When it comes to the future of our cities, business mavericks like Elon Musk have captured the public imagination with the potential that technology has to define a landscape. With the world of logistics, delivery and supply chain completely altered by the pandemic, how transport connects has become more important than ever. At Chief Disruptor LIVE: Virtual April 2021, Nimbus Ninety’s founder and Managing Director, Emma Taylor, interviewed Karla Jakeman, Innovation Lead for Connected Transport at Innovate UK, to learn more about how data and emerging technologies are fuelling the future of mobility.

Tech is at the forefront of tackling the climate crisis. As part of Chief Disruptor LIVE Spring 2021, we held a fireside chat with CEO and Founder of Evocco, Ahmad Mu’azzam, who is tackling the climate crisis with his innovative app. In 2017, he and his co-founder, Hugh, realised their mutual passion for sustainability and, specifically, for tackling the climate crisis. They both endeavoured to dedicate their professional careers to support people to drastically change their lifestyles. Evocco is an app that allows users to track, improve, and offset food shopping emissions with a simple snap of a shopping receipt. Shammah and Ahmad discuss how tech is changing the way we are thinking and talking about food, how plant-based diets are on the rise, and how businesses need to illustrate to consumers that they truly are invested in “the common good”.

In Nimbus Ninety’s Digital Trends Report, improving customer experience was the top driver of digital initiatives in the next 6 months. However, businesses face a multitude of complications. The challenge of minimising the costs and man-hours spent on tedious data-input processes is exasperated by the need to maximise ROI on digitising processes. Nonetheless, in 2021, digitising and automating processes topped the list of initiatives considered most effective to enhance the customer experience. So how can sales order automation revolutionise process efficiency, and in turn, supercharge customer experience? Conexiom sat down with CX, operations and digital transformation leaders to discuss how sales order automation can help organisations develop a competitive advantage by providing exceptional customer service.

In Nimbus Ninety’s Digital Trends Report 2021, joining up customer data was ranked by half of the respondents (51%) as one of the biggest business obstacles as customer interaction becomes increasingly virtual. This is a data problem that more often than not isolates the customer from the marketing planning process. So how can organisations utilise data to supercharge emotional engagement and boost lifetime value? Organisations are not only struggling to accurately understand their customers but often accusations are made that the process of acquiring data insights is creepy. So how do organisations create end-to-end customer engagement that fulfils both the organisation’s and customer’s needs? Customer experience and personalisation professionals from across retail & FMCG joined this Nimbus Ninety discussion, delivered in partnership with Cheetah Digital, to explore the path to personalisation.

For many, connecting to enterprise applications remotely has become part of everyday working life. The ability to “just connect” to any app, from any device, anywhere, and at any time, is the foundation of great user experience. In partnership with leading cloud security company, Zscaler, members explored the impact of ubiquitous connectivity on security, and how security strategy must evolve to enhance the user experience.

When COVID-19 hit, many organisations had to accelerate digital transformation overnight and security strategies were placed under the spotlight. Now with privileged access management giving malicious hackers more opportunity to exploit organisational vulnerabilities, businesses are repeatedly putting themselves at the risk of having exposed assets, costly damage and a difficult path to recovery. In a new era of cloud-first and movements to Azure Active Directory, 90% of organisations worldwide have concerns about storing access credentials in the cloud. In addition, many organisations struggle with complexity of environments, leaving gaps that are vulnerable to attack. Members gathered on Zoom to discuss how to utilise zero trust frameworks and how to streamline access processes to drive business continuity and operational agility.

With the UK on its third national lockdown, consumer trends have shifted, behaviours have ingrained and businesses are having to adapt. The push for emotionally intuitive interaction across industries has become stronger, with 69% of business leaders agree that humanising customer experience will become a key differentiator for brands in 2021 (Digital Trends Report 2021). Organisations today face a paradox: customers demand efficiency and speed, but they also want to be understood with empathy and a human touch. As we move into an increasingly digital world, technology will drive change. Members gathered on Zoom to discuss the challenges around humanising customer experience and how to leverage cloud, automation and AI to deliver efficient and emotionally intuitive customer experiences.

The journey to analytic maturity is long and complex. CIOs worldwide prioritise investment in data analytics and the ROI of robust data strategies is clear: a 30% year-on-year growth is enjoyed by organisations that make significant use of data to differentiate themselves in the market. And yet, organisations struggle with cultural and technological barriers when it comes to modernising data strategies and unlocking real-time analysis capability. IT, data and business intelligence professionals gathered on Zoom to discuss the steps to achieving analytic maturity and data excellence, and how to bring teams and organisations on the journey.

On a bleary January morning, my phone pinged with urgency. It was telling me that an army of amateur investors, captained by subreddit r/WallStreetBets, had collectively spiked the stock price of GameStop against the predictions of downturn from Wall Street hedge fund managers. The battle that ensued gripped the global imagination with somewhat of an underdog story, but what underpins this narrative is the power of perception to rapidly transform the value of something.

Adopting a modernised, decentralised approach to digital infrastructure proved to be a successful way of working in 2020 when agility and adaptability were key. In 2021, embedding these altered ways of working for long-term success is what business leaders need to do to continue their upward trajectory. Members convened for a virtual working lunch in partnership with Equinix to discuss how to build digital advantage for business agility.