As a business owner or leader, you have access to more technology options than ever before, to the extent that it can seem utterly baffling to keep up. Of the wide range of tech trends, which ones are worthy of your attention and (perhaps a more important question) which ones are worthy of your investment? 

Business strategy = technology strategy

What has become evident during the pandemic is the fact that business and technology are intertwined. Today’s business leaders have recognized that technology and business strategies can’t exist in silos, and that both inform the other. 

The pandemic upended many workplace conventions and business models to the extent that it accelerated digital transformations so that businesses could stay in business. Technology enabled remote work for organizations, facilitated new ways of showing up for customers, rerouted the promotion and sales of products and services, and kept everyone connected. 

These new constructs will only continue. Although the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be here forever, you can be sure there will be other unforeseen circumstances and situations out of your control that impact your business. 

What does the past year mean for your business’ future? Looking back at the past year, it would seem that embracing certain technology has the potential to help you prepare for the next disruption when that happens. 

Even though many talk about a return to “normal” when the pandemic ends, reverting to the pre-pandemic ways of doing things isn’t what will ensure a business’ success. Instead, business owners and leaders will need to be on the cusp of technology adoption to be resilient and get ahead. 

Trending now: What will we see in tech for 2021? 

Trends don’t crop up in isolation. Many of the trends that we are seeing right now are emblematic of that fact: established technologies are interacting with other existing or emerging technologies to either improve impact or bring further disruption to what were accepted norms. 

Here are some of the top technology trends to watch and potentially consider for your business.

Trend: Remote work is here to stay

Remote work has been around and on the increase for some time. But last year drove workers to work-from-home environments in record numbers—and businesses had to figure out how to empower that work and team connection. It’s predicted that remote work will continue to be a force, and that people will work not just from home, but from anywhere. 

Why you might consider it: Being a proponent of remote work helps you score difficult-to-find talent and makes you more competitive. It can also decrease overhead and lead to greater productivity. 

Trend: Democratized technology

Training and enabling every team member to be a technologist gives them the ability and latitude to solve a business problem with a technology solution—without opening an IT ticket every time. It involves a combination of democratizing technologies that are becoming increasingly accessible: Natural language processing, low-code platforms, and robotic process automation for instance, allow empowered team members to innovate and automate more quickly and with greater agility. IT will still play an important role in implementation, scaling programs, and broader technology efforts. 

Why you might consider it: For businesses who want to be on cutting edge, democratizing technology can reduce friction and involve everyone in digital transformation, without specialized skills. 

Trend: Digital twins

This has been called a technological leap “through the looking glass.” Digital twins are virtual representations of real-life objects or systems—exact digital counterparts of physical things. It takes in data to learn, reason, and make decisions, and gives engineers and business leaders a look at how a product or structure will cope with real-world scenarios not just now, but in the future. 

Why you might consider it: If you design and test products and need a view of their complete lifecycle and performance, this can save money and time over building and testing a physical thing. It can also give engineers a look at assets that are across the country or the world. 

Trend: Multiparty systems (MPS)

Being able to share info in real time is at the heart of this technology trend. Shared data infrastructure is more efficient and leads to new business and revenue models. Some examples: blockchain, tokenization, distributed ledger, and distributed database.

Why you might consider it: It’s the next evolution of taking all things digital, and involves an ecosystem mindset that truly lifts the limits on siloed approaches. It can broaden your reach, help you add untold value to your industry, and transform your partnerships. 

Trend: Machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI) enabling manufacturing

Known as MLOps, or machine learning operations, this applies AI to manufacturing to enable the discovery of new patterns and unveil new insights. It accelerates decision making, is highly collaborative, and follows many of the same patterns as DevOps to shorten production life cycles and eliminate waste. 

Why you might consider it: If you have data scientists and manufacturing operations, but need to bring the two together, MLOps can help close the gap between gaining insights and acting on those insights to drive business value. 

Trend: Zero trust model of security

Cyberattacks are ever more sophisticated, and zero trust has developed to bring a modern approach to cybersecurity. Rather than a defined perimeter (the “castle and moat” model), zero trust architectures are constructed to validate each and every access request based on all available data points: user identity, location, device, other variables. 

Why you might consider it: This can fortify your security while simplifying security management and improving user experience. If you’re already planning or in the throes of digital transformation, this new model of security may be the way to go.

How can you know if a particular technology is right for your business?

Which trends should you embrace? Not all will benefit you or be relevant to your business. Here are some questions to ask when evaluating a new (or new-to-you) technology: 

  1. Will it solve a particular problem that your business is facing? 
  2. Does it align with or advance the business objectives? 
  3. Are others in your industry using it?
  4. Will it enhance the way employees interact with each other, or how your business interacts with customers? 
  5. Will it negatively impact your business if you don’t adopt it? Will your business be left behind, unable to materially or otherwise contribute to your industry?
  6. What risks accompany the new technology (for example, are there cybersecurity or privacy concerns that haven’t been worked out yet?)?
  7. Do you have the human talent to accommodate the new technology? What skills and training need to be involved? 
  8. How does the new technology integrate with or disrupt existing solutions in your organization? 

Technology trends are exciting, and you can be sure that—just like it was promised the cloud would do, and has done—certain trends will transform how we do business. 

