<div>In a world where more than 2.5 billion bytes of data are created every day, it is essential to deliver information to users effectively. Cognitive agents’ technology can understand human language to provide accurate information and quickly direct users to the optimal next step. Allowing cognitive agents to do the heavy lifting frees up human resources to tackle more extensive and more complex problems. This combination of technology helps humans produce a better user experience for everyone. As a result, advisors get the information they need to help clients resolve their inquiries faster. &nbsp;<h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">How Does This Technology Work, And Who Makes It So Valuable?</h4>&nbsp;<h5 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Cognitive Computing</h5>Cognitive agents are born from one of the main building blocks of artificial intelligence: cognitive computing. It is basically simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. And it includes self-learning systems that harness data mining, pattern recognition, and natural language processing (NLP) to mimic patterns of the human brain. These applications are:<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;ADAPTIVE Cognitive solutions adapt to changing information, objectives, and requirements, thus making it possible to plan and resolve ambiguities. Most of the time, cognitive computing solutions can also process data in near real-time.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;ITERATIVE AND STATEFUL Cognitive solutions help define a problem or find additional sources if a problem statement seems ambiguous or incomplete. Previous interactions may also be involved in determining or completing problem statements.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;CONTEXTUAL Cognitive solutions can understand, identify, and extract contextual elements, including syntax, meaning, time, location, domain, regulation, user profile, process, task, and purpose. In some cases, they can also extract structured and unstructured information as well as sensory input.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;While cognitive computer applications (like cognitive agents) can mimic the human brain, that doesn't mean they are meant to replace human advisers. Instead, this technology can be seen as a powerful assistant capable of handling tedious tasks and freeing up human resources to tackle complex problems. And less time searching for information means shorter resolution times, which equates to lower costs.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;<h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Benefits Beyond Cost Savings</h4>Cognitive agents are an excellent money saver but they also have other benefits. For example, this technology can also improve data security, customer and employee experience, and visibility into business processes. At the same time, many organizations see benefits in simply using cognitive agents as "helpers" to living agents. à help provides information and recommends personalized offers to the customer more quickly; some use this technology to eliminate possible phishing before the interaction of natural agents to reduce the average processing time. Others have also benefited from combining cognitive agents with internal processes to speed up the onboarding process and reduce security issues and errors.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;<h4 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Success With Cognitive Agents</h4>Cognitive agents can be part of your digital transformation in many ways. Browse the stories below from real organizations to see how they implemented cognitive agent solutions to deliver valuable insights and a better user experience for clients and advisors.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;<h5 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Health insurance company</h5>Interactive cognitive agent, allowing providers to access member information quickly<o:p></o:p> CHALLENGE<o:p></o:p>A health insurance company with 13 million customers in the United States needed a better way to handle member inquiries from providers. Calls were driven by an outdated interactive voice response (IVR) system, and volumes exceeded 700,000 calls per month, with most callers opting out of the IVR system for expensive outsourced call centers.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;STRONG POINTS<o:p></o:p><ul><li>Development of a cognitive agent to converse naturally with suppliers and return correct information in good time and efficiently</li><li>Performed IBM Watson Dialogue, Watson Natural Language Classification, Watson Speech to Text, and Watson Text to Speech</li></ul>&nbsp;MAIN ADVANTAGES<o:p></o:p><ul><li>Substantial reduction in the number of real agent requests, resulting in substantial savings.</li><li>Reduced average call duration from eight minutes to three minutes</li></ul>&nbsp;<h5 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Multinational Software Company</h5>Reshaping the Customer Service Infrastructure with the Cognitive Agent IBM Watson<o:p></o:p> CHALLENGE<o:p></o:p>A software company specializing in architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media, and entertainment struggled with an unfriendly and inefficient user experience for customers calling with service requests and questions. The company intended to improve this crucial customer experience and reduce its time to resolve issues and requests.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SOLUTION<o:p></o:p>Implementation of IBM Watson Dialog and Natural Language Classifier. transform, automate and improve interactions<o:p></o:p>Understands the intention of conversations and can act as a digital concierge<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;KEY BENEFITS<o:p></o:p><ul><li>Assisted management of around 60% of Group 1 requests from start to finish</li><li>90% decrease in support costs</li><li>99% reduction in resolution time</li></ul>&nbsp;<h5 style="margin: 0cm; line-height: 16.8667px;">Multinational Conglomerate Company&nbsp;</h5>New cognitive shopping experience improves customer service and conversion rates<o:p></o:p> CHALLENGE<o:p></o:p>A Japanese and Korean conglomerate with functions such as retail, financial services, hotels, etc., seeks to optimize the shopping experience within their retail subsidiaries using cognitive technology to use their data better.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SOLUTION<o:p></o:p><ul><li>Creation of a virtual advisor for purchases with a recommendation engine to analyze structured and unstructured data</li><li>Text recognition, text-to-speech, and visual recognition capabilities</li><li>Creation of a "customer DNA" with personalized recommendations based on purchase history</li><li>Trend recommendations provided with social media keywords analyzed by AI</li></ul>&nbsp;KEY ADVANTAGES<o:p></o:p><ul><li>New services concerning in-store purchases and advice via a cognitive chatbot</li><li>Personalized recommendations in real-time</li><li>Improved customer experience with higher conversion rates</li><li>Consolidation of disparate data sources into a unified "customer DNA."</li></ul>&nbsp;We all have scenarios in mind that use, for example, machine learning techniques that can automatically process ever-increasing volumes of data. This field has grown exponentially in terms of innovation in recent years. As a result, human-machine parity is getting closer to detecting and recognizing objects, speech, text comprehension, or translation.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;The design of innovative services based on cognitive benefits allows companies to tell the right story by drawing on the user's context as a differentiator. For example, it is possible to locate a user to generate engagement in a public place, manage employees' safety on industrial sites, or imagine new residential uses of our daily lives. The field of possibilities is vast!<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;We are at the crossroads of three momentums, application modernization, innovation through AI, and DevOps that will elevate the value of services for us and our customers.<o:p></o:p></div>

