2017
Vivli to develop clinical research data-sharing platform on the cloud
Cambridge, Mass.-based Vivli, a nonprofit center that manages and facilitates information exchange for clinical research, teamed up with Watertown, Mass.-based technology architecture consulting firm BlueMetal to build a clinical trial research data-sharing platform. The platform — powered by Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing platform — provides a single resources that aggregates research studies from disparate data sources. It will include a data repository, analysis tools and a search engine to provide increased transparency and access to clinical research around the world.
Read MoreThe Top 10 Partner Takeaways From Microsoft Inspire
At Watertown, Mass.-based BlueMetal, a division of Insight, Vice President and National General Manager for Corporate Matt Jackson said he also thinks Microsoft has been learning from its partners on go-to-market and digital transformation. "The way Satya framed it -- focusing on the customer, operational optimization -- we've been talking about basically the same thing for about two years. But it's finally real," Jackson said. "If you look at our portfolio of clients and products, they're almost all in that general digital transformation category. I do wonder how long it'll be before it's overplayed. But we'll ride it while we can."
Read MoreVivli to develop Azure-based platform for cloud access to research data
Vivli Center for Global Research Data, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonprofit collaborative to facilitate information exchange for clinical research data, will launch a new platform via Microsoft Azure to improve sharing of clinical trial research. Working with Watertown, Massachusetts-based BlueMetal, a consulting firm focused on technology architecture and design, Vivli officials say the Azure-based platform – with data repository, analysis tools and a dynamic search engine – will help enable easier and more transparent access to worldwide clinical research data. "Our collaboration with Microsoft and BlueMetal brings together long-standing leaders in technology and digital health to transform how clinical trial data is mined to improve human health," said Vivli cofounder Rebecca Li.
Read MoreBlueMetal Is MS Mobile App Development Partner of the Year
BlueMetal and a global medical device manufacturer collaborated to build an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on Microsoft Azure Bot Services, which uses predictive analytics to make suggestions and encourage patients to make healthy choices. It also offers access to a wealth of critical health information through text and verbal commands. The real-time adaptive learning has significantly enhanced patient engagement and can help improve health outcomes. The chatbot blends BlueMetal's Real-Time Business Platform with Microsoft Cognitive Services - Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) and the Visual Studio Tools for Xamarin to create an intelligent and impactful experience. "Our goal is to transform the experience for patients and help them spend less time on the phone or in the doctor's office," said Matt Jackson, national general manager at BlueMetal. "That's the beauty of mobile applications and conversational agents; they digitally transform your customer's experience. Microsoft's leadership in these technologies, combined with our Intelligent Technology Solutions™, helps people transform to live better and healthier lives. This real-time experience connects your audience with your organization in a more meaningful and personalized way."
Read More8 Things Small Business Owners Need to Know This Week
Key strategic business demands—the need for greater business agility, data capabilities, and better customer and user experiences—are compelling companies to embrace cloud systems, according to the Insight-sponsored report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.
Read MoreHarvard Business Review survey finds companies say yes to hybrid IT
IT pros have always understood that their job is to enable business success. Often that means as invisible to the end user as possible. For that to happen, IT needs to exert significant control over all business technology assets, regardless of where they reside. In an era in which IT needs quick reflexes and the ability to innovate on demand, hybrid solutions maximize flexibility, enabling services and resources to be delivered when and where they are needed.
Read More2017 Intelligent Technology Index - Key Takeaways
It is high time that organizations plan and prepare to overcome these challenges early on by upping their technology and IT leadership skills. The CIOs of today and tomorrow will need to drive this change, taking on direct responsibility for IT impact on the company’s bottom line. The technology domain must get closer than ever to the customer. We can see this happening to some extent, with 49% of IT professionals focusing on improving the customer experience, and 38% focusing on more consistent customer engagement. The Internet of Things (IoT) is one such avenue to increase customer-centricity of IT and tech, and nearly 50% of the companies surveyed have turned to IoT to make this happen. The report highlights how there is a distinct shift in nature and the expectations from IT and technology. Organizations must adopt new technologies and create a tech-centric organizational strategy to ride over the challenges. This is already happening with 37% of the respondent companies planning to align their 2017 IT budgets to the maintenance of existing equipment and 32% to the adoption of new technologies. Yet, the focus should also be on building IT leadership skills such as collaboration, people management, and being business-savvy that will significantly impact the future of technology.
