Australian parliament legislation required that the app be consent-based, utilize source code from Singapore’s TraceTogether contact tracing app where applicable, use data-encryption, and not gather location data. Australia’s Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), which works to make government services “simple, clear and fast to use,” cited ease-of-use, cost-efficiency, risk-reduction, and the wide range of services that AWS provides, when asked why they chose AWS for COVIDSafe.

Once users download the app, they are prompted to provide their name or a pseudonym, age range, postcode, and phone number. The app then relies on Bluetooth signals to log other nearby participating mobile devices, using anonymized IDS which are deleted after 21 days. In the event a user tests positive for covid-19, a health official will ask them to allow the log of IDs to be uploaded. This list is then used to facilitate contact tracing, utilizing Bluetooth signal strength to determine who else may be most at-risk for contracting the virus. The DTA has promised to update the app as performance and security enhancements are developed.

Though a spokesperson for Minister for Government Services has stated that “uploaded contact information will be stored in Australia in a highly secure information storage system and protected by additional laws to restrict access to health professionals only,” Australia’s Law Council has indicated that this may not hold true due to the US’s CLOUD Act. This 2018 law makes data held by American cloud services available under subpoena, regardless of where in the world the data is stored.

Though Australian officials touted the app as being key to daily-life resuming as normal, so far the app has only identified one person with the virus. Additionally, though legislation has been implemented to protect COVIDSafe’s user data to a much larger degree than other personal data in government use, various technical issues and a low user rate have plagued the app since its launch. Just under 25 percent of Australia’s population has downloaded the app, while government officials had previously stated that getting 40 percent of the population on the app would be key to its effectiveness.

Yet ServiceNow, a cloud-based service management platform, is winning large healthcare systems over. The company’s solution set is a good fit for the largest and most demanding enterprises.

According to the former IT director for Broward Health, Tony Ruiz, “The clinical staff can now devote their time to better customer service and projects, rather than working on ad hoc requests,” further adding, “We can now generate business intelligence for the volume and type of catalog requests. This gives us a reference point for further operational automation. It is a win-win proposition for us.”

ServiceNow started out offering a more streamlined process for managing helpdesk tickets and to keep up with growth expectations, expanded into other areas such as financial software and human capital management. With its Finance Operations Management vertical, it aims to speed up the time it takes for a business to close its books. With its New Mobile app, business clients can customize their apps without having to write a line of code.

Recently, there was a major change in ServiceNow’s leadership ranks. In October 2019, ServiceNow's then-CEO, John Donahoe, stepped down from his position to join Nike as their new President and Chief Executive Officer giving way to Bill McDermott to take the reins.

Since joining, McDermott has delivered a winning quarter for investors, which saw the company’s share price jump to its highest-ever rate at $341 a share. And the former SAP CEO has no plans on slowing down.

“We are grateful for the tremendous contributions of our Workday, Salesforce, and MuleSoft consultants and leadership teams and are confident that Accenture will be a terrific partner for these practice areas moving forward,” commented Sierra-Cedar CEO, Cal Yonker.

He continued, “This transaction will provide Sierra-Cedar with an enhanced focus and the ability to make additional investment in key strategic growth drivers such as Oracle Cloud and AWS. As we embark on our next chapter, I am excited to continue working with our talented employees and maintaining our tight-knit culture as we deliver success for our clients.”

Sierra-Cedar helps organizations navigate their application and technology roadmaps, whether modernizing an existing portfolio or transitioning to emerging technologies. Its combination of industry knowledge, deep technology capabilities, breadth of service offerings, and a global delivery model translate into leading-practice solutions for organizations.

Accenture provides specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions — underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network. The company works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives.

His ascent is not too dissimilar from his overall career trajectory. After graduating from Harvard University with a master’s degree in economics and statistics, he spent a year at EY as an auditor. From there he was an economist at the French Treasury then an advisor to the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance. He then joined the world of technology with Orange first as Chief of Staff to the CEO and then as head of Strategy and Development.

Time after time he has been seen as a highly strategic thinker and intuitive executive. Under his leadership Atos is poised to expand its offering in rapid fashion across the globe.

The company is a global leader in digital transformation with over 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of over € 11 billion. In Europe it is considered number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing.

Atos provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions. It is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos Syntel, and Unify.

Included in its offering are Wipro’s Cloud Studio, LiVE Workspaces, and Data Discovery Platform.

“Our newly formed Microsoft Business Unit will aid organizations in accelerating their innovation and modernization journey by leveraging Wipro’s deep domain expertise along with Microsoft’s futuristic enterprise-class offerings. With this partnership, we will co-innovate in industry domain services focused on data, analytics, security and customer/employee experiences, ” commented Wipro’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Bhanumurthy B.M

Wipro Senior Vice President and Global Head, Technology Business Unit, Nitin Parab, said, “We are excited to expand our partnership with Microsoft. By integrating our unique offerings such as Cloud Studio, DDP and LiVE Workspace with Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud, we will be able to better address our customers’ digital goals.”

Microsoft was equally bullish about the latest news with EVP Judson Althoff stating, “At Microsoft, digital transformation is a core focus that enables organizations to improve how they engage customers, empower employees, optimize operations and transform products. Our expanded partnership with Wipro will allow them to better serve customers’ digital needs by leveraging Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Dynamics 365.”

Rajesh Gopinathan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, provided further insights on the firm’s performance.

