The technology industry continues to innovate in overlapping waves that make connectivity, storage and information access faster, smaller and cheaper.
We see business growth fuelled by IT infrastructure options that can help lower barriers to market entry, create new distribution channels to open up access to newmarkets, as well as accelerate and expand the wired and wireless broadband networks which connect everyone and everything.
Business growth is linked to technology innovation and greater numbers of businesses are aligning their technology strategy with their business growth strategy and/or productivity initiatives.
Over the next five years, ubiquitous connectivity will remain a key goal. Likewise, growth will continue to be fuelled by web platforms that tap the power of social media, which has been adopted by the general consumer.
Social networking supports the creation of new kinds of information and collaboration via crowd sourcing, everything from chronically ill patients sharing coping strategies to peer groups that are evolving into arbiters of pop culture. Businesses will require systems and processes to make sense of this emerging information and act on it for purposes of product development, customer service and branding. One factor driving the crowd-sourcing phenomenon is the generational divide.
The younger, tech-savvy generation has embraced a more transparent lifestyle than older generations, and seems to have a different notion of privacy. There is a dark side, though, because identity theft is growing fastest among the young.
For business to realise the power of greater IT networking fully, there must be faster wired and wireless broadband networks as well as greater availability of more digitised content, including general data, voice and video. This will help create the necessary environment to develop true "anytime" and "anywhere" access to communication and information.
A number of key demographic shifts are also affecting the business of technology. We see increased technology consumption and proliferation in emerging economies.
Then there is the generational shift toward a technologysavvy workforce and customer base. Plus, technology companies, even the start-ups, think of themselves in more global terms than they did 10 years ago, and have a higher awareness of what customers want worldwide. Technologies that allow better access to information are transforming both business and personal life.
Voice-activated devices and functionality have become increasingly sophisticated and have the opportunity to alter significantly how we interact with the world around us. Also, the way people interact with businesses online has allowed companies, such as Facebook, Mint.com, Google and Skype, to develop viable business models based on attracting one set of customers with free goods or services, while making money from another group through advertising.
Information innovation is transforming other industries, too. Large retailers are using data to assess customers’ needs through rapid experimentation and adjustment, healthcare providers have a single clinician overseeing units in different hospitals via remote video, and sensors in your car help tell you where you are.
The primary changes for businesses in the next five years will stem from innovation related to information accessibility, and the creation of new forms of information driven by faster broadband and mobile connectivity.
When new information mined from social networks meets inexpensive business-analytics software, companies in all industries will begin using the new knowledge created by these tools to increase the efficiency and flexibility of their operations and to adapt more rapidly to changing customer needs.
The obvious downside is companies will face greater challenges in terms of protecting their proprietary information when business analytics software can reconstruct their secrets using information they are required to disclose or information sourced innocently from crowds.
This increasing access to information will intensify competition, and the global nature of broadband networks will give businesses the ability to compete in any region.
Together, these factors will create a relentless march toward greater competition and will rapidly commoditize new products, services and even business models. The key to prosperity will be the ability to make information usable quickly and to secure top talent capable of operating in a culture that not only identifies and reacts well to change, but also anticipates and creates it.
Further reading: Ernst & Young’s Business Redefined: A look at the global trends that are changing the world of business’