Read MoreFour SAP Customers Share Digital Transformation Journey
Fresh from his company’s decision to select SAP Hybris Marketing, Bruce Petillo, Marketing Director at Insight Enterprises, characterized having a digital strategy as a differentiator. “The biggest benefit is the ability to have all your data in one place including CRM, ERP, social feeds, analytics from third parties, and behavioral data from our clients when they visit our website or conduct transactions with us. We can use that data to make better decisions that provide a better experience for them,” said Petillo. “Whether it’s online chat, email, voice or in-person at an event, we can engage with customers where they prefer, making every one-on-one encounter based on a better understanding of what their needs are.” Petillo was just as enthusiastic about machine learning capabilities in SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer. “With machine learning we can automate transactions on our ecommerce platform, freeing up our sales rep’s time for more meaningful conversations with customers to solve their business problems together,” he said.
Read MoreHybrid Cloud Is Gathering Steam for Small, Medium Businesses
The debate over the merits of hybrid cloud have taken a back seat to discussions of the rapid advance n services of the public cloud and the possibilities of remaking the data center as a private cloud. Hybrid cloud is something in between, and in some cases, fails to achieve the virtues of either one.
Read MoreHybrid Cloud Becomes a Strategic Imperative
Organizations are no longer turning to cloud computing for reasons such as saving costs or easy implementations. Some major strategic business demands such as the need for greater data capabilities, business agility, along with better user and customer experiences, are driving organizations to opt for cloud systems, according to a new Insight-sponsored report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services.
Read MoreHybrid Cloud Becomes a Strategic Imperative
“A company’s IT environment should work for them by enabling them to both run and innovate. Large and small to mid-sized companies need to focus on managing and modernizing their IT infrastructure, so that it becomes a transformative part of their business that can directly improve results,” said David Lewerke, Director, Hybrid Cloud Consulting Practice at Insight. “While we knew there were a number of benefits, we wanted to better understand from respondents exactly how cloud systems were impacting their business outcomes.”
Read MoreFour companies represent Arizona in Fortune 500
The same four companies represented Arizona in the 2016 edition of the Fortune 500. Avnet dropped six spots, Freeport-McMoRan remained the same. Republic Services jumped 13 spots, while Insight moved up one [to 473].
Read MoreEnterprise Mobility to Device Deployment: Meet the Microsoft Partners of the Year
According to Microsoft, "A Fortune 500 Medical Device Company, was looking to leverage the power of digital transformation to engage and care for people with diabetes in a more personal, frequent and meaningful way. The client elicited the help of BlueMetal Architects, a Microsoft/Xamarin Partner."
Read MoreCloud investments paying off with better data access, security
“While an on-premise strategy makes sense for many business workloads, cloud computing continues to gain market share,” said Mike Gaumond, senior vice president of services at Insight. “Cloud-based infrastructure allows companies to be extremely nimble and lean, shifting the bulk of operational responsibility to the service provider.”
Read More5 Cloud Takeaways from Insight’s 2017 Intelligent Technology Index
Insight recently launched its 2017 Intelligent Technology Index, which looks at industry trends around the decisions that IT leaders have to make today to ready their organizations for tomorrow. Of course, a central part is cloud services and the considerations that go along with it.
Read MoreSoftware, security biggest enterprise 'as a Service' demands
There are many reports about how many companies are adopting cloud, but not many examine exactly how companies are applying cloud tech. Insight’s report found software and security are the dominate service needs, at least for today.
Read MoreIn a reversal, security is now driving enterprise cloud adoption
“While an on-premise strategy makes sense for many business workloads, cloud computing continues to gain market share. Cloud-based infrastructure allows companies to be extremely nimble and lean, shifting the bulk of operational responsibility to the service provider,” Mike Gaumond, Insight’s senior vice president of services, said in a statement. “However, some companies employ workloads and applications that work better in an on-premise environment, which is why the hybrid cloud model is gaining traction and providing organizations with an integrated approach.”
