Amalgam Insights Brain Science Research Fellow Todd Maddox has released new research on the Rehearsal website focused on the role of collaborative video-based practice and its role in teaching people skills (also known as soft skills). Continue reading “Todd Maddox Reveals How Collaborative Video-Based Practice Effectively Trains People Skills: A Brain Science Analysis”
Tom Petrocelli Clarifies How Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes Provide Different Paths to Microservices
DevOps Research Fellow Tom Petrocelli has just published a new report describing the roles that Cloud Foundry Application Runtime and Kubernetes play in supporting microservices. This report explores when each solution is appropriate and provides a set of vendors that provide resources and solutions to support the development of these open source projects.
Organizations and Vendors mentioned include: Cloud Foundry Foundation, Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Pivotal, IBM, Suse, Atos, Red Hat, Canonical, Rancher, Mesosphere, Heptio, Google, Amazon, Oracle, and Microsoft
To download this report, which has been made available at no cost until the end of February, go to https://amalgaminsights.com/product/analyst-insight-cloud-foundry-and-kubernetes-different-paths-to-microservices
Todd Maddox Publishes Brain Science Analysis of Augmented Reality for Product Lifecycle Management
Today, Todd Maddox published the report “Why Augmented Reality is Effective in Product Lifecycle Management: A Brain Science Analysis.” This report provides best practices for implementing augmented reality across product development, supply chain management, equipment operation, troubleshooting, and field service.
Recommendations are based on Maddox’ research, which has been cited over 10,000 by his academic peers.
This report is available at no cost through the end of February based on the generosity of our clients. To download this report at no cost for the rest of February, please go to https://amalgaminsights.com/product/analyst-insight-why-augmented-reality-is-effective-in-product-lifecycle-management.
Leveraging Psychology and Brain Science to Optimize Retention and Behavior Change
Amalgam Insights’ Learning Science Research Fellow Todd Maddox has recently published an Analyst Insight focused on exploring how psychology and brain science can inform learning practitioners and provide tools that optimize information retention and behavior change. The workplace is changing rapidly and the modern employee needs continuous learning of hard skills, people (aka soft) skills and situational awareness. Neuroscience reveals that each of these skill sets is mediated by a distinct learning system in the brain, each of which has its own unique operating characteristics. The modern employee expects learning in the flow of work, available 24/7 on any device, with engaging content and experience.
Maddox’ key finding was that Qstream’s mobile microlearning solution meets these challenges by delivering content in a way that engages the cognitive skills learning system in the brain during hard skills training, the behavioral skills learning in the brain during people skills training, and the emotional skills learning system in the brain during situational awareness training. The user experience engages employees through scenario-based challenges which stimulate critical thinking, gives real-time feedback, explains answers, supports personalized coaching, and delivers learning in minutes per day.
For a complementary copy of the complete report, vist the Qstream website at: https://info.qstream.com/leveraging-learning-science-how-qstreams-mobile-microlearning-solution-changes-behavior.
Leveraging Learning Science: Why Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content Drives Continuous Adaptability in the Digital Age: A Market Milestone
In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content 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 Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Learning Content is highly effective. Skillsoft’s Technology and Developer Content portfolio meets the need for continuous adaptability and effective engagement of the task appropriate learning system in the brain with their “watch”, “read”, “listen” and “practice” content and delivery methodology. Delivering the Technology and Developer Content portfolio with Percipio’s ELSA ensures that the portfolio is efficiently organized, is easily accessible on any device, is searchable and is seamlessly integrated into the employee’s flow of work. Finally, Skillsoft’s newly developed “Aspire” offering helps the employee realize their aspirations and desires by building an “Aspirational Persona” and developing a digital learning journey to support career advancement.
For more information, read the full Market Milestone licensed for distribution by Skillsoft at http://learn.skillsoft.com/Website-AR-Amalgam-Leveraging-Learning-Science-Why-Skillsofts-Tech-Dev-Learn_LandingPage.html.
Amalgam Insights: 2019 Shaping Up as “Turbulent” Year for Technology Budgets, With Cost Controls Taking Center Stage
Technology Expense Management, analyst firm says, can help companies adopt a “more careful approach…and a cost-efficient working environment.”
A new report from industry analysts Amalgam Insights warns that this year will represent what it calls a “change for companies that have managed digital transformation & technology investment in bull markets” of the previous several years. But it says several sectors within the technology expense management (TEM) environment remain posted for significant growth, with the telecommunications industry leading the way, with a projected 15-20 percent spending increase.
Amalgam Insights chief analyst Hyoun Park authored the new report, saying the enterprise mobile sector spend will be a key driver. He says spending in this area should increase by as much as 15 percent in 2019, driven by what he calls “the incessant demand for mobile data from apps, video, music, and other persistent and constantly updating workloads.”
He also predicts that Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Google Cloud Platform will continue to rake in more revenue, with an estimated run rate of $30 billion this year; he projects that amount could easily hit $50 billion in 2020.
Other predictions from the new Amalgam Insights report:
- Software as a Service (SaaS) will be a $75 billion market by next year;
- The Internet of Things (IoT) market will continue to be in flux, due to its complexity, with companies challenged to monetize the two billion non-cellular Internet of Things devices to be created for industrial, commercial, and enterprise; and
- Most importantly, the technology expense market will double to more than two billion dollars over the coming year.
