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Autumnal Tech Advice from Amalgam Insights

Amalgam Insights has been busy the past month in exploring a variety of trends across IT subscriptions, DevOps, Brain Science, and Data Science. In case you’ve missed it, check out our seasonal newsletter and get educated on the key trends that are augmenting our use of technology including:

  • For IT budget and spend management, traditional asset and spend management approaches are falling short
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being treated as a ubiquitous technology
  • Open Source is now a foundation for enterprise IT
  • Learning and Development suffers from the challenge of taking on cognitive bias.

Catch up with Amalgam Insights’ analysts at work this Fall and find out how to:

And to subscribe to our newsletter, please sign up here.

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Why Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio Effectively Drives Digital Readiness: A Market Milestone

 In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Skillsoft’s industry-first Digital Transformation Portfolio from a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science. This involves evaluating the portfolio’s content and delivery to determine whether it engages psychological processes and learning systems in the brain effectively. It does. Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio is highly effective.

The digital transformation is fundamentally altering the modern workplace and is requiring companies to modify organizational structures, create new roles and develop new skill sets. This transformation affects every aspect of skill learning from “what” we need to know, “how” we need to behave, and the “feel” or awareness that we need to be effective in ever-changing digitally-driven corporate settings. Skills associated with the “what”, “how”, and “feel” are each mediated by a distinct learning system in the brain. Thus, digital readiness requires content construction and delivery that effectively engages each of these systems. Skillsoft’s Digital Transformation Portfolio meets this challenge and is poised to continue to meet this challenge as new and exciting digital technologies transform the workplace.

For more information, read the full Market Milestone.

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From Calero World Online: From TEM to ITEM: Leveraging TEM for Non-Traditional Expenses

On October 18th, I presented a webinar at Calero World Online on the future of IT cost and subscription management. In this presentation, I challenge existing telecom and IT expense management managers to accept their destiny as pilots and architects of enterprise digital subscriptions.

Telecom expense has traditionally been the most challenging of IT costs to manage. With the emergence of software-as-a-service, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and software-defined networks, the rest of the IT world is quickly catching up.

In this webinar, you will learn:

  • How the latest trends and technology are driving change to enterprise management strategies
  • How the challenges of traditional TEM and cloud expense management are similar in nature (and why TEM is a good place to start)
  • How organizations are benefiting from ITEM best practices using sample use cases

To learn more about the upcoming challenges of IT expense management, aligning technology supply to digital demand, and being the shepherd for your organization’s technology sourcing, utilization, and optimization, click here to watch this webinar on-demand.

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ICYMI: On Demand Webinar – Four Techniques to Run AI on Your Business Data

On October 17th, I presented a webinar with Incorta’s Chief Evangelist, Matthew Halliday, on the importance of BI architectures in preparing for AI. This webinar is based on a core Amalgam Insights belief that all enterprise analytics and data science activity should be based on a shared core of trusted and consistent data so that Business Intelligence, analytics, machine learning, data science, and deep learning efforts are all based on similar assumptions and can build off each other.

While AI is beginning to impact every aspect of our consumer lives, business data-driven AI seems to be lower on the priority list of most enterprises. The struggle to understand the practical value of AI starts with the lack of ability to make business data easily accessible to the data science teams. Today’s BI tools have not kept up with this need and often are the bottlenecks that stifle innovation.

In this webinar, you will learn from Hyoun Park and Matthew Halliday about:
  • key data and analytic trends leading to the need to accelerate analytic access to data.
  • guidance for challenges in implementing AI initiatives alongside BI.
  • practical and future-facing business use cases that can be supported by accelerating analytic access to large volumes of operational data.
  • techniques that accelerate AI initiatives on your business data.

Watch this webinar on-demand by clicking here.

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Why Percipio Excels as a Learning Experience Platform: A Market Milestone

In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Percipio, Skillsoft’s Learning Experience Platform from a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science. This involves evaluating the training content and delivery to determine whether it engages psychological processes and learning systems in the brain effectively.

Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that Percipio is highly effective.
Pecipio’s ELSA (Embedded Learning Synchronized Assistant) addresses the need for organized and easily accessible content as well or better than most competitor’s platforms. ELSA provides just-in-time, searchable and suggested content, all seamlessly integrated into the employee’s flow of work.

Percipio also engages the task appropriate system in the brain. The “watch”, “read”, “listen” framework allows learners to utilize the medium that is most effective in the current context and facilitates microlearning for a targeted and concise understanding of some concept or macrolearning for a deeper dive and understanding. The emphasis on storytelling and scenario-based content, when appropriate, engages emotional systems that upregulate processing in both the cognitive and behavioral skills systems in the brain. The addition of “practice” (to be released in 2019) will facilitate the development of behavioral skills directly in the workplace.

For more information, read the full Market Milestone at http://learn.skillsoft.com/Website-AR-Amalgam-Insights-The-Learning-Science-Perspective-View-Full-Report.html.

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Oracle Autonomous Transaction Processing Lowers Barriers to Entry for Data-Driven Business

I recently wrote a Market Milestone report on Oracle’s launch of Autonomous Transaction Processing, the latest in a string of Autonomous Database announcements made by Oracle following announcements in Autonomous Data Warehousing and the initial announcement of the Autonomous Database late last year. This string of announcements by Oracle takes advantage of Oracle’s investments in…

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“Walking a Mile in My Shoes” With Skillsoft’s Leadership Development Program: A Market Milestone

In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Skillsoft’s Leadership Development Program (SLDP) from a learning science perspective. This involves evaluating the content, and the learning design and delivery. Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that SLDP content is highly effective. The content is engaging and well-constructed with a nice mix of high-level commentary from subject matter experts, dramatic and pragmatic storytelling from a consistent cast of characters faced with real-world problems, and a mentor to guide the leader-in-training through the process. Each course is approximately one hour in length and is comprised of short 5 – 10 minute video segments built with single concept micro-learning in mind.

From a learning design and delivery standpoint, the offering is also highly effective. Brief, targeted, 5 to 10 minute content is well-suited to the working memory and attentional resources available to the learner. Each course begins with a brief reflective question that primes the cognitive system in preparation for the subsequent learning and activates existing knowledge, thus providing a rich context for learning. The Program is grounded in a storytelling, scenario-based training approach with a common set of characters and a “mentor” who guides the training. This effectively recruits the cognitive skills learning system in the brain while simultaneously activating emotion and motivation centers in the brain. This draws the learner into the situation and they begin to see themselves as part of the story. This “walk a mile in my shoes” experience increases information retention and primes the learner for experiential behavior change.

For more information, read the full Market Milestone on the Skillsoft website.

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The Map to Multi-Million Dollar Machine Learning

Amalgam has just posted a new report: The Roadmap to Multi-Million Dollar Machine Learning Value with DataRobot. I’m especially excited about this report for a couple of reasons. First, this report documents multiple clear value propositions for machine learning that led to the documented annual value of over a million dollars. This is an important…

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Workday Surprises the IPO Market and Acquires Adaptive Insights

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Technology Officer, Accounting Directors and Managers, Sales Operations Directors and Managers, Controllers, Finance Directors and Managers, Corporate Planning Directors and Managers Why It Matters: Workday snatched Adaptive Insights away from the public markets only days before IPO, acquiring a proven enterprise planning…

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Why Oktane Has Become The Most Important SaaS Event of the Year

Key Stakeholders: Chief Information Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, Security Directors and Managers , Security Operations Directors, IT Architects, IT Strategists, Identity and Access Directors and Managers, Software Engineers, Cloud Strategists

Why This Matters: Cloud and digital strategists who are not attending Oktane risk missing out on key SaaS and IT management strategies emerging in an end-user centric model of IT.

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