Monthly Archives: February 2021

DUBLIN, Feb. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Airport Information Technology (IT) Market, 2025 - Digital Transformation to Drive Growth" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Airports need to embrace digital transformation to enhance the passenger experience and improve cost efficiencies.

This research service will focus on the global airport information technology market across the various Tiers of airports (5 Tiers in total) and across 6 key regions, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.

Sensor technology is maturing and their cost is reducing considerably. These factors, along with low-latency communication technologies (5G communication) will drive large-scale adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) in airports in the long term. IoT will enable airports to optimally allocate resources, enhance the passenger experience, and reduce operational costs.

The future airport will be diversified, automated, passenger centric, and underpinned by secure and trusted data. There is an acknowledged shift in passenger expectations, with the ground experience becoming more important in the passenger journey. System integration leads to more competition among suppliers across airport touchpoints; consolidation is witnessed across key areas such as passenger processing, baggage handling, and operations management. Airports are focusing on solution providers that have an end-to-end solution portfolio for all their information technology requirements.

There is an immediate requirement from airports to enhance passenger self-service and monitor safety guidelines compliance. This will require solution providers to accelerate innovation to deliver high-priority solutions for the post-pandemic market. Airports' information technology is largely based on legacy systems. This hinders their innovation and increases complexity for IT operations. There is slow adoption of cloud-based infrastructure and solutions as airports are gradually migrating workloads to the cloud infrastructure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the technology-spending capability of airports globally. Airports will still invest in digital solutions that are of high priority in the short term (e.g., passenger self-service, passenger flow management). System integration is a key challenge due to its complex and time-intensive nature. It is largely done by mature participants in the market and is a key market opportunity for solution providers. There has been a negative impact on the overall revenue of airports due to the drastic reduction in passenger traffic.

However, investments into digital solutions are still active, as solution providers are developing solutions that can ensure a safe and healthy passenger experience (e.g., contactless self-service). Airports defer long-term projects that are time and cost intensive, whereas they prioritize solutions that are critical to attracting passengers and ensuring safety for passengers and employees.

Two key factors that are essential to the growth of this market are the type of airport ownership and estimated passenger traffic growth. Private airport operators have higher technology investment spending capability, high adoption rates of next-generation technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence), reduced bureaucratic challenges, and a high focus on ensuring a seamless and enjoyable passenger experience. Airports with high passenger traffic will need to ensure smooth transition of passengers at the airport and reduce aircraft turnaround times during peak hours.

Physical expansion of infrastructure to facilitate growing passenger footfall and additional aircraft is a cost and time-intensive process with multiple challenges, such as disruption to current operations and government and regulatory approvals. Airports in Europe and Asia-Pacific meet the above-mentioned requirements and are key growth engines for this market. Tier 1 and Tier 2 airports across all regions contribute to approximately 74% of the global airport IT market during the forecast period. High passenger traffic, a large number of complex IT systems, high focus on minimizing disruption to operations, and a higher potential to invest more in technology are the key factors for such a high contribution to the airport IT market from these airport Tiers.

In the long term, the opportunities in integration and consulting services for solution providers will grow. Integrating new solutions such as machine learning based forecasting and passenger flow management solutions to the legacy systems of airports is a complex process with a high risk of disruption in operations. As airports migrate to cloud-based infrastructure and solutions, medium- and small-sized participants can also play the role of integrators.

As airports are mitigating challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and physical infrastructure constraints, there is an opportunity for solution providers to provide consultancy services that will help airports face these challenges in a better manner.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Strategic Imperatives

2. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market

3. Market Overview

4. Digital Transformation - Airports

5. Key Airport Processes

6. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

7. Key Market Trends

8. Key Technology Trends

9. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market by Segment Analysis: Tier 1

10. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market by Segment Analysis: Tier 2

11. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market by Segment Analysis: Tier 3

12. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market by Segment Analysis: Tier 4

13. Growth Opportunity Analysis - Airport Information Technology Market by Segment Analysis: Tier 5

14. Growth Opportunity Universe - Global Airport Information Technology Market

15. The Last Word

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/z73muz

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

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Global Airport Information Technology (IT) Market Report 2020-2025: Airports Need to Embrace Digital Transformation to Enhance Passenger Experience...

WASHINGTON While the primary focus of the Mars 2020 mission will be the search for evidence of past Martian life, the rover mission carries several other payloads that could support future robotic and human missions to the red planet.

Perhaps the highest profile of these payloads is a small helicopter, called Ingenuity, that will attempt to make the first powered flight in the Martian atmosphere. The 1.8-kilogram helicopter, attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover, will be deployed early in the mission for flight tests.

Mars Helicopter is a technology demonstration motivated by the potential to add an aerial dimension to space exploration, MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said at a Feb. 16 briefing. Its been fully tested as much as we can on Earth. Next, its time to demonstrate, prove and learn how it operates on Mars.