“Over half of enterprises do not have basic technology spend practices in place,” Park says. “The most frequent mistake these companies make is assuming that they’ve assigned a person to processing telecom invoices, so those people know how to manage and optimize telecom bills and contracts, which is usually not true.”
The full Amalgam Insights report is available for download at: https://amalgaminsights.com/product/analyst-insight-7-key-technology-expense-management-predictions-for-2019
Now Available: Market Milestone: Vena Solutions Raises $115 Million to Support Mid-Market FP&A
On January 9th, 2019, Vena Solutions announced a $115 million round of equity financing led by JMI Equity and joined by prior investor Centana Growth Partners. Based on Amalgam Insights’ discussions with Vena’s executive team, this funding will be used to expand Vena’s product, customer support, sales, marketing, and operations teams as well as to expand the customer base in the mid-market, where Vena has been successfully winning business over the past several years.
Amalgam Insights’ Market Milestones highlight and contextualize key announcements in enterprise technology markets. This Market Milestone provides guidance on why this funding round is an important milestone for mid-market FP&A in context of the red-hot FP&A market as well as important trends in Enterprise Performance Management product development and venture capital investment. To access Amalgam Insights’ perspective at no cost until Friday, January 19th, click through to read our perspective on this important milestone.
Tangoe Acquires MOBI to Strategically Expand Enterprise Mobility Capabilities
On December 5th, 2018, Tangoe announced the acquisition of MOBI, a leading managed mobility services organization based in Indianapolis, Indiana in the United States. With this acquisition, Tangoe increases its IT spend under management to over $40 billion, increasing its lead over other spend management vendors with multiple billions of dollars of enterprise technology under management including Flexera, Snow Software, Microsoft Azure Cost Management, CloudHealth by VMware, Calero, MDSL, Cass Information Systems, and Sakon.
Key questions to consider for this acquisition include:
- Why did Tangoe decide to buy MOBI at this time? For its customer base? Corporate culture? Technology?
- How does this acquisition affect enterprises seeking toolsets to assist with the orchestration and accounting of digital transformation initiatives?
- How will work be split and coordinated between Tangoe’s Austin logistics warehouse and MOBI’s Indianapolis-based facilities?
- What will Tangoe do with MOBI’s Robotic Process Automation initiative of Mobots?
- Will Tangoe keep MOBI’s staff or will there be a bunch of high-quality mobility and support staff available?
- What happens to MOBI partners who may compete with Tangoe?
- Will MOBI customers be moved to the Tangoe Matrix platform immediately?
- Will Tangoe contribute to the burgeoning Indianapolis tech scene that is currently one of the hottest startup spots in the country?
To learn more about which of these questions can be answered and which of these questions require greater due diligence, please read my full analysis, which is available at: https://amalgaminsights.com/product/amalgam-insights-market-milestone-tangoe-acquires-mobi-to-enhance-mobility-management-capabilities
Tom Petrocelli Publishes Groundbreaking Report Defining Serverless Computing
On December 10th, 2018, Tom Petrocelli published the Market Guide for Serverless Computing entitled “Serverless Computing Provides New Solutions to Modern Problems” in conjunction with KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018.
This report was written in response to massive market confusion regarding the current definition of serverless computing and the categories of options that software, platform, and infrastructure architects can use to initiate serverless computing projects.
“Serverless can best be thought of as any computer system that abstracts the infrastructure for the developer, employs an event-driven model, and only consumes resources when needed.”
Tom Petrocelli, Research Fellow, Amalgam Insights
In this report, Petrocelli provides a definition of serverless computing, provides five key use cases for serverless computing, explores the economics of serverless computing, and provides 14 representative enterprise-grade solutions across open source projects, cloud services, and on-premises commercial products.
Amalgam Insights’ Market Guides provide an unbiased, third-party perspective for explaining new technology and service capabilities based on our decades of expert experience, briefings with leading technology vendors, and discussions with Early Adopter organizations.
To download the report, which will be available at no cost throughout the duration of KubeCon + CloudNativeCon North America 2018, please download at the following link: https://amalgaminsights.com/product/market-guide-serverless-computing-provides-new-solutions-to-modern-problems
Allego’s Point-in-Time Video Feedback Trains People Skills in the Sales Brain: A Market Milestone
In a recently published Market Milestone, Todd Maddox, Ph.D., Learning Scientist and Research Fellow for Amalgam Insights, evaluated Allego’s Point-in-Time Video Feedback offering from a learning science perspective—the marriage of psychology and brain science. This involves evaluating the offering to determine whether it engages psychological processes and learning systems in the brain effectively. Amalgam’s overall evaluation is that Allego’s Point-in-Time Video Feedback offering is highly effective.
Allego’s Point-in-Time Video Feedback offering allows feedback to be inserted and embedded throughout the sales professionals’ videotaped pitch. This feedback can be targeted and specific to some aspect of the pitch at that point-in-time. From a learning science perspective, the sales professional can visualize themselves and “relive” the experience giving the pitch and can receive corrective feedback on the fly. This simulates real-time, interactive feedback and is much more effective at engaging the appropriate people skills brain regions than receiving feedback at the end of the pitch. It is also scalable, which is a serious challenge for truly interactive offerings.
For more information, read the full Market Milestone at https://www.allego.com/resources/amalgam-insights-market-milestone-video-feedback/.