Read MoreTech Decision Makers Double Down on Cloud Adoption
“IT leaders may be showing improved optimism around their ability to manage their IT infrastructures today, but are also equally as apprehensive about the future,” said Steve Dodenhoff, president of Insight US. “In the rapidly changing technology and business landscape, their concerns are valid. They not only need to operate to meet today’s business needs, but they also need to navigate emergent technologies, applications and complex data environments in order to provide a rich and flexible technology ecosystem that enables their organizations to keep pace and drive transformation.”
Read MoreSecurity as a Service? We want it, say IT leaders
Nearly half of today's IT professionals are concentrating on the customer: 49% are concerned with improving the customer experience, and 38% are focused on more consistent customer engagement. Not only are today's IT professionals tasked with operations inside the organization, but they are now expected to address customer needs as well.At the same time, more than three out of 10 report that ongoing maintenance and support "is their biggest pain point."
Read MoreHealthcare IoT: Providers prescribe connectivity for patients, suppliers
BlueMetal, Weka Health and Microsoft worked together to create a connected, battery-powered miniature refrigerator that transports, monitors, and dispenses vaccine cartridges. Not only does the system help providers to know the medicine is safe to use, it also tells them when supplies are running low.
Read MoreThis tech stock is the top gainer today — and it's not who you think
Analysts had expected Insight to post quarterly earnings of 29 cents share, according to Zack’s Investment Research and Yahoo Finance. The Arizona tech company beat that with earnings of 38 cents per share.
Read MoreInsight reports 100 percent profit boost on organic growth, acquisition
Insight Enterprises Inc. reported a 101 percent increase in profit thanks to strong organic growth and an acquisition in its most recent quarter.
Read MoreWhat You Need to Know About Containers
Adopting containers is "a strategic step" toward moving into a DevOps type of organization, where operations staff and developers both take responsibility for how well applications run. "The two things really on each other," said Chou. Likewise containers lend themselves to applications built as microservices. "We want people to connect all the dots, to make the link to microarchitectures and to a data collection solution on the Internet of Things," he said. Containers will have a major impact on IT and how the business is run in the long run. Chou said cloud computing has accustomed many enterprise users to the notion of on-demand service. Whether on-premises or in the cloud, they'll expect new tools, applications and services to be available quickly when they want them. "From the IT point of view, I need to be able to respond in a predictable, repeatable and cost effective way" to that need for on-demand service. Containers will be part of that picture, he predicted.
Read More5 Ways Big Corporations Protect Their Data That Small Businesses Should Copy
Cyber attacks that steal sensitive data are an ongoing concern for every organization. Almost half (43 percent) target smaller businesses. What’s worse, over half (60 percent) of the smaller enterprises that get attacked go out of business in six months. Having sensitive financial, personal and operational data stolen can ruin a small business. Stolen records and transaction histories can be used to steal from the small or medium sized business or its customers and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Read MoreWhat to Look for in Collaborative Tools
"Collaboration is not a new concept," writes Doug Fink, Insight's practice director for collaboration. "We've evolved from smoke signals to wired phone calls and from sticky notes to videoconferencing with colleagues half a world away. Today's businesses are more efficient and productive than ever, in large part due to cloud-based collaboration tools."
Read MoreDevOps Comes of Age
"The advent of the cloud means that infrastructure is now defined as code and not physical machines, so the act of doing operations is closer to software development than it ever was before," said Bob Familiar, director, national practice at interactive design and technology architecture firm, BlueMetal.
Read MoreStop Relying on Your Company for Career Development
Taking control and creating opportunity does not have to be part of a grand scheme or something that will eat away at your productivity. In fact, it comes down to basics. Introduce yourself, shake people’s hands, and get comfortable with putting yourself out there. If you are interested in a particular area, even if it isn’t related to your education, background, or current job focus, find out who the manager is—and introduce yourself in person.
Read MoreWhy Collaboration is Critical in Technology Acquisition
"You hear a lot about collaboration today but when you talk to these people, they're still siloed," said Curt Cornum, VP and chief solution architect at global technology provider Insight Enterprises. "Even within the IT department, when you get into those types of conversations they're not talking to each other as much as they should."
