The coming year 2021 will not be a usual year with the prevailing Covid-19 situation and badly this pandemic already has been created a situation of staying in the home for all of us. Industries all over the world could be survived up to a certain and considerable level with technologies which can be practically used to support the workforce even in a situation like working remotely. Employees have also been able to save their employments with the opportunities that today’s technologies created.
According to the Deloitte’s 12th annual Tech Trends report, we will quickly look at the insights and inspiration for the digital journey ahead. The report presented 9 tech trends under 6 main areas as below in the table for the year 2021.
Trend 1: Strategy, engineered
Today’s technology has brought new competitive advantages to some organizations, and it has brought continued survival threats to other organizations. As a result, the distinction between company strategy and technology strategy has become blurred-both need to inform each other. Savvy corporate strategists are going beyond the current technological capabilities and competitive landscape of their organizations, considering the broader future possibilities of how technology can expand their business scope and ways to win. However, the complex uncertainty and range of possibilities may make the human brain unable to deal with it on its own. This is why strategists turn to strategic technology platforms with advanced analysis, automation and artificial intelligence capabilities. Organizations are using these tools to continuously identify internal and external strategic forces, provide information for strategic decisions and monitor results. As a result, the company is transforming strategy development from an infrequent and time-consuming process to a continuous and dynamic process, thereby helping strategists to think more broadly and creatively about the broad possibilities of the future.
Trend 2: Core revival
Modernizing old enterprise systems and migrating them to the cloud can help unlock the organization’s digital potential. Until recently, these efforts could also undermine the digital transformation budget of the same organization. For many, the cost of the required cloud migration and other core modernization strategies may be prohibitive. This will change. In Deloitte’s recognized growth trend, some pioneering companies have begun to use clever outsourcing arrangements to redesign traditional business cases to achieve core modernization. Similarly, some companies are exploring opportunities to transfer core assets to increasingly powerful platforms (including low-code options). Finally, many companies promote their platform-first strategy by solving technical problems in the ERP system and migrating non-essential functions to other platforms. In the business climate defined by historical uncertainty, these innovative methods to obtain more value from traditional core assets may soon become a standard part of every CIO’s digital transformation manual.
Trend 3: Supply unchained
For a long time, the supply chain has been regarded as the cost of doing business. It is moving from the back office to the value-added front line of customer segmentation and product differentiation. Future-oriented manufacturers, retailers, distributors, etc. are exploring ways to transform the supply chain cost center into a customer-centric value driver. They are getting more value from the data collected, analyzed and shared across the supply network. Finally, some of these organizations are exploring opportunities to use robots, drones, and advanced image recognition to make employees’ physical supply chain interactions more efficient, effective, and safe. Of course, transforming an established supply chain into a flexible, customer-centric supply network will be a challenge, and for most organizations, this will be an ongoing journey-vital. The kind of destruction we saw in the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to become the norm. When the next global event arrives, technology and supply chain leaders will not be able to claim that they have not seen the upcoming events.
Trend 4: MLOps: Industrialized AI
Advanced machine learning models can help companies effectively discover patterns, reveal anomalies, make predictions and decisions, and generate insights, and are increasingly becoming a key driver of organizational performance. Companies realize that they need to transform from personal heroes to engineering performance in order to effectively transfer machine learning models from development to production and management. However, due to awkward, fragile development and deployment processes that hinder trials and hinder collaboration between product teams, operations staff, and data scientists, many people’s efforts have been hindered. As AI and ML mature, a lot of engineering and operational discipline can help organizations overcome these obstacles and effectively extend AI to achieve business transformation. In order to realize the broader transformative benefits of AI and ML, the manual AI era must give way to one of the industrialized insights of automation. Enter MLOps, also known as ML CI/CD, ModelOps, and ML DevOps: Application of DevOps tools and methods in model development and delivery to achieve industrialization and large-scale machine learning from development and deployment to ongoing model maintenance and management.