After the Perseverance rover lands, it will drive to a nearby location that controllers believe is best suited for the helicopter test. It will release Ingenuity, a complex process that takes about 10 days to complete, then drive a safe distance away.

A first flight will go to an altitude of three meters, hovering for 20 seconds before landing. It will truly be a Wright Brothers moment, but on another planet, she said.

If successful, up to four more flights could follow over 30 days. Those flights, up to 90 seconds long, will go to altitudes of three to five meters and travel as much as 50 meters downrange, returning to an airfield landing zone 10 meters on a side.

The $85 million project, intended as a technology demonstration, has not been without controversy. Some scientists involved with Mars 2020 opposed the inclusion of the helicopter, arguing that those tests would take time away from rover operations during the initial phases of the mission. However, with the support of then NASA Administration Jim Bridenstine, the agency decided in May 2018 to fly the helicopter, later named Ingenuity, on the mission.

If successful, Ingenuity could pave the way for flying more advanced helicopters on future robotic and crewed missions, serving as scouts. I think Ingenuity is todays Sojourner, said Matt Wallace, deputy project manager for Mars 2020, during a Feb. 17 briefing. Sojourner was NASAs first Mars rover, flown on the Mars Pathfinder mission that landed in 1997.

Wallace, who worked on Sojourner, recalled there was skepticism at the time of the Mars Pathfinder mission whether a rover would be useful. We found very quickly that having a mobile capability on the surface of Mars was incredibly valuable, he said. I think in almost every way, when you look at Ingenuity, it looks very much the same.

On Perseverance itself, most of its payloads are science instruments intended to study the planet and look for evidence of past life. One, though, is a demonstration of technology for producing oxygen on Mars. The Mars Oxygen In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Experiment, or MOXIE, will attempt to convert carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into oxygen.

Such a technology is critical for future human missions to Mars, enabling crews to produce oxygen needed for both life support and propellant. The use of ISRU technologies for propellant production in particular makes human missions much more feasible, noted Jeff Sheehy, chief engineer for NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate, at a Feb. 16 briefing.

MOXIE will be turned on three times in the first 30 days after landing, with the first two to test the payload. On the third run, well actually make oxygen under some conservative operating conditions, Sheehy said. MOXIE will be run at least 10 times over the course the mission, testing its ability to produce oxygen at different times of day and seasons of the year.

Each run of MOXIE will be about an hour, producing 6 to 10 grams of oxygen. The technology would need to be scaled up by about a factor of 200 for use on future crewed missions, but the agency hopes to at least prove the technology works on this mission.

The experiment did face a number of development changes that raised questions about whether it could be flown on Mars 2020. There were times where some of the managers worried that the technology couldnt be developed in time to get it on the rover, he said. Theres no question that the team that designed, built and tested MOXIE needed a lot of moxie to overcome all the challenges that were encountered along the way.

Another instrument, SuperCam, features a laser that will be used to zap rocks, allowing it to analyze its chemical composition. An additional aspect of that instrument is a microphone that will listen as the laser fires, which can give scientists clues to the hardness and other properties of the rocks.

The microphone will have other applications as well. It will listen to the wind, listen to the rover and also the infrared laser, Sylvestre Maurice, deputy principal investigator for SuperCam, at a Feb. 16 briefing. Its the first time that well have a microphone on Mars.

The microphone, he said, will allow scientists to study atmospheric turbulence by listening to the wind. In the tenuous atmosphere of Mars, sound propagates differently from Earth, doing so at slower speeds and supporting lower frequencies better than higher ones. The microphone can also provide diagnostic information about the rover itself. Its opening a new world, Maurice said.

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Helicopter and other technology demos hitch a ride on Mars 2020 - SpaceNews

DUBLIN, Feb. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global Smart Buildings, Cities, and Digital Twins Technology & Solutions 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This research evaluates smart building technologies, players, and solutions. The report analyzes smart buildings challenges and opportunities, assesses market potential, and provides accompanying smart buildings market sizing, globally as well as regionally, and by market segment for 2021-2026.

It includes an analysis of technologies supporting smartbuilding automation, IWMS, and smart workplace applications and services. Smartbuilding technology integration areas addressed within the report include 5G, AI, data analytics, and edge computing.

This research also evaluates the smart cities market including leading vendors and strategies (such as a single vs. multi-vendor centric approach), infrastructure, solutions, applications, and services. The report analyzes market factors driving solution adoption, technology readiness and fitness for use, and other considerations.

This research also evaluates digital twinning technology, solutions, use cases, and leading company efforts in terms of R&D and early deployments. The report assesses the digital twin product and service ecosystem including application development and operations. The report also analyzes technologies supporting and benefiting from digital twinning.

Select Research Findings

Smart buildings are rapidly transitioning from legacy, often proprietary wireline siloed to more standardized 5G and WiFi6 wireless solutions that leverage AI and edge computing. Intelligence buildings provide many benefits over previous structures including time and cost savings, improved integration of critical infrastructure, and many new and improved solutions such as occupancy-based energy, security, and space utilization.