Bharggavi Ssayee

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Artificial Intelligence

Industry 4.0

Cognitive Computing

User Experience

Cognitive Agents and Reinforcement of User Experience

<div>Agrivoltaism, which first developed in Asia in countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam, has recently arrived in Europe and particularly in France. Today, this new practice is booming, with increasingly innovative projects showing great promise. So what exactly is agrivoltaism? This technique combines agricultural production and photovoltaic energy production on the same plot, consists of placing photovoltaic louvres above certain crops.<o:p></o:p>The installation of photovoltaic panels on crops has arisen due to population growth. Indeed, one of the significant challenges of this growth is to produce enough food to feed the planet. In addition, the increase in the population then induces an increase in the production of electricity on the earth, preferably green electricity, in a logic of sustainable development.<o:p></o:p>The rise of agrivoltaism in the Asian notion of agrivoltaicism first appeared in 1981 in the mouth of Adolf Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow. For the first time, they studied the cohabitation of photovoltaic electricity production and agricultural production. They had set up a typical configuration, with panels two meters above the ground, spaced at least three times their height.<o:p></o:p>The inclination of the panels corresponds to the latitude. The duo concluded that the radiation obtained was almost uniform over the day compared to two-thirds of the overall radiation on a control plot. Subsequently, the first agrivoltaic projects developed in Asia, particularly in Japan, where there is a solid urban sprawl, to the detriment of any agricultural land, before being emulated in South Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam.<o:p></o:p>However, these developing areas were very quickly faced with a lack of arable land. Therefore, renewable energy production had to be coupled with agricultural production.<o:p></o:p>To a lesser extent, agrivoltaism would also make it possible to produce green energy, even if this is not the stated objective. This emerging agricultural practice aims to respond to two significant challenges for the planet in the 21st century: first, to mitigate the climatic hazards that threaten agricultural yields using kinds of giant umbrellas. Then, produce renewable energy without artificializing arable land to install solar panels.<o:p></o:p>A paradox since the increase in population implies an urban sprawl done to the detriment of agricultural land. This problem arises in parallel with the need to obtain sustainable energy to contain the greenhouse effect and the global warming that inexorably results from it. However, here too, the establishment of solar farms (fields filled with photovoltaic panels) is done to the detriment of agricultural land.<o:p></o:p>It is, therefore, in Asia and particularly in Japan, where the narrow coastal plain is saturated with urban constructions. At the same time, arable land is sorely lacking, that the first agrivoltaic projects were born. &nbsp;<o:p></o:p>Some crops lend themselves easily to agrivoltaism. The vine and fruit production, for example. But also, market gardening. Concretely, solid gantries support the removable and swivelling infrastructure between the rows. Thus, crops can be successively shaded in the event of too much heat or protected from cold snaps (attenuation of around 3°). Finally, by adjusting the orientation of the panels, it is also possible to make a gutter for rainwater, which can then gently water the plants. Or be redirected to reserve wells to anticipate episodes of drought.<o:p></o:p><h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: normal;">How Does It Work?</h4><o:p></o:p>A shutter is placed above the crops to provide partial coverage. Sturdy gantries support the removable and swivelling infrastructure between the rows. The deployment can be done on an axis of rotation or vertically.<o:p></o:p>A multitude of sensors is placed on the infrastructure to provide information on the climate and also on the state of growth of the plant. The sensors are different depending on the supplier. The most frequent sensors make it possible to monitor the following parameters:<o:p></o:p>Plant growth, temperature, humidity, and sunlight; the measurement data is then sent to a cloud. The algorithm developed by the supplier takes into account the automatically transmitted data and information on the growth of the plant in question to order the opening and closing of the panels. The piloting is done remotely and automatically.<o:p></o:p><h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: normal;">Installing This Type of Sign-On Crop Field Has Many Advantages for Farmers</h4>Agrivoltaism helps protect all types of crops Solar panels installed above crop fields protect crops from bad weather. Vines, orchards, market gardening easily lend themselves to agrivoltaism.<o:p></o:p>Additional income for farmers Colibri Solar is committed to paying rent to farmers to use their farmland. In exchange for this rent, Colibri Solar agrees to take care of the photovoltaic project from start to finish. You own the land, and Colibri Solar owns the panels and, therefore, the solar energy.<o:p></o:p>Green electricity for local players Colibri Solar is committed to supplying electricity produced by solar panels to the nearest you. Indeed, solar electricity will be used to power households and local actors.<o:p></o:p><h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: normal;">The Risks and Constraints of Agrivoltaism</h4>Agrivoltaism is still in the experimental stage. Therefore, especially over the long term, actual performance cannot be guaranteed entirely even if the first results are encouraging.<o:p></o:p>There are many advantages to installing these types of solar panels. Their role as a protector in the face of different climatic conditions is undoubtedly one of the most interesting. During summer, shading helps protect crops from the effects of soil temperature. It is also an effective way to save up to 20% water. Moreover, as Bruno Cheviron emphasizes, sustainable water management goes hand in hand with the concept. He is a researcher in soil sciences and physical sciences. In winter, the solar panels can be oriented to obtain a cover, forming a greenhouse. As a result, the minimum temperature does not drop below 3 ° C, which is particularly beneficial for crops.<o:p></o:p><h4 style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; line-height: normal;">When Agriculture and Renewable Energy Production Are Combined</h4>Although agricultural production remains the priority, this does not preclude pursuing another goal. Indeed, agrivoltaism can be a natural source of green energy. Now power plants can be installed on arable land. This solution is ideal for enabling farmers to earn additional income. This is by collecting rent for the exploitation of their land.<o:p></o:p>Homes and surroundings will not be left behind. They will also benefit from the electricity supplied by the photovoltaic panels.<o:p></o:p>Global warming represents an opportunity for agrivoltaism. Indeed, energy is an increasingly watched and controlled item and a subject of research and development for many research centers worldwide.<o:p></o:p>Global warming is also causing more extreme climatic conditions for crops. Temperatures can rise higher for longer, and prolonged sunshine can cause crops to dry out more frequently. Adaptation of production methods is mandatory, and agrivoltaism offers the double advantage of protecting crops and producing energy. The policies and public funds request and support these steps.<o:p></o:p>As a result, the practice of agrivoltaism is inevitably debated in the agricultural sector. Some fear that agricultural yields will be reduced and that this system will be more profitable for solar energy production. The installation of an agrivoltaic power plant is indeed quite complex. One must consider many aspects to be effective, including the arrangement of solar panels, the type of land, or the reliability of the safety devices. Finally, the visual appearance of photovoltaic panels in crops is not to everyone's taste and can therefore also be an additional constraint.</div>

