With all the technologies coming out this year, a handful will stand out as being bona fide trendsetters. Only a small portion of those will be directly relevant to businesses, both large and small.
Here’s a list of trends we think are worth keeping an eye out for, not because they’re popular but because they have an impact on how you run, and could potentially run, your business differently.
Cloud Computing Expanding it’s Reach – Cloud computing started off as an expensive enterprise utility, but has expanded to become the backbone for several services that the majority of web services online uses to provide cost effective solutions to greater numbers of people. From e-mail, to search engines, every major internet service today is using cloud computing in some form or another. Furthermore, more and more companies of all sizes are turning to the cloud to provide affordable ways of hosting on premise solutions, from CRM to custom build applications, to create a more streamlined and affordable hosting solution for IT services used on a daily basis. What was once only an enterprise utility is now a part of companies’ IT portfolios, regardless of the size.
Big Data Science – The term “Big Data” has taken over a number of different IT forums, but small to medium sized businesses are having a hard time understanding how the term applies to them. Furthermore, Data Science has been something kept a closely guarded secret by companies that could afford to hire and retain people with advanced analytics capabilities, but now businesses of all sizes are considering ways to leverage both. For companies that lack a lot of internal first party data, leveraging third party data that’s either public, or paid for, in conjunction with a company’s proprietary internal data, can provide insights that will set any company apart. Likewise, with tools like Tableau & Qlikview growing in capability, more and more companies are starting to learn about what advanced analytics applied to their data can provide in terms of new insights and decision support, and they are turning to IT service firms to explore the value of having a data analyst as part of their team.
Social Media Grows Up – Companies have been at the point of saying they need a social media presence for a while now, but with the technology maturing and providing more tools and resources to tying social media participation to top line revenue growth, it’s more important than ever to make sure you’re not just getting “likes” but that those likes are translating into customers. Whereas simply having a presence online was all it took to have a strategic edge against your competitors, companies now have to leverage social media as a strategic and critical asset to their marketing plans and address social media at a much more critical level than before. If you aren’t sure how your social media presence is contributing to your bottom line, then it’s time to re-evaluate your strategy and bring in expertise that can connect the dots and help you improve your existing online presence.
Mobile Being Absorbed into Everything – Whereas mobile technology was a strong trend, it’s now matured to the point that it’s simply a part of everything a business thinks about. From the responsiveness of a company’s website, to leveraging third party platforms to provide app-like capabilities to a company’s customers, more businesses are findings ways to integrate mobile into their existing IT services. Though “Apps” as a fad have faded with the billions of options available, having a presence on a mobile device is as critical as ever to a number of different business verticals. From finding ways to leverage text messaging, to discovering affordable ways to leverage apps for critical services your customers would expect to use their smart phone for, having a clear sense of how mobile may play into your business is important.
Internet of Things – From office automation to advanced ways of performing building management, leveraging sensor technology is becoming a strong trend in a number of different business sectors. Though it’s still largely a “nice to have” for homeowners, and fitness enthusiasts buying into the quantified self-movement, businesses are starting to consider ways that having a connected workspace can help save money. Right now the primary focus is on larger companies that have expensive hardware, such as hard to reach HVAC systems or expensive tooling. But the prices on monitoring and sensors is dropping at such a fast rate, with companies like NEST providing lower cost home automation technologies, that finding ways to leverage sensors to save money and provide greater service to employees and customers in a number of different verticals is something worth keeping an eye out for. Though it hasn’t moved into the mainstream yet, expect more use cases to surface for businesses in the years to come in both the sensor and analysis arena focused around the internet of things.
Interested in learning about how these could apply to your business? Contact OneAccord Digital at transformation@oneaccorddigital.com to schedule an appointment to discuss your business goals for the year, and how digital can make a big impact on your bottom line.
By Dan Maycock, Director of Digital Strategy