Smart buildings provide improved facilities access control (security alarm, intrusion detection and overall surveillance), HVAC, lighting and other environmental controls, energy management, and overall building control. In addition, building intelligence is increasingly gained through integration of sensors, actuators and other IoT systems elements to capture data to derive AI-based data analytics.

A digital twin is a virtual object representation of a real-world item in which the virtual is mapped to physical things in the real-world such as equipment, robots, or virtually any connected business asset. This mapping in the digital world is facilitated by IoT platforms and software that is leveraged to create a digital representation of the physical asset. The digital twin of a physical asset can provide data about its status such as its physical state and disposition. Conversely, a digital object may be used to manipulate and control a real-world asset by way of teleoperation.

Digitaltwin solutions in smart cities are largely focused on improving the intelligence of buildings. Specific twinning solutions in this regard include: Asset Twinning, Component Twinning, System Twinning, Process and Workflow Twinning. We see the digital twins market reaching $3.77B for these solution areas in total by 2026.

Target Audience

Research Benefits

Key Topics Covered:

Smart Buildings Market by Technology, Infrastructure, and Solutions 2021-2026

Smart Cities Market by Strategy, Technology, and Outlook for Solutions, Applications and Services 2021-2026

Digital Twins Market by Technology, Solution, Application, and Industry Vertical 2021-2026

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8l8lyx

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [emailprotected]

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

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Report Bundle on the Worldwide Smart Buildings, Cities, and Digital Twins Technology & Solutions Industry to 2026 - Identify Market Drivers -...

ContentsSummary

Too often, regulation struggles to keep pace with innovation. New ideas, products, and business models are hampered, while citizens are left with outdated protections. As governments seek to build back better following the COVID-19 pandemic, a more agile, innovation-enabling approach to regulation is needed.

This report presents a blueprint for regulatory reform offices, such as the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to introduce a more innovation-enabling approach to regulation across government and seize the opportunities of technological change. Systematic measures are needed to enhance foresight, focus regulation on outcomes, create space to experiment, harness data to target interventions, leverage the role of the private sector, bring about a seamless regulatory landscape, and tackle barriers to trade and cooperation.

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, it will be those governments that succeed in engineering this shift to a more agile regulatory approach that will gain a competitive advantage in the global economy and will help secure their prosperity in the post-pandemic era. But succeeding in this transition wont be easy, since many regulators lack sufficient capacity or capability to respond to technological change.

Change-makers need to go beyond announcing eye-catching initiatives such as regulatory sandboxes and engineer a cultural shift in regulation across government, learning lessons from innovators themselves on how to foster change. In developing their strategies, governments need to consider how to engage with what the market really needs and adapt their approach dynamically as the world changes.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the weaknesses of regulatory systems designed with the past in mind. Governments around the world have had to rewrite rules at a breakneck pace both to allow their citizens to benefit from innovations such as telemedicine and drone delivery and to help their economies adapt to the many disruptions the pandemic has caused.

The challenges facing regulatory systems have been apparent for some time. Well before the pandemic, regulators found themselves racing to adapt to the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A wave of parallel technological developments in areas from artificial intelligence to biotechnologies that are rapidly reshaping the sectors they regulate. If governed well, such innovations could help power renewed economic growth and tackle pressing social and environmental challenges.

But two problems have arisen. First, regulation has struggled to keep pace with the speed at which innovations emerge (the pacing problem). Technology adoption lags have fallen dramatically over successive industrial revolutions (Figure 1); it can now take weeks to introduce new ideas, products, and business models but years to change the law. The potential of innovation is diminished by regulatory barriers and uncertainty while the law fails to offer protections against emerging harms.

The challenge is compounded by the breadth and depth of technological change in this Fourth Industrial Revolution. Regulators have found themselves grappling with innovations whose implications lie partly outside their sectoral or geographical jurisdiction, requiring collective action with others (the coordination problem). The need for coordination is especially true for digital technologies, where firms are increasingly able to switch between different jurisdictions at low cost while retaining a global customer base.

Without reform, regulation is in danger of stifling the potential of technological innovation while failing to address its risks. In areas from social media to shared mobility, rigid rules and remits have led to the emergence of gray areas, where regulators struggle to intervene while faltering international cooperation has hindered governance of risks that transcend national borders. In some cases, the social contract is imperiled, as regulators are perceived to be unable or unwilling to address novel harms.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased not only awareness of these issues, but also the urgency of addressing them. In many areas, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digitally-enabled ways of producing goods or providing services, as physical interaction has become less possible. As governments rebuild afresh following the pandemic, they cannot afford to let the innovation that will power economic recovery and address social and environmental challenges be held back by outdated regulation.

