Trends Identified
Asset Intelligence
Bring your value chain to life using signals, not just sensors IT models of business operations have long relied on software abstractions and data approximations, with decisions derived from information systems running within corporate data centers. Other company assets, such as finished goods, equipment, materials, plants, and even many employees, were disconnected or passive participants. Until now.
2010
Depth perception A dozen technology trends shaping business and IT in 2010
Deloitte
Cloud Revolution
Cloud services – from technology evolution to business revolution By helping organizations radically lower their cost of entry, speed time-to-solution, and put into place new models for elastic scale and pricing, cloud represents a compelling new chapter for how enterprises can better use IT. Though the technology itself is evolutionary in nature, its business applications are nothing short of revolutionary.
2010
Depth perception A dozen technology trends shaping business and IT in 2010
Deloitte
Rethink: From crisis to cautious optimism
Confident in companies, tentative on recoveries CEOs are emerging from deeper cost-cutting than they expected last year. In last year’s survey, conducted as the financial crisis unfolded late in 2008, 26% of CEOs told us they expected headcount reductions over the next 12 months. A year later, close to half of respondents reported they cut jobs and at least 80% of CEOs in each region initiated cost reductions. In North America and Western Europe, close to a quarter of companies divested a business or exited a significant market. It is clear that few considered simply riding out the recession a viable response. ‘The crisis took us to a new place. It was a reset for our business’, said Angela F. Braly, President and CEO of US health insurer WellPoint Inc. They are now guardedly confident about generating revenue growth in the near term and they are decidedly more confident over a three-year time horizon. Indeed, over that time period, CEOs are about as confident of their revenue prospects as they have ever been in our survey. Of course, this may partly be a reflection of the depths to which demand had sunk.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Reshape: The post-crisis environment
Worst fears fail to materialise on regulations… yetRegulation is a perennial concern for CEOs. This year,how business leaders view regulatory issues has to be understood through the lens of ‘what might have been’at the start of 2009, when the uncertainty which hung over the financial system and by extension, the global economy,was so great. At that time, drastic measures to contain the crisis and preserve national economies were a realistic prospect. Massive bailouts ensued and with them,expectations of radical regulation to prevent another crisis.The alarmist scenarios of trade barriers and regulatory rewrites largely failed to materialise. Yet there remains asense that more regulatory change is inevitable. CEOs see little encouraging news on compliance costs. Regulatory burdens on corporations were not addressed during the downturn. In fact, in this year’s survey, more CEOs citeda lack of progress on cutting red tape than a year ago,67% to 57%. Only 2% of CEOs based in the US said the government has reduced regulations (see figure 2.1).Some governments are listening, at least when it comes to taxes. Our annual measure of the comparative ease of paying taxes in 183 countries found that 45 economies had reduced the tax burden on SMEs, or made it easier for them to pay taxes, in the year through 1 June 2009.4Yet, few CEOs believe that trend will continue.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Result: Adapting to compete
Short-term cost focus Despite widespread restructurings last year, many businesses remain committed to further cost-cutting. In an indication of the cost pressure they continue to face, 69% of CEOs we surveyed plan cost-reduction initiatives in the next 12 months, compared with the 88% who made cuts over the past year (see figure 3.1). Business leaders are also bracing for continued volatility. ‘Under the current situation, demand changes every day, and enterprises need to adapt rapidly. In fact, wide fluctuations in market conditions have become very normal and we must be ready to respond to a whole range of possible conditions: low market prices, strong demand, or no demand’, Huang Tianwen, President of China-based Sinosteel Corporation, told us.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Computing fore-cast: Into the clouds
Long foreshadowed under names like “grid computing” and “network computing,” cloud computing is finally gaining momentum. Rather than simply replacing one computing paradigm with another, the era of the cloud looks to create a somewhat chaotic proliferation of options, with many paradigms coexisting. Any layer of the technology stack—from computing power to storage to services—can be sourced from the “cloud” and, because IT needs are diverse, every cloud layer should be able to find a market. Organizations will be free to evolve individual IT models, based strictly on business needs rather than on technology constraints; hybrid, “partly cloudy” models will be the norm. This new, adaptable IT frame - work may make it much easier to manage 4 issues of cost, scale and agility. But decision makers must also be prepared to navigate a new set of tradeoffs: the price of agility may be the loss of some visibility—or some control. Most enterprises will want to take their bearings carefully before heading off into the cloud.
