Trend Scanner | Reports

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

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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

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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

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Fourth-generation system development

From the mainframe era, through client-server, and into the era of the desktop, the history of computing has been shaped by new capabilities (new hardware, new algorithms, new ways of doing things) that in turn stimulate new kinds of demands. Simply giving the 1980s-era personal computer a network connection, for example, turned out to have far-reaching effects on how enterprise systems were designed, built and used. In this decade, a wave of new capabilities will push system architecture into unexplored territory, ushering in a fourth generation of system-building. The forces propelling this new era are, as always, both technological and economic. The technologies range from parallel chip architectures to multi-tenancy, from new data storage techniques to advancements in programming languages. The economies are economies of scale: the cost profile of modern data centers or the efficiencies wrung from the manufacture of mobile chips. But progress may not be as smoothly and broadly distributed as it was in the age of Moore’s Law. Instead, innovations may be more localized, confined to more narrow domains. Competitive advantage will go to those who are aware of the technology hot spots, able to discern what will prove useful—and ready with the skills to seize the opportunity.

2010

Accenture technology vision

Accenture

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Data + decisions = differentiation

Insightful analytics can help organizations discover patterns, detect anomalies, improve data quality and ultimately take effective action. But as analytics tools have been incorporated into standard offerings from software vendors, it is becoming clear that the real advantage in analytics is gained before the analysis begins—in data collection; and after it ends—in decision making. Analytical maturity varies widely across companies and across industries: some organizations are already integrating analytical decision making into their business processes, while others are still working at basic measurement and collection. In the next phase, what may truly differentiate an organization is whether turning information into action becomes part of its DNA.“Everything elastic” is proving to be a durable concept, whose influence is spreading thanks to the technological developments sketched above. Business executives—and CIOs in particular—should consider reshaping their thinking in line with this concept. The idea of elasticity—scalable, infinitely flexible, adaptive—may be integrated into the very fabric of the business. Only then will high performance be achievable in this new market place.

2010

Accenture technology vision

Accenture

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The rise and rise of emerging markets

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the 21st century will be marked by the dominance of emerging markets. Already a force to reckon with, emerging markets will in the next years become equal competitors with mature markets and command more economic and political power. As trade and investment occur across emerging markets, newly emerging markets will flourish. An explosive combination of large, young increasingly educated and urban populations with greater levels of disposable income (e.g., in Indonesia) and (or) natural resources (e.g., in Nigeria) is propelling newly emerging markets forward. The latter have provided the more established emerging markste with investment opportunities.

2010