The center for technology and innovation's white papers provide focused, in-depth original research and analysis of significant technology or business trends affecting an industry or market segment. Our white papers are available here as PDFs. To obtain printed copies, please contact your nearest
PwC office.
The economics of IT
& hospital performance
There has been considerable research on healthcare IT benefits during the past decade, yet even the most notable studies on the topic have been unable to definitively establish a strong relationship between IT investment and operational performance. To address this research gap, PricewaterhouseCoopers studied US hospitals by using econometric techniques to investigate the relationship between IT adoption and organizational performance in hospitals. The report, which is intended for an executive-level audience, highlights PricewaterhouseCoopers' study design, results, and conclusions.
China's impact on the semiconductor industry: 2006 update
This is the third installment of the Center for technology and innovation's comprehensive research series, which began in response to our clients' interest in the rapid growth of the semiconductor industry in China. Since then, it has become clear that market growth in China is a phenomenon at least as important as industry growth—if not more so. Chinese manufacturing accounts for 90 percent of the annual growth of the worldwide semiconductor market. If multinational semiconductor companies do not have a sufficient presence in China, they are at a significant disadvantage.
Software pricing trends: How vendors can capitalize on the shift to new revenue models
Software vendors are facing significant changes to their business model. They must adapt to a new breed of customer that judges software by its ability to contribute value to the organization. More vendors are moving from the established practice of selling perpetual licenses for packaged software to newer approaches that include software-as- a-service and commercial open source.
How to capitalize on lifestyle advertising in a customer-centric world
The most fundamental shift in the history of media usage is upon us. Consumers are empowered by new technology and distribution platforms to engage with media and advertising in new ways. They are interacting with content, not just taking it in. Advertisers can now gain far greater insight into consumer preferences, interests, and the consumer point of view than ever before.
The rise of lifestyle media: Achieving success in the digital convergence era
The consumer media landscape is radically changing: Content and services are overflowing while consumer time and attention remains limited. A new approach that helps consumers maximize their limited time and attention to create a rich, personalized, and social media environment is needed. PricewaterhouseCoopers calls this approach Lifestyle Media; it is the combination of a personalized media experience with a social context for participation.
Redefining intellectual property value: The case of China
The rapidly growing capabilities of Chinese manufacturers, combined with their rapid appropriation of IP, are having an unprecedented global impact. Intellectual property vulnernabilities is a growing concern to many companies, including those in the pharmaceutical, software, electronics, consumer goods, and entertainment media industries.
IP transformation: Beyond the triple play
An organization’s strategy for evolving people, process, and technology to leverage a single, converged network based on the Internet protocol (IP) has profound implications for companies across the entertainment, computing, and communications services markets. IP transformation will fundamentally alter the industry landscape, resulting in entirely new value chains and industry structures.
Reactive to adaptive: Transforming hospitals with digital technology
Healthcare delivery organizations face considerable challenges today. One response to these challenges has been an investment in information technology,but only a handful of forward-looking organizations have made adequate investments in IT or have built "digital hospitals." With increased IT investment, can the healthcare industry realize productivity and cost-savings that other industries have demonstrated?
Personalized medicine: The emerging pharmacogenomics revolution
Pharmacogenomics, the study of how genes affect the way individuals respond to drugs, has the potential to dramatically change the way in which medicine is developed and practiced. Today, only a handful of pharmacogenomics-based products are on the market—but within 10 years they are expected to be a part of mainstream medical practice. What might be the clinical impacts of pharmacogenomics? What will be the benefits of pharmacogenomics products, as well as the challenges involved in their development and market acceptance?
Big bets for the US cable industry: Key opportunities for future revenue growth
Cable operators and networks face tremendous challenges—and great opportunities—over the next decade. A saturated core subscriber base, increasing audience fragmentation, intense competition from telecommunications carriers, disruptive new technologies, and changing consumer behavior are some of the issues affecting the industry. There are significant challenges to sustained revenue growth, but there are also potential services, like the on-demand platform, that can revitalize the industry and create new advertising, economic, and business models.
Competition in the first mile: Why fiber to the premises is not the issue
Incumbent telephone carriers are facing significant challenges, and in response wireline carriers are looking for ways to compete more effectively and thus retain their existing subscribers by offering a wider range of services like video. We examine the competitive landscape; analyze carrier strategies for succeeding in this environment, including deploying fiber to the premises; and present strategic recommendations for carriers and cable operators as to how they can best position themselves in this dynamic industry.
XBRL: Improving business reporting through standardization
Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a technology standard for business reporting that overcomes many limitations of existing business reporting practices, such as the constraints of incompatible formats and vocabularies. We discuss the benefits of XBRL, its impact on the corporate reporting supply chain, how the standard works, the status of global adoption and the availability of XBRL-enabled software. We also interview PwC's Mike Willis, a founding chairman of XBRL International.
Electronics manufacturing: EMS at a crossroads
We analyze the opportunities, threats, and challenges faced by EMS vendors, discuss the evolution of the electronics manufacturing industry and its growing dependence upon outsourced service providers for the design, assembly, testing, and repair of products and then examine EMS business models and the historical financial performance of the largest EMS vendors to understand their true role. We conclude with tactical and strategic recommendations as to how EMS vendors can succeed within the dynamic electronics manufacturing industry.
Anti-money laundering: New rules, new challenges, new solutions
Produced in partnership with the anti-money laundering (AML) practice, we highlight how money laundering has evolved into a sophisticated, high-tech practice of unprecedented scale. Complex cross-border financial and communication systems, disparate laws and regulations, and increasingly sophisticated money laundering schemes all contribute to the challenges posed by money laundering. We also provide an overview of the USA PATRIOT Act, the global initiatives underway to curb money-laundering activities and the channels, inside and outside the financial system, being used for laundering money. We then examine the technologies currently being used and the technological challenges that must be faced in order to assure compliance now and in the future.
