emerging it trends: a vision for the future of information technology

8/14/2019 Emerging IT Trends: A Vision for the Future of Information Technology

1/16

Title of brochureEverything ElasticAccenture Technology Vision 2009


2/16

2

What if your business capabili-ties could stretch, change andexpand at will?

What if your workforce is nolonger a defined group of peopleand skills but can include a widerange of talentthe occasionalexpert from far away who cansolve a difficult problem or ahundred new employees quicklybrought on board to meet asudden business spurt?

What if your business processesno longer reflected only whatyou do inside your companybut can gracefully include andintegrate constantly changingprocessesyours as well asthose of your suppliers, clientsand other business partners?

Accenture envisions a time, notlong from now, when businesscapabilities may essentially beelastic, capable of flexing toadjust to any level of economicvolatility and able to catapultyour organization to unprece-dented levels of performance.

An everything elastic businesswill be able to innovate far moreeffectively by augmenting itsresearch and development (R&D)efforts with input from anyand all employees, researchersfrom universities, its customersand even the public at large.The organizations IT capabilitieswill no longer be limited to thehardware and software locatedin the data centers but can besourced dynamically from arange of providers in different

geographies to suit localconditions and markets.

What if?


3/16

3

The trends that encourageelasticityElements of the elastic business alreadyare starting to take shape. More andmore high-performance businessesare thinking (and acting) in terms of the capabilities of fluid, rapid-responsenetworks rather than in the contextof long-standing relationships withdiscrete sets of traditional entities orof conventional operating models.

Now, though, Accenture expects thatelastic business capabilities will pro-liferate. The new era of elasticity isbeing ushered in by several importanttechnology trends. First, the Internetis rapidly becoming the locus of moreand more IT-based business capabilities.Related to that trend, two very distincttypes of collaboration technologiesone supporting effective, targeted,point-to-point collaboration and the

other supporting diffuse, open andcommunity-based collaborationareconverging and redefining how wework.

At the same time, technologies forextracting intelligence from data arematuring, adding urgency to all aspectsof data management. And mobiledevices are beginning to eclipsepersonal computers as the electronicchannel for businesses and consumers.

Meanwhile, netbooks are a surprisingmarket success, and smart phones,accessing rapidly expanding 3G networks, are becoming more andmore capable.

Accenture envisions a time, not longfrom now, when business capabilitiesmay essentially be elastic, capable

of flexing to adjust to any level of economic volatility and able to catapultyour organization to unprecedentedlevels of performance.


4/16

4

Four technologytrends to watchSo how do these trends relate to the technologyenvironment that business and IT leaders will confrontover the next five years? Accenture has identified fourimportant opportunities:


5/16

5

Internet computingWhats currently called cloud comput-ing represents a major shift away fromthe current IT paradigm in terms of technology, applications and businessmodels. This new paradigm enablestechnical capabilitieshardware, soft-ware and storageto be sourcedthrough the Internet across companyfirewalls and national boundaries. Assuch sourcing options proliferate,organizations will be able to create

new best-of-breed business appli-cations that are uniquely suited totheir needs rather than depending oncookie cutter processes provided bylarge, monolithic software packages.Moreover, the new capabilities can bebought as services (rather than prod-ucts) in a pay-as-you-go model.

Internet computing is enabled by aplethora of seemingly unrelated tech-nologies. Infrastructure virtualizationand multitenancy architectures enable

hardware and software providers toachieve economies of scale. Emergingstandards"Web services" and Repre-sentational State Transfer (REST)enable software components runninganywhere on the Internet to interactwith each other. Rich internet applica-tions enable internet-based applicationsto provide the same level of interac-tivity as local, client-based applicationsand to also support intermittent connec-tivity through caching. Internet-level

caching technologies (such as Akamais)eliminate some of the performanceproblems associated with remoteapplications.

To cap it all, development environmentssuch as Microsoft Azure and Google AppEngine as well as integrated marketsfor hosted software (force.com, forexample) are dramatically lowering

the barriers for software developersto develop and sell software as aservice through the Internet.

The implications for business and ITmanagers are intriguing:

Companies are no longer limitedby their internal (and usually fixed)technical and business capabilities,whether they are hardware, softwareor business processes.

IT leaders can quickly add computingcapacity as needed.

Business processes can be easilyshared and integrated with businesspartners.

Entry into emerging markets isstreamlined with shorter lead times,fewer fixed costs and easier interactionwith local partners.