Do you need help weighing your technology options? You don’t have to do it alone. AccountabilIT helps you make sense of a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Find out how we can help you decide upon and implement the right technology solutions that will support your business goals.As a business owner or leader, you have access to more technology options than ever before, to the extent that it can seem utterly baffling to keep up. Of the wide range of tech trends, which ones are worthy of your attention and (perhaps a more important question) which ones are worthy of your investment? 

Business strategy = technology strategy

What has become evident during the pandemic is the fact that business and technology are intertwined. Today’s business leaders have recognized that technology and business strategies can’t exist in silos, and that both inform the other. 

The pandemic upended many workplace conventions and business models to the extent that it accelerated digital transformations so that businesses could stay in business. Technology enabled remote work for organizations, facilitated new ways of showing up for customers, rerouted the promotion and sales of products and services, and kept everyone connected. 

These new constructs will only continue. Although the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be here forever, you can be sure there will be other unforeseen circumstances and situations out of your control that impact your business. 

What does the past year mean for your business’ future? Looking back at the past year, it would seem that embracing certain technology has the potential to help you prepare for the next disruption when that happens. 

Even though many talk about a return to “normal” when the pandemic ends, reverting to the pre-pandemic ways of doing things isn’t what will ensure a business’ success. Instead, business owners and leaders will need to be on the cusp of technology adoption to be resilient and get ahead. 

Trending now: What will we see in tech for 2021? 

Trends don’t crop up in isolation. Many of the trends that we are seeing right now are emblematic of that fact: established technologies are interacting with other existing or emerging technologies to either improve impact or bring further disruption to what were accepted norms. 

Here are some of the top technology trends to watch and potentially consider for your business.

Trend: Remote work is here to stay

Remote work has been around and on the increase for some time. But last year drove workers to work-from-home environments in record numbers—and businesses had to figure out how to empower that work and team connection. It’s predicted that remote work will continue to be a force, and that people will work not just from home, but from anywhere. 

Why you might consider it: Being a proponent of remote work helps you score difficult-to-find talent and makes you more competitive. It can also decrease overhead and lead to greater productivity. 

Trend: Democratized technology

Training and enabling every team member to be a technologist gives them the ability and latitude to solve a business problem with a technology solution—without opening an IT ticket every time. It involves a combination of democratizing technologies that are becoming increasingly accessible: Natural language processing, low-code platforms, and robotic process automation for instance, allow empowered team members to innovate and automate more quickly and with greater agility. IT will still play an important role in implementation, scaling programs, and broader technology efforts. 

Why you might consider it: For businesses who want to be on cutting edge, democratizing technology can reduce friction and involve everyone in digital transformation, without specialized skills. 

Trend: Digital twins

This has been called a technological leap “through the looking glass.” Digital twins are virtual representations of real-life objects or systems—exact digital counterparts of physical things. It takes in data to learn, reason, and make decisions, and gives engineers and business leaders a look at how a product or structure will cope with real-world scenarios not just now, but in the future. 

Why you might consider it: If you design and test products and need a view of their complete lifecycle and performance, this can save money and time over building and testing a physical thing. It can also give engineers a look at assets that are across the country or the world. 

Trend: Multiparty systems (MPS)

Being able to share info in real time is at the heart of this technology trend. Shared data infrastructure is more efficient and leads to new business and revenue models. Some examples: blockchain, tokenization, distributed ledger, and distributed database.

Why you might consider it: It’s the next evolution of taking all things digital, and involves an ecosystem mindset that truly lifts the limits on siloed approaches. It can broaden your reach, help you add untold value to your industry, and transform your partnerships. 

Trend: Machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI) enabling manufacturing

Known as MLOps, or machine learning operations, this applies AI to manufacturing to enable the discovery of new patterns and unveil new insights. It accelerates decision making, is highly collaborative, and follows many of the same patterns as DevOps to shorten production life cycles and eliminate waste. 

Why you might consider it: If you have data scientists and manufacturing operations, but need to bring the two together, MLOps can help close the gap between gaining insights and acting on those insights to drive business value. 

Trend: Zero trust model of security

Cyberattacks are ever more sophisticated, and zero trust has developed to bring a modern approach to cybersecurity. Rather than a defined perimeter (the “castle and moat” model), zero trust architectures are constructed to validate each and every access request based on all available data points: user identity, location, device, other variables. 

Why you might consider it: This can fortify your security while simplifying security management and improving user experience. If you’re already planning or in the throes of digital transformation, this new model of security may be the way to go.

How can you know if a particular technology is right for your business?

Which trends should you embrace? Not all will benefit you or be relevant to your business. Here are some questions to ask when evaluating a new (or new-to-you) technology: 

  1. Will it solve a particular problem that your business is facing? 
  2. Does it align with or advance the business objectives? 
  3. Are others in your industry using it?
  4. Will it enhance the way employees interact with each other, or how your business interacts with customers? 
  5. Will it negatively impact your business if you don’t adopt it? Will your business be left behind, unable to materially or otherwise contribute to your industry?
  6. What risks accompany the new technology (for example, are there cybersecurity or privacy concerns that haven’t been worked out yet?)?
  7. Do you have the human talent to accommodate the new technology? What skills and training need to be involved? 
  8. How does the new technology integrate with or disrupt existing solutions in your organization? 

Technology trends are exciting, and you can be sure that—just like it was promised the cloud would do, and has done—certain trends will transform how we do business. 

Do you need help weighing your technology options? You don’t have to do it alone. AccountabilIT helps you make sense of a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Find out how we can help you decide upon and implement the right technology solutions that will support your business goals.