Read MoreWhy the Human Element Is Key to Health Care IT
When your business is saving lives, IT deployment shouldn’t add to your burden. Building the right relationship with a loyal provider can save you time and money in the long run. Health care professionals are highly specialized and crucial to our society. “These people have full-time jobs,” says TJ Reusch, Director of Healthcare Sales at Insight, “They save lives and run organizations that save lives. They’re very important to not just their organizations but to society as a whole. That takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.” While advances in technology continue to make the job easier, staying on top of IT trends while forming implementation and deployment strategies that fit the unique needs of a health care facility can be unnecessarily time-consuming and detract from the important work of saving lives.
Read More7 stops on the consumer-driven healthcare IT journey
Patients are increasingly looking at their healthcare options with a consumer-driven mindset. They want to get the very best care for their money, and when expectations aren’t met, word can spread fast through reviews and ratings on social media. This trend is driving a shift in the industry toward value-based care models that put patients first.
Read MoreBusiness Guide to Cloud Backup
David Mayer, vice president of product management software, Insight, a global IT solutions provider, looks at it this way: "The benefits of cloud-based backup come down to two scenarios, first being cost. Hard drive space, which is the primary component needed for backup, costs pennies per GB. The economy of scale that these massive cloud providers are able to achieve from a purchase perspective is pretty amazing." "Secondly, cloud backup provides automation capabilities, which requires a lot less human intervention and is less error prone, particularly compared to backups of the past."
Read MoreHere's Who Made Gartner's 2017 Magic Quadrant For Managed Workplace Services
Insight now has about 100 service desk agents in the U.S. and a little more than a dozen in the U.K., according to Gartner. The Arizona-based company also provides on-site desktop services through 379 technicians. Insight supports 42,800 service desk users, 532,000 desktop users, 361,000 physical desktops/notebooks, 1,500 virtual desktops, and approximately 58,000 smartphones and tablets, Gartner said.
Read MoreWorkplace collaboration providers battle over usability, pricing and integration
"We are seeing the proliferation of both new and next generation technologies specifically designed with simplicity and the non-tech end user in mind," said Doug Fink, director of the collaboration practice at Insight. "This will help ensure that your employees use them and that they generate their promised return on investment."
Read MoreRSA Conference 2017: Ziften, Teramind make channel partner moves
• Collaboration technology is top of mind for business professionals and will only become more crucial in the next couple of years. That's a key finding of a survey of 421 Harvard Business Review readers undertaken by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services and sponsored by IT solutions provider Insight. More than 80% of the respondents cited collaboration technology solutions as very or extremely important for meeting business goals at present, while 90% said they expect collaboration technology to be very or extremely important over the next two years.
Read MoreCollaboration key to achieving business goals
"Collaboration is not a new concept," Doug Fink, director, Collaboration Practice at Insight, which sponsored the report, wrote in its preface. "People have worked together to achieve goals since the dawn of time. But collaboration technology is much more recent. We've evolved from smoke signals to wired phone calls and sticky notes to videoconferencing with colleagues half a world away. A lot has changed."
Read MoreThe 5 Hottest Events at Phoenix Startup Week
The first keynote speech of Phoenix Startup Week will discuss how to build a fortune 500 company. Moderator Zach Ferres, CEO of Coplex, will sit down with Tim Crown, cofounder of Insight, and Mike Guggemos, CIO of Insight, to discuss Crown’s startup experiences and highlight essential technology lessons from Guggemos, which can help startups scale their businesses.
Read MoreInsight reports revenue and earnings boost, hiring 60
Insight Enterprises Inc. reported a 6 percent boost in revenue and a 37 percent increase in profit year over year due to growth across north America, Europe and Asia Pacific in hardware, software and services in its most recent quarter.
Read MoreSky’s the limit as SixPivot strikes Cloud Ctrl deal with Insight
SixPivot has signed on Insight Enterprises as a worldwide solutions partners for its cloud management platform, Cloud Ctrl, as the start-up executes on local and global expansion plans. Cloud Ctrl is a multi-cloud service management platform, designed to provide customers with greater insights and financial control of cloud subscriptions.
Read MoreInsight partners with Australian cloud management startup SixPivot
Australian cloud management application developer SixPivot has entered a partnership with leading IT provider Insight Enterprises in a move that will see that application applied across the world.
Read MoreIs enough being done to prevent healthcare security breaches?
