Deloitte’s annual Technology Trends report examines the ever- evolving technology landscape put to business use. This year, Deloitte selected a set of topics that have the opportunity to impact businesses across industries, geographies, and size within the next 18 to 24 months. The report examines trends such as the Internet of things, software defined everything, and IT worker of the future.
According to The Africa Technology leader at Deloitte Consulting, Kamal Ramsingh, “these trends have the potential to disrupt and reshape organizations, business models and even industries.”
Deloitte’s Technology Trends report is an annual in-depth examination of eight current technology trends, ranging from the way some organizations are using application programming interfaces to extend services and create new revenue streams, to the dramatic impact connectivity and analytics are having on digital marketing; and from the evolving role of the Chief Integration Officer (CIO) to changing IT skill sets and delivery models will help make sense of the dynamics behind the changes driven by the confluence of business and technology.
Ramsingh stated that “today’s disruptive technologies can challenge CIO’s to anticipate the impacts that these forces may have on their organization. While the realities of today’s demands are by no means trivial, these trends offer CIO’s the opportunity to shape tomorrow to inspire, create and transform business as usual.”
The theme for this year’s report is the fusion of business and IT, which is broadly, inspired by a fundamental transformation in the way C-suite leaders and CIOs collaborate to leverage disruptive change, chart business strategy, and pursue potentially transformative opportunities.
Changes in business practices over the years have been fuelled by the innovation of technology in the work space and so this year, Deloitte looked at global technology trends by researching and studying businesses around the world including some organizations in Africa countries and it discovered eight significant technology trends that could totally transform the business world. They are;
CIO as Chief Integration Officer: As technology transforms existing business models and gives rise to new ones, the role of the CIO is rapidly evolving, with integration at the core of its mission. Increasingly, CIO’s need to harness emerging disruptive technologies for the business while balancing future needs with today’s operational realities. They should view their responsibilities through an enterprise- wide lens to help ensure critical domains like digital, analytics, and cloud aren’t spurring redundant, conflicting, or compromised investments within departmental or functional silos. In this shifting landscape of opportunities and challenges, CIOs can not only be the connective tissue but can also be the driving force for intersecting the heavy initiatives of IT.
API economy: Application programming interfaces, also known as APIs have been elevated from a development technique to a business model driver and boardroom consideration. The core assets of an organization can be shared, re used and monetized through APIs that can extend the reach of existing services or provide new revenue streams. According to Deloitte, “APIs should be managed like a product built on top of a potentially complex technical footprint that includes legacy and third-party systems and data.”
Ambient computing: Possibilities abound from the tremendous growth of embedded sensors and connected devices in the home, companies and the world at large. Translating these possibilities into business impact requires focus, purposefully bringing smarter things together with analytics, security, data and integration platforms to make the disparate parts work seamlessly with each other. Ambient computing is the backdrop of sensors, intelligence, agents and devices that can put the Internet of Things to work.
Dimensional marketing: Marketing has evolved significantly in the last half- decade. The evolution of digitally connected customers lies at the core, reflecting the dramatic change in the dynamic between relationships and transactions. A new vision for marketing is being formed as CMOs and CIOs invest in technology for marketing automation, content development, customer analytics, and commerce initiatives. This modern era for marketing is likely to bring new challenges in the dimensions of customer engagement, connectivity, data and insight.
Software- defined everything: Amid the fervor surrounding digital, analytics, and cloud, it is easy to overlook advances currently being made in infrastructure and operations. The entire operating environment server, storage and network can now be virtualized and automated. The data center of the future represents the potential for not only lowering costs, but also dramatically improving speeds and reducing the complexity of provisioning, deploying, and maintaining technology footprints. Software- defined everything can elevate infrastructure investments from costly plumbing to competitive differentiators.
Core renaissance: Organisations have significant investments in their core systems, both built and bought. Beyond running the heart of the business, these assets can form the foundation for growth and new service development building upon standardized data and automated business processes. To this end, many organizations are modernizing systems to pay down technical debt, re-platforming solutions to remove barriers to scale performance and extending their legacy infrastructures to fuel innovative new services and offerings.
Amplified intelligence: Analytic techniques are growing in complexity, and companies are applying machine learning and predictive modeling to increasingly large and complex data sets. Artificial intelligence is now a reality as it is a more promising application. However it is important to note that it is not replacing workers but rather, it augments their capabilities. When built to enhance an individual’s knowledge and deployed seamlessly at the point of business impact, advanced analytics can help amplify a person’s intelligence for more effective decision making.
IT worker of the future: Scarcity of technical talent is a significant concern across many industries, with some organizations facing talent gaps along multiple fronts. The legacy skilled workforce is retiring and organizations are looking for needed skills in the latest emerging disruptive technologies. To tackle these challenges, companies are likely to cultivate new species such as the IT worker of the future with habits and incentives that are inherently different from those available today.
As regards to technology, there are five macro forces that continue to drive enormous transformation: digital, analytics, cloud, the renaissance of core systems, and the changing role of IT within the enterprise. These forces are not just fueling innovation and giving rise to new business models. They are also enabling historic advances in materials, medical, and manufacturing science, among many other areas.
According to Deloitte Consulting leader, Martin Atafe, “the changing role of the CIO is critical for the future of businesses and Deloitte is taking numerous steps to improve technology in businesses, one of which is the development of a cyber risk team who are on standby to ensure that cyber threats do not endanger businesses.”
Associate Director, West Africa Technology Consulting Leader at Deloitte, Oluwole Oyeniran said the trends were chosen based on interviews and discussion group with clients and insights from Deloitte Digital and Deloitte People and Programs across multiple industries including consumer business, financial services, life sciences and healthcare, and telecommunications, media and technology to understand which tools and techniques are being adopted in thriving digital businesses today. “Big companies like banks, insurance companies, public sector companies, oil and gas and the likes, really need to move on with technology as there are huge economic benefits in the fusion of business and IT. For example, technology reduces cost when delivered strategically. We are trying to trigger ideas to grow businesses through technology,” he added.
Further explaining the chosen trends for this year, Oyeniran said “this year’s trends are practical and different by the level of adoption. We have gotten positive feedback from some Nigerian companies in the sense that there is willingness to look into these trends. Some people have started looking at them and a few of the trends are a revisiting of old ideas that are coming back. Some of the trends are things that have been done at a time that was a bit too early to make a difference in any business, but now the time is right and for the most part, it is a matter of timing.”
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