Current Trends in Technology
Technology is firmly embedded in every aspect of our lives. Consulting firm Accenture has identified five technology trends. These help guide our strategic thinking. They are big-picture trends, so how does a small to medium business react? How can you use technology to improve competitiveness?
The short answer is to get as close to your customer as you can.
The trends put the customer firmly at the centre. The amount of data now being collected means businesses are more closely connected to customers. Offers are more individualised. Ever smaller niches are being created. Transactions are expected to be seamless. Reputation and trust are critical.
The trends identified by Accenture are broad and all-encompassing. They environment outlined provokes questions about your business fit. What are the strategic implications for your organisation?
Following on from this I suggest a number of areas for review, to determine the potential for improved competitiveness.
Accenture provide an annual top-level, big picture overview of where technology is headed. The question becomes – how does a smaller enterprise use this information? – information that is critical to strategic thinking, and should be interpreted carefully.
The five trends they identify are:
- Citizen AI – raising artificial intelligence to aid business and society;
- Extended Reality – the end of distance;
- Data Veracity – the importance of trust;
- Frictionless Business – built to partner and scale; and
- Internet of Thinking – creating intelligent distributed systems.
Are You Riding the Trend – or Resisting the Change?
The common thread underlying these trends is closeness to the customer. Technology is allowing us to better know and understand our customers. This increasingly close connection also comes with social responsibilities which need to be redefined.
To be aware of how well your organisation fits with these trends, there are some review activities which you might consider.
- Build better feedback loops. Get to know your customers better than you ever have. Really understand what motivates them and why they buy your products or services. Why they choose yours over competitive offers. What is the customer experience? How can it be improved? Make this a regular and standard part of your operations.
- Review all products and services. How do your features and benefits compare with competitive offers? Where is technology being applied to change product or service offerings?
- Review your operational processes – especially the transaction process and sales follow-up or customer service elements. People expect business to be seamless today – where can it be streamlined? What internal processes can be automated or simplified. Where can technology be used to remove or reduce operating costs?
- Review data and systems for inbuilt biases that may be detrimental – e.g. lending criteria and decision-making based on historical data which may preclude entry into newly identified and potentially profitable niches. Where does your data come from? Where else can you collect useful data? How do you analyse and use this?
- Make an objective assessment of reputation and brand interpretation – know if the world really sees you as you think (or want). How consistent is this with the position you aim for?
- Review social networks and build better social contracts with your customers.