Piracy figures are up, food prices are souring and the price of a barrel of oil is having bigger and bigger impact on the global economy. These trends are shaping the security agenda for a while now; still their impact remains largely unknown. Being able to see these trends (or emerging trends) and analyze their impact to redefine strategies will be of growing importance for companies and governments in the coming years.  Below are some graphs that show the rise in crime and prices (as you might note, not all graphs that go up mean well):

Day before yesterday Boris and Patrick visited our -as they say- big, shiny and expensive office in Amsterdam to talk about our Innovation Awards program. Boris wrote a nice piece on our discussions. Although I do not agree with all he writes (I see myself more as an innovator/entrepreneur than manager), he makes a good point.

Photo by Boris

Accenture is organizing the Innovation Awards for the second time. Last year’s jury voted Hyves (most innovative company) and Sellaband (‘best’ innovative concept) as most promising innovations in the Dutch Media and Entertainment industry and received the ‘Blauwe Tulp’ (Blue Tulip) award. Ikoptv was awarded with the ‘Publieksprijs’ (Public’s price).

This year, the award for ’best’ innovative concept and the ‘Publieksprijs’ will be maintained. Next to the Dutch Media and Entertainment industry, the Dutch Communication industry will now also be invited to participate. Because of the industry’s rapid changing market everyone – so also last year’s concepts – can subscribe and has a chance to win the ‘Blauwe Tulp’ award.

The winning concept has the privilege to name itself the ‘best’ innovative concept in the Dutch M&C industry for one year. Besides that, various PR activities will be undertaken to enhance the brand awareness of the concept. So to all innovators - submit your concepts here!

We’re teaming now with the guys from The Next Web for this edition. They have a great eye for innovation and have a platform that links well with the Innovation Awards program. Besides that, they’re fun guys to work with. Looking forward to the next few months on this.

Looking at the future of Procurement I see enormous challenges and opportunities. Traditionally the generic Procurement Value proposition mainly focuses around spend savings and sustainability. Recently we see various trends bringing this value proposition at risk. lees verder…

Last week the Dutch news readers could read that as of August 2008, 9,000 retailers in cities in the Netherlands will be rolling out mobile payment facilities. Mid 2009, 45,000 retailers should be participating in this payment scheme by Payter and CCV. Nokia will be supplying the NFC enabled cell phones that can store a maximum of 150 euro. Payter will distribute approximately 10,000 phones for free, to stimulate mobile payments in the Netherlands.

When 45,000 retailers offer mobile payments in the bigger cities in the Netherlands, it can no longer be considered a pilot phase technology. This is serious business! Last year, Richard Winston, head of Accenture’s North American Payment Industry Program, examined some of the trends in mobile payments worldwide. He argues that banks, credit card issuers, cellular carriers and merchants will have to cooperate or be forced to act by disruptive competitors entering the market. This cooperation is exactly what seems to be happening in the Netherlands now.

Imagine mobile payments to be taken as the new form of payment for public transport ticketing. That would right away form a huge base of millions of potential users. lees verder…

BBC reports: Armed forces recruits from the “Facebook generation” do not take data security seriously enough, a Ministry of Defence security probe has found. This comes back to the point my friend made earlier about better education and training, the problem is more human than technological in my opinon.

De ontevredenheid onder burgers over transparantie van overheidsinkomsten en -uitgaven is groot. Zo kwam ik onlangs op http://www.overheidsuitgaven.nl/ terecht. Het doel van de vereniging achter deze website is transparantie van overheidsinkomsten- en uitgaven realiseren, vanuit het besef dat deze nu te hoog zijn. De argumentatie en gevolgtrekkingen op de website zijn wellicht ietwat kort door de bocht, maar het signaal is bekend.

Eén van de manieren van de overheid om transparantie te bieden rond overheidsfinanciën is Gehaktdag: op de derde woensdag van mei wordt getoetst of de ministeries het belastinggeld volgens de begrotingswetten hebben geïnd en besteed. De minister van financiën legt voor de Tweede Kamer verantwoording af voor het beleid dat hij anderhalf jaar daarvoor op Prinsjesdag beloofde uit te voeren.

