Overview and Background
The proliferation of digital technologies has remained substantial over the past two decades. More than 50 billion connected devices are expected by 2020, a 5x growth over 2010. IT Leaders are looking towards next generation technologies to fill the intelligence and accuracy gaps that current IT systems face every day. Intelligent automation of workflows and business processes using a combination of technologies such as deep learning, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, analytics, cognitive security, IOT enabled devices, industry 4.0, smart products (sensors, drones, robots), and augmented and virtual reality is driving higher levels of efficiencies and transforming the fundamental way of doing business in almost every sector globally. According to Frost & Sullivan’s research the technology trends driving innovation in ICT are as follows:
- DATA IS EXPERIENCING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH: With the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) and connected ecosystems, data is growing rapidly and is becoming an integral part of the evolving IT infrastructure. Data analytics is becoming a standard tool for enterprises to realize digitisation in the business workflow.
- COGNITIVE SECURITY IS DEEMED A CRITICAL PRIORITY: World Economic Forum (WEF) has listed cybercrime as the top global risk for any business in 2018. Recent trends in cyber security solutions are focused on developing security systems with their own machine intelligence for threat detection and mitigation in real time without human intervention.
- 5G, A GROWTH CATALYST IN THE DIGITAL AGE: As proliferation of IoT applications gains traction, the requirement for high speed networks becomes essential. 5G technology is expected to improve network capacity significantly, which will power next-generation technologies such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence and serve as a driving force for the connected world.
Innovation from an industry perspective
Innovative application and usage of technology is transforming the way in which industries are harnessing the power of new technologies and connected devices. Frost & Sullivan’s engagement with industries indicates that Enterprises across all industries want to digitise internal and customer facing processes to increase efficiency and productivity. There is, however, a certain degree of hesitation to implement smart solutions either because of legacy systems and or unclear vision and strategy on capturing the full potential of technology. While there is a general understanding that technology offers tremendous opportunity to improve decision making and customer experience while reducing cost, the biggest challenge that enterprises face is finding the right technology partner that can support the implementation of innovative technologies, provide end-to-end (i.e. from network infrastructure to terminals) perspective, and help in developing use cases.
Outlook
Technology innovation is here, offering tremendous growth opportunities. While enterprises will embrace change, technology providers should be prepared to support enterprises through this transformation. The technology market is highly competitive with similar technology driven solutions offered to enterprises which lack industry focus. Hence, successful technology providers will ensure that they have a dedicated industry-focused team with industry expertise to deepen client relationships with the ability to cross sell and offer innovative branding and flexible price strategies. Large technology providers like Tech Mahindra have developed dedicated teams across communications, retail, manufacturing, financial services and healthcare. This certainly helps Tech Mahindra to stay ahead of the competition and feature as one of the technology vendors that provides a diversified and complete suite of innovative solutions targeting each industry individually. The IT services giant has further sharpened its strategy, with a precise 3-4-3 approach, i.e. focusing on 3 mega trends centralised around connected devices, 4 technology areas (digital, software, IoT, and network), and 3 other areas that are more focused on adding more agility to TechM’s style of management.
Authored by: Saurabh Verma, Associate Director, Digital Transformation Practice, Frost & Sullivan.
Click here to Read the Article