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Technological Revolution

Environmental

Green Technology

Agrivoltaism: “Green Swindle” or Real “Energy Farmers”?

Space Mission

Space Exploration

Journey towards the Colonization on the Red Planet

<div>Elon Musk was born in 1971 in Pretoria, South Africa. However, he did not wait to reach the age of 50 to obtain the title of the richest man in the world. Briefly surpassing Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, his fortune reached $185 billion in January 2021. His life consisted of his school lessons in his hometown of Pretoria in South Africa and hours of reading science fiction books. He started learning to code as an autodidact on his Commodore VIC-20. His talent for IT and entrepreneurship was revealed from childhood.<o:p></o:p>He launched his own video game at the age of 12, named Blastar, which he sold to the South African specialized computer magazine, PC and Office Technology. The latter published it in December 1984 for the equivalent of 500 USD. Then, in 1988, Elon Musk obtained a Canadian passport and left South Africa. He had only one idea in mind at the time: to conquer business and economic opportunities in the United States.<o:p></o:p>But beyond money, Elon Musk is a visionary who prides himself on humanistic goals, principles he puts into practice with the companies he leads: Tesla, SolarCity and SpaceX in particular.<o:p></o:p>The Beginning of Elon Musk's Entrepreneurial Adventure<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk graduated from Queen's University in Kingston. He obtained a bachelor's degree in physics and economics in 1995 from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. He later enrolled in materials science and energy physics postgraduate studies at Stanford University in California. Two days later, he left the benches of the university believing that the Internet had much more potential to have a tangible impact on society than physical work.<o:p></o:p>As the Internet bubble began to grow, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure with the Global Link Information Network project, Zip2. The project would allow advertisers to communicate online with customers via fax, in other words, a first version of "web-marketing". One of the most ingenious functions of this concept is "Auto-Guide". It consisted of sending business information to subscribers of magazines and online newspapers. In February 1999, Zip2 was acquired by computer maker Compaq for over $300 million.<o:p></o:p>Zip2 Then PayPal, The First Significant Shots of Elon Musk<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk's first entrepreneurial adventure was called Zip2, a software publishing company he co-founded, before seeing it bought out for the staggering sum of $341 million by a Compaq subsidiary, AltaVista in 1999.<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk then decided to create an innovative online banking project: X.com. Renamed PayPal in 2001, it was sold to eBay for 1.5 billion dollars – this transaction allowed Elon Musk to collect a profit of 180 million dollars in the process.<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk leaves the ship with a nice sum in his pocket: around 170 million greenbacks. However, instead of buying an island in the tropics and taking it easy in the sun, he decides to reinvest the entire sum and launch not one, not two, but three companies that will determine the rest of his career and revolutionize the world at the same time.<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;Elon Musk: Conquering Space with SpaceX<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk firmly believes that the survival of humanity is highly dependent on the fact that human beings must become multi-planetary species. But the fact that rocket launchers are very expensive displeases him greatly. So, in 2002, he founded the aerospace engineering company, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), to manufacture more affordable rockets and solve this problem. The initial investment was $100 million. Its first two rockets were the Falcon 1, launched in 2006, and the larger Falcon 9, established in 2010. They cost significantly less than competing rockets.<o:p></o:p>In addition, Elon Musk has achieved the feat of creating rockets that are reusable and therefore pollute less. This is why NASA has called on Elon Musk and SpaceX for specific missions to the ISS and the Moon.<o:p></o:p>When Tesla Revolutionizes Electric Vehicles<o:p></o:p>Renewable energy and electricity are subjects that fascinate Elon Musk. So, it is no coincidence that Tesla and Solar City (a company for solar panels and solar energy utilization systems) have the same founder. The entrepreneur has invested between 50 and 70 million in Tesla, of which he became CEO in 2008 and invested 10 million dollars in the creation of Solar City.<o:p></o:p>Towards the end of the 2000s, Tesla's first sedan was born: the Tesla Model S. It has been on the international market for twelve years. In 2010, the number of electric cars sold worldwide did not reach half a million. But the arrival of Tesla on the market has the effect of a bomb.<o:p></o:p>In 2013, Tesla's share price skyrocketed to $160. Its capital reached 20 billion dollars. Three years later, the automotive industry exploded and exceeded one million electric vehicles sold worldwide. 2017 was the big year for Tesla, recognized as the world's second-largest electric car manufacturer. The least we can say is that Tesla has revolutionized the world of electric vehicles.<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk and the Hyperloop<o:p></o:p>In 2013, Elon Musk proposed a high-speed rail system in California: the Hyperloop. Even though Tesla was at its peak at the time, the entrepreneur did not rest his brain and was interested in shortening the travel time in transport. So, he invented a pneumatic tube in which a gondola carrying 28 passengers could travel the 350 miles (560 km) from Los Angeles to San Francisco in just 35 minutes, going at a top speed of 760 miles (1,220 km) per hour, almost the speed of sound. Elon Musk assured that the Hyperloop would cost only 6 billion dollars in his forecasts. In addition, the system would accommodate 6 million passengers per year, departing every two minutes.<o:p></o:p>Elon Musk leaves the realization of this futuristic idea to the two start-ups that still compete in the Hyperloop race: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and Virgin's Hyperloop One. At present, both companies are still in the study and testing phases. However, in October 2017, Hyperloop One experienced the operation of its prototype for the first time.<o:p></o:p>Beyond Wealth, Militant Values<o:p></o:p>If he is a successful entrepreneur, Elon Musk is also following a trajectory in line with his commitments: space conquest with SpaceX, ecology with Tesla and SolarCity, the economy with his resounding bias for Bitcoin.<o:p></o:p>The brilliant entrepreneur creates and participates in projects that tend to change the face of the world. And so far, these all seem destined to be successful.</div>