“We saw the sectoral trends of the first half of the year continue to play out in the third quarter. Our robust order book during the quarter reflects our ability to pitch innovative technology solutions to address the business needs of different stakeholders in the enterprise, and participate in our customers’ enterprise-wide transformation initiatives. This is also helping deepen and broaden our customer relationships, and make the business more resilient.”

Gopinathan added, “Our participation in the growth and transformation spends of our customers is most evident in our sustained success in Continental Europe where our revenues have more than doubled in the last five years. Our thought leadership in areas like the Business 4.0 framework, Enterprise Agility and the Machine First Delivery Model, our domain and technology consulting expertise, investments in research and innovation, and our ability to design complex solutions leveraging multiple capabilities from across TCS, have made us the preferred partner for CEO-level initiatives at progressive organizations.”

Tata’s depth of expertise has been built on a foundation of training. In the quarter alone, more than 327,000 of its employees were trained in digital technologies while more than 400,000 were trained in Agile methods.

AWS recently provided a few key insights to be mindful of as we head into this next era of data accessibility.

Predictive Analytics Benefits The Patient

Dr. Shez Partovi, who is the director of worldwide business development for healthcare, life sciences and genomics at AWS, comments. “As the country moves toward value-based care, artificial intelligence and machine learning, paired with data interoperability, will improve patient outcomes while driving operational efficiency to lower the overall cost of care.”  He further adds, “By enabling data liquidity securely and supporting healthcare providers with predictive machine learning models, clinicians will be able to seamlessly forecast clinical events, like strokes, cancer or heart attacks, and intervene early with personalized care and a superior patient experience.”

Analytics extend to predicting events from genetic variants.  Partovi contends, “Another example is INOVA Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI), which is assembling one of the world’s largest whole-genome sequence databases that will enable researchers to track 30 billion genetic variants.” He continues, “AWS architecture facilitates the storage and management of this secure data and enables ITMI researchers to develop personalized treatments and predictive care for newborns suffering from congenital disorders and patients of all ages with cancer-causing genetic mutations.”

Patient Personalization

With volumes of data within arm’s reach, providers are able to deeply personalize patient care.  “Another great example of improving the consumer health journey is Aidoc,” Partovi said. “The company’s always-on, AI-based decision support software analyzes CT scans on AWS to flag acute abnormalities, prioritize urgent studies and expedite patient care. To date, Aidoc has analyzed more than 3.2 million cases at more than 300 medical facilities around the world. At one major U.S. medical center, on average the Aidoc solution reduced patient ED visits by 59 minutes and overall hospitalization time by 18 hours.”

Data Interoperability

Patrick Combes, worldwide technical leader, healthcare and life sciences, at AWS, predicts, “Future engagements in healthcare will be revamped by using free-form, voice interactions with voice-enabled devices and smart devices,” further adding, “Having solutions that can process various media types and forms by transforming the data input from voice, image, scan, PDF, etc., into text has the potential to paint a fuller picture of health for every patient.”

“By establishing a Microsoft Business Unit, HCL is taking an important step forward in the long-standing partnership between our two companies. As a result, companies will benefit from unique products and services tailored to their digital journey while fostering modern work and collaboration. Together, we will be able to offer our joint customers a rich experience,” commented Microsoft EVP Judson Althoff.

“The HCL Microsoft Business Unit is the next phase to bolster HCL’s successful and long-standing relationship with Microsoft. Increasingly, customers are making bold strides, incorporating IoT solutions with machine learning for analytics, running this solution in the public cloud and supported by CRM,” stated Kalyan Kumar, an HCL executive, “This business unit combines HCL’s specialized services and global reach with Microsoft’s powerful cloud and business technologies, making a strong and unique offering for clients. These offerings are coming at a critical time when enterprises are aggressively implementing digital technologies for competitive advantage.”

Sweet provided her insights on the matter, “Accenture’s formula for market leadership is enduring: We continually transform our business and embrace change to create value for our clients with incredibly talented people, including our deep bench of experienced leaders,” further adding, “The changes we are announcing today will unleash the full potential of the extraordinary capabilities we have built, create greater opportunities for our people, and act as a catalyst for us to again set the new standard in our industry.”

She and her team have organized the firm’s market leading capabilities into four services: Strategy & Consulting, Interactive, Technology, and Operations. Moreover, they have divided geographic coverage into three main buckets – North America, Europe and Growth Markets.

“Our growth model has always been a source of competitive advantage for us,” Sweet states. “In 2014, we created Strategy, Digital and the Growth Markets to grow our capabilities and position Accenture for the next waves of growth. Now, in 2020, with number one global market share and at about 65% of revenues in the New, we are changing to better serve our clients today and tomorrow and continue to scale from over 500,000 people and $43 billion in revenue.”

For largest shareholder Elliott, a U.S. activist fund, that new offer may not be enough. It’s been a six month battle to date between Capgemini and Elliott.

Hermelin’s frustration with the situation is palpable, he states “I’m trying kill all the rumors that say: let’s wait, there will be something better tomorrow. There won’t,” further adding, “We’ve closed off all possibilities of something better tomorrow.”

Since last summer, Elliott has gradually built up its stake to 14% compared to Capgemini’s 11.43% stake. Should the deal fall apart, Capgemini would seek other partnerships and in particular target those with expertise in next generation of mobile technology, or 5G.

Altran shareholders have been informed their deadline to tender their shares is Jan. 22. The acquisition would provide Capgemini with additional capabilities in telecoms, aerospace and other industries. The original offer put forth by Capgemini represented a 22% premium on the day announced.