2017 TECH TRENDS SPECIAL
of the changing economic tide to grow their business . The pressure is now on the CIO and his / her team to drive change and enable this highgrowth mode . The challenge for many companies is matching technology investments with the rapidly changing needs of the business .
A solid technology strategy should place the onus on innovation with a purpose and going in to 2017 , I see three technology trends that have the power to transform businesses by providing the tools to innovate . These technologies have the potential to be central to business success over the coming years .
Enabling cloud-driven
1 change For some organisations , adopting cloud computing services can be a simple , tactical exercise to meet some immediate infrastructure needs . But for those looking to drive real technology transformation , it can be the catalyst to embracing an entirely new strategy for IT .
Up until recently cloud computing has , for the most part , been used to speed up existing individual processes while reducing costs . It is only now , as the cloud journey grows more mature , that we can begin to see its full potential to transform business models and working practices .
The cloud opens up exciting new possibilities for CIOs , COOs and CFOs to think differently about their IT infrastructure . Adoption of cloudbased enterprise resource planning ( ERP ) systems , for example , is on the rise because sharing data quickly and efficiently can dramatically reduce costs and increase the speed of production .
There ’ s also a growing acceptance that cloud adoption is not just for startup companies . Large enterprises are transitioning their entire infrastructure and data ecosystems into the cloud because these systems have the advantage of taking the burden of upgrades and management , freeing up valuable resources to focus on innovation and business growth .
Extracting value from big
2 data and IoT According to a recent report by Machina Research , the total number of IoT connections are estimated to grow 16 % annually over the next 10-year period from 6 billion in 2015 to 27 billion in 2025 . Total IoT revenue opportunity is projected to grow to $ 3 trillion in 2025 , up from $ 750 billion in 2015 .
If you talk to customers in the manufacturing and retail sectors for example , they ’ ll say they ’ ve been collecting and tracking data on machines , production , and inventory for years . In retail , for example , smart supply chains enable applications for tracking goods and real time information exchange about inventory among suppliers and retailers .
The next step for us , and our customers , is to take the data that is available and analyse it in context , to make better and more efficient business decisions .
However , the challenge for ERP systems has been around how to transform the onslaught of unstructured data into practical information .
As technology develops we can expect to see more integration between ERP , big data and predictive analytics because data is the business resource of the future — both in terms of optimising processes and services , and as a basis for innovative business models .
Mobility drives greater
3 visibility Mobile and social technologies are enabling new business models and processes but it ’ s important to remember that mobility can mean many different things to different organisations . For one company , it might be the ability to set up a remote warehouse . For another , it might be the ability to interact and collaborate on social platforms across borders and time zones .
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