Making IT security a top priority when budgeting is also key to fighting threats and minimizing vulnerabilities. “Cybersecurity spend for healthcare protection will only reach $10 billion globally by 2020, just under 10% of the total spend on critical infrastructure security,” says Cea. “Ensure you are getting the proper risk assessments completed and are able to be proactive instead of reactive. It will save the organization money in the long run.”
Read MoreBig Data Facts Highlight Its Trendsetting Surge
When scaling up, small to mid-market businesses should hire employees who can grow into one of three positions: business, data, or analytics. Think of a savvy manager, a data-smart engineer or a skilled data scientist. However, one employee should not be expected to perform all three roles, as specialization and velocity would be compromised, diminishing visibility and stalling a business’s analytics growth. Instead, a team should be formed around each function. If a small to mid-market business can’t afford that level of initial investment, it should start with a few strategic hires and supplement as needed with an outside partner.
Read MoreConway Area Chamber of Commerce adds 7 members to the board
Julie Gillaspy of Acxiom, Sarah Murphy of Conway Human Development Center, Joanne Nabholz of H+N Architects, David Hicks of Preferred Medical, Chris Boudrie of Kimberly Clark, Chris Coffman of Insight Enterprises and Mayor Bart Castleberry will round out the 32-member board.
Read MoreIntel Unveils IoT Retail Platform, Plans Huge Investment
Ryan Parker, Intel’s head of responsive retail, tells Channel Partners the platform can be obtained from the company’s channel alliances, including Arrow Intelligent Systems, as well as current partners like Smartrac, Tyco Retail Solutions, Detego, Insight/Bluemetal, RIoT Insight and Fujitsu/Globeranger.
Read MoreCRN Exclusive: Cisco Americas Channel Leader On VIP, Meraki, APIs And The Biggest Channel Initiatives In 2017
We also see that some of our top partners are embracing APIs like World Wide Technology has acquired Asynchrony. Insight [Enterprises] has acquired BlueMetal. They're doing very innovative things to show value and differentiation through software capabilities. It plays to a number of different ways we're thinking about software, but APIs are becoming increasingly important.
Read More3 Ways Shadow Analytics May Be Working Against You
"What's driving shadow analytics is the desire for data in real time and near real time -- marketing, lines of business, product owners, and manufacturing environments. It can show up almost anywhere if IT has not provided those capabilities, an X-as-a-service, on-demand, self-service experience," said Bob Familiar, national practice director for Application Services at BlueMetal, Insight’s interactive design and technology architecture firm.
Read MoreCRN Exclusive: Global Knowledge Hires First-Ever Channel Chief, Launches Massive Partner Offensive
Insight Enterprises believes that Global Knowledge's new GTC program will give customers more flexibility to consume courses over time, according to David Mayer, vice president of product management and software. The previous selling model requires end users to bid out a small portion of the overall budget for individual training courses, Mayer said, which often aligned poorly with how clients prefer to budget. Mayer said the GTC model will also enable Tempe, Ariz.-based Insight, No. 15 on the CRN SP 500, to move away from a project-based approach and engage with clients in more long-term strategic thinking. "They're making the right investment," Mayer said. "We're bullish on where they're at and where they're going."
Read MoreThe Doyle Report: Five Things That Great Employers Offer
According to surveys, more than 90 percent of employees at Insight said the company “has a great atmosphere and provides challenging work” while 95 percent said they “take great pride in their association with Insight as an employer.”
Read MoreDatalink Shareholders Approve The Sale of Company to Insight Enterprises
Datalink shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the sale of the company to Insight Enterprises and $10.5 million in payouts to the company's top executives and its board. The acquisition is expected to close on Jan. 6, according to SEC filings.
Read MoreWill record stock rally last in 2017?
Hundreds of stocks burst out of the starting blocks following the election, including several Arizona companies that stand to benefit from a more relaxed regulatory climate.
Read MoreInvestor information
Ryan Miyasato
Investor Relations
408.975.8507
ryan.miyasato@insight.com
Insight investor relations: https://investor.insight.com
Fast facts
Fortune 500 company founded in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona.
Super solution integrator and global provider of IT hardware, software and service solutions.
Insight has operations in 25 countries with 14,000+ teammates worldwide.
We have partnerships with 8,000+ software and hardware manufacturers and publishers.
We’re Microsoft’s largest global partner.