Saving money with SD-WAN (part one)Software Defined WAN, or SD-WAN for short, is the new big thing in business networking. Everybody's talking about SD-WAN, and about what it can do for businesses. Well, there's no doubt that SD-WAN can do a lot for your business; in fact, we'll be talking about exactly that in part 2 of this 3 part blog series. But before we do that, we need to talk about what SD-WAN can't do. Right now there's a popular misconception among businesses concerning SD-WAN - a misconception fed and sustained by headlines and marketing hype - that could lead them to take damaging shortcuts in incorporating SD-WAN into their business.

The short answer is yes - thousands of businesses are grappling with DX, however most do not consider themselves to be completely 'transformed' yet. Many of the largest Pharma organisations have launched initiatives and created entire departments focused on innovation, and are well on their way to operating in the same way an organisation which has completed its DX journey so far, is.

The ramifications of Digital Transformation (DX) go far beyond technology. As George Westerman (author of Leading Digital: Turning Technology into Business Transformation) writes, DX "marks a radical rethinking of how an organisation uses technology, people and processes to fundamentally change Business performance." Any successful Transformation project will make a significant impact on an organisation's people, activity, process and culture - and all of these areas must be considered when planning a Transformation project.

In our offices, businesses, colleges and homes, barriers exist between people that hinder free and easy communication. Physics undergraduates rarely mix with the Philosophy students, our accounts teams tend not to lunch with our account managers, and I almost never speak to the lady who lives in the flat below mine. It's a natural result of living, working and studying in cities with millions of strangers.

For any future-facing organisation, the importance of ample learning and development (L&D) cannot be overstated. A few months ago, our L&D team entered the Princess Royal Training Awards (PRTAs) -- and we are delighted to announce that we were successful in the following entries:

When the Mayor of London recently quashed the building of The Tulip, it raised troubling questions for the future of architecture in the UK. The Tulip was set to be London's next iconic piece of architecture, joining a long, illustrious line of pivotal buildings that have lined London's horizon and kept the city at the leading edge of architecture since Sir Christopher Wrenn re-designed St Paul's Cathedral in 1710. But can the UK continue to host such iconic buildings in the shadow of the looming impacts of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss?

Our Public Sector Director Afshin Attari recently sat down with Innopsis's Lynne Magennis and Michael Bowyer for a roundtable discussion on frameworks in the Public Sector.

The digitisation of the NHS (one of the biggest employers in the world) is a huge task, and it begins with the opening up of the organisation's underlying data network. Over the past year, the NHS's N3 network has been being migrated to a new network: Health and Social Care Network (HSCN). HSCN has been built by a number of co-operating suppliers, including Exponential-e.

In recent years, Cloud has become popular with organisations due to its simplicity, accessibility and relatively low-cost. Using Cloud, you can avoid many of the difficulties and expenditures that come with operating your own infrastructure, and - because it's easily accessible from anywhere - Cloud can give your users much more flexibility than on-prem legacy infrastructure.

The life sciences ecosystem encompasses organisations from big pharma to biotech start-up, third sector to private equity / VC, all ultimately striving to positively impact people's lives and deliver tangible patient outcomes in an increasingly complex health environment. However, in this digital age, their noble work risks diminishing returns if technological progression is not embraced, and DX is not adopted - after all, no one wants to get left behind.

Manuela is the founder of the CX consultancy CXellence and has been working with prominent organisations across private and public sectors to help them improve their customer experience focus and capabilities (www.cxellence.com).She is a multi-award winner and CCXP certified executive business leader with a strong track record of over 15 years...

On Thursday 25th April, Exponential-e held a Financial Services and Insurance roundtable event at 'M Restaurant' in Victoria, London. The event brought together leading figures from these two sectors to share their experience of Cloud adoption and the benefits it can provide to businesses. The conversation was kicked off by guest speaker Steve Deak...