While specific regulatory changes are indubitably necessary, these issues call for a fundamental rethinking of how regulation is developed and administered across the whole of government. A more adaptive and coordinated approach to regulation is needed, which leverages the role that the private sector and civil society can play.

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Historically, effective regulatory practice has centered on the concepts of proportionality, openness, and fairness. It is crucial that the costs of regulation are proportionate to its benefits, that regulation is informed by those who hold an interest in it, and that regulatory decisions are made on an objective, impartial, and consistent basis.

These tenets have led to the development of a linear and at times lengthy regulatory process, in which governments assess the impact of regulatory changes and consult on them before adding them to the statute bookat which point they are rarely changed. A 2017 analysis by Deloitte found that 67 percent of all current sections of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations had never been edited since they were originally created.

The issue is systemic. In 2018, the OECD reviewed the practices of its members and found that although certain laws and regulations might be obsolete, imposing unnecessary costs on business and potentially putting citizens at risk, countries still fail to systematically collect evidence, monitor implementation and evaluate results. Countries are deemed to be more adept at designing regulations than reviewing them.

Perhaps as a consequence, regulatory reform initiatives have chiefly been backward-looking. Initiatives such as the U.S. two for one rule have sought to tackle the stock of regulation and slow the flow of new regulatory measures, yet have failed to tackle the root of the regulate and forget approach that bedevils governments. At worst, they have created an internal bureaucracy of their owninhibiting timely regulatory intervention.

Moreover, such measures have failed to address the needs of businesses seeking to innovate and do things differently. In 2018, just 29 percent of U.K. businesses believed that the governments approach to regulation enabled them to get new products and services on to the market, despite years of reforms to tackle the burden of regulation. Another survey found that 92 percent of businesses thought that they would lose revenue if regulators did not keep pace with disruptive change in the next two to three years.

The foundational ideas of proportionality, openness and fairness are necessary but not sufficient in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These ideas must be weighed against the need for agility in responding to the opportunities and challenges of innovation. The answer to the regulate and forget approach within government is not simply to make better regulations or institute periodic reviews, but rather to instill an adapt and learn mindset that acknowledges that regulation must continuously evolve to keep pace with external change.

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This report sets out a blueprint for such an agile approach to regulation, building on recent research with the World Economic Forum. As regulators around the world seek to respond to technological innovation, seven pillars of good practice can be identified. Ranging from foresight to experimentation, they address head on the need for a more adaptive, collaborative style of regulation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Regulators that are able to anticipate innovation and disruption are better positioned to seize the opportunities of technological innovation while minimizing the risks. Governments including Canada, Singapore, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.K. are investing in regulatory foresight to help understand what the future looks like and prepare accordingly.

Such initiatives typically examine emerging technologies and trends (e.g., through horizon-scanning) and their potential impacts on people, businesses, and the environment. The aim is to identify significant opportunities or risks and enable timely action to address them. In some cases, the insight gathered is used to develop scenarios for what the future will look like, which can be used to test the resilience of potential regulatory interventions.

The goal is not to rush to regulate and stifle innovation, but rather to allow regulators time to iterate their approach in dialogue with businesses and stakeholders as the technology develops. In this paradigm, regulators may steer the development of innovation through soft law mechanisms such as regulatory guidance or voluntary standards, codifying their approach into law only as the technology reaches full maturity.

Excessively prescriptive regulation can rapidly become obsolete as new ideas, products, and business models emerge. Governments including Denmark, Japan, and the U.K. have introduced a presumption that regulation should focus on the achievement of outcomes rather than prescribe the use of specific inputs or processes.

The idea is to enable businesses to innovate in how they achieve regulatory goals and find the most efficient way to comply. Regulation that focuses on long-term policy goals is more likely to be resilient in the context of rapid, complex technological change. Goal-based approaches can also give regulators greater flexibility in how they mobilize their powers, so that that the process leads to the best possible results for citizens and the environment.

Not all businesses have the capability or capacity to interpret goal-based regulation, and in some cases (e.g. when outcomes are not easily measured or attributed) a more prescriptive regulatory approach may be warranted. Soft law mechanisms, such as regulatory guidance, codes of practice, and voluntary standards, may be used to complement goal-based regulation and reduce regulatory uncertainty for businesses while providing flexibility for those that wish to innovate.

Regulators that engage with technological development are better able to shape its evolution and learn about how their own regulatory approach needs to adapt.

In the last decade, regulators in over 50 jurisdictions have introduced mechanisms such as sandboxes to enable innovators to get advice on the regulatory implications of their ideas and/or trial them under regulatory supervision. Prominent examples are found in Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Italy, Singapore [1, 2, 3], South Korea, Taiwan, the UAE, and the U.K. In some cases, governments have introduced experimentation clauses into law to enable alternative approaches to be taken.

The idea is simple. As the Head of Amazon U.K. Doug Gurr described: Its a rather progressive way of thinking about thisinstead of sitting there and saying were going to write the regulation in isolation without understanding the technology, theyre going to be looking over our shoulder every step of the way and theyre going to develop the regulation hand-in-hand with the technology. If we do that we get better outcomes.

