Predictions 2016

Ergo Jimmy Sheahan, chief technical officer

Prediction number 1: Digital business drivers will shape ICT investments
ICT investments will be driven more and more from the business, leading to an acceleration in demand from the enterprise whereby ICT spend will continue to increase through business budgets as opposed to explicit ICT budgets. The result will be a shift in focus for the CIO, who will need to leverage business budgets and provide an approved catalogue of services to the enterprise. This will require increased investment in risk and security allowing the business to grow whilst ensuring good governance and security practices with organisations positioning the role of digital risk officer in their management structures. The accelerating business demand will mean that CXO teams will direct their energy towards ICT capability and objectives that will directly deliver business and competitive advantage. As a result, enterprise will further divest what is viewed as less important and invest in digital business enablers. We will also see more acquisition of digital and information technology companies (aka “techquisitions”) by enterprises in traditional industries.

Prediction number 2: Cloud platform adoption and consumption will accelerate
The enterprise is demanding more agility with grass roots demand for access to the latest technology and the ability to maintain competiveness in a digital business reality. The cloud is delivering improved capability at a rate and scale never before experienced. In order for an organisation to move forward, innovate and respond to market demands, that organisation needs to be in the cloud… this is a reality today. Competitors will simply race ahead if any given Enterprise continues to defend an on-premises only policy. The business demand for cloud adoption has built up like water behind a dam and it needs to be released. Enterprises will need trusted and proven ICT partners to guide them through these waters.

 

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Prediction number 3: CRM platform investments will accelerate
CRM platform investments will be at the heart of digital marketing, social channel integration and customer service management. CRM platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM have evolved to be key digital business enablers offering the enterprise customer interlock in a digital business age and enabling actionable insights which deliver for the most important stakeholder in business… the customer.

Prediction number 4: Advancement of autonomous software agents and post app mobility
We will see the advancement of Smart Virtual Agents built-in to tech which leverages advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI). This advancement will be subtle and steady as smart agents begin to make more decisions autonomously. We will also see applied use cases leveraging Smart Agents on mobile, such as Microsoft’s Cortana, the beginning of applied AI in a Post App era. This will allow users in an Enterprise to seamlessly interact with business systems through spoken natural language query on mobile devices.

Prediction number 5: Realisation of IoT scenarios
The Internet of Things (IoT) as a concept has been around now for a number of years. However, this year we will see a realisation of applied end-to-end IoT scenarios. The technology and platforms required to realise the benefits that IoT can deliver, such as devices, gateways, cloud data and analytical platforms, are now affordable and available to enterprise to be knitted together to form holistic solutions. Successful proof of concepts in 2016 will embed as production solutions and will be positioned to yield significant Return on Investment for the Enterprise.

Prediction number 6: Financial Services Technology Driven Change
We will see the financial services industry continue to change, with a propensity towards new business models driven by crypto-currency technologies. New disruptive players will enter the market and the big existing players will take what they have been working on in their innovation centres and begin to test production scenarios.

Across all of the predictions above, Enterprises will need digital business ready partners like Ergo who can provide guidance and skills to embrace the incredible opportunities presented in a digital reality. However, if the Enterprise is not ready, does not have a digital strategy… then they better get one in place quickly.

SureSkills Kevin Reid, CTO

• The Cloud is here to stay and organisations will continue to tweak what version of the hybrid model best fits their business. AWS, VMWare, Microsoft and many other cloud providers will increase the choices available
• The purchase of EMC by Dell will see two of the world’s biggest tech companies come together. Other huge vendors could follow their lead in an industry where big is increasingly beautiful
• Expect the year to be fast moving as the rate of technology innovation continues to rise. Moore’s Law isn’t going anywhere either so everything will continue to get faster, fitter and smaller
• With the Irish economy continuing to fightback and grow, finance departments — with a bit of gentle persuasion, naturally — are loosening the purse strings and IT will have more resources to invest in their environments. Expect a lot of this to go on adding value in the form of improving IT services internally and externally
• A report earlier this year by Cisco and DHL found that there will probably be 50 billion devices on the Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020. With approximately 15 billion on the IoT today, there’s a lot to happen to fulfil that prediction. We should see huge use of the IoT to deliver new solutions next year
• There will be an increasing focus on IT service management, with a particular emphasis on security. Distributed environments need a structured approach and expect Axelos’ (owner of ITIL, PRINCE2 and Resilia) frameworks to tackle this, with Resilia becoming big news
• Enhanced investment in, and use of, monitoring and measurement tools. IT departments making investments will want to ensure their systems are delivering the required performance and availability
• Implementing smart data collection and filtering to reduce the impact and costs associated with data storage
• Delivering services everywhere — expand current solutions to be available on multiple devices and on any network. It’s a world that lives on the go and technology will have to continue to evolve to support this fast-paced world

While these predictions for 2016 make sense from the perspective of current trends and expected technological advances in the near future, IT has surprised us all with unexpected game-changing developments so don’t rule it out. Perhaps I will leave you with some words of wisdom about the future from English footballer Paul Gascoigne, who said: “I would never predict anything, and I never will,” wisdom perhaps veiled in contradiction. Happy 2016 to you all!

MJ Flood Technology James Finglas, managing director

The third annual Cisco IOT conference was held in Dubai in November of this year, where the concept of connecting people, companies and cities to the Internet is in full flow.

In fact, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid has a vision for Dubai to become the ‘Smartest City in the World by 2017’ and the concerted efforts of his administration are starting to generate a new digital currency.

Connecting utilities to urban transformation, entertainment to energy and policing to politics will add potential value of $4.8 billion (€4.6 billion) to the economy by 2019 and will improve the lives of citizens in the process.

Similarly, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is investing billions of dollars in building four new ‘Economic Cities’ to move its GDP away from the traditional overdependence on the carbon sector. At the heart of this plan is a vision to create a knowledge economy for a younger population that will survive and thrive into the future.

Closer to home, we’ve also been playing our part to increase awareness and education around digitisation. We’ve found the retail sector to be very progressive in its attitude to connecting its people, processes and technologies to deliver higher basket values and deeper customer loyalty.

November saw the launch of the country’s first Connected Retail Lab at our premises in Baldonnel, Co Dublin. The lab is a showcase of cutting-edge technologies, where retailers can explore opportunities to personalise their customers’ purchase journey from the high street, to online, in store and mobile in an omnichannel, live demo environment.

Visitors can experience first-hand the power of Cisco Wi-Fi solutions, smart signage, interactive touchscreens, augmented reality and deep customer analytics. And Ireland’s leading retailers have reacted very positively to the concept of using connected technologies to build greater brand value.

Many have already visited the lab and we’re currently working on several low-cost, low risk proofs of concept, which will allow them to integrate connected technologies into their estate in a planned fashion.

Retailers might be early adopters of IoT-type technologies but they’re not the only ones. Healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, utilities and transportation sectors are all actively exploring ways to drive operational efficiency and boost customer experience.

Digitisation will drive our sales strategy into 2016 and beyond and we’re excited about the prospect of discovering new ways to use Cisco technologies to drive real, disruptive business value for our clients.