Five Trends That Will Change Your Business

by KPMG Agenda Magazine, 10 June 2011

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topics:
Technology

tags:
cloud computing consumerization of IT m-commerce security sentiment analytics smartphones tablet PCs

Forecasting the impact of new technology on long-term business plans is a minefield for any major company. For every internet-sized revolution, there’s a Segway-shaped failure waiting round the corner.

Tudor Aw, KPMG’s head of technology and a partner in the UK firm, identifies five trends worth factoring into your future: 1) cloud computing, 2) consumerization of IT, 3) m-commerce, 4) security and 5) sentiment analytics.

Cloud computing

Gartner’s “hype cycle” identifies the stages any major new technology goes through en route to mainstream acceptance, from inflated expectation through disillusionment to eventual productivity. Right now, says Aw, cloud computing is over-hyped – but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a viable long-term technology.

The cloud allows businesses to migrate services and applications to a remotely hosted hub operated by a third party. Today, companies are using it for specific functions such as collating sales information remotely or making email accounts mobile.

Eventually, entire operating systems or ERP tools could be hosted in the cloud. But Aw says vendors haven’t really communicated its benefits: “Most CEOs are fairly confused by the terminology.”

The security risks posed by hosting customer or mission-critical data externally remain a concern, but Aw says: “With any technology it’s worth looking at risk in terms of size of threat versus probability. With cloud computing, while the size of the threat is clearly high, if you perform due diligence with your provider, the probability may actually be lower than keeping data in-house.”

As he points out, all but the very largest organizations are likely to have a smaller IT function and less thorough security measures than major cloud vendors.

Consumerization of IT

When you’re kitted out with the latest gadgets at home, trying to do business in the office on a desktop PC feels archaic. The increasing affordability of faster, more functional tablet PCs and smartphones is creating greater expectations among employees – and businesses must react.

“Most people are tech-savvy nowadays and are bringing those expectations into the enterprise space,” says Aw. “They’re frustrated by the IT function and find their user experience compromised.”

Forrester Research found that 34% of younger employees believe the technology they use at home is superior to their work hardware. Staff often “go rogue” and find workarounds, bringing personal devices into the office or using LinkedIn for internal networking rather than more official channels.

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