Technology CEOs should consider nine disruptive forces that are impacting businesses

The accelerated pace of business disruption is being triggered by the impact of new technologies combined with the challenges and opportunities of creating a connected experience, which are bigger than ever before, according to a new PwC report, The new digital ecosystemreality: Nine trends rewriting the rules of business. The nine trends outlined in the report are too inter-related to be tackled with an independent strategy.  PwC recommends two complementary strategies, one targeting the short-term trends and the other targeting long-term challenges.

Trend number 1: Disruptive innovation

Radical shifts in technologies translate to radical shifts in business models. In order to prepare, technology CEOs should consider a variety of steps, including: developing an appropriate innovation strategy that ties in with the corporate vision and company capabilities; determining the best ways of fostering and sustaining organic innovation; identifying opportunities for growth; determining strategic investment bets and identifying appropriate partners for highly integrated digital ecosystems.

Trend number 2: Managing cost and complexity

According to PwC, in terms of IT complexity, more than half of all companies are turning to the cloud to reduce expenses. They must also adjust their operating model to increase agility through focus on innovation both in technology and processes, in order to lay the foundation for a more-efficient cost structure. Additionally, companies are using technology to get better information faster and cheaper through using social analytics within the connected experience they have with customers and creating a connected experience with suppliers and partners through digital ecosystems.

Trend number 3: Convergence

The convergence of consumer and corporate capabilities has forced most companies across industries to become technology companies. Many companies will need to increase the pace of their customer communications in order to meet these increased expectations.

Trend number 4: Consumerization of IT

Employees have become accustomed to the ease of accessing information online, whether through mobile devices, tablets or personal computers. Companies will need to develop enterprise applications that are easier to learn to improve productivity and those that are easier to use on smartphones and other mobile devices.

Trend number 5: Changing dynamics between developing and developed countries

Technology companies will likely be looking to emerging markets for new business opportunities. Therefore, technology CEOs should think about rationalizing their global operations and simplifying and standardizing business processes and products so that development can be applied across any region, and also tailored for a particular region.

Trend number 6: Social media

According to PwC surveys, 90 percent of technology companies are focusing on strengthening relationships with customers and clients by increasing engagement and 84 percent are enhancing their focus on social media in search of new customers. Companies can use social media to interact on a regular basis, to deliver information and advice, and thus potentially increase the value of the experience.

Trend number 7: Data explosion

Technology companies must be able to accommodate input from social media with input from sales results in order to harness the broad flow of information. This requires developing a variety of systems, for example: data warehouses, analytic tools, storage systems, and business intelligence.

Trend number 8: IP and data protection

Being able to compete in the global world of technology requires maintaining a balance for technology companies. Companies need to ensure that their systems are accessible to their friends (i.e. employees and business partners) and unavailable to their competitors.

Trend number 9: Changing political and regulatory landscape

Technology CEOs have already been subjected to extensive regulatory conditions, therefore they must be prepared to track manufacturing and product information, and to be audited on a regular basis.

To address these nine trends, PwC recommends that technology companies focus on extending their own digital transformation across their business units, including manufacturing, supply chain and finance.  Digitization supports automation, which decreases response time and increases the accessibility of information which in turn enables companies to be more agile and able to respond to change faster.

More information on managing customer relationships can be found at www.CRMindustry.com

Gartner Identifies Top Vertical Industry Predictions for IT Organizations for 2014

Gartner, Inc. has revealed its top industrypredictions for IT organizations and users for 2014 and beyond. Most industries are facing accelerating pressure for fundamental transformation, including embracing digitalization in order to survive and stay competitive.

CIOs and other IT and business leaders should use Gartner's predictions and recommendations to better understand the forces that are changing their world and develop strategies to address the requirements of this fast-changing business environment.

Top industry predictions include:

-- By 2016, poor return on equity will drive more than 60 percent of banks worldwide to process the majority of their transactions in the cloud.

-- By year-end 2017, at least seven of the world's top 10 multichannel retailers will use 3D printing technologies to generate custom stock orders.

-- By 2017, more than 60 percent of government organizations with a CIO and a chief digital officer will eliminate one of these roles.

-- By 2017, 40 percent of utilities with smart metering solutions will use cloud-based big data analytics to address asset-, commodity-, customer- or revenue-related needs.

-- By year-end 2015, inadequate ROI will drive insurers to abandon 40 percent of their current customer-facing mobile apps.

-- Full-genome sequencing will stimulate a new market for medical data banks, with market penetration exceeding three percent by 2016.

-- By 2016, 60 percent of U.S. health insurers will know the procedure price and provider quality rating of shoppable medical services in advance.

-- Through 2017, K-12 online education spending will increase 25 percent, while budgetary constraints will keep spending on traditional instructional categories stagnant.

-- By 2018, 20 percent of the top 100 manufacturers' revenue will come from innovations that are the result of new cross-industry value experiences.

-- By 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least $100 billion per year in intellectual property globally.

-- By 2017, 15 percent of consumers will respond to context-aware offers based on their individual demographics and shopper profiles.

-- By 2015, 80 percent of life science organizations will be crushed by elements of big data, exposing poor ROI on IT investments.

More information on IT and CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com

Digital Business Incompetence Will Cause 25 Percent of Businesses to Lose Competitive Ranking by 2017

Digital business incompetence will cause a quarter of businesses to lose competitive ranking by 2017, according toGartner, Inc. During the second quarter of 2013, Gartner conducted a survey of 151 participants who were intimately involved in making digital business strategy decisions or in locating, developing and acquiring talent for those digital business strategy endeavors. Ninety percent of respondents thought that competition for talent will make or break digital business success.

According to Gartner, a digital business strategy creates value and revenue from digital assets. It goes beyond process automation to transform processes, business models and customer experience by exploiting the pervasive digital connections between systems, people, places and things.

Digital business has rapidly become a lingua franca of modern business, a common and unifying language across people whose native languages — in the modern age, the languages of organizations, companies, cultures and occupations — are different.

To jump-start digital business activity, Gartner recommends identifying key strategy players and possessors of technology and business expertise both inside and outside the enterprise and engaging them to launch a digital business community of practice to enrich cross-business understanding. CIOs who learn to orchestrate talent across multiple employment models and channels can take advantage of global ecosystems to build digital expertise quickly.

The world of digital business does more than pose challenges for CIOs and other executives. It also opens opportunities to use digital technology to reach beyond organizational boundaries, to assemble problem-solving expertise from around the world, to weave a fabric of knowledge and expertise across communities of practice, and to understand and exploit new models of work. Notably, the quest for digital business expertise provides an undeniable opportunity for CIOs and HR executives to create a robust alliance that helps them meet their respective outcomes. Leading-edge CIOs become leading edge because their HR and talent strategy counterparts support them.

Gartner advises CIOs to work with high-influence HR executives to investigate talent orchestration and to redesign the learning programs required to build digital business expertise. The focus should be on hiring, developing and deploying versatile and multidisciplined teams of people. Once teams are hired, the organization should promote employee engagement as doing so will make the organization more attractive to prospective employees and increase talent retention rates throughout the shift toward the digital strategy.

More information on digital strategy and CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com