Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are powerful business growth strategies, enabling companies to expand their market presence, diversify their product offerings, and enhance their competitive edge. However, the real value of M&A transactions often hinges on the successful integration of the merged entities—a process known as Post-Merger Integration (PMI).

As businesses increasingly rely on IT to drive innovation and achieve strategic goals, effective management of technology resources becomes paramount. Businesses need a monitoring and control process to maximize the efficiency they get from their technology investments. This is where Technology Portfolio Management (TPM) comes in.

Infrastructure Technology Lifecycle Management (ITLM) is an organization's planning, development, delivery, and support of IT infrastructure services. IT Lifecycle Management is especially crucial for large organizations with complex IT environments and numerous systems, applications, and data centers. ITLM provides a structured approach to manage this complexity and ensure efficient resource allocation.

The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on fundamental rights and freedoms is the subject of much discussion and concern. Certainly, AI bears a lot of promise when it comes to supporting better business decisions, aiding strategic planning, and enhancing digital transformation.In response to this, the European Union (EU) has taken a step in shaping the future of AI with the recent introduction of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act.

If an enterprise wishes to remain competitive, it must constantly seek to optimize operations, improve agility, and drive growth. Business Architecture (BA) emerges as a critical discipline that connects business strategy and execution. By defining the core components of an organization and their interrelationships, Business Architecture provides a clear roadmap for aligning business processes, information flows, and technology with strategic objectives.

Today’s IT leaders face constant pressure to innovate, reduce costs, and remain agile. Given the rapid pace of economic and technological change, legacy on-premises infrastructure can struggle to keep pace. Cloud migration offers a compelling solution, promising a path to true digital transformation.

Organizations worldwide are focused on the leading edge of technology: advanced analytics, automation, and the Cloud. However, the negative impacts of being unable to keep up—inflexible technology platforms, insecure or non-compliant software, and integration spaghetti—quickly kill strategic momentum. Worse still, you find yourself having to devote a large portion of your organization’s budget towards maintaining low-value applications.

As Enterprise Architecture continues to make great strides to refocus on people, processes, and value rather than primarily technology, the line between Enterprise Architect and Business Architect becomes increasingly unclear. In some organizations, Business Architects play very similar roles to Enterprise Architects, and in others, Business Architects maintain a distinctly separate strategic focus on the organization’s operations.

The European Union (EU) is taking an important step towards safeguarding the financial landscape with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), an initiative that falls into the new Digital Finance Strategy with the specific focus of addressing how financial firms should manage digital risk.

The true power of Enterprise Architecture (EA) lies in its ability to transform the organization, and that hinges on effective stakeholder engagement. Engaging stakeholders throughout the entire EA process fosters collaboration and ensures the architecture aligns with strategic objectives. ​​Enterprise Architects (EAs) play a crucial role in sourcing data from stakeholders across the organization. By understanding stakeholders’ pain points, priorities, and how IT intersects with their daily act...

Cybersecurity is a dynamic, ever-present issue. Modern organizations rely heavily on digital infrastructure and mechanisms, creating potential exposure to external threats. In this environment, understanding the purpose and increasing importance of a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is paramount for enterprises.

The world of business is constantly changing, especially where technology is concerned, making connectivity and collaboration vital for organizations to stay ahead. Modern businesses are complex structures where functions and departments are interconnected through a myriad of different systems. These units must be able to share information across diverse software, tasks, and applications.

In the dynamic landscape of modern business, understanding the intricacies of an organization is crucial for effective management and strategic decision-making. Organizational mapping, a powerful tool in the realm of organizational development, offers a visual representation of an organization's structure, relationships, and processes. This article aims to unravel the concept of organizational mapping and explore its various types, shedding light on how it can be a valuable asset for businesses....

In today's dynamic corporate environment, business transformation is more than just a trend; it's essential. Business transformation requires reimagining the core aspects of an organization to achieve significant and lasting change. In a fiercely competitive market, the capacity to adapt, innovate, and evolve is imperative for the survival and success of any business.

A bevy of recent research indicates that members of gen Z don’t feel prepared for the demands of their working lives, with a particular focus on digital literacy issues. A 2022 report by Salesforce found that just 32% of gen Z adults feel very equipped with the resources to learn workplace digital skills. And when young employees do experience a digital issue, they’re likely to feel embarrassed. A study by HP found that 20% of gen Z feel ‘tech shame’ when experiencing a digital issue, compared

Hybrid working is here to stay, but employers and employees must overcome a number of challenges for it to be effective. Employers are challenged with creating hybrid working policies that are fair to everyone. To do so, they have to consider if their company culture is being damaged or if the business might be less productive and therefore less competitive as a result. In a recent roundtable sponsored by RingCentral, workplace experts debated what needs to improve to make hybrid a long-term s

