Friday, September 23, 2011

What will change the business world in 2012?

It depends who you are, but there are some mega-trends that permeate through a variety of job functions and industries. Here are some that are flying up the adoption curve:


Social business

The last 20 years of behavioral and technological change have taken us to the point where interactions on the web are starting to replace face-to-face interactions. This is going far beyond membership and presence in social networks and you will see new tools enabling new forms of collaboration, transparency and monitoring both internally and externally.


Mobile business

“The Pew Internet Project finds that one third of American adults – 35% – own smartphones” and this number will only continue to rise. Whether it’s a tablet, smartphone or virtual desktop, work and information consumption are happening anywhere and anytime. The adoption curve is still in its early stages here but you’ll see applications, advertising, email, video and work productivity optimized for mobile devices in the coming years.


Cloud computing

Remember when the Internet would tie up your phone line, it took minutes for pages to load and nobody over 30 knew how to use it? 15 years later it has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Email and online notifications are standard communication tools, your global sales team can see and sync real-time contact data thanks to SaaS CRM, anybody can share calendars and edit documents with collaboration tools like Google Docs, and you can present to anyone in the world live through the Web. The Internet will grow more powerful and data will increasingly flow through “the cloud.”


Business intelligence and analytics

Do you know the value of the work you do every day? Do you know how you could be more efficient and valuable to your company? Software can tell you. No matter what function or sector you work in you are producing data that should be analyzed. IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign encapsulates this perfectly. Costs will be reduced, people will be more productive, and products or services that aren’t proving their worth will be exposed. Everything can and should be measured. Soon you’ll know whether all your investments and efforts are worthwhile.


Automation

The world is going to be run by robots! Not yet, but technology can reduce error, free up resources and make every business more efficient. Data center IT automation is getting off the ground, CRM systems can be integrated with web forms and engagement data and automated for lead distribution, content can be automatically published and controlled with RSS feeds, trading floors are losing ground to trading algorithms and the days of real people at the other end of phone calls are numbered. The positive is that automation doesn’t necessarily mean loss of jobs – it just means people will get to stop doing busy work and start making a bigger impact.


Instability

Disruptive companies are getting millions and billions of dollars in investment to take down tradition and change the way we live. Companies and industries are starting and stopping at a breakneck pace while governments and banks are at risk of default around the world. It won't be next year, but maybe sometime soon the world will be able to look back at the innovations of 2012, take a deep breath and watch the economy grow again.