But the idea of regulatory experimentation has not found favor with all. Responding to the introduction of regulatory sandboxes in other jurisdictions, the superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services Mario Vullo said, Toddlers play in sandboxes. Adults play by the rules. Checks and balances are certainly needed to ensure that regulatory experiments do not undermine the goals of regulation or distort markets unfairly. Mechanisms are needed to ensure that learning is gathered from regulatory experiments and timely reforms to regulation are introduced for the benefit of all.

Box 1. Agility in practice: The UK Financial Conduct Authority

Emerging financial technologies (fintech) are changing the way we bank, invest, insure and pay for things. Recognizing the opportunity to drive competition and deliver better outcomes, in 2014 the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority established Project Innovate to support and stimulate fintech innovation in the interest of consumers.

Activities include:

Engagement with innovators to anticipate and shape emerging ideas, products, and business models

Supporting businesses so they can test innovations with real consumers in the market in a controlled way through regulatory sandboxes

Techsprints to stimulate the development of technologies with the potential to help overcome regulatory challenges in financial services

Collaboration with other regulators to support businesses in navigating related rules, e.g. on data protection, including a potential cross-sector sandbox

Supporting fintech businesses as they scale their ideas internationally through regulatory cooperation agreements and, since 2019, the Global Financial Innovation Network.

Evaluation by the Financial Conduct Authority suggests that Innovate has given firms the regulatory certainty they need to develop their innovations and deliver them at speed. Using the sandbox has allowed firms to cut the time and cost of bringing innovative ideas to market (40 percent reduction in time to receive authorization) and has improved their access to finance (135m total equity funding raised by firms in the first cohort).

Eighty percent of firms that successfully tested in the sandbox are still in operation, with incumbents responding by competing harder and improving their own offerings. FinTechfirm Assure Hedge completed the sandbox program to become a fully regulated company. Barry McCarthy said, the founder and chief executive of Assure Hedge said:

We have effectively been given the same regulation that large banks have, so it really allows us to compete with the big players.

But it is not only business that has reaped the benefits: Consumers have been able to access new products with better safeguards already in place, and the regulator has been able to draw on the insight it has gained into technological innovation to update its policy positions in areas such as crypto assets.

Data-driven technologies are not just transforming businessthey can revolutionize regulation too.

Regulators have access to more ways to gather and analyze data than ever before, including through drones, smart sensing, wearables, the Internet of Things (IoT), web-scraping, robotic process automation, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Taken together, these developments open up a world in which regulatory interventions may be finely targeted, outcomes may be monitored in real time, and rules may be evaluated and updated at pace.

Financial services regulators are at the forefront of this trend, using hackathons and tech sprints to develop technologies that enable them to respond in a more agile way to risks. The adoption of data-driven technologies can enable a more outcome-focused, experimental regulatory approach, as regulators are able to grant businesses greater flexibility to innovate, safe in the knowledge that they can more rapidly intervene.

If regulators are to match the speed and complexity of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, they need to leverage the role that the private sector can play in the responsible governance of innovation.

Industry-led governance mechanisms, such as voluntary standards, codes of conduct, and industry covenants, can help deliver policy objectives more rapidly than regulatory intervention. Authorities including the European Commission have developed principles to support the greater use of self- and co-regulation approaches.

The information asymmetry between businesses and regulators means that industry is often better placed to manage the risks from technological innovation most efficiently and effectively. As already noted, industry-led governance can complement the use of goal-based regulatory approaches by providing guidance to businesses on how outcomes can be achieved.

Like regulation, industry-led governance introduces benefits and costs for those who participate in it. Where participation becomes a de facto or de jure requirement for businesses to operate (for example through statutory backing, buyer/consumer requirements, reputational incentives), care is needed to ensure that governance is proportionate, open, fair, and agile.

The technological innovations that are the hallmark of the Fourth Industrial Revolution straddle sectors and institutions alike. Businesses can easily find themselves navigating a patchwork of regulations that deters them from introducing new ideas, products, and business models. In response, governments including Denmark and Japan have introduced single points of contact or one-stop-shops to enable businesses to engage more straightforwardly with different national regulators on their ideas and to ensure that issues are tackled in a coordinated way.

In the same way, coordination is needed to avoid unnecessary divergence in regulatory approaches across localities that would make it harder to trade or achieve shared regulatory goals. This need not mean that regulations should be the same, but rather that where possible they should be interoperable. Authorities in Japan and South Korea have exploited the potential to trial different regulatory approaches in different localities to inform decisions about how to adapt regulation more generally.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is reshaping business the world over, creating common opportunities and risks that regulators in different jurisdictions must respond to. By cooperating across borders, regulators can facilitate trade and investment and address shared challenges more efficiently and effectively.

