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Progress successfully into the next generation of technology is not always number one on the minds of business leaders, but when cost savings and revenue improvements are involved, that is what makes executive ears perk open. Some of the key technology trends for the next decade are already shining their ROI buzz on blogs, review websites, and in business case studies. But when it come to the top technology trends for businesses, it is first important to know which technology trends are applicable to each business' needs. Whether bringing data together, engaging customers, or simply trying to decrease costs and increase revenues, staying abreast of the key technology trends that provide solutions to these specific needs is essential in an ever-changing economy.
Not listed in any particular order, IT Strategists has created a list of top technology trends that are increasing their presence and have the greatest potential to continue as significant technology trends into the next decade.
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The cloud is a term that defines using resources from distributed servers to perform computing needs. Cloud computing is essentially infrastructure as a service. Services include Microsoft Azure and Amazon EC2. |
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Increasing amounts of online applications are becoming available that only require connectivity. The benefit of online applications is a decreased cost in maintenance of applications, including licensing. |
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Using the power of human connectivity and new tools to connect with customers, co-workers, and business partners, social networks are a helpful way to engage consumers and find out what interests them.
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Being able to organize documents in central areas where they can actually be found is the key aspect behind document management and collaboration as an important information trend for 2009. Services include Microsoft SharePoint.
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CRM 2.0 emphasizes using internet capabilities to manage customer relationship effectively. Interactions with customers the way they want to interact with you is essential to maintaining customer loyalty. |
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Bringing people and information together using software is the core of unified communications. Connecting to the right person at the right time can make a serious impact in a business' success. |
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The continuous evolution of internet technologies and interactions is the basis surrounding Web 2.0 to 3.0. intelligent applications create a richer interaction with customers and potential customers. |
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Improving organizations by providing business insights to employees, leading to better, faster, more relevant decisions is why BI is among the top things on CIO's minds.
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Moving physical servers to virtual ones can save money, lower costs for hardware, power, and save space. |
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To remain competitive, organizations are making enterprise applications accessible from mobile devices. Accessibility to data is essential, especially as Blackberries and iPhones increase in usage. |
 What makes technology trends become key technology trends?—most likely when they become buzz words in the Web 2.0 online world (oh, the irony). But what measurable value and impact makes them turn into the top technology trends? There are a few key factors that influence what separates the top technology trends from the bottom dwellers, namely the beehive mentality of the internet, but also the ROI, business case studies, degree of major player adoption of the technology, and the competition amongst an ever-growing population of vendors. Twitter trends for example are a great way to see what new trends are in the news or creating buzz online. But what is interesting to see is the bandwagon mentality that ensues when everyone sees the trend and then decides to “mention” it, thus keeping it as a trend for that moment. But what makes the Twitter trends particularly ephemeral is that they have a rather short lifespan and if lucky, barely last longer than a day. The energy behind the repetitive mentions of the trends on other areas such as blogs, online articles or even television and radio can also have an impact on beehive mentality (although radio does not seem to hold the same captivated audience it somewhat did in the 90s). But can businesses really consistently gain value from utilizing the top tech trends that are popular with search engines and have a strong presence on RSS feeds? Some more than others, but overall it is a case-by-case basis that requires facts and metrics to balance out the over-hype. Business intelligence is gaining buzz as a result of its impressive ROI and companies realizing the necessity for BI in a changing economy. This can be paralleled to the dying buzz behind business intelligence 2.0, which demonstrates that the online community is not overwhelmingly interested in 2.0-ing every trend that achieves online noise.  Some of the top technology trends on the Google search engine include cloud computing, virtualization, and business intelligence (see Google Trends image to left, queried in August 2009). Business intelligence in particular has a great reputation for cutting costs and earning a top ROI, but what is remarkable is that so does the unified communications trend—yet unified communications lags well below the cloud computing and business intelligence search trends on Google! Not enough fans on Facebook or mentions on Twitter or other social networks for businesses perhaps?
According to business intelligence case studies and unified communications case studies, businesses have been able to see significant and measurable revenue improvements as well as cost reductions through implementing the BI and unified communications. When looking for technologies that cut cost and increase revenue, businesses have been turning to cloud computing and virtualization, when in fact technology trends such as unified communication and business intelligence are even more so proven winners. There are some businesses that would even argue the ROI of virtualization when implemented. While the reduction of a company’s eco-footprint, cost of energy savings, decrease in administrative costs, and data storage savings are impressive (not to mention the potential for better servers, which would be upgrades for many in-house business servers), the investment is not always a huge win for businesses; in some cases, businesses might be lucky enough to just break even on the investment. Virtualization is one of the technology trends that are most beneficial when accompanied by an ROI analysis to determine if virtualized servers are a wise business investment. One particularly cost-effective and inexpensive technology trend that can enhance productivity and aid other business processes is enterprise mobility. As a technology trend, the mobile enterprise is latching itself on to other emerging technologies and will likely become a more powerful investment for businesses in the near future. Already with Microsoft’s release of the Windows 6.5 mobile, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile Express updates, and the iPhone 3G’s newer features, enterprise mobility is gaining not only more bells and whistles, but a rising competition for mobile technology advancement. The cloud computing and mobile enterprises will likely have a strong interest in the rising star technology trend that is rearing its head in the form of more and more online applications or SaaS (software as a service). In addition to Microsoft Online Services for business productivity, there are other online applications, both free and paid, that offer online solutions for businesses. Services that are free or can have paid version upgrades include: Microsoft Office Live Workspace, Zoho, Google Apps, and ThinkFree. But for the enterprise, the more helpful cost-saving online application investments is the enterprise level Microsoft Online Services. |
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