Over the past sixty years, technology has redefined how people live and work, how commerce occurs, how citizens and governments engage, and so much more.
The resulting new products, services, and customer experiences have forever changed everyone’s competitive landscape. And the pace of change is accelerating. With digital transformation critical to every organization’s survival, it makes sense that organizations want to leverage and gain advantage from technology advancements.
- But where do you invest in a world where technology is a moving target?
- How do you balance adoption of emerging technologies versus doubling down on more proven, mainstream capabilities?
- And how do you raise your odds of success?
To help you answer these questions, in part one of this blog series I contrasted technology predictions (less than sure projections of the future) so prevalent at this time of year, versus sure technology bets (those things you can be 100% sure will happen). In part two, I provide my list of 10 sure bet technology trends you can count on to continue.
10 Technology Trends You Can Count On In 2020
- The business value of data continues to rise – Every business transformation today—be it greater customer intimacy, more optimized operations, faster innovation, and more—is fueled by data.
- Persistent demand for self-service data is unwavering – Enabled by easier-to-use, more powerful analytic tools, business users now demand access to all data, everywhere, at any and all times.
- Time-to-solution expectations for new data-driven solutions are even faster – With better data-driven solutions often the competitive battlefield, victory goes to the swift.
- Data’s relentless growth accelerates – Captured from the Internet, IoT devices, consumers, vendors, data service providers, and more, these sources combine with increasingly low cost storage to double the supply of data every 2.5 years.
- Data distribution further widens – Beyond the computer room, data increasingly spans diverse silos on desktops, mobile devices, machines, in the cloud, at third-parties, and more.
- Real-time data’s importance soars – Real-time responses to events is increasingly the key to success when engaging with customers and optimizing operations.
- Data quality remains elusive – Diverse and evolving data definitions, syntax, structures, sources, and uses conspire to limit data efficacy.
- New data related regulations will surely arise – Consuming a greater share of data-related spending, compliance with new regulations is not optional as governments respond to citizens’ privacy, security, bias, and other data-related threats.
- Data management becomes even more complex – Effective, efficient delivery of data’s value while addressing data’s myriad challenges stresses every organization’s data management strategy, infrastructure, and organization.
- The data management skills shortage persists – From DBA to data steward, from data engineer to developer, data management domain knowledge requirements are expanding faster than the complexity itself, thus slowing data value realization.
Data Is The Wisest Bet for 2020
Because data has always been both a source of opportunity and challenge, the fact that data is the common denominator across all ten of these continuing technology trends should come as no surprise. Addressing these data-related challenges has been a relentless journey—one you should expect to continue throughout 2020 and beyond. So investing in your data is certainly your wisest bet.
Ultimately, Winning Requires Relative Advantage
But how do you win when the “data game” appears so difficult?
In Las Vegas, across myriad games from blackjack to slot machines, winning is the result of numerous small, relative advantages that ultimately pay off. The math is simple when the slightest favorable advantage is multiplied by thousands of games played and thus results in a sure-fire winner over time.
- Is it possible to apply this same Las Vegas house advantage formula as you try to win your “data game”?
- What are some small relative advantages that you can apply to beat your competition?
- And how do you prioritize your efforts across all your people, process, and technology options?
In my next blog I will identify a set of data-related strategies—a winning formula so to speak—that you can use to increase your odds of success.
Stay tuned.
