is back. With 62% of agencies now choose to mix home working and office trips on a regular basis. Only 16% want to return to the office full-time
- 62% expect to take on more creative workers again in 2023, and 52% feel under resourced
- 58% of agencies needed to use freelancers more in 2023. Why? 61% of those who used freelancers more were required to do so to manage workloads
- 44% of agencies still use email to manage briefs. However, 16% still communicate briefs verbally and don’t transmit any record of their plan
- Only 16% are satisfied with their tech stack. 73% use project management software. But other solutions are less common: resourcing (34%), time tracking (47%), online proofing (27%), and creative automation (13%)
UKG
UKG published its September workforce activity report. Shift work increased slightly by 0.1%, highlighting a remarkably consistent labour market. There was a slight growth across some industries, including manufacturing (0.9%), healthcare (0.4%), and the services and distribution sectors (0.4%). However, retail saw the third consecutive monthly decline of -1.9%.
Xero
Xero’s Beating the ‘digital drag’ report found that SMEs that had digitalised the most over the last four years grew their revenue by 8.1% over the same period, compared to the slowest adopters, who’d seen their revenues decline by 4.7%. Improving customer experience, smoother operations, and expanding their client base were cited as the top three benefits of adopting more tech.
The UK’s smallest companies could generate £77.3bn of extra revenue and create 885,000 new jobs if they all digitalised at the rate of the top 20% of tech adopters. Alex von Schirmeister, UK Managing Director at Xero, said, “This nation’s army of tiny firms already pack a punch, contributing billions to the UK economy and creating millions of jobs. But they have a different relationship with technology to larger SMEs, often without dedicated experts on hand to support adoption.
“They have unique needs and priorities as businesses, so shouldn’t be treated as one ‘catch-all’ group. The smallest firms suffer from a ‘digital drag’ where concerns over technology can suppress the transformational benefits to them. With the right guidance and support, these businesses could fuel even more economic growth and reach new levels of success with technology.”