Regulators in different jurisdictions are finding new ways to cooperate on technological innovation, including through sharing foresight and joint experimentation. Such activities can create the conditions for regulators to develop more interoperable and effective rules. Plurilateral alliances have emerged in areas such as fintech and medicines, while in December 2020 the governments of Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Singapore, the UAE, and the U.K. came together to establish the Agile Nations: a regulatory cooperation partnership that will cover innovations ranging from green technologies to mobility. (Another Blueprint paper in this series provides insights on forums where international cooperation on artificial intelligence is already being pursued.)

From foresight centers to regulatory sandboxes, agile regulatory initiatives have now been introduced in over fifty different jurisdictions to respond to innovation in areas such as finance, transport, health, data, and the green economy. Notwithstanding the diversity of these initiatives, four lessons can be identified on how agile regulatory initiatives can be introduced successfully.

It sounds obvious, but agile regulatory initiatives such as sandboxes need to tackle the real barriers that innovators face in introducing new ideas, products, and business models if they are to address them. Regulation is not always the limiting factor on innovation, since issues such as capability, capital, and culture may also be at play.

Even where regulation is perceived to be the issue, there may be many more opportunities for innovation within the rules than businesses realize. A well-designed scheme to provide advice to businesses on the regulatory implications of their new ideas can often have greater reach and impact than an eye-catching but resource-intensive testing environment targeted toward frontier innovations.

Care is needed to ensure that regulation remains proportionate, open, and fair. For example, industry-led governance must not reduce the voice of civil society in shaping how technological innovation is governed, while data-driven technologies must be employed in a way that does not introduce or replicate bias in regulatory decisions.

Checks and balances need to be built into the design of agile regulatory initiatives from the beginning. For example, regulators have managed the risks of sandboxes undermining the level playing field for business by ensuring that support is time-limited and awarded on a competitive basis according to clear criteria (e.g. degree of innovation, regulatory barriers faced). Such controls help minimize market distortion and ensure that it is the best ideas that succeed.

While the agile regulatory initiatives in this blueprint can be employed separately, the seven pillars are mutually reinforcing and have the greatest impact when employed jointly. The example of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority shows how these techniques can be introduced as part of a holistic regulatory strategy.

For example, regulatory sandboxes can offer a vital source of intelligence about emerging technologies and innovations. Shared industry-led governance (e.g., international standards) can underpin greater international regulatory cooperation. Data-driven enforcement can complement and enable a more outcome-focused regulatory approach.

Conversely, a lack of action under one pillar may inhibit success in another. A sandbox led by one regulator is unlikely to accelerate innovation if another regulators actions still lead to critical delays, while the benefits of responsible industry-led governance may be diminished if the overarching regulatory regime is still heavily prescriptive.

Agile regulation should be considered a dynamic process that adapts to changes in the external context. As innovations emerge, existing regulatory regimes may be too rigid and greater space for experimentation may be needed. But as technological innovation slows, the need for predictable and stable governance may outweigh the need for flexibility.

Monitoring and evaluation is critical to ensuring that initiatives have their intended effect and that the regulatory system keeps pace dynamically with innovation. Many agile regulatory approaches are novel in nature and it is essential that feedback loops are built in to ensure that they are effective.

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While growing in popularity, the use of more agile regulatory approaches is not yet mainstream within governments. Many regulators view innovation as outside their remit, preferring to respond to change after it has happened rather than shape events upstreamnotwithstanding the resulting damage to their goals and costs to business.

A more agile regulatory approach isoften rightlyperceived to introduce novel risks and costs. Many regulators lack the capacity and capability to engage further upstream, especially where budget constraints mean that the talent needed to govern innovators is hoovered up by businesses themselves. Some regulators elect to stay in the comfort zone of their legislative silo rather than lean into disruptive change.

For those looking to introduce a more agile regulatory approach across government as a whole, the answer does not simply lie in establishing eye-catching sandboxes or foresight initiatives. Rather, they need to reflect on how to incentivize a culture shift within regulators: towards influencing upstream over reacting downstream; prioritizing outcomes over rules; adapting to change over following a plan; leveraging others over exercising sole control; and collaborating across boundaries over working in silos.

In this regard, competitive innovation funds such as those in the U.K. and Germany offer an interesting example of how governments and other organizations (e.g., development banks) can incentivize the introduction of more agile regulatory approaches as set out in Parts A and B. Regulatory initiatives that secure funding benefit both from investment in their capability and capacity and, crucially, endorsement of the approach that they are takingproviding a vital signal to other regulators on the importance of a more agile approach.

Further work is needed at a governmental and intergovernmental level to drive this strategic shift in regulation. Testifying to the increasing importance of this shift, later this year the OECD will set out principles for its members on effective and innovation-friendly rule-making in the Fourth Industrial Revolutionand assessment of government performance in these areas will no doubt soon follow.

