Business leaders are asking themselves, “Why automation and why now?” Automation brings on a relentless drive towards more productivity. IT releases the mind from routine thinking and encourages creativity. Recently, technology has become mature enough for real-world application, and computing power has increased exponentially. Our ability to apply science to more areas and the increase of access to data has led to a perfect environment for automation.

In today’s workforce, businesses are continually undergoing digital transformations that will drive their organizations forward in an age of technology and modernization. Organizations must adapt in order to leverage the power of data, automation, and emerging technologies (AI, IoT, blockchain, etc.). The question you must ask yourself is if you’re making adequate progress in the modernization of your business or if you’re hindered by 20th century processes—spending considerable time upgrading systems and creating more data siloes with one-off cloud solutions. Is your business digitally determined or digitally distraught? Mickey North Rizza, Program Vice President at IDC, and Juergen Lindner, Senior Vice President of Oracle SaaS, recently discussed the concept of being digitally determined or digitally distraught.

As you start to consider moving your JD Edwards system to the Oracle Cloud, it’s important to understand the different services that Oracle offers. You can choose to optimize your system with Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), extend it with Platform as a Service (PaaS), or complement it with Software as a Service (SaaS). To give you a better understanding of each option, check out this breakdown of what each service looks like.

Mark Hurd, the CEO at Oracle, wrote an article about two business opportunities with blockchain that are worth considering. Blockchain is the distributed ledger for sharing information securely across different organizations. This emerging technology is becoming increasingly popular, and CEOs are starting to ask how it can help boost revenue, increase productivity, streamline cost and create a better customer experience. Mark outlined two ways that blockchain can make an impact within organizations.

In HR, it’s easy to fall into the trap of going through unnecessary processes just because they’ve been followed for a long time. We sometimes allow the systems and processes to tell us what to do. Committed to managing people instead of processes, Dr. Wade Larsen of Wagstaff set out to transform his Learning Management System (LMS) and save HR hours. What started as an LMS turned into an entire system overhaul with Oracle HCM Cloud.

Joe McKendrick, author, independent researcher and speaker exploring innovation, information technology trends and markets, wrote an article in Forbes about how to find and keep people within your organization who will help keep your digital transformation on track. He spoke with Werner Vogels, Chief Technology Officer at Amazon, and Scott Snyder, partner with Heidrick & Struggles, about how to attract and retain people who will help keep your organization’s digital transformation on track.

Gretchen Alarcon, the Group Vice President for Human Capital Management Strategy at Oracle, wrote a blog about understanding the benefits of leveraging new technologies within HR and having a deliberate plan for innovation within your department.

Naveen Joshi, a columnist and Founder and CEO of Allerin—which develops engineering and technology solutions focused on optimal customer experiences, wrote an article in Forbes about the concept of Artificial Intelligence as a security measure against cyber threats in today’s workforce. AI as a cybersecurity solution can help protect organizations from existing cyber threats, identify new malware types, ensure effective security standards, and help create better prevention and recovery strategies. Leveraging AI in this way has both limitations and solutions for challenges.

AutoZone was able to rollout HCM Cloud in order to improve performance, become more efficient, and attract exceptional talent.

Daniel Newman, principal analyst of Futurum Research and CEO of Broadsuite Media Group, wrote an article in Forbes about how Cloud monitoring can give you better insights about your employees. Daniel points out that analyzing Cloud data can teach you a lot about how employees are using different software, whether they’re following compliance rules, and even areas where your Cloud may not be as safe as it should be. Having better employee insights can drastically improve the way your organization and your ERP system run.