CIO Trend Report 2017

New service bundles, cost reduction strategies, ways for users to self-manage, and opportunities for collaboration are on the horizon. The Digital Ecosystem is driven by near ubiquitous connectivity, powered by a meshed network of objects and devices, and the capacity to have them all access the internet.

The business is demanding real-time responses to increasing amounts of data; this is where the need for an extension of the human mind is born from. Outsourcing analysis and interpretation of information to a machine is the response to the human mind’s finite ability to process and react to data in an expedient manner.

The external environment, through devices, can now be re-rendered and fitted with an overlay of information that technology users can observe and interact with. This environment can also be totally immersive, where users no longer view what is external, and their reality becomes virtual. These same users can also interact with their technology, physically, in a broad range of wearable experiences.

Organizations can now share their challenges, pain points, and opportunities, and in doing so, extend their capabilities far beyond the confines of their “four walls.” The XaaP trend is driven by the convergence between open data and the proliferation of the Application Programming Interface (API).

Machines represent the opportunity for humankind to eventually stop having to do any activities deemed to be undesirable on the basis of physical difficulty, repetition, monotony, and danger. Augmenting the human physical capability can lead to immense benefit in terms of increased productivity and locomotion.

From the trend towards peer reviewing goods and services online to the social sourcing of news media and information, there is a growing comfort and appetite for leveraging the collective crowd to help make individual decisions. This could replace our current system for processing transactions, moving assets, and any and all other cases where an institution is a middle-man.

Business needs have become very diverse and groups are consuming technology in different patterns. As such, an adaptive IT operating model must support and enable multiple groups of technology service consumers, while continuously pivoting to meet changing business conditions and needs.

Conventional construction and creation is being challenged. The world of complex logistics, centralized manufacturing, and the waste it creates coupled with the desire for more flexibility have given rise to a new trend towards decentralized making.