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution takes hold, those governments that succeed in engineering a shift to a more agile regulatory approach will gain a competitive advantage in the global economy. Governments must act now if they are to unlock the potential of this wave of technological innovation and shape it in the interest of their citizens.

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A blueprint for technology governance in the post-pandemic world - Brookings Institution

Utilities across the U.S. remain challenged with aging water infrastructure contributing to asset failures, operational inefficiencies, regulatory compliance, lost revenue and increasingly larger volumes of treated water lost to undetected leakage and water main breaks. According to Bluefield Research, average water loss across the U.S due to aging infrastructure is an estimated 14 percent, which translates into 5,543 million gallons lost per day. This loss costs water utilities an estimated $6.06 billion, annually and can contribute to higher rates paid by consumers. In some instances, utilities may experience water losses in excess of 30 percent.

In addition, with budgets tightening, more licensed water operators nearing retirement age and increasing regulatory pressures, utilities who stand to benefit the most from digital solutions may not have the professional staff, IT expertise or capital resources needed to implement them.

Aquify is applying Exelon's years of smart grid energy operational expertise to deliver a turnkey professional service that leverages Trimble's state-of-the-art digital water solutions. The service includes Trimble Unity software and Telog remote monitoring technology with Aquify's customized system design, IT integration, machine learning analytics software, cyber-secure wireless communications and 24/7 professional staff providing monitoring and analytics. Aquify simplifies implementation and maintenance by taking over the responsibility for the hardware, network and software technologies, and offering a solution as a cost-effective, multi-year subscription service. In addition, Aquify provides water utilities with the ability to finance and customize the solution based on strategic priorities and unique system attributes.

"Aging water infrastructure is an enormous financial and operational burden for water utilities and the communities they serve," said Chris Stern, vice president, strategy and development for Utilities and Public Administration at Trimble. "By combining Trimble's field-proven digital water technology with Aquify's industry expertise and services, Aquify removes the complexity of technology deployment and management, helping utilities focus their resources on addressing their critical infrastructure and sustainability challenges."

"Working with a water technology leader like Trimble means Aquify now has even more value to offer to our customers," said Lev Goldberg, CEO of Aquify. "With access to Trimble's broad range of field-proven digital water solutions, Aquify can now design and implement 'worry free' professionally-staffed monitoring systems that meet more needs for more utilities across the country. And by leveraging Exelon's expertise in utility operations and system analytics, we bring a fresh and proven perspective that municipalities can trust."

The Aquify water analytics service is available now for U.S. water utilities. For additional information and a demonstration, visit: http://www.aquify.io/learn-more.

About Aquify

The mission of Aquify, an Exelon subsidiary, is to provide cities, municipalities and investor-owned water utilities across the U.S. with a new way to manage their aging water infrastructure while also achieving new levels of reliability, resilience and responsiveness. Aquify gives water utilities peace-of-mind and unprecedented system visibility through 24/7 system monitoring and advanced analytics without the need for additional staff or capital investment. For more information, visit: http://www.exelonaquify.com.

About Trimble Utilities and Public Administration

Trimble Utilities and Public Administration (U&PA) provides digital asset and infrastructure lifecycle management solutions for electric, gas and water utilities and local governments. Through a broad portfolio of cloud and SaaS software, IoT and mobile solutions, Trimble empowers utilities and local governments with accurate data to create and analyze the digital twin. These solutions enable optimal asset investment decisions and performance management including predictive modeling and analytics. Solving key infrastructure needs, Trimble's U&PA brands include Cityworks, Telog, Trimble Unity, Trimble NIS, Caydence and Locus Cloud. For more information, visit: upa.trimble.com.

About Trimble

Trimble is transforming the way the world works by delivering products and services that connect the physical and digital worlds. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity and data analytics enable customers to improve productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. From purpose built products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble software, hardware and services are transforming industries such as agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), visit: http://www.trimble.com.

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SOURCE Trimble

http://www.trimble.com

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Exelon's Aquify Leverages Trimble's Digital Water Technology to Expand its Analytics Services for US Water Utilities - PRNewswire

The pandemic threw traditional hiring models into disarray, with overnight work-from-home policies forcing the processes online for countless organizations across the globe. With no option but to adapt, many companies have discovered the numerous benefits of remote hiring, and are now looking to build out their strategy for the year aheadespecially as 82% of US companies are planning to hire in 2021.

Thats exactly why Talview conducted the Remote Hiring Trends for 2021 survey. The report surveyed more than 145 organizations across 20 countries and over 15 industries, and features organizations such as Amazon, Uber, Disney, and Zoom, alongside many small and medium-sized businesses. Just some of the insights brought to light in the survey include the impact of remote hiring on diverse teams, newfound technology needs, and how the remote model can drive candidate experiencewhen done right.

Here are Talviews top findings and predictions for remote hiring in 2021.

Remote hiring leads to more diverse talent

By now, the benefits of remote teams are known far and wide. Companies that champion inclusivity and diversity experience a happier and more motivated workforce, higher levels of creativity, and ultimately, better business outcomes.