Future Technology

The Story of Elon Musk, The Genius Who Became the Richest Man in The World

LowCode and NoCode are revolutionary development architectures that make it easier for users to create an application or a website. Due to their multiple advantages, Low/NoCode platforms are so successful with companies that they are now considered the future of IT development, at least in business. Is this the case? What are the key points to remember about them? Focus!?<h3 id="the-problems-of-it-development-in-business">The Problems of IT Development in Business</h3>Digitalization is a real challenge for companies wishing to remain competitive. It is now impossible for them to do without new technologies if only operational. Therefore, the central role of the organizational unit in charge of IT is often to ensure the proper functioning of the entire IT infrastructure of the company.?For their part, developers have a vital mission throughout this organization. They are, in fact, in charge of designing applications and software to meet the needs of each department. However, enterprise IT development faces several problems.?First, the development phase is long, tedious, and generates additional expenses in the event of failure during the test phases. Typically, it takes 18 weeks for a business application to be fully operational.?The second difficulty encountered by companies lies in the recruitment of technicians. Indeed, due to the diversity of computer languages, companies find it increasingly difficult to find a competent developer capable of designing an application from a specific language. And even if they manage to recruit the right developer, the latter's salary can be very high, especially for a VSE, an SME, or a startup.<h3 id="the-specificities-of-the-lowcode-and-nocode-platforms">The Specificities of the LowCode and NoCode Platforms</h3>Companies have long searched for the most effective solutions to deal with these difficulties. Initially, they preferred to entrust the design of their applications to external companies or freelancers. However, outsourcing development tasks quickly showed its limits since it requires a substantial budget.This was when the LowCode and NoCode platforms appeared. SaaS solutions allow companies to design their applications or create a website. The particularity of these platforms lies in their handling. Indeed, these platforms are easy to use and have a simplified interface so that even neophytes can quickly develop a business application.?NoCode, literally meaning "without code," is an architecture that offers several advantages, as it does not require any particular computer skills. The user of no-code platforms can quickly create a perfectly functional application without writing a single line of code. Regarding the LowCode, meaning "little code," it is an architecture that, as its name suggests, allows you to create an application by writing only a minimum of code.?<h3 id="the-contribution-of-these-platforms-to-companies">The Contribution of These Platforms to Companies</h3>The low-code and NoCode platforms have become indispensable tools for companies, especially those with a limited budget. They allow them to save a lot of time.?SMEs opting for NoCode, for example, have the possibility of creating applications aimed at automating specific processes that would be very time-consuming (export of customer computer data to a CRM, reporting, collection of customer data, etc. .).?For large companies, the LowCode and NoCode platforms are the perfect solutions to improve the productivity of their programmers. 451 Research has also conducted a study. The latter has shown that LowCode and NoCode increase developer efficiency and productivity by up to 90%. In addition, companies that have migrated to these architectures can design no less than one application per day to meet the needs of their departments.?It should also be noted that, to a certain extent, LowCode and NoCode allow companies to achieve significant savings. For a startup or an SME, the no-code enables them not to recruit a developer or call on an external company's services to design their business applications. For a large group that usually has a whole team of programmers, low code significantly reduces the number of developers. Indeed, this type of architecture pre-chews 80% of the technicians' work, which allows them to concentrate on other, more critical missions.?Finally, some LowCode and NoCode platforms have relatively advanced features. With this in mind, companies can choose the platform to design a specific application that meets specific needs. By way of illustration:Zendesk is preferred for creating applications dedicated to customer service; Slack and Zoom are interesting for creating applications dedicated to internal communication; Marketo and Hubspot are chosen for creating applications devoted to email marketing.?Given the complexity of manual programming and the shortage of IT developers, LowCode and NoCode are essential for developing business applications. These architectures are destined to be the future of enterprise IT development.

IT Development

NoCode and LowCode: Future of IT Development?

