Cover Story
Digital trends for 2017 and beyond
Execution has increasingly become a critical success factor of any business. As Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan quote “Execution is the great unaddressed issue in the business world today. Its absence is the single biggest obstacle to success and the cause of most of the disappointments that are mistakenly attributed to other causes.”
The 2017 focus for digital success will largely be on execution. Most enterprises have already established a digital transformation function in place. Most have capital allocation plan already made for a defined set of initiatives with a high-level visibility of the expected outcomes. However, they also recognize that plans need to adapt to a changing technology landscape as well as risks, complexity and ambiguity as they dive deep into execution. Enterprises are investing in building skills to help them drive their digital execution with passion and perseverance.
The 2016 top trends will likely spill over in 2017. The trending themes for 2017 will be on experience and engagement, innovation and acceleration in business operation cycles with digital. The lines between the digital and physical world will further narrow as enterprises work with new business models and a far richer digital ecosystem.
In terms of experience, CEO’s will get more closely involved and would have already allocated this role to someone in the C-suite. Driving incremental changes and doing too little too slowly, will put enterprises to risk as they compete in a digitally savvy market. The focus on multi-channel experience, self-service, customer support tools, FAQ’s and how-to content will only increase. Enterprises will have more operational controls and power given to individual brands and divisions, such that they can leverage their proximity with customers to take quick decisions. Virtual and Augmented reality will shape the future of how enterprises sell and engage in industries such as retail (integral to create a great shopping experience), education & training (transforming the way individuals interact with each other and overlaying graphics to real world objects), banking and insurance (ATM locator, property search, better lead generation etc.), healthcare (used in performing surgery to improving treatment and reducing medical expenses), gaming etc. User experiences will be increasingly driven based on customer data driven by IoT devices, machine learning and analytics from smart applications that can access and interpret huge data sets both on premise and through the cloud from social media and retailers. As products get increasingly connected, solutions like remote diagnostics and location based experiences will get more traction.
Digital innovation has changed the way we do everything from running a business to running our lives. Digital innovation will continue to redefine markets and industries. The pace however will only continue to increase and have a wider impact on people and technology. This is likely to be a breakout year for solutions like blockchain and 3D printing as they help to innovate services. Enterprises will invest in knowledge based algorithms that positively alter behavior of employees by providing just in time knowledge to objectively complete the task. IoT will save enterprises enormous amounts of money in the cost of maintenance and consumables and real time digital twin.
Digital Themes for 2017 and beyond
- Virtual and augmented reality
- Data driven user experiences from IoT devices, machine learning and analytics from smart apps
- Multi-channel experience, self-service, customer support tools, FAQ’s and how-to content
- Remote diagnostics and location based experiences
- Further acceleration in the pace of digital innovation
- Breakout year for solutions like Blockchain and 3D printing to innovate services
- Knowledge based algorithms
- Significant savings from IoT in maintenance and consumables
- Hybrid IT
- Digital processes to help enterprises drive operational efficiencies and reduce costs
- Fully integrated and seamless processes
- Increased visibility and controls, operational governance
- Data security
Enterprises will put increased focus on driving operational efficiencies and further reducing costs by driving processes digitally. Fully integrated and seamless processes will be the order of the day by reducing manual interventions in processes to bare minimums. Enterprises will drive increased visibility and controls in processes by leveraging best of breed solutions that are targeted to fully automate processes.
Security will become far more adaptive and fluid. As cyber threats and attackers become more sophisticated and with the number of devices only increasing exponentially, companies may lose several hundreds of million dollars due to security breaches. Enterprises will combine training and stronger corporate policies together with investment in proactive cyber security technologies. There will be immense focus on making enterprise networks foolproof on every level including end points and WiFi.
The questions for most enterprises is no longer an if but when and how. Enterprises will put a lot of investment and focus on execution. Most enterprises will focus on how they can arrive at a digital roadmap that is fully aligned to their business priorities. Execution will be top priority as enterprises take a hard look at their people, processes and culture as they build and execute on their digital roadmap. Gartner predicts that through 2019, every $1 enterprises invest in innovation will require an additional $7 in core execution. In addition to innovative and cost effective technologies, enterprises are also very concerned about carbon footprint. They will also have a preference to those vendors who can showcase energy efficient, green resources that can boost efficiencies. Enterprises will favor Hybrid IT that has a combination of in-house resources with cloud managed services that meets their most stringent security and compliance needs.
2017 is going to be an interesting year. For enterprises, success is going to be dependent on how well and how quickly they establish readiness to leverage the immense opportunities with digital.
