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IT insights, January: what has been going on in the world of IT

SoftwareOne blog editorial team
Blog Editorial Team
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A new year but the tech industry has been busy! We’ve collated all the headlines from major software vendors, the tech sector and analysts to get you up to speed in just a few minutes.

SoftwareOne news

SoftwareOne was excited to share the news this month that Microsoft 365 Copilot is now available to all customers with no lower limit on the number of licences required. As an early partner of Copilot for Microsoft 365, SoftwareOne has first hand experience and learnings from early adopters of this ground-breaking GenAI tool that will transform productivity, like these from consumer goods company QNET. Our digital workplace team shared their insights on the licensing of Copilot and how to ensure your Copilot roll out is amazing.

Also in January, SoftwareOne acquired Novis Euforia, a company specialising in migrating and converting SAP environments to SAP S/4HANA and the cloud. This acquisition further expands SoftwareOne’s SAP practice with deep technical expertise and strong go-to-market and delivery capabilities to serve clients in Europe. In addition, SAP customers can now leverage the power of Dynatrace observability and security solutions with SoftwareOne PowerConnect to optimise their SAP operations. This follows a new collaborative initiative between SoftwareOne and Dynatrace.

Vendor news

AWS

Amazon Web Services plans to invest 2.26 trillion yen into its existing cloud infrastructure in Tokyo and Osaka by 2027, contributing an estimated 5.57 trillion yen to Japan’s GDP and supporting around 30,500 full-time equivalent jobs annually in local businesses.

Amazon Web Services has launched its second infrastructure region in Canada, AWS Canada West (Calgary) Region, with plans to invest $17.9 billion in Canada by 2037, creating more than 9,300 full-time equivalent jobs annually.

IBM

IBM has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire application modernisation capabilities from Advanced, bringing a combination of talent, tools and knowledge to enhance IBM Consulting’s mainframe application and data modernisation services.

IBM is committed to prioritising and supporting its partners in 2024, with the addition of the new Service track. The introduction of a new Service track in Partner Plus program aims to empower IBM partners to earn and grow their business by providing resources, collaboration, and specialised course offerings.

IBM Consulting Advantage introduced AI services platform to enhance productivity and consistency for consultants, resulting in up to 50% productivity improvements for early adopter teams.

Microsoft

As mentioned, Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft 365 Copilot for customers of all sizes, as well as the introduction of Microsoft Copilot Pro.

There was a raft of other Microsoft Copilot announcements including:

  • Copilot in Microsoft Fabric's public preview is now available to all customers with Premium/Fabric capacity, enabling faster report creation in Power BI. In addition to report creation, Microsoft’s newly rebranded Narrative with Copilot visual summarises data and insights to accelerate how you communicate insights about the data that matters most.
  • A new Copilot key to Windows 11 PCs, marks a significant shift towards a more personalised and intelligent computing future driven by AI innovation. The Copilot key will empower users to seamlessly engage with AI experiences on their Windows PCs, reflecting a transformative moment in the journey with Windows.
  • Microsoft Education is introducing AI innovations to enhance productivity and personalised learning, such as expanded Copilot availability and Loop coming to education. Microsoft is also focusing on saving time for educators by introducing AI features in Microsoft Teams for Education and Microsoft Reflect, while also emphasising the importance of building AI literacy for educators and students.
  • Microsoft Teams is introducing new solutions to enhance communication, collaboration, and operational efficiency for frontline retail workers, including targeted announcements, auto-generated role and department tagging, and streamlined shift management.
  • Microsoft new Teams meetings enhances capabilities with customisable gallery views, simplified meeting join processes, and streamlined audio and video controls to enhance efficiency and user experience.
  • Microsoft Mesh offers 3D immersive experiences to enhance virtual connections and engagement in remote and hybrid work settings. Organisations can create custom immersive experiences tailored to their needs, fostering deep connections and engagement within distributed teams.
  • Microsoft Industry Clouds' 2024 release wave one introduces new capabilities and enhancements across sectors such as retail, agriculture, financial services, sustainability, healthcare, nonprofit, and sovereignty. The release includes innovative solutions like generative AI-powered copilot templates for personalised shopping, store operations, and sustainable IT systems, as well as new features for data management in agriculture and meeting preparation in financial services.

Oracle

Oracle OPERA Cloud Central all-in-one hospitality solution is now available. The Oracle OPERA Cloud Central platform unites various hotel functions under a common interface, enabling efficient operations and enhanced guest experiences.

Oracle announced the general availability of OCI Generative AI service, offering seamless integration of large language models (LLMs) from Cohere and Meta Llama 2 for a wide range of business use cases.

Oracle Retail Cloud Platform has been recognised for its configurable workflows and scalability, making it a top choice for retailers and CPG firms focused on open-to-buy and merchandise financial planning. The Forrester Wave report highlighted Oracle's leadership in agile merchandising, vision, and innovation, positioning the company as a strong contender in the retail planning platforms space.

Tech news

A new partnership between Microsoft and Cognite aims to converge enterprise and industrial data operations, creating a scalable, AI-driven platform that significantly accelerates time to value and scalability for both enterprise and industrial use cases.

IBM has introduced AI Stories with IBM Watsonx in collaboration with the Recording Academy to generate and scale editorial content around GRAMMY nominees, enhancing the digital experience for music fans.

IBM and SAP are collaborating to develop generative AI solutions for consumer packaged goods and retail industries to enhance supply chain, finance operations, sales, and services.

Microsoft is supporting the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR) pilot to democratise access to computational tools for advancing AI in critical areas. The company's commitment includes contributing $20 million in Microsoft Azure compute credits and providing access to leading-edge AI models and resources for developing trustworthy AI.

Oracle has been recognised as a Leader in service life-cycle management for its integrated end-to-end capabilities and continuous innovation by IDC, and has been recognised as a Leader in Gartner's 2023 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems and scored highest in all three Use Cases for Operational and Analytical Use Cases.

SAP is a leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant for configure, price, and quote application suites.

Trend Micro has been recognised as a worldwide leader in modern endpoint security for enterprises by IDC MarketScape, attributing its success to extensive capabilities and strong execution of its SaaS strategy, and also recognised in Gartner Critical Capabilities Report for Endpoint Protection Platforms.

Trend Micro's channel program has been positioned as the #1 among 30 cybersecurity vendors appraised by Canalys, reflecting its strong market performance and leadership.

Vodafone and Microsoft have formed a 10-year strategic partnership to enhance digital transformation for businesses and improve customer experiences in Europe and Africa. The partnership includes collaboration on generative AI, scaling IoT, expanding M-Pesa in Africa, growing enterprise services, and accelerating cloud transformation.

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SoftwareOne blog editorial team

Blog Editorial Team

We analyse the latest IT trends and industry-relevant innovations to keep you up-to-date with the latest technology.