Defined as a management method for deploying agile processes on a large scale, the Scaled Agile Framework or SAFe can enable your company to efficiently execute its projects, reduce its time to market and increase the value of the parties' stakeholders.Generally speaking, large companies evolve more slowly - and are more resilient to change - than their smaller, more agile competitors. This slowness is primarily due to a strong cultural hold related to company size and policy and process barriers, as bureaucracy tends to thrive in larger corporate environments. Nevertheless, many large companies seek to take advantage of the advantages of agile development for which they are not necessarily suited. In this area, the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) can serve as a powerful lever and help them overcome the problems that can hinder the success of their projects. With the SAFe framework, large companies can become more agile and get their products to market faster. Here is an overview of SAFe, its benefits and principles on how to effectively implement the framework along with methodologies.<h3 id="scaled-agile-framework-safe">Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)</h3>The Scaled Agile Framework circumscribes a set of principles, processes, and best practices that enable large organizations to adopt agile methodologies like Lean, Kanban, and Scrum to develop and deliver high-quality products and services faster. SAFe is particularly well suited for complex projects involving multiple large teams at the project, program, and portfolio levels. The framework offers large companies to exploit the advantages of Scrum and Kanban in a more scalable way. It allows them to manage projects with a higher level of agility, and stakeholders from different groups get faster feedback, resulting in higher levels of engagement, productivity, and satisfaction: increased professionalism and better quality of work.<h3 id="principles-of-safe">Principles of SAFe</h3>SAFe is based on nine fundamental principles derived from existing agile principles and Lean:- Consider the economic point of view to allow an optimal lead time while offering the best quality and the best value.- Address all aspects of development from a systemic point of view.- Recognize market and technical variability by preserving choices and encouraging innovation.- Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles that allow customers to provide feedback and reduce risk.- Set milestones based on objective assessment and evaluation of work systems to achieve economic benefit.- Limit the amount of work in progress, reduce batch sizes and manage queue lengths to allow continuous flow.- Apply timing, sync with cross-domain training to identify business opportunities, and enable corrective action where necessary.- Unleash the motivation of knowledge workers to enable them to reach their full potential.- Decentralize decision-making to be more agile and efficient.<h3 id="safe-50">SAFe 5.0</h3>The current release SAFe 5.0 targets operational and business agility using Lean and is based on the following five competencies:- Lean agile leadership: Lean <a href="https://techfastly.com/agile-world/">agile</a> leaders are the drivers of change and operational excellence. They must lead by example to help teams unlock their potential. This includes instilling SAFe's lean-agile thinking, principles, and practices. - Team agility and technical agility: Teams must have specific essential skills and adhere to Lean agile practices to quickly create well-designed solutions. It is imperative to ensure the technical agility of the teams because they are the ones who ultimately do the actual work that will be delivered to your customers. - DevOps and release on demand: Establishing a continuous and permanent pipeline of deliverables is essential to create value to meet your customers' needs.- Lean business solutions and systems engineering: The more companies facilitate lean-agile practices to carry out plans, development, and deployment, the more innovative they can be.- Lean Portfolio Management: A solid organizational strategy that considers financial, portfolio management, and compliance aspects are critical to the success of SAFe.<h3 id="safe-agile-methodologies">SAFe Agile Methodologies</h3>Teams time and use SAFe to scale agile methodologies like Lean, Kanban, and Scrum. The critical point is to understand that SAFe makes it possible to mount more broadly at the level of teams and companies and to implement more complex projects. Comparatively, smaller projects won't necessarily need the SAFe framework. SAFe does not change the principles of other methodologies. For example, Kanban focuses on ongoing collaboration and fosters an environment of continuous learning and improvement. It uses charts and visual maps to help teams know what tasks are complete, in progress and pending.Lean Development (LD) is all about reducing waste while maximizing output and increasing stakeholder value. Lean respects seven fundamental principles:<ul><li>Minimize waste</li><li>Improve quality</li><li>Share knowledge with others</li><li>Maintain a state of continuous improvement and accelerate deadlines</li></ul>Scrum relies on interactive sessions or "30-day sprints" to prioritize tasks. It is possible to have small teams work on specific tasks independently, then connect them with the Scrum "scrum boss" to assess progress or results and reprioritize pending tasks.<h3 id="safe-vs-dad-vs-less">SAFe vs. DAD vs LeSS</h3>While SAFe focuses on alignment, teamwork, and provisioning of multiple agile teams, other popular frameworks also offer scale agility in large enterprises. This is particularly the case with Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD). Understanding each of these frameworks is essential to choosing the best option for your projects.- SAFe: To create the Scaled Agile Framework, professionals invested in three significant bodies of knowledge: agile software systems development, systems thinking, and lean product development. It is a well-recognized approach to scaling agile practices.- Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD): DAD focuses on the end-to-end product lifecycle, from inception to delivery. It is based on seven principles: satisfying customers, surprising, being pragmatic, taking the context into account, choosing well, optimizing flow, and raising company awareness.- Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS): The objective of LeSS is to ensure that all teams see the product as a whole and not according to "their part."<h3 id="safe-agile-process-flow">SAFe Agile Process Flow</h3>To implement SAFe, companies must follow 12 general processes, but it is important to note that each step must be adapted to the needs of each.- Recognize and communicate the need for change: Many factors may call for organizational change, including changes in industry legislation, best practices, or desired goals. Business leadership should identify and communicate the reasons that prompted it to move to SAFe, then coach and motivate stakeholders to ensure that all activities are aligned with the purpose of this change. - Identify and Train Change Agents: Management should identify individuals across the organization who can be change agents and facilitate their training as SAFe Program Certified Consultants. These change agents will train business leaders and other stakeholders in SAFe practices and processes. - Obtain buy-in from executives and leaders: Executives must also be trained so that they can adopt behaviour per Lean agile objectives and practices. - Create a Lean agile center of excellence: Creating a center of excellence will optimize the company's performance as a whole rather than being limited to agile project management in specific areas. - Identify value streams and Agile Release Trains (ART): Value streams refer to the value a company provides to its customers. In contrast, Agile Release Trains refer to agile teams developing solutions that create value. This combination of people, internal processes, and technology will deliver value to your customers. - Priorities and roadmap: Goals should be prioritized, and a roadmap should be established to achieve your SAFe transformation goal. The implementation involves selecting the first value stream, then selecting the first ART, and repeating this process. - Define parameters for each ART launch: Define ART, set deadlines, build agile teams, train staff, and assess readiness. It is also essential to undertake the preparation of overdue programs. - Train teams and ensure that everyone understands their role: People who work as a team to develop business systems are essential to the success of each ART. Therefore, each must fully understand their role and possess the skills necessary to succeed in their task. - Execute your ART: Good execution relies on excellence in iteration planning, more nuanced insight into delays, daily stand-ups, iteration review, system demo, and iteration retrospectives, as well as Scrum-of-Scrums, Product Owner (PO) Sync, and ART Sync. - Launch more ARTs and value streams: Priority ARTs should be launched according to the previous principles, building teams, coaching the execution of ARTs, and giving each ART the time and effort to succeed without skipping steps or being diligent. - Extend to the portfolio level to drive business transformation: Now is the time to apply all of the above steps at the portfolio level to define the overall culture, improve business performance and increase achievement.<h3 id="safe-certifications"> SAFe Certifications</h3>SAFe certifications are increasingly helpful for recruiting people with proven skills and knowledge. The Scaled Agile Academy offers five SAFe certificates:-SAFe Program Consultant Trainer-SAFe Program Consultant-SAFe Agilist-SAFe Practitioner-SAFe Product Manager/Product OwnerSAFe certification includes other options, including Scaled Agile, Agile Training, and Knowledge Hut for online certification training.<h3 id="safe-training">SAFe Training</h3>Many SAFe training options, especially online training, like free podcasts offered by PM Podcast, Scaled Agile, Learning Tree, Simplilearn, Agilest, and LinkedIn. The possibilities are many. Therefore, it is imperative to do your due thoroughness before choosing the right SAFe Agile trainer. One should take a close look at each trainer and training to ensure both will meet your goals.

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The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Explained

Cryptocurrency mining continues to be all the rage, for better and worse. Of course, it is tricky for gamers, who will soon be forced to mortgage their homes for an RTX 3080 if the problem worsens. But contrarily, it is also an opportunity for manufacturers to take advantage of the game. And that Intel understood it well; According to Tom's Hardware, the blue team could soon release hardware dedicated explicitly to Bitcoin mining.Bitcoin mining is a controversial topic, but it looks like Intel might join the fray by releasing a chip designed specifically for it. Intel may unveil a "?Bonanza Mine?" chip, according to the latest rumours. However, this powerful chip would be used only for cryptocurrency mining and would not interest casual users.Often, graphics cards are associated with cryptocurrency mining. Many attribute the current GPU shortage, in part, to Ethereum mining, as cards are sold out before ordinary users can get their hands on them. However, rumours suggest Intel may be working on a specialized mining chip it calls Bonanza Mine.According to Tom's Hardware, Intel could unveil this chip at the ISSCC (International Solid-State Circuits Conference), which will take place in February. The conference focuses on semiconductor circuits and system-on-chips (SoCs). Intel is expected to present the new Bonanza Mine processor in the Highlighted Chip Releases category.This processor is described as an "ultra-low-voltage, low-power bitcoin (BTC) mining application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)", and it looks like it could mark a new milestone in mining hardware for Intel. The company may be looking to compete with analogue ASICs, such as those made by Bitmain, in a market sector centred around bitcoin mining.If it's graphics cards that get the bad rap, bitcoin is usually mined on ASICs: specialized chips designed to perform only one specific task. But, as proven by Bitmain, ASICs can provide the power needed for mining at a lower cost.<h3 id="not-a-new-interest">Not a new interest</h3>It should be noted that the cost reduction comes in the form of higher efficiency and lower power requirements of the ASICs in question. When buying one from Bitmain, the price and delivery times are pretty steep. A quick look at Bitmain's website shows dozens of ASICs, some costing well over $10,000.As Tom's Hardware reports, Intel's interest in Bitcoin mining is nothing new. The company patented a specialized ASIC optimized for SHA 256 in 2018, aimed at mining. While Intel hasn't revealed much since it looks like the chip may have been in the works all this time, and the company may be preparing to show it off.Intel will soon launch its new Arc Alchemist discrete gaming GPUs. The company has announced that it will not limit mining on these cards, but it would prefer the cards to go to players rather than miners. However, it is also clear that Intel could support the idea of ??Bitcoin mining to the point of creating specialized hardware for this purpose.<h3 id="a-next-generation-asic">A next-generation ASIC</h3>The first instinct upon reading this information would have been to turn to Arc GPUs. After all, the Intel troops have already promised that specific models will be specially designed for cryptocurrency mining. But the mere presence of the word Bitcoin is already enough to exclude Arc cards from the equation since this cryptocurrency is almost entirely mined on technological platforms, ASICs. This information is confirmed by the title of the presentation spotted by Tom's Hardware, which explicitly mentions an ASIC.Intel probably hopes to find a place in this highly buoyant market with this new product. At this time, it's still unclear if Bonanza Mine will end up on the shelves as such or if it's a research and development project. But what is interesting is, above all, the philosophy behind Intel's crypto adventure.Raja Koduri, the honcho of Intel's GPU division, has noticed a form of market overlap like the rest of the general public. On the other, we have miners and gamers all competing for the same products. Koduri, therefore, believes that there is an urgent need to develop hardware specifically designed for mining. It is a question of increasing the availability of cards for their natural uses and optimizing a process that is currently very energy-intensive and a tad unruly.<h3 id="towards-a-definitive-schism-between-mining-and-gaming-hardware">Towards a definitive schism between mining and gaming hardware?</h3>"GPUs will take care of graphics, gaming, and all those wonderful things," Koduri explains. "But being able to perform blockchain validation operations much more efficiently [and therefore with specialized equipment, editor's note] is not an insoluble problem. We are working on it, and we will soon present interesting material for this purpose".Intel's interest is good news for token enthusiasts. But it is also an approach that the gaming community will certainly applaud with both hands, knowing the significant impact of the cryptocurrency industry on the price of graphics cards. Indeed, we should not expect GPUs to fall back to factory prices as soon as Bonanza Mine is officially announced, far from it. But it could be a fundamental first step in this direction.Indeed, if Bonanza Mine proves convincing enough and ends up bringing big money to Intel, other manufacturers could start developing lots of ASICs to mine various cryptocurrencies. They could thus become increasingly affordable, even more, profitable for miners than consumer GPUs. Of course, it is still much early to say that this market split will indeed take place. However, one thing is certain: Bonanza Mine will have to be followed closely because this still very discreet product could initiate significant changes throughout the world in this industry within several years.

