Consulting firm Deloitte has published its top 10 business technology trends, which include business wearables, industrialised crowdsourcing and the “CIO as a venture capitalist”.
The report, titled “Inspiring Disruption”, examines the changing landscape of technology and how multiple disruptive technologies are impacting business today.
The study focuses on the next 18-24 months and is divided into two categories — “enablers” and “disruptors”.
Disruptors represent opportunities for technology executives to “create sustainable positive changes in IT capabilities, business operations and business models”, Deloitte said.
Disruptors in the report include the “CIO as a venture capitalist”, cognitive analytics, industrialised crowdsourcing, digital engagement and wearables, such as Google Glass.
Enablers are technologies in which many organisations have already invested, but “new developments and opportunities have inspired new business applications, thereby warranting a fresh look”, Deloitte said.
Enablers in the report include technical debt reversal, social activation, cloud orchestration, in-memory revolution and real-time DevOps.
“One of the most interesting trends is the CIO developing a venture capitalist mindset in relation to IT portfolio management,” said Kevin Walsh, head of technology consulting, Deloitte UK. “An effective portfolio view enables the CIO to continually evaluate and manage the strategic performance of each asset, project and vendor and communicate the value contribution in terms that business leaders understand.”
Examples of the trends in more detail include cloud orchestration. Deloitte said that cloud adoption across the enterprise was a growing reality, but much of the usage is in addition to on-premises systems, not a replacement.
As cloud services continue to expand, organisations are increasingly connecting “cloud-to-cloud” and “cloud-to-core systems” — “in strings, clusters, storms and more”, says the report — “cobbling together discrete services for a complete business process”.
The report said: “Tactical adoption of cloud is giving way to the need for a coordinated, orchestrated strategy, and for a new class of cloud offering built around business outcomes.”
With social activation, says Deloitte, the focus of social business has shifted from measuring volume to monitoring sentiment and, now, towards changing perceptions.
“In today’s recommendation economy, organisations should focus on measuring the perception of their brand and then on changing how people feel, share and evangelise it,” Deloitte goes on.
“Organisations can activate their audiences to drive their message outward, handing them an idea and getting them to advocate it in their own words to their own network.”
Antony Savvas, IDG News Service
Ltd