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture
The new Web
Because of the Web’s reach (1.6 billion devices connected, with this number expected to reach 2.7 billion by 2013), 1 even small changes to its basic capabilities can have enormous potential—changing how people socialize, changing how societies link together and changing how businesses operate. Right now, the Web is in the midst of its most significant overhaul since the first browsers emerged 15 years ago. Low-level engineering work (from networking protocols to browser optimization) is making the Web faster and more robust. New capabilities (location-awareness, online/offline modes, social connectivity and more) are paving the way for whole new classes of Web applications. And a growing set of productivity, communication and integration capabilities is making the Web increasingly attractive as an enterprise platform. The Web world is multivalent: multi-browser, multi-platform, multi- device. It is a world that presents a new set of challenges— privacy, security, control of standards, interoperability— and requires a new set of technical and strategic skills. But very soon, more and more enterprises will find that it is their interest to “speak Web” fluently.
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture
Devices as doorways
Conventional computers have become only marginally more powerful in recent years; mobile devices, on the other hand, have increased their capabilities tenfold. During the same period, the amount of content on the Web has grown exponentially. The two trends, taken together, are breaking up an age-old paradigm where certain kinds of devices (temple scrolls, record players, or GPS units) give access to certain kinds of content (words, music, or location). That era is ending. We are now entering a world where any device can deliver any content. In such a world, there are many avenues to a given piece of content, and devices—in different shapes and sizes—are simply doorways. A key principle of the new paradigm is that users will tend toward whatever access patterns maximize their own convenience and productivity, whether this means reading a transcript of a voicemail on a tablet computer, making a dinner reservation using a video game console, or approving a purchase order by touching a phone. For enterprises that see the work machine as the sole way to access corporate information—the old paradigm—this trend will initially appear problematic. Soon, however, they will likely see it as an opportunity to get out of the business of hardware support while improving system security. Users will supply their own devices, and the job of enterprise IT will be to provide a secure transport layer for work information. Through the adroit use of virtualization, “webification” or other thin-client technologies, enterprises will be able to rise with the tide of devices.
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture
Fluid collaboration
Collaboration across time zones and geographies is the new business norm. Given the realities of global workforces, carbon-reduction efforts, and the drive for greater productivity, no one expects these numbers to go anywhere but up. Still, the basic technologies that under-pinday-to-day collaboration (such as e-mail) have changed only incrementally in the past decade. Where will the new capabilities come from to equip a more productive, more effective workforce? There will be three sources:• From innovation around the core functions of e-mail, messaging and voice. As communications become more unified, vendors can begin to deliver features—like robust, unified search—that will have real impact. • By expanding the core suite of tools. The challenges to doing so are less technical than practical. For example, valuable tools to improve virtual meetings already exist, in the form of videoconferencing, screen-sharing, digital whiteboards, and more. But these tools are not universal, interoperable or even always user-friendly. With the growing power of the (universal, user-friendly) Web platform, the equation will change. • By supplementing the core messaging suite with collaboration systems based around the principles of publishing and aggregation. A fast-evolving array of tools for social chatter, wiki writing, tagging, rating and voting will provide enterprises with ways to tap human capital, increase peripheral awareness and sustain engagement.
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture
The conversation economy
Social computing has brought about substantial change in how people connect, how they converse, and how they get and share information. The social network itself is fast becoming a primary information channel for many people. Any object of attention—rumors, novels, recipes, petitions—can explode in importance and visibility if it taps into the right social channels at the right time. But information can also travel in the opposite direction: social networks are emerging as a rich source of information about consumer sentiment, preferences and desires. One clear implication of all this is that the conversation between organizations and individuals is changing, and customer relationships are being remade. We see three major “discontinuities” in the patterns of business-consumer communications. • Episodic communications are being replaced by continuous interactions;• "Talk at you" broadcast messages are making room for "talk with you" conversations; and • With a powerful media device as close as the nearest phone, companies—and individuals—have a new, powerful ability to “show” instead of “tell.”
2010
Accenture technology vision
Accenture