Tech News

Intel May Be Working on a Chip Specializing in Bitcoin Mining

CIOs and IT managers need to look for other ways to generate value. This is the observation made by the Gartner firm, which summarizes this challenge in three priorities.Where next? This is the central question that Gartner posed to a virtual audience during its annual IT Symposium. A bit of a rhetorical question, of course, because the analysts had prepared a mountain of presentations in response to the conference organized for four days virtually. From the inaugural exhibition, the tone was set. "The pandemic-related disruption must be an opportunity for CIOs and IT directors to seek to generate value in a fundamentally different way," said Mbula Schoen, senior research director at Gartner. But, first, these IT leaders need to ensure that 'work anywhere is a reality and that people can be managed and coached anywhere.Furthermore, the ecosystem must be a significant point of attention. A third project will focus on what Gartner summarizes under the title Reach Beyond the Where: trying to break the shackles of current thinking. Allow us to go into detail on these three priorities.<h3 id="remote-work">Remote work</h3>It's the starting point! As predicted by Gartner, in 2022, the number of knowledge workers working remotely - from home - will reach up to 47%, a doubling compared to today. In 2019, they were still only 27%. Admittedly, the IOC will have taken advantage of the pandemic to set up teleworking where it was possible and facilitate or optimize it if necessary. But he will have to go further. "Our survey shows that only 14% want to continue working full-time in the office, while 19% would prefer never to have to return to the office again. This means that CIOs must be particularly flexible to take this reality into account, analyzes Mbula Schoen. But moving from on-site to remote work is just the start. CIOs need to invest in digital workplace innovation. If only to keep talent from leaving as it is one of the motivations why a growing number of IT professionals are considering changing jobs." Yes, the talent war is raging again more than ever. However, Gartner suggests three concrete methods to attract and retain IT resources.<h3 id="build-a-workstation-using-the-employee-as-a-starting-point">Build a workstation using the employee as a starting point</h3>With a human-centric workplace, Gartner suggests a work environment that can improve productivity on the one hand and stimulate innovation on the other, with geographic location and technology being incidental. Advantages? Employees are less tired and less likely to see IT looking elsewhere while improving staff performance.<h3 id="bet-on-the-business-technologists">Bet on the 'business technologists'</h3>"While shadowing IT - the use of software or applications without the consent or knowledge of the IT department - often has a negative connotation, the 'business technologists' come out of the shadows," says Mbula Schoen. According to the Gartner survey, 41% of all employees meet the definition of a 'business technologist': employees who work outside of the IT department but have technological or analytical skills and can be directly involved in projects. internal or external companies. "Dare to use them because all our studies show that organizations that do manage to achieve their digital objectives much faster than others," says Gartner.<h3 id="build-an-in-house-talent-marketplace">Build an in-house 'talent marketplace.'</h3>Such an internal talent marketplace relies on artificial intelligence (AI) combined with personal skills data. This tool can be a solution for many companies to the challenge of (possible) retraining of employees. But it can also be used to 'flexibility' the collaborators according to new missions or to orient them in the concise term towards another project. Additional advantage: this adds value for the company and offers employees new perspectives to take up a new challenge internally.Rely (again) on a large ecosystem following on from this inaugural presentation, Distinguished Vice President of Research Hung LeHong focused on the importance of the ecosystem. "83% of companies are seeing increased demand for digital applications. And an encouraging sign: the pandemic is opening up new prospects. Due to the crisis, some rules have been relaxed, and others, on the other hand, have been tightened. powerful incentive to induce changes, and especially changes that were considered impossible until recently," said Leong, who does not mince his words. "IT is now in a position to address issues on a global level. CIOs must capitalize on the pandemic-induced digital acceleration to move forward. To aim for further digital improvements in healthcare, health, education, industry, distribution, and the public sector. But the IOC cannot do it alone. It, therefore, needs partners and must act differently than before the coronavirus." A new ecosystem where IT directors will have to distinguish between partners between one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many."One-to-oneA one-to-one personal partner should preferably reach a higher level and become what Gartner calls a 'generative partnership': a company that collaborates in-depth with a technology partner to build solutions together that do not yet exist. And what will happen to the result? It will remain the property of the two parties who will together reap the benefits - and therefore the income. Such generative partnerships will become mainstream in the future, and Gartner predicts that IT spending generated through such partnerships will increase by 31% in the next five years.One-to-manyOne-to-many partnerships are broader and are more of an ecosystem of multiple technology partners. Such an approach is more suitable when an organization needs several partners to solve a specific problem, such as public-private partnerships (PPP) that can benefit citizens.Many-to-manyAs the name suggests, these many-to-many partnerships involve many technology partners and different products and services from several companies that offer them to a large number of customers. Typically, these are marketplaces, app stores, or API stores."Let's be clear: the IOC will have to become an expert in partnerships. Then, IOC needs to attract the right partners and develop the partnerships according to the problems to be solved", adds Leong.Think further, take more risks. This message resonates with his colleague Daryl Plummer. "The IOC must be aware that it will not be able to meet all the challenges of the future alone and that it will therefore sometimes need a friend. And in some cases, it will even need the whole village to address the global problems. So if you ask me the question 'What's next?' Dare to address larger issues than in the past. For CIOs, the good news is also that IT budgets are expected to grow by 6.2% next year."And Plummer to see the issue of privacy as one of those global issues. "40% of people want to disclose less personal data by 2024, which will make it more difficult to monetize them. This will have an impact on authentication, privacy, and security. In our view, the solution lies there in a combination of machine learning and synthetic data," Plummer said.These synthetic data are generated based on accurate data. This synthetic data has the same look, meaning, and feel as the original. Therefore, a synthetic dataset can be used for the same purposes as an initial dataset and lead to the same analyses and correlations - but being anonymized. No artificial data point can be approximated to the original data point in the starting set, making it ideal for use in solutions where privacy is a concern. "Perhaps we could integrate cybersecurity into a federated AI model as a solution to everything. And so, there will never again be a need to worry about whether or not during a ransomware attack you have to pay ransom to pirates. Absurd idea? Absurd ideas are often ridiculed until they become a reality", concludes the analyst