Trend 1


6/16

6

So, whats new? Quite a bit, as itturns out. First: A major impedimentto accessing data from big, complexenterprise systems is being solved bystandards such as Web services andREST that are widely supported bytechnology vendors. Second: Severalmajor technology platform vendorshave acquired an analytics/businessintelligence company recently, sug-gesting much tighter integrationbetween the data held by the platform

and the intelligence needed to analyzeit. Third: New technologies such asmashups are enabling users to accessand manipulate live data from multiplesources to suit their particular job needsrather than depending on standardand usually out-of-date reports.

Fourth: A variety of sophisticateddata visualization tools have recentlyentered the market. The tools areintegrated into popular businessintelligence software; some supportcollaborative data visualization formultiple users. Fifth: Business processmanagement (where business processesare formally described and executedthrough orchestration) is graduallymaturing and has promise for auto-mating the adaptation of business

processes in response to patternsdetected in data.

Data and decisionsSophisticated use of data in decisionmaking is more an exception than arule in most companies in spite of large databases and even larger datawarehouses. The reasons are many:uncorrelated data silos from differentsystems across different departments,a mishmash of business processesinherited from different companiesthrough mergers and acquisitions, thedifficulty in accessing data from back-

end systems, the time lag between dataacquisition and use, the difficulty inchanging business processes that aredeeply embedded in IT systems, andso on.

Trend 2


7/16


8/16

8

m is the new eTwo distinct factorsthe speed of innovation and the extent of world-wide penetrationsupport predictionsthat mobile devices will augment and inmany cases supplant personal computersas the new e-business channel foremployees and customers.

First, innovation in mobile devicescontinues at breakneck speed: Todayshigh-end devices run on 800 MHz

processors, have storage capacities ashigh as 32GBwith touch-sensitive orOLED screens, Wi-Fi connectivity,near-field communications (NFC) forinteracting with the environment, 3G network speeds of up to 384Kbps,GPS-based location identification,motion sensors and accelerometers,8-megapixel cameras and a widerange of audio and video entertain-ment features.

They are also becoming full-fledgedplatforms capable of running a widerange of third-party applications. Andseveral devicesnotably the G1 phonefrom Googleoffer open source plat-forms that promise to expand thepotential application universedramatically.

Second: The extent and depth of mobile device penetration worldwideis staggering. Nearly 4 billion people

60 percent of all those alive todayare mobile customers, with more thanhalf a billion new customers added in2008 alone. Interestingly, 75 percentof all subscribers are located in

emerging markets, and the mobilephone is their sole means of electroniccommunication. Nearly all of the deviceshave Short Message Service (SMS)texting capability and an increasingnumber (although no reliable figuresexist) have rudimentary Internet con-nectivity. Estimates suggest that by2013, nearly 70 percent of mobilephones in developed nations willsupport an Internet browser andnear-field communications.

Trend 3


9/16

Of course, from the standpoint of a dyed-in-the-wool corporate ITtraditionalist, mobile devices are anunnecessary nuisancea source notonly of platform proliferation anddemands by employees for multiplelevels of access and support but aworrying hole in the organizationssecurity network. However, Accenturehas pinpointed the technologies thatare emerging to respond to suchsecurity concerns and that are mov-

ing smart phones closer to a singlebrowser-based interface.

Accenture has also begun to chroniclean array of business benefits offeredby mobile devices. Just a few hints of the potential:

In the developed world, mobilephones will augment e-commerceactivity, reduce payment transactioncosts and provide new levels of cus-tomer support.

In the emerging world, pure textingfrom mobile phones is starting tobe used in creative ways, the mostnotable one being the M-PESA moneytransfer system widely used in Kenya.

As smartphone penetration increasesamong corporate employees, it willbecome easier to create a singlebrowser-based interface.

New technology will allow mobiledevices to be controlled remotely,including remote monitoring and

security.

9


10/16


11/16

11


12/16

12

Influencers affecting the paceof changeAccenture sees three factors thatcould significantly accelerate ordecelerate the adoption of these trendsby corporations and by individuals:

The Millennial Generation: Looselydefined as those now between theirmid-teens and late twenties, theMillennial Generation represents youngpeople who have grown up in a milieu

of e-mail, multi-player games, MP3music, digital cameras, mobile phones,social networks and other trappingsof the digital world.

