Trends Identified
Data Privacy Will Adopt a Risk-based Approach
In an age when WikiLeaks has become a household name, every business leader is right to be even more paranoid about data privacy. Just as leading organizations now realize there is no such thing as 100 percent IT security, so complete data privacy is being exposed as a myth. In one study, the Wall Street Journal assessed and analyzed the cookies and other surveillance technology that companies use on the Internet. The study found that the nation’s 50 top web sites on average installed 64 pieces of tracking technology onto the computers of visitors, usually with no warning. A dozen sites installed more than a hundred each. 9 It will not be enough simply to accept the reality of data leaks. It will require very proactive responses from organizations to understand the risks surrounding the use and misuse of personal data. And it will require constant vigilance because things are changing so fast.
2011
Accenture Technology Vision 2011
Accenture
Social Platforms Will Emerge as a New Source of Business Intelligence
The rapid growth of social media has been eye-popping—especially so in the last few years. Facebook, founded in 2004, now has more than half a billion users and is spending heavily to accommodate more. Twitter’s service generates billions of tweets per month. Social networks are not just a product of and for the young consumer: Many of the world’s Internet users aged 50 and over are active users of social media. And increasingly, businesses and government organizations are using social media to connect their constituents in an effort to improve collaboration. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The evolution of social media will continue to disrupt the way companies do business, posing new challenges to IT as it attempts to harness social media in the enterprise. The key driver of this change? The transformation of social networks into social platforms, each with its own ecosystem to fuel increasingly deeper levels of interaction. Social platforms have three major dimensions: functionality, or the basic capabilities these platforms offer; community, or the groups of people who belong to them; and user identity, the unique name and associated information that characterizes an individual.
2011
Accenture Technology Vision 2011
Accenture
User Experience is What matters
Today, business process design is driven by the need for optimization and cost reduction. But tomorrow it will be driven by the need to create superior user experiences that help to boost customer satisfaction. But in the future, great user experiences will require more layered approaches than what is typical today. Leading IT providers are thinking way beyond the next great touch-screen interfaces or gesture-driven devices. They are preparing to address three specific factors: the integrated user experience, with no cognitive cost of switching from one context to another; a compelling experience, which minimizes tedium and boredom; and a natural device interface – one that involves little or no learning time. Apple has mastered all three factors; for instance, its iPhone and iPod products can be used right out of the box, with little need to resort to a user manual.
2011
Accenture Technology Vision 2011
Accenture
Emerging markets increase their global power
Today, emerging markets serve as the world’s economic growth engine, and the far-reaching effects of their spectacular rise continue to play out. But their risks are often downplayed. Therefore, taking advantage of emerging-market opportunities requires careful planning.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Cleantech becomes a competitive advantage
Governments and organizations are announcing plans to shrink their carbon footprints. The move to cleantech may represent a second industrial revolution that will have effects as great as the first.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Global banking seeks recovery through transformation
The global financial system remains in flux. The uncertain landscape poses both opportunities and risks for financial institutions, alternative asset managers and other enterprises that need funding to meet growth objectives.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Governments enhance ties with the private sector
The past year has been one of readjustment between developed and emerging economies, between the public and private sectors and between global institutions and nations. These adjustments will continue as governments, organizations and institutions define their roles in the post-crisis world.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Rapid technology innovation creates a smart, mobile world
Smart technology offers the promise of remote access to health care and education, while blurring boundaries between industries. The power of the individual will grow and new competitors will emerge, disrupting industries and creating new business models.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Demographic shifts transform the global workforce
Never before has demographic change happened so quickly. Global employers face the challenge that, despite a growing global population, they will soon have to recruit from a shrinking workforce due to an aging population.
2011
Tracking global trends - How six key developments are shaping the business world
EY
Geopolitics: 'Rivals will take greater risks against the US'
"No balance of power lasts forever. Just a century ago, London was the centre of the world. Britain bestrode the world like a colossus and only those with strong nerves (or weak judgment) dared challenge the Pax Britannica. That, of course, is all history, but the Pax Americana that has taken shape since 1989 is just as vulnerable to historical change. In the 1910s, the rising power and wealth of Germany and America splintered the Pax Britannica; in the 2010s, east Asia will do the same to the Pax Americana. The 21st century will see technological change on an astonishing scale. It may even transform what it means to be human. But in the short term – the next 20 years – the world will still be dominated by the doings of nation-states and the central issue will be the rise of the east. By 2030, the world will be more complicated, divided between a broad American sphere of influence in Europe, the Middle East and south Asia, and a Chinese sphere in east Asia and Africa. Even within its own sphere, the US will face new challenges from former peripheries. The large, educated populations of Poland, Turkey, Braziland their neighbours will come into their own and Russia will continue its revival. Nevertheless, America will probably remain the world's major power. The critics who wrote off the US during the depression of the 1930s and the stagflation of the 1970s lived to see it bounce back to defeat the Nazis in the 1940s and the Soviets in the 1980s. America's financial problems will surely deepen through the 2010s, but the 2020s could bring another Roosevelt or Reagan. A hundred years ago, as Britain's dominance eroded, rivals, particularly Germany, were emboldened to take ever-greater risks. The same will happen as American power erodes in the 2010s-20s. In 1999, for instance, Russia would never have dared attack a neighbour such as Georgia but in 2009 it took just such a chance. The danger of such an adventure sparking a great power war in the 2010s is probably low; in the 2020s, it will be much greater. The most serious threats will arise in the vortex of instability that stretches from Africa to central Asia. Most of the world's poorest people live here; climate change is wreaking its worst damage here; nuclear weapons are proliferating fastest here; and even in 2030, the great powers will still seek much of their energy here. Here, the risk of Sino-American conflict will be greatest and here the balance of power will be decided."
2011
20 predictions for the next 25 years
The Guardian