Post Covid

Virtual Work

Future Work

Virtual CIOs and Implications For Businesses

Best IoT Software Tools

In this article, you'll learn how to hand-pick online payment software for your business.Whether you are developing an e-commerce site, SaaS software, a micro-business, or more, collecting payments online has become essential today to build your business correctly.However, there are many solutions on the market in many areas, and you can quickly get lost not knowing which payment solution to choose.<h3 id="top-online-payment-solutions">Top Online Payment Solutions</h3><h3 id="paypal"> PayPal</h3>Established in 1999, eBay acquired PayPal in 2002 and has grown to become one of the most versatile and recognized online payment processors. Paypal offers customers the option of paying with either PayPal or any other payment vendor, at all competitive rates.<a href="https://www.paypal.com/">PayPal</a> declares that offering its service as a payment option to customers can increase conversions by 44%.Adding PayPal as a payment option is super easy. All users need to create an account and add a "Pay with PayPal" button to their website.If you want to use PayPal's advanced payment and settlement features, you must subscribe to PayPal Payments Pro.This plan allows users to accept payments by American Express, Visa, Mastercard and integrates with major e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Squarespace, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce.<h3 id="stripe">Stripe</h3>Stripe is an online payment solution that allows you to accept and manage online transactions anywhere in the world.<a href="https://stripe.com/">Stripe</a> provides complete solutions for processing online payments and offers features such as management of invoices, subscriptions, single-link payments, easy-to-use payments, SEPA direct debit payments, and more.Stripe is a robust online payment solution and a significant player globally. The power of Stripe and offering a large number of payment methods is a valuable tool for preventing fraud.Stripe also provides an open API that makes it easy to integrate into your business ecosystem whether you run an e-commerce store or not.<h3 id="gocardless">GoCardless</h3>GoCardless is an online payment solution specializing in recurring payments. Designed for subscription platforms and allowing one-off payments, <a href="https://gocardless.com/">GoCardless</a> is an excellent solution to reduce friction when paying your customers. In addition, Gocardless, unlike other providers (except Stripe), works via SEPA direct debit and not by credit card.The advantage? No more fake bank cards and lack of funds on them; with GoCardless, debits are automatic once your customers are subscribed. Of course, GoCardless is a very secure payment platform and can be easily integrated into your flows via API in particular.<h3 id="amazon-pay">Amazon Pay</h3>Amazon Pay is a payment solution designed for Amazon merchants and buyers. It is an easy, fast and secure payment solution.Amazon payments come in two forms: login and pay for buyers and payment with Amazon for merchants.This payment solution is designed to provide a seamless shopping experience for online retailers and sellers.<a href="https://www.amazon.in/amazonpay/home">Amazon pay</a> is loaded with features and tools that attract customers and encourage them to make more purchases, streamline their buying process, and improve customer engagement and retention by recording payment details to speed up the checkout.<h3 id="mongopay">MongoPay</h3>MongoPay is an all-in-one online payment gateway for merchants. <a href="https://www.mangopay.com/">MongoPay</a> makes it possible to collect payments quickly and securely online. This digital payment solution is developed for marketplaces, e-retailers, crowdfunding platforms, and B2B business networking platforms.Among the main features of MongoPay are: Support for payment methods E-wallet and IBAN-ization Fraud detection algorithm White markIn short, MongoPay is the perfect payment tool if you are creating a connection platform since it supports all the complex logic of an e-wallet.<h3 id="braintree">Braintree</h3>Braintree is a payment solution that is part of the PayPal network. Braintree is designed to make the payment process more accessible. Braintree allows many payment methods such as Apple Pay, credit cards, Paypal, and many others to be integrated into its website and streamline the user experience at the checkout level. Note that <a href="https://www.braintreepayments.com/">Braintree</a> supports both one-off and recurring payments.Braintree is present in 40 countries around the world. It supports 130 currencies and enjoys the benefits of faster and more secure transactions.<h3 id="how-to-choose-a-payment-solution"> How To Choose A Payment Solution?</h3>As we said before, there are many solutions to collect online payments. This is why it is essential to ensure that your solution meets some critical criteria. Payment methods accepted In fact, the easier you make it for customers to buy, the more likely they are. By enabling your site with a payment gateway that integrates a wide variety of payment methods, you expand your sales potential.The cost It may sound obvious, but not all online payment solutions have the exact cost. Indeed, some work with a fee for each transaction, others with a monthly subscription and fees for each transaction, etc. Make sure that the price of your solution is attractive to you.(Automatic) tax management Taxes are a real headache for many, primarily if you sell internationally. Although most online payment platforms today intelligently manage taxes based on the country declared by your visitor, ensure that your solution can do this.Compatibility with your site Of course, it's essential to consider how your solution will fit into your current website, both technically and visually.For example, if integrating the solution is not easy with your website, you might want to rethink your choice!<h3 id="how-to-integrate-a-payment-solution-to-your-website">How To Integrate A Payment Solution To Your Website?</h3>We saw previously that the ease of integrating a payment solution is essential when it comes to choosing your answer.Unfortunately, there is no general explanation for this question of integration. Each solution fits indifferently. However, if you use a known CMS for your website, some integrations can be straightforward and fast.For example, to integrate a payment solution with WordPress, you can use the many dedicated plug-ins. Then, with a few clicks, your Stripe account or other payment solution is connected, and you are ready to receive payments.However, if you use a website without a CMS, integrating a payment platform can be more complex: potentially via iframe or directly via API, for example. In this case, ask your developer to get their hands dirty.

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Best Online Payment Solutions - Comparison Guide

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