Microsoft announced that U.K. telecommunications giant BT will use its Microsoft TV IPTV software to deliver TV over broadband to its subscribers. BT will trial Microsoft's IPTV software in early 2006, with plans to launch a commercial service next summer for its 20 million consumer and business customers. The announcement comes a week after Australia's largest telecommunications provider, Telstra, decided not to advance its lab trials with Microsoft IPTV software into its customers' homes. Microsoft is also testing its IPTV software in the U.S. with providers including SBC, which recently signed a ten-year, $400 million deal to use the software. The IPTV service will include customizable channel lineups, video-on-demand, digital video recording, interactive program guides, event notifications and content protection features. Microsoft will also resell the IPTV platform through Alcatel.
Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul