Active Incidents: Premier Edition

Welcome to the first edition of the Samanage “Active Incidents.” Corny, I know. Congratulations on reading this weekly feature before it’s cool. It’s like buying Amazon stock in ‘97, except you don’t get to retire once everyone else catches on.

Speaking of Amazon, your order is ready for pickup, and you didn’t even order it yet!

The Mainstream Arrival of AI

And speaking of retirement, a leading research company predicts robots will have your jobs within ten years. Just kidding, but Gartner (who has a history of correctly predicting megatrends) has tabbed AI as the top tech trend of the next decade. Advanced machine learning means systems will be able to process, understand, and react to information, removing the limits on what they have previously been programmed to do. Gartner predicts that that by 2018, “most of the world’s largest 200 companies will exploit intelligent apps.”

The Price of iPhones is about to go up (or down?)

Predictions of an upgraded camera, a facial recognition feature, and a stainless steel body have dominated the Apple iPhone 8 rumor mill, but once the release of all the features is official, the questions will turn to demand and price. ZDNet reports that iPhone 8 could cost between $1200 and $1400, nearly $500 more than the most expensive iPhone to date. The good news is, that would likely come with a price cut for lower models. I assume you’ll be purchasing a case, screen protector, and car charger as well? Fingers crossed for a sweet bundle price on those!

Change Management Award:

Rahim Fazal, co-founder of SVAcademy in San Francisco is aiming to place a million women, minorities, or under-resourced Americans in high paying jobs in technology. He already has his first crop of students into the program, recently raised $2 million dollars in funding, and discussed the project with TechCrunch.

ITSM Tips of the Week (and shameless plugs):

• Ten things to help your organization with release management
• Improve your internal support communication with Slack
• As the popularity of Chromebooks rises, organizations need compatible management practices
• Efficient support always begins in the self-service portal

Thanks for reading, now go join 45 million others and wish someone a happy birthday on Facebook. Oh, and follow Samanage while you’re at it.