The influence of this generation on thedirection of information technology,particularly as it applies to the work-force, cannot be discounted. Accentures

Class of 2008 research on the mil-lennials tastes and behaviors suggeststhat they want choice in many of thetechnologies they use at work and arelikely to routinely bypass corporatecontrols in terms of using online tools(if they are even aware of those con-trols). They will be quick to downloadopen-source software if they deemit useful, and they have a morerelaxed sense of privacy than doprior generations.

Specifically, the research revealed thatin nearly every category of workplacetechnology, more than 20 percent of the young respondents believeemployer-provided technologies didnot meet expectations, while one-third of the younger millennialsexpect not only to use the computerof their choice once they are in the

workforce, but to access the applica-tions they choose. Further, we foundthat one out of four millennials nowin the workplace say that they writeopenly about themselves and friendsonline, and one in six say they haveno secrets online.

Millennials attitudes toward technologymatter enormously for a blindinglyobvious reason: they are rapidly becomingthe new face of the US workforce.

Their comfort with technology willforce many corporate leaders to con-front some discomfiting truths abouttheir IT practices and policies. But forthe farsighted, the millennials easewith all things high tech will be anoutstanding opportunity to outperformtheir competitors.


13/16

13

Cyber-security and IT risk: Already,the security and availability of IT sys-tems, networks and data assume criticalsignificance in terms of ensuring busi-ness continuity. It is by no means astretch to say that Internet computingincreases security risks in many ways.However, it could be argued that riskis actually reduced because organiza-tions can increasingly entrust theirsystems and data to providers for whichmanaging IT is a core competence.

Further, Internet computing can main-tain multiple levels of redundancy andmake a companys IT capabilitiesimmune to local catastrophes. Howcompanies perceive these risks willclearly influence the pace of adoptionof these technologies. An isolated eventsuch as a massive network failure, adeliberate cyber attack or governmentregulation could easily divert IT spend-ing toward keeping anything andeverything in-house, elasticity or not.

Climate change and sustainabledevelopment: While the dramatic dropin energy prices in the latter half of 2008 has made energy conservation alower priority than last year, at mostcompanies, long-standing and wide-spread concern about global warmingand climate change continue to influ-ence policies and regulations. NewEuropean Union sustainability mandateshave recently been signed into law,and the new US administration has

a declared policy of energy indepen-dence. Meanwhile, Chinas governmentis allocating resources to combat climatechange. As such, the concerns andregulations around sustainable devel-opment will surely affect the directionof ITranging from the push for moreefficient data centers to smart powergrids to wider use of IT systems toenable business processes such aslogistics to become more environ-mentally friendly.


14/16

14

At many companies, it is still common for importantdecisions about IT to be made on the basis of historicalprecedent and the organizations legacy culture.

The assumptions that drive manyof those decisions are rooted in theworld of fixed organization structuresand relationships, and reinforced byrigid ideas of technologys place inhelping ensure high-performancebusinesses.

But now those assumptions must berethought. It is no longer sufficientfor business and IT leaders to lookback to see what worked in the past.To properly prepare for tomorrow,they must also think in terms of everything elasticand act to buildhighly flexible organizations byharnessing the powerful technologytrends that we have described.


15/16

15


16/16

Copyright 2009 AccentureAll rights reserved.

Accenture, its logo, andHigh Performance Deliveredare trademarks of Accenture.

To understand more about howAccenture can help you achieve highperformance through technology,contact:

Don [email protected]+1 703 947 2900

Kishore [email protected]+1 312 693 1033

Dadong [email protected]+1 312 693 6806

About AccentureTechnology LabsAccenture Technology Labs, the dedicatedtechnology research and development(R&D) organization within Accenture, hasbeen turning technology innovation intobusiness results for more than 20 years.The Labs create the Accenture Technology

Vision, a view of how technology willshape the future, and invent the nextwave of cutting-edge business solutions.Working closely with Accentures globalnetwork of specialists, Accenture Technol-ogy Labs helps clients innovate to achievehigh performance. The Labs are locatedin Chicago, Illinois; San Jose, California;Sophia Antipolis, France; and Bangalore,India. For more information, please visit

our website at www.accenture.com/accenturetechlabs.

About AccentureAccenture is a global managementconsulting, technology services andoutsourcing company. Combiningunparalleled experience, comprehen-sive capabilities across all industriesand business functions, and extensiveresearch on the worlds most success-ful companies, Accenture collaborateswith clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.With more than 186,000 people servingclients in over 120 countries, the companygenerated net revenues of US $23.39 billionfor the fiscal year ended August 31, 2008.Its home page is www.accenture.com.

emerging it trends: a vision for the future of information technology

Documents