Remote hiring plays a key role here: It inherently supports diversity as it allows candidates from all over the world (not just the most popular tech hubs and big cities) to apply for jobs that would have otherwise been unavailable to them. Companies can therefore include people from different geographic, economic, and cultural backgrounds in their teams, adding fresh perspectives to projects.

In fact, 79% of companies in the survey believe remote hiring can help improve diversity in their organizations. One respondent said: I love the ability to attract from anywhere in the country, which automatically increases our diversity of experience and thought. Another noted that being truly global results in diverse cultures at work and a lot of collaboration, dependencies, and synergies between people in all locations.

However, many companies still have obstacles to overcome to be able to hire beyond their local region. The top challenges to expanding their hiring horizons are organizational mentality, hiring managers wanting local candidates, and compensation and legal factors. While remote hiring is gaining popularity, theres evidently still work to be done to accomplish diversity as a result of hiring across different geographies.

To be effective, remote hiring has to boost both candidate and recruiter experience

Ultimately, theres little point in investing in your remote hiring strategy if it doesnt boost both recruiter and candidate experience. Companies cant simply shift their in-person approach to the virtual world and expect it to all fall into place.

When asked about how their candidate experience strategy changed during the pandemic, many respondents confirmed that they had gone further than this, and made the necessary adaptations to their processes to keep applicants engaged.

For example, one company said: Were doing more on social media and really building our brandgiving a picture into our company and culture. Establishing an online presence in this way is an essential step to take when potential employees cant simply check out an organizations physical office and meet the team in-person.

Another respondent said: Our process is more streamlined and shorter now, and its easier to conduct panel interviewscandidates dont want to spend weeks or even months in the hiring funnel, nor do they want to spend hours on video interviews. Streamlining the interview stage is a great strategy to prevent potentially top talent from dropping out of the process.

Candidate satisfaction scores

Providing an excellent experience is also about meeting candidates where they are, and recognizing how things can more easily be misunderstood or misinterpreted online: Were more in tune with accessibility to our systems and we have more communication with candidates regarding the systems, commented one forward-thinking respondent.

Its no surprise then that 30% of companies said their candidate satisfaction scores improved after the remote switch, compared to 3% who said they declined.

Nailing candidate experience from day one of the recruitment process is vital, especially as 87% of talent say that a positive interview experience can change their mind about an employer that they previously doubted.

Remote Work Satisfaction

And on the recruiter side, 37.5% of respondents said they are 100% satisfied with remote work. Recruiter satisfaction with remote hiring means not only providing the necessary tools, but also promoting a mindset change across the organizationthe idea that remote hiring doesnt mean sacrificing personal touch and human judgement, and embracing it should become part of a companys culture. A number of respondents echoed this sentiment of challenging fundamental ideas, with one saying: Over the past few months, we've explored how Covid-19 has made us rethink, reimagine, and rewrite the rules of the workplace.

A successful remote hiring strategy means building out your tech stack

When asked about differences in their 2020 hiring strategy compared to before the pandemic, companies cited several key changes. For example, one respondent said theyre now embracing virtual interviewing and events and have moved to a one-time interview to hire as opposed to multiple interviews when possible.

One organization mentioned: We're investing into a multimillion global TA (talent acquisition) transformation initiative across people, process, systems and data, while another stated they were exploring and implementing new tools and techniques for better candidate experience and virtual onboarding process, and continuous communication.

One key theme here is the adoption of new technologies and the identification of current gaps when it comes to remote hiring tech. When the pandemic hit, many companies simply put together a makeshift strategy which leveraged Zoom calls, email chains, and their existing applicant tracking systems.

Remote Hiring Technology Tools

However, with so many organizations now sticking to remote hiring and remote work for the long run (46% of big companies said theyre more open to hiring remote workers, according to Monsters 2021 Global Outlook Report)theyre now exploring technology options that can help them provide a seamless experience, while efficiently managing all of their recruiting efforts from one centralized location.

According to the survey, the biggest technology demand for companies in 2021 is an end-to-end technology platform that takes care of the whole processfrom resume screening to skills assessments and candidate interviewsall in one place. Organizations are also expecting to see innovations in recruiting chatbots, screening assessments, and video interview and ATS integrations. 77% of respondents plan to expand their use of video interviews in the future, and 52% said they will be leveraging more online technical skills assessments in the coming year.

Post-pandemic technology use

Remote hiring is here to staythats a fact. But making a success of it is not a case of simply shifting existing processes and strategy online. Companies must embrace the remote mindset from the top-down, consider candidate and recruiter experience at every stage of the funnel, and be ready to invest in the right tools to ensure a seamless transition. Only then will they be able to champion remote hiring in 2021 and beyond.

Read more:

Technology, Diversity, And A Global Mindset: Heres Whats In Store For Remote Hiring In 2021 - Forbes