Trends Identified

“Almost-Enterprise” Applications

Quick and agile solutions appeal to the business, but are they “enterprise enough” for IT? Business units have historically had a love-hate relationship with IT. In the early days, IT was an esoteric specialty, far removed from core business competencies yet consuming a big piece of the budget. IT was often seen as unresponsive, expensive or fl at-out ineffective, but business leaders saw no other choice for essential process and information automation. IT was left to balance these harsh perceptions with the practical reality of providing secure, reliable and scalable solutions with zero tolerance for fault or failure.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Cyber Intelligence

Protecting vital information assets demands a full-spectrum cyber approach In 2010, security and privacy graduated from IT department concerns. C-suites and boardrooms took notice of highly visible incidents, ranging from malwareinfected motherboards from top-tier PC manufacturers1 , to information theft from a leading cloud provider2 , to the manipulation of the underlying routing tables of the internet, redirecting traffic to Chinese networks3 . At the same time, the regulatory environment around sensitive data protection has become more rigorous, diverse and complex. Organizations are aware of the shifting threat profile and are working to deal with technical barriers as well as sophisticated criminal elements. Incidents are increasingly originating in the trust vector – due to inadvertent employee behavior via the sites they visit, the posts they access on social media sites or even the devices they bring with them to the workplace. A “protect-the-perimeter and respondwhen-attacked” mentality is no longer sufficient.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

CIOs as Revolutionaries

CIOs shift from stewards of, to catalysts for, business revolution For years, technology advocates have called for CIOs to take a seat at the executive table. But the subtext has typically been as a steward of the business. This played well in the paradigm of IT as a support function and cost center, working downstream from the business strategy. This model also made sense for technology investments focused on automating core business processes. CIOs helped usher in waves of technology advancements, using ERP, client-server and the internet to drive efficiencies. It was about automating what the business needed to do – doing what the business had normally done, but doing it better, faster and cheaper.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

The End of the “Death of ERP”

Rumors of ERP’s death have been greatly exaggerated Every few years we see headlines with proclamations of ERP’s imminent demise. Similar to the long-rumored “death of COBOL,” the noise could continue for decades. Part of the problem starts with the name ERP itself. In the current world, the more proper description is probably Enterprise Applications. Enterprise resource planning harkens to a time when integrated financials and payroll were first being linked to production planning and inventory controls. Over the years, however, the impact of enterprise application players like SAP and Oracle has grown substantially, well beyond automating core back-office processes. This growth was achieved first by tackling the front-office functions like customer service, sales and procurement; then by adding workflow and reporting; and finally by refactoring platforms for better integration. Throughout this evolution, the underlying problem has remained the same: allowing large, complicated organizations to profit from standardized business processes and standardized data.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Real Analytics

Corporate management.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Social Computing

Social computing – not just media, collaboration or social networking – it’s a new fundamental for enterprise IT The rise of social computing in the enterprise is in some ways a return to the business landscape of Frank Capra’s and Norman Rockwell’s time – where business was local, corporations lived within a single office, and market value could be pegged by the sentiments on Main Street or at the water cooler. But as global business continues to accelerate, determining “who knows what” is becoming a challenge.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

User Engagement

Empowering business by focusing from the “user down,” not the “system up” Software engineering has typically emphasized technical architectural “-ilities” – reliability, scalability, security, maintainability and flexibility. At the same time, low expectations were set for the other “-ilities” – namely, “usability” or employee interactions with enterprise technologies. While people grumbled about the systems they relied on for daily tasks, there were few examples of any better systems, and little impetus for corporate solution developers to implement change.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Applied Mobility

“The edge” has become the new battleground for innovation The rise of mobile computing is staggering in sheer scale (5 billion subscribers by December 2010) and in its breadth of adoption – crossing age groups, economic classes and geographies1 . Consumer interest in smartphones, tablets and untraditional connected devices such as set-top boxes, telematics, video games and embedded appliances is growing faster than with any other product segment, with a projected growth of 36% in the coming year2 . Connectivity is nearly ubiquitous with today’s mobile computing infrastructure and will only improve with the widespread roll-out of 4G, LTE and WiMAX in primary markets, and the impending launch of 3G in India in 20113 . As importantly, the mobile application (app) movement is fully underway, as traditional telephone service takes a back seat to messaging, email, media, social sites, games and productivity tools.

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Capability Clouds

The cloud market evolves from capacity to capabilities For the past few years, the IT crowd has been enamored by “as-a-service” concepts and the potential to unleash the power of distributed computing, virtualization and ubiquitous networking. The message being spread is one of capacity and cost – the ability to tap into a nearly unlimited scale of computing power, storage, platforms and software with the hope of lower overall technology spending1 . Cheaper and faster are interesting terms to the bottom line, but better is a term that business can really get excited about

2011

Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte

Social Business

Reimagining business with a social mindset Even today, business leaders may dismiss the potential of social business, either relegating it to the realm of Internet marketing or ignoring the buzz as a passing fad. But that’s changing as boomers evolve into digital natives, millennials permeate the workforce and social media becomes a part of daily life. The doors are now open for social business.

2012

Tech Trends 2012-Elevate IT for digital business

Deloitte