2022 predictions

Your business over the next year

Digital Enterprise

KPS Predictions for 2022

Looking into the future can be challenging. As digital transformation continues, what technologies should business leaders pay attention to, and what tech trends can be identified?

"I am often approached by businesses and asked how they can implement the strategic changes they want to make across their processes."

How key technologies and services might change, and how these innovations will impact their ability to deliver value to their customers. My initial reaction is to challenge their thinking and encourage them to push the envelope to achieve lasting and profitable change.

Below are some of my thoughts based on current conditions, how I see technologies evolving, and how I think these advances could influence your business over the next year.

The pace of change will continue to accelerate.

Businesses had a plan for their digital transformation (DX). Then COVID-19 arrived and forced enterprises to re-draw these plans. The fallout from the pandemic has changed how businesses operate forever. From remote mass working to customer experiences, DX plans have had to be re-drawn often radically to accommodate these changes. Research from Info-Tech suggests nearly half (47%) of the businesses queried will have made permanent changes to their business operations by next year. I think this transformation to digital enterprises will continue and in some cases radically alter how businesses operate and use technology.

Hybrid working, working on the go

Hybrid work needs hybrid IT.

Few of the businesses I speak to intend to return their workforces anywhere near to what was the norm pre-pandemic. Indeed, employees actively seek to make permanent changes to their working schedules to support their work/life balance. I think digital dexterity will be massively important to ensure these changes can be accommodated without any lasting impact on business efficiency. Indeed, I believe these changes can transform a business and improve its efficiency.

Automation will be replaced with hyper-automation.

"Organisations are transitioning from a loosely coupled set of automation technologies to a more-connected automation strategy," said Cathy Tornbohm, distinguished research vice president at Gartner. “In response, vendors are developing integrated offerings that combine technologies like RPA (Robotic Process Automation), LCAP (Low-Code Application Platforms) and business process management into one, packaged tool.”

The development of RPA, Machine Learning (ML) and the many other innovations under the AI (Artificial Intelligence) umbrella will continue to expand at pace. All these technologies will become critical to how companies implement their DX. Take care, though, not to lose sight of the human element within these technologies. Adopting technologies for their own sake won’t deliver the advantages you expect. People and technology will become even more intimately connected over the next year.

Man holding a router

Intelligent connected networks will expand.

The rollout of 5G will accelerate and usher in a new era of connectivity. Coupled with IoT (Internet of Things), Wi-Fi 6, Edge Computing where some digital services that require very low latency will move the edges of the current digital network infrastructure and hybrid multi-cloud environments, and as more physical processes transition and embrace their Digital Twins, the networks your business uses today will be transformed. All these technologies will feed into your enterprise’s DX, as many will form the basis of your digital enterprise.

Security and digital resilience will become embedded in IT systems.

One of the most worrying trends I saw as the pandemic took hold was the lack of robust endpoint security many businesses failed to put in place as their network threat perimeters moved to their employees' homes. $70 million was demanded by the REvil group as a ransom to unlock the network of businesses targeted by the Kaseya breach. Next year as companies continue to accelerate their DX, robust, flexible, and agile security will be at the core of the changes enterprises make to their digital systems.

omnichannel - shopping across all touchpoints

The omni-channel becomes the anywhere channel.

E-commerce has been the massive winner as the pandemic continued. The shift to online retailing had been gaining pace, but as COVID-19 arrived, this shift moved into overdrive. Forrester says upwards of two-thirds of US and European consumers state the pandemic has changed how they shop. Over the next year, this trend will continue. Businesses that can develop intimate relationships with their customers will lead their market sectors. Using technology to enhance each touchpoint must be a component of every enterprise's DX. The value exchange that will occur across multiple channels will reinforce brand advocacy.

 

2022 will be a transformative year for many businesses that have weathered the storm of the pandemic. How enterprises organise themselves.

How workforces will be managed and empowered with digital tools, and how businesses will use their transition to a digital enterprise will all come into focus and deliver tangible advantages to every company that takes the steps necessary to transform.

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