Page 45 - SAMENA Trends - March-April 2023

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

strategies along with their spending on new technologies. While 30% of their IT budget and devote more than 20% of their resources
the Protiviti study, titled, “Global Technology Executive Survey: just to tame technical debt. The talent war, one of the top risks
The Innovation Vs. Technical Debt Tug of War,” found that most facing organizations today, is also affecting technology teams,
(79%) organizations reported having defined innovation goals, only challenging leaders to attract and retain top talent. Complicating
54% of organizations responded that they have a clear innovation matters is the need to ensure that new hires and current technology
strategy in place, raising the possibility that many companies have employees have the necessary skills for the next generation of
yet to think through how to align their investments in innovation emerging technologies. Among respondents, the largest talent
with broader business objectives. “When it comes to developing gaps organizations face are in the areas of design thinking (37%),
smart innovation strategies, technology leaders must ask solution architecture (37%), enterprise agility (35%) and technical
themselves if they’re innovating to achieve a specific business knowledge (31%).
goal,” said Kim Bozzella, global leader of Technology Consulting, Strategies for Driving Technology Adoption and Innovation
Protiviti. “It’s easy to fall into the trap of innovating for the sake of While cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) have become table
innovation. This is especially important as the uncertain economic stakes for organizations, the pace of their adoption is showing
outlook prompts companies to scrutinize every dollar of spending promising signs for other emerging technologies. Among the top
to ensure it benefits the bottom line. Creating a roadmap that technologies organizations are planning to implement in the next
measures immediate and long-term innovation progress and three years are:
how these investments map to business objectives is critical to • Web3 (41%)
navigating the current business environment.” • Robotics (38%)
Obstacles to Innovation • Low code/no code platforms (38%)
Technical debt, the accumulated cost of maintaining and “Companies need to ignore the noise of buzzwords, and
supporting legacy IT systems, is a leading obstacle that impacts instead focus on understanding the capabilities that emerging
nearly 70% of organizations’ ability to innovate – and is expensive technologies bring. Rapid technology innovation is here to stay
to tackle. On average, surveyed organizations invest more than and will have a profound impact on business in the coming years,”
said Christine Livingston, a managing director in the Technology
Consulting practice at Protiviti. “Companies also need to realize
that emerging technologies are not optimized without enabling
and upskilling the right talent, who will educate themselves and
experiment with the new technologies in order to understand
them well enough to use in the service of broader business goals.”
When it comes to the use of innovation strategies, according to the
survey, 94% of organizations are employing agile development and
65% have found it delivers the results they wanted, while 90% of
organizations are using design thinking and 57% have found that
strategy delivers desired results.

SES Secures €75 Million of Multi-Year Video
Contract Extensions

SES announced that it has signed multi-year capacity agreements • Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) – the public broadcaster is
totalling more than €75 million in backlog with multiple German renewing its HD offering
private and public broadcasters. The majority of renewals span • HIGH VIEW – recently signed an extension with SES and has just
several years and will enable millions of satellite TV households launched additional channels
across Germany to continue watching SD and HD content, reinforc- SES’s latest video contract extensions illustrate how both private
ing SES’s position as the leading global content connectivity pro- and public broadcasters across Germany are leveraging SES’s sat-
vider. The renewal deals include both private and public broadcast- ellites at the prime 19.2 degrees East orbital slot to directly reach
ers who are looking to maintain the broadest reach, highest quality more than 17 million satellite TV homes, surpassing other satellite
and maximum reliability for their video content delivery, including: or terrestrial operators in the country. “Whether for news, entertain-
• QVC Germany – the live shopping broadcaster is renewing both ment, live sports, shopping or public service, audiences continue to
SD and HD channels demand access to a wide range of high-quality video content,” said
• Seven.One Entertainment Group – the broadcaster’s channel Norbert Hölzle, Global Head of Media at SES. “The size of these
offering continues to be available in SD deals and length of the contracts highlight that for both private
• Media Broadcast Satellite GmbH (MBS) – the provider of global and public broadcasters the most efficient way to reach millions
satellite and terrestrial communications services is renewing ca- of households and build the biggest audience is through satellite –
pacity for SD channels today and well into the future.”

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