As a technology consulting firm, our core focus is on building digital platforms that solve our clients’ problems. A key value driver for us is our ability to leverage innovative technologies on engagements and there’s no better way to do so than staying ahead of technology trends. 

We decided to take a proactive research approach and in late 2016, we reached out to clients, partners and friends of Tivix with a survey to capture a range of cross-industry attitudes towards technology trends and strategy. Our aim was to collect a broad sampling of opinions on what lies ahead in 2017 and beyond. The organizations surveyed came from industries including finance, healthcare, professional services, engineering, software and more. 

Key trends

Cloud shows no signs of drying up

88% of survey respondents rated cloud as the most strategically important technology for the coming year. This result echoes analyst predictions that 2017 will see unprecedented migration to the cloud from Global 2000 companies. 

High-profile data breaches in 2016 have highlighted that securing cloud services is essential, with many of our clients adding that enhanced cloud security was a strong concern for their business. The ease of setup and scaling, and the benefits of automated deployments means that adopting Infrastructure as a Service models provides a clear advantage for enterprise. Legacy applications will continue their migration to the cloud, albeit at an increased pace as the advantages of automation make this challenge that bit easier. 

Mobile is still a priority

The decline or death of mobile apps has been a popular theme in many technology and business publications over the past year. However according to our research, mobile remains the second most important technology to our clients after Cloud. 78% of survey respondents indicated it is the most strategically important technology to their organization in 2017. 

What we see is not so much that mobile is going away (which it clearly isn’t) but that people don’t see mobile apps as a standalone initiative anymore. Today the expectation for consumers is simply that cloud-based applications can be used via many different devices, including mobile. 

As anyone in the technology space can attest, hype over emerging technologies can cloud judgment. But businesses – and marketers in particular – should not lose sight of the fact that some of the most hyped emerging technologies such as Voice as an Interface, VR, AR and AI are finding their best executions so far on mobile devices.

Business/Process Automation

Businesses use software because it offers the advantage of automating many manual, repetitive tasks and calculations. As the capability of software increases, so will its application to business / process automation tasks. The advent of SaaS, cloud computing and smart mobile devices, along with the increase in the availability of data through open APIs have ushered in a new wave of business / process automation solutions and vendors. 

Over 60% of respondents to our survey identified Business / Process automation as a strategically important technology initiative. In practice we have seen this trend manifesting itself in the adoption of automated reporting tools, ERP systems and the integration of different tools with existing CRM software. 

Technology budgets

Technology and IT budgets show no sign of decreasing in 2017. Only 3% of organizations surveyed will see their budget decrease in 2017. With software becoming deeply ingrained into the core of many business models, the concept of a ‘technology budget’ may disappear, as organizations refocus their efforts on shifting and/or enhancing their products and services with digital products. These results correlate  with broader industry commentary.

Conclusion

The past few years have seen digital platforms and services establish themselves as the emerging market leaders. The results of the Tivix Technology Trends Survey 2017 suggest that this trend will continue, and we predict, even accelerate. Investments in technology initiatives show no signs of slowing down, with pilot programs for emerging technologies now showing results, we predict that technology initiatives will take a larger proportion of budget and priority in the year ahead. 

With non-technology businesses rapidly becoming software-based, we’re experiencing a trend where businesses which haven’t been built on technology are increasingly finding ways to digitize and leverage the competitive advantages that software can provide.