Vorige maand was het weer Gehaktdag. Heeft u er iets van gehoord of gezien in de media? Twee kranten die traditiegetrouw fors uitpakken met Prinsjesdag, het Financieele Dagblad en het NRC, publiceerden elk slechts één mager artikel over een rapport van de Algemene Rekenkamer over Gehaktdag. Over financiële verantwoording, cijfers of realisaties werd niet gerept.

Het is raar dat er zo weinig media-aandacht is voor de financiële verantwoording terwijl er zo veel media-aandacht is voor de presentatie van de plannen op Prinsjesdag. Als we overheidsorganisaties willen beoordelen op feiten en cijfers en zoeken naar transparantie in overheidsfinanciën zullen we vooral moeten kijken naar de manier waarop de plannen ten uitvoer worden gebracht en misschien iets minder naar de plannen zelf. Gehaktdag zou veel meer aandacht moeten krijgen en is misschien wel belangrijker dan Prinsjesdag. Zo ontzettend bijzonder is de Gouden Koets nu ook weer niet…

Yes, it is impossible to predict the future. Even more so in the world of international relations and politics where things move so fast and are incredibly dynamic. But what is not impossible is the ability to see certain themes emerge from current debate and enable organizations to take a look at the current upcoming trends, ideas and issues which will effect their work in the future

New advances in data mining technology are enabling the analysis of huge amounts of unstructured data and some companies have started to harness this technology to do a thing calls: “Foresight”.  Using a tool called Semadyson (named after the powerful vacuum cleaner), The Hague Center for Security Studies (HCSS) collects scenario studies produced by the worldwide foresight community and other relevant information from the internet and is able to frame the data in a dynamic way. This in turn helps businesses and public clients who want to develop their strategy to government agencies developing policies in particular areas.

The HCSS is showing that the old scenario development days are coming back with a robust technology component enabling us to leverage the incredible amounts of data developed and put on the internet to foresee what will be important in the future. As an African Proverb says “For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”

Waar in de beginjaren ondernemingen de voorkeur gaven aan het uitbesteden aan service providers met een vestiging in de regio (near-shoring), worden tegenwoordig steeds meer activiteiten over de grens uitgevoerd (off-shoring).

Uit onderzoek van Everest Research Institute (http://www.everestresearchinstitute.com/Product/10060) is gebleken dat de offshore BPO industrie over de afgelopen 3 jaar met meer dan 35% gegroeid is naar $28 miljard aan omzet. Deze groei laat eens te meer zien dat het uitbesteden van bedrijfsprocessen tot de dagelijkse gang van zaken behoort, maar ook dat de markt aan het verschuiven is van nearshoring naar offshoring en zelfs naar global sourcing van de dienstverlening.

lees verder…

NCO is a relatively new military concept developed in the late 90s that seeks to translate an information advantage, enabled in part by information technology, into a competitive war fighting advantage through the robust networking of well informed geographically dispersed forces. Basically it means that the information gathered and analyzed by the various forces is centrally collected and distributed across the military operational unites to maximize the advantage of information and be able to leverage military capabilities in new and better ways.

While much effort goes into creating this “system of systems” within the military it seems that insufficient attention has been given to the way information is gathered and shared in the current war and post conflict area; where NGO’s and other stakeholders play a significant and increasing role in the field. Today the dynamics between non-military organizations and the military is crucial in achieving mission objectives in post conflict reconstruction and crisis situations. Which makes the application of NCO to a wider range of users relevant. For example, in many conflict situations NGO’s such as MSF have better access to information from local population, being able to leverage this knowledge can have mission critical consequences.

Bij een Hogeschool waar wij met een Accenture team werken aan de onderwijslogistieke systemen speelt de discussie om ’s avonds tentamens te plannen. Hiermee kunnen we gedl besparen omdat minder externe ruimte overdag hoeft te worden gehuurd. Een van de faculteitsdirecteuren gaf aan dit van harte te steunen. Hij zou graag zien dat de school ook ’s avonds bevolkt is met studenten. Het moet leuk zijn om op school te zijn. Hij werkt hieraan door het leuk te maken in de avonduren, sfeer te creëren. Hij verwees naar de school of digital arts in San Fransisco waar het ’s avonds bruist. Nou, kijken of we hem hierin verder kunnen helpen.