Opinion From the CEO Hot topic to the rescue! The theme for this edition of Assets is digital so it seemed appropriate to hand the feature over to our digital hot topic group. Guy Parker is one of the working group leads and shares his views on why its such an important topic I There is a genuine need for practical guidance on data and technology solutions for the asset management community Guy Parker is a business, data, and technology consultant with significant professional experience working across both client-side and consultancy around the world. He is passionate about physical infrastructure and how it shapes and supports our society. He is AMCLs Director of Digital and Asset Information, and supports clients to develop and deliver data and technology strategies. Get in touch with Guy Parker via LinkedIn. n my first mobile workforce rollout in 2011, I had someone come to me with a smartphone claiming it was broken. Starting to troubleshoot, I asked if it had been charged; they mentioned that they were not told to plug it in. More than a decade on, its incredible to reflect on how far weve come and how our relationship with technology has changed. Weve evolved past being amazed at having the internet in our pockets, heart-rate monitors on our watches, and smart assistants in our homes. 2022 is a world of VR headsets, 4D+ models, walking robots, flying drones, and ever improving machine intelligence. Industries such as manufacturing, logistics and retail are optimising their processes to complete automation, and the few humans left in the mix are being elevated to supervisory and troubleshooting roles, working alongside and in partnership with data and technology. This begs the question: why are so many infrastructure and asset management organisations lagging, and stuck in the world of office suites, relying only on the experience and opinion of individuals, rather than leaning into technological and data-driven solutions? We navigate with GPS, stream music from the cloud, get live news through social media, and pay for our coffees with contactless payment. Yet, when we get to work, we sit down in front of our desktop computer, send emails, look at spreadsheets, PDF documents, and clunky PowerPoint slides to manage our national infrastructure. Its not all doom and gloom; there are real pockets of excellence in digital for asset management, but these flashes of brilliance have a shadow that is the graveyard of failed projects and proof of concepts. Like many of you, Ive lived through the Gartner Hype Cycle on enterprise tools, mobile apps, SaaS, BI dashboards, analytics platforms, and machine-learning algorithms, to name a few. Too often, Ive seen people chasing a shiny new solution without understanding what the problem was, or getting tied up in conflicting requirements for a do-all solution that doesnt exist. All in all, there is a genuine need for practical guidance on data and technology solutions for the asset management community. Luckily, thats exactly what the Institute of Asset Managements Digital Hot Topic was tasked to figure out. We began by assembling representatives from across industry into a steering committee, to reflect on the challenges in this space, form a consensus, and define what we mean by digital in an asset management context what to avoid delving into and work out what would be helpful to the IAMs members. In simple terms, the priorities boiled down to the following three focus areas (the full term of reference is here): 1. Map the digital journeys of asset management organisations, capturing lessons and advice 2. Form use cases for digital asset management, to outline key concepts and their benefits 3. Develop how to guidance for investment in data and technology. Were just getting started and are currently heads down, pulling together the material for our members. If you want a glimpse at what were creating, please join the conversation on the Digital section of the new IAM Discussion Forum free for members and non-members. If you have a story to tell about your own journey in data and technology for asset management, or if you want to join a great group of volunteers and senior industry subject-matter experts to support the initiative, please reach out to Digital@theIAM.org. We would love to hear from you!