Email, instant messaging, video calls – the post-pandemic employee has a plethora of communication tools allowing them to interact and collaborate with colleagues both remotely and in the office. However, with hybrid working set to be the preferred working model for most employees – 83% of workers chose hybrid working as their optimal way of working in a recent Accenture study – organisations are having to reevaluate how best to maintain culture, productivity and wellbeing. At the heart of thi

Many businesses hastily adopted a patchwork system to continue operations when the pandemic hit, but few have since reassessed those hybrid working tools

How we interact at work is changing fast – and the best businesses are communities with a shared culture. It’s good to talk, it’s better to have the tech to do it well

Good communication is vital for any company and, in an age of countless digital chat channels, voice-to-voice still plays an important part in how we connect with colleagues and customers

We’re not at the beginning, but we’re nowhere near the end. For a year in which life was on hold, there’s a lot to say about 2020. We’re approaching the anniversary of the first lockdown in the UK. What are the next 12 months supposed to look like?

As the Supreme Court closed its doors in March 2020, justice was seemingly on standby as courts had to find a new, more efficient way to proceed during the global pandemic. During the initial weeks of the lockdown, many trials and court meetings had to be postponed. Risks to public health and the well-being of court users were high, meaning that courtrooms across the UK had to suspend operations.

The education sector was among the most hard-hit industries during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. With exams cancelled and students and teachers in limbo, a nationwide closing of school doors took place for the first time. The official lockdown brought about physical distancing measures that meant educators had to find a way to migrate the bricks-and-mortar classroom into an easily accessible, collaborative online environment.

While many public sector organisations rally to overcome the complexity and financial strain imposed by the global pandemic, local councils have been no exception. Now more than ever, local authorities are working to find ways to overcome budget restraints amid continued operational restrictions and, ultimately, to do a lot more with less.

These last 12 months, the healthcare sector has been even more in the spotlight. The NHS, already crippled by funding cuts, tied up in bureaucracy, and held back by ill-fitting administrative and communications technology, endured greater strain under the weight of the global pandemic. Care workers—overworked, underpaid, and even underfed—were at greater risk than ever. Instead of cash, we gave them claps; instead of providing PPE, we put them on pedestals.

The events of 2020 have changed the future of the workplace as we know it. As news headlines are rife with predictions on what a “new normal” might look like, 86% of UK bosses now believe that the shift towards remote working is here for the long haul. We generally perceive workplace culture to be the environment a business creates for its employees. So, what happens when that environment is no longer a physical one?

It’s amazing what you’re capable of when pushed to it. From hysterical strength to extraordinary survival, adversity can make the impossible possible. A less dramatic, yet ultimately defining, example is our adaptation to lockdown. Aspects of life previously little-touched by the virtual experience suddenly disappeared from the physical realm. Football matches were cancelled, pubs closed, trips to Barnard Castle were all but abolished.

Welcome to Ringside. This series invites insights from business leaders in the communications space both within and beyond our walls. In partnering with others to help create the future of work, we’re curious to uncover a broader perspective on business communications. This episode welcomes Simon Jones from Atos.

As we expand the Ringside series to hear from experts beyond RingCentral’s walls, we continue to engage with our own leaders to get insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry. Today we catch up with Ben Purton, Sales Enablement Senior Manager for RingCentral UK, mainly supporting workforces in EMEA and APAC. Ben has been in the UCaaS space for just under a decade, and has been involved in enablement for the past five years. Ben loves to play chess, and won the

The pandemic revealed a lot of information about the current workplace. We’ve seen first-hand that businesses can’t just have cloud back-ups in place to ensure continuity. For companies to truly thrive, they need to be able to operate from anywhere.

In this series of posts, we’re talking to our own leaders to get insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry. This episode is a special one, taking into account what everyone’s going through. At RingCentral, we’re fortunate that it’s our business to enable remote communication and collaboration. When the time came for us to pack up our laptops and take them to work from home, we did it without missing a beat.

UC Summit 2020 has been live for almost a month now, and has hosted thousands of visitors in its first weeks. That’s no surprise – with the variety and quality of content available, it’s a golden opportunity for businesses to learn about the present and future of communications technology. How we communicate is how we do business, therefore our methods impact directly on our bottom line.

In this series of posts, we’re talking to our own leaders to get insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry. This episode features Louise Newbury-Smith, Regional Vice President for Enterprise Sales. In plain English, Louise leads our people on the ground who are selling to big businesses like News UK. Louise has spent much of her career in telecommunications, occupying director roles for big players including BT and Daisy Group.

In this series of posts, we’re talking to our own leaders to get insights into the challenges and solutions of the telecommunications industry. In this special episode, we welcome Monica Visconti-Patel, AVP of Marketing for EMEA. Something of a celebrity in the SaaS arena, Monica has occupied numerous directorships at software companies including CA Technologies, Jive and MuleSoft, and was featured in HotTopics.ht’s Top 100 B2B European Marketing Leaders list for 2019.

The conversation around remote working has reached fever pitch. With so many businesses deciding to tell their employees to work from home, many people are adopting remote working for the first time. Fortunately, today’s technology helps make remote working a viable reality for many companies, so in theory the transition could be seamless.

For some companies, the need for remote working has come out of nowhere. This sudden need to make a fundamental switch raises all kinds of questions, and it’s difficult to know where to start. With a bombardment of information about remote working suddenly hitting the social platforms, a filter is really useful to help navigate it all. With that in mind, here’s a summary of some of the best remote working blogs and guides in the market right now.

Remote working has quickly gone from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to have’. One of the main threads in my recent CIO Watercooler discussion was that of enabling employees with the technology and flexibility they need in order to do their best work. We communicate and collaborate remotely every day in our personal lives – why should it be different in our professional lives?

Are you working from home yet? The isolation practices enforced in Italy and Spain, and now France and parts of the US, could be with us in the UK very soon, and it’s up to us to be prepared. The good news is that many of us are prepared. Though remote working was traditionally an exceptional practice, in more recent years its popularity has increased.

Many businesses have taken a long time to respond to digital transformation. Accounting for the presence of early adopters in every space, the UK has still been generally slow on the uptake. It’s a human condition. Some people are naturally resistant to change, some are sceptical, some are buried in minutiae and don’t make time for strategic investment.

Remote working is becoming increasingly common in the UK, and the signs are it’s not a fad. The UK had 4.5 million remote workers in 2018, up from 3.6 million ten years before. The change is steady, measured – the hallmarks of lasting evolution rather than short-term craze. As businesses see the practice paying dividends in other sectors, or among their partners and competitors, they realise the potential benefits of remote working outweigh the risks.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Dorian, relief efforts in the Bahamas are on the rise. Remarkably, six different types of Damen-designed ships are among the forces coming to aid. Two vessels from the Royal Netherlands Navy and British naval vessel RFA Mounts Bay have joined the vessels of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) to assist in the work.

Built in 1921, the Bluenose fishing and racing schooner was the fastest of its kind, an iconic symbol of craftsmanship and innovation. Since 2014, Damen Shipyards Group has been applying the same kind of pioneering spirit to a project that aims to dramatically improve the viability of composite hulls for larger vessels.

The large RoPax industry segment saw a peak in demand around thirty – forty years ago – roughly the lifespan of this type of vessel. This means that soon many of these ships will be coming to the end of their service and will be earmarked for replacement. Damen intends to use its experience in shipbuilding, coupled with new facilities to offer the marketplace a superior solution as part of its new Cruise, RoPax and Offshore (CRO) division. “With this, we are able to fully service this sector,”

Emissions-reducing solutions for shipping include engines powered by liquefied natural gas or by hydrogen cells, but these are expensive to implement and at present offer little scope for upgrade once installed. The introduction of a ‘battery box’ would require little imposition on the structure and operation of a ship’s propulsion and the removable batteries could be replaced following the development of newer, more efficient methods of energy storage.

Different modes of transport form a lifeline for Copenhagen’s citizens. As a result, the city’s politicians wanted a greener public transport service, on water as well as on the road. Copenhagen’s public transport authority Movia issued a tender to upgrade the current ferry service and route to a greener alternative.

VTS Vasiliko Terminal Services is a prominent marine services provider for Cyprus’ ports and terminals and is one of the leading providers in the Eastern Mediterranean region. You might remember the name from news of their collaboration with Damen Shipyards Group in July last year, when Vasiliko Terminal Services placed an order for the new ASD Tug 2310 and named it VTS Ayia Marina.

There’s no room in marine services for complacency. Margins are tight, schedules are strict, and competition is fierce. That’s why Damen Shipyards Group strives to pioneer new perspectives and solutions in the industry.

The beauty of modular online learning is that you don’t need to be in a certain place at a certain time to get on with your studies. This flexibility is something Damen Shipyards Group has wanted to take full advantage of for a long time. Access to information, advice and training regardless of location allows clients to benefit from Damen service provision round the clock and around the globe – and can be immensely rewarding.

Efficiency and sustainability are big issues facing most industries today, and none more so than marine operations. Damen Shipyards Group’s partnerships with Skoon and EMAR to promote sustainable propulsion are examples of its investment into preparations for a changing future. In a related venture, together with ten other stakeholders, Damen forms the Qualify project partnership to investigate the use of composite materials in the construction of primary maritime structures.

AI in content marketing is pretty much a given. The potential to dramatically improve efficiency is considerable — and is creating turbulence in the marketing arena. AI is a powerful tool, that’s for sure. And you know what they say about workmen and tools. So it’s important you wield it with skill. Some are really leaning into it. And why not, it’s worth pushing boundaries sometimes. AI-generated blog posts, emails and social content possibly have a place somewhere, even if it’s in a first draft folder somewhere.

Things are moving quickly. Certainly in content marketing. AI staked a massive claim and has been solidifying and growing that claim over the past couple of years. Where we are today: AI is the centrepiece of a transformative approach to content personalisation. The competitive stakes in the attention economy are high. Customer engagement is a moving target. AI is shaping how brands connect with their audiences. Efficiency and scale are so much the means they’re almost the ends. Connection — engagement, manipulation — is the change, AI is the catalyst.

Content marketing isn’t just about writing well. It also comprises parts of data analysis, psychology, storytelling, soothsaying, diplomacy and occasionally panic. Content marketers are always on their toes, juggling strategy, creation, opinionated stakeholders, distribution, performance…you get the picture. With all that to manage, the arrival of AI feels like a blessing and a curse. Some folk see it as a superpower, or simply a shortcut. Others see it as a shortcut to irrelevance. The reality isn’t so binary.

Thought leadership: enlightening and inspiring when it’s done well. Vacuous when it’s not. Sometimes businesses want to be considered leaders without having to put much thought into it. The convenience of AI can make that temptation even greater. The dynamics of virality show that you can reach an audience through facile content. You can grab attention, but that attention will be fleeting. It takes more substance and more consistency to build the kind of brand reputation that brings thought leadership status. The best way to approach this is still through integrity and genuine strategy.

AI-generated content is everywhere. Blogs, email campaigns, SEO copy — you name it, AI is churning it out. Gen-AI is fast and scalable, and sometimes even coherent. It can turn a bunch of facts into a well-assembled paragraph. If you’re human, I have good news for you: as an editor, you’re still indispensable in AI content workflows. You can take control. If anything, let’s perhaps hope that this piece helps you learn to stop worrying and love the robot.

Like most content marketing outfits, you’re usually on the lookout for ways to scale your content production efficiently. AI is a useful tool for generating a large quantity of content…but if all you get is loads more second-rate content, that’s not a great help. Good news: with some decent guidance, AI can do better. To maintain a cohesive brand voice across your AI-generated content, come prepared with a clear strategy, a bit of time for oversight, and the right tools.

AI in content marketing still feels pretty nebulous. While it’s versatile, and it can be efficient, it’s not always the right tool for the task. Some marketers swear by it — some too much, automating everything from blog posts to email sequences. Given the exaggerated claims and second-rate content we see on LinkedIn, I understand why others might see GenAI as a glorified autocorrect or an SEO wallpaper machine.

Communicating and collaborating remotely requires a different approach to many areas of workplace culture such as mental and physical wellness, inclusivity, presence and innovation. For many leaders, instilling a new culture to complement remote work is a crucial new skill to learn.

I started working with this bloke recently. Interesting bloke. Thespian. Good at accents. Very engaging, good at making you feel listened to. Always looking out for the value in people and in ideas. Speaking up to share and join in, not just to be heard. The kind of person it’s good to be on a team with. The bloke’s name is Andy Gillies. He came in to lead a team of Business Development Reps (first line sales guys). Let me call them BDRs.

In part one we looked at problems and what might be going wrong with your communications. Some solutions were implied, but here’s an explicit account to make it easier for you.

If you’re not quite hitting the target with your written communications, it’s likely to be due to one of these factors.

Everyone has been in meetings that feel like a waste of time. We face the same frustrations: people are unprepared, someone loves the sound of their own voice, the discussion meanders. It’s an uphill struggle to make and keep meetings efficient, but let’s be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Even if it’s someone else’s meeting.

It’s not the cubicle walls I miss, nor the shared catering facilities or the controversial central heating and aircon systems — it’s the smaller points of contact. The sharing of frustration when the morning traffic is bad, or the communal celebration when an ice cream van stops right outside the office. The impromptu discussions that provide surprising insights into what colleagues are working on or finding challenging.

A week ago today I was sat in an intensely air conditioned room listening to people talk a lot about blockchain. Mostly what I learned is that there’s much to be discovered — by everyone. The general message seemed to be encapsulated by a panellist who described blockchain as a technology solution looking for problems. For the record, I didn’t hear anyone mention Prometheus during the whole day.

Many companies have some form of onboarding procedure, along with process documentation and a variety of directories, to help get you started. If your employer doesn’t have this, you might have to improvise a bit. In this case, without making a babysitter of your hiring manager, how do you start bringing value to your role?

A screenshot of a blogpost I wrote for EasyToBook.com. The blogpost links to city landing pages for some of the cities listed.