Trend 5: Machine data revolution: Feeding the machine
As machine learning prepares to overhaul business operations and decision-making, more and more AI pioneers realize that legacy data models and infrastructure (all designed to support human rather than machine decision-making) may become obstacles to the success of ML. In response, these organizations are taking steps to disrupt the data management value chain from start to finish. As part of a growing trend, they are deploying new technologies and methods, including advanced data capture and structuring capabilities, analysis to identify connections between random data, and next-generation cloud-based data to support complex modeling storage. Together, these tools and technologies can help organizations transform the ever-increasing amount of data into the future foundation of a new era. In the new era, machines can not only enhance human decision-making capabilities, but also make real-time and large-scale capabilities that humans cannot make.
Trend 6: Zero trust: Never trust, always verify
Complex cyber attacks and the rapidly changing corporate environment have disrupted traditional (some flawed) castle and moat cyber security methods. Zero trust is rooted in the following concept: modern enterprise environments require different security methods: there is no longer a defined scope within which every user, workload, device, and network is inherently trusted. In a zero trust architecture, each access request should be validated based on all available data points (including user identity, device, location, and other variables that provide context for each connection and allow more nuances based on risk). Data, applications, workloads, and other resources are treated as a single manageable unit containing vulnerabilities, and access is provided based on the principle of least privilege. The automation and engineering required to properly implement a zero-trust security architecture can help strengthen the security posture, simplify security management, improve the end user experience, and enable the modern enterprise environment. However, the transition to zero trust may require tremendous effort and planning, including solving basic network security issues, automating manual processes, and planning changes to security organizations, technological prospects, and the enterprise itself.
Trend 7: Rebooting the digital workplace
As the world’s largest unplanned work from home continues, many business leaders are asking unresolved questions: After the dust settles, will remote work be the rule or the exception? Is permanent remote labor sustainable? How will productivity and employee well-being be affected? If there is no face-to-face peer contact, will innovation suffer? What role will the physical office play? By more intentionally embracing the positive aspects of the digital workplace, including data generated by employees’ tools and platforms, companies may be able to overcome the deficiencies and ambiguities of the digital workplace. This can help organizations optimize individual and team performance and customize the employee experience through personalized recommendations, making remote work far more than just a traditional office agent. As on-site workspaces and headquarters grow, organizations can use this data to create thriving, efficient, and cost-effective offices that are seamlessly intertwined with remote experiences.
Trend 8: Bespoke for billions: Digital meets physical
When we look back, 2020 will be a turning point for most people to adapt to digital interaction for daily life, whether it is working from home, studying online or ordering groceries. However, the proliferation of digital interaction is a day when many of us desire to interact in person. As we look to the future, we hope that consumers will no longer be satisfied with the unique physical or digital brand experience: they want the best combination of the two without sacrificing the convenience of online transactions (a highly personalized personal experience) mix together. In the next 18 to 24 months, we hope that the personal experience and digital experience will become more seamless and intertwined. Online and offline interactions will no longer be separate experiences-the customer’s journey will consist of personal and digital elements, which are integrated and deliberately designed to create a seamless brand experience that adapts to the behaviors and attitudes of individual customers and preferences.
Trend 9: DEI tech: Tools for equity
Many organizations are embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion as business imperatives, with a growing number adopting holistic, organizationwide workforce strategies that address biases and inequities to enhance enterprise and employee performance. While HR professionals often lead DEI strategies, technology leaders play a critical role as a strategic partner by designing, developing, and executing tech-enabled solutions to address increasingly complex DEI workforce challenges. Over the coming months, we expect enterprises to adopt new tools that incorporate advanced analytics, automation, and AI, including natural language processing and machine learning, to help inform, deliver, and measure the impact of DEI.
Sources:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/insights/articles/6730_TT-Landing-page/DI_2021-Tech-Trends.pdf
Originally published at https://www.agnasarp.com on December 28, 2020.
