As we look ahead to 2018, we see six big trends feeding the next wave of disruption growth and productivity. And that means opportunity for a much more digital enterprise!
Honestly, it feels like we are nearing a breaking point as we look at the role of the CIO/CDO and the need to Digitize the full business – in effect, the [re]birth of a 21st Century Enterprise.
1. Replatforming the enterprise
In 2018, companies will move to common IT platforms so they can respond to market changes faster and make better, more informed decisions. These platforms are rich in analytics, follow the information flow of the business, and are simple to use and inherently consumerized for self-service.It’s about technology you need, not technology you make. It’s about shifting your resources from operating computers to creating differentiated products and services, where differentiation comes from information you provide in context that fundamentally changes the experience.
2. The war for digital talent is vigorous and creative
Because of this, CxOs need to radically change the talent mix to be much more skilled in information integration, analytics and governance while changing the culture to Continuous Delivery & DevOps as a way of working! How do they do this, given the scarcity of digital skills?
Answer: Common platforms to re-foundation and gain leverage (see trend #1). And, creative approaches such as crowdsourcing, bring your own teams (BYOT), incubators and strategic acquihires. Read more in our Leading Edge Forum report, Unleashing Digital Talent for Fun and Profit.
3. Quantified enterprise: Stop guessing and start measuring
In 2018, the whole organization becomes massively data-driven. Data is now in the hands of employees to make better decisions -> faster better decisions, iteratively.
Companies will harness the “data exhaust” from their digital systems to quantify the business and become even more productive. This quantification will emerge as a primary driver of digital transformation.
Forced to rethink big data, companies will use advanced machine learning to make better decisions with less data, but also more decisions with more data.
4. Businesses get stronger through cyber resilience
But a failure in the digital machines that are the heart of the information driven enterprise (in the platform in trend #1) can cause massive problems. So we need to rethink resilience in light of our reliance on information platforms. And, in light of threats coming not only from cyber attacks but from natural disasters, vendor failures, human error, and even mergers and acquisitions, which cause instability.
Enterprises must work to get their resilience as high as possible by planning and practicing for such threats and addressing the roots and continually improving the strategies. Because, faults will happen, and they will become existential.
5. Companies grow through digital business extensions
This need for resilience is exacerbated by the fact that businesses are growing into tangential markets — digital business extensions — and forming rich ecosystems. This growth can be organic, through partnerships or through acquisitions. Think Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods.
These information ecosystems are very valuable, whether owned or partnered. GE’s Predix, Hitachi’s Vantara, Microsoft’s Azure IoT … all platforms for industrialized IoT are good examples of a digital business extension and an ecosystem driven approach.
6. AI gets smarter and more practical
It has always been all about information, and we know machines can do a better, faster job of understanding information patterns than people. Machines thrive in fast/diverse information pools as well as deep forensic pools. AI is front and center in 2018 – with disruption predictions in every publication – AI eats:
- Industries,
- Job Categories,
- Jobs,
- Software,
- Data Centers
In effect, AI promises to first make people better – excelling at “recognition and programmed response tasks” – and yes, there are a lot of those!
NET: Companies are going to be hyper focused on innovation that advances their digital transformation journey, and in my view, the fun is just getting started.
Check out the longer trends article and my video at www.dxc.technology/2018.
RELATED LINKS
DXC’s Leading Edge Forum: https://leadingedgeforum.com/publication/unleashing-digital-talent-report/
DXC Blog: As data becomes the new currency, here’s how to tap into its value
DXC Blog: Artificial intelligence in travel and transportation: How to take care of the fleet, the business and the passenger
DXC Blog: How serverless computing serves the enterprise
A special thank-you to: Chris Moyer, Dave Aron, William Fiora, Sunil, Musti, Simon Alexander, Jerry Overton, Sankar Rao Vema, Martin Lee, Jim Miller, Dragan Rakovich, JC Brigham, Patty Brown, Heather Simpson, Lisa Braun, Emily Kelsal, Zach Cannon, Jeff Caruso… for all your help and inspiration!
