Trends Identified
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
Targeting emerging markets
The divergence within the global economy is one of the main reasons why most CEOs (84%) say they’ve changed their company strategy in the past two years – with a third of them describing the change as ‘fundamental’. Only half the world is growing at a robust rate. Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts global growth at 4.2% for 2011, developed countries – which make up 52% of the world economy – are growing at only half that pace. In contrast, emerging markets are booming, with Indonesia, India and China all forecast to grow faster than 6%.1
2011
14th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Putting customers at the centre of innovation
CEOs are placing a higher premium on innovation today. Since 2007, business leaders have consistently reported that their single best opportunity for growth lay in better penetration of their existing markets. Now they’re just as likely to focus on the innovation needed for new products and services (see Figure 5). It’s high on the agenda in virtually all industries, including industrial sectors such as metals, chemicals and manufacturing.
2011
14th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Bridging global skills gaps
The ‘war for talent’ was declared more than 10 years ago, but few CEOs are prepared to declare victory. They know talent isn’t just a numbers game. It means finding, retaining and motivating employees whose skills really fit the company’s strategy. Given that 84% of CEOs have changed strategies in the past two years, companies’ talent needs are changing, too. So talent is now at the top of the CEO agenda for 2011, across all regions (see Figure 7).
2011
14th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC