Top telecom and technologies predictions from Gartner

Many industry
business models will be challenged through 2015 as customers continue to adopt
an always-connected digital lifestyle and market competitors exploit emerging
technologies to achieve business growth and success.


Cloud computing
and social media will continue to provide industries with new avenues for
effective customer communication and engagement, facilitating increased revenue
and sustainable interaction with key customers. New technologies such as media
tablets and advances in mobile will have a disruptive impact on many
industries, requiring changes to existing processes and propelling business
transformation.


For industry
CIOs, senior business executives and IT leaders, navigating economic and market
volatility will be a critical success factor in 2012 and beyond. With this
year’s industry predictions, Gartner analysts are highlighting the emerging
trends that will better position industry leaders to align their business
practices with the needs of customer and business partners.


The top
industry predictions include:

 

    * By 2016, most
consumers in mature markets will consider in-vehicle Web access a key criterion
in their automobile purchase.

 

    * By 2014, major
national defaults in Europe will lead to the collapse of more than one-third of
European banks.

 

    * By 2015, new,
external social Web and cloud-based services will generate 25 percent of consumer-driven
banking products and services.

 

    * By 2013, iPad
penetration among pharma sales reps will reach 85 percent, then shift to
applications that improve delivery and interaction tracking.

 

    * By 2016, the
iPad will gain less than 50 percent of the K-12 market as CIOs favor devices
that are deployed more readily.

 

    * By 2015, 30
percent of smart grid projects will leverage cloud services to address big data
from converging technologies.

 

    * By 2015, 20
percent of integrated delivery systems will be investing in new
healthcare-targeted customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

 

   * By 2014, 30
percent of U.S. private healthcare payers will acquire providers, forcing
integration of application suites as delivery and finance merge.

 

    * By year-end
2014, at least one social network provider will become an insurance sales
channel.

 

    * By 2016, more
than 5 percent of searches will be integrated using mobile devices’ video/audio
sensors instead of typed or spoken phrases.

 

    * Through 2015,
80 percent of multichannel implementations will fail because retailers will
retain channel- and product-centric strategies.

 

    * By 2013,
government financial sustainability will join cost containment as the top
driver and constraint for government IT spending.

 

    * By 2015,
context-aware promotions will comprise 10 percent of convenience item
promotional activity among consumer goods manufacturers in developed markets.

 

   * Until 2015,
ineffective IT/OT management will risk serious failures in more than 50 percent
of enterprises, and critical failures in asset-dependent ones.

 

    * By 2014, the
five largest PLM software providers will make social networking an integral
part of their solution.

 

In 2011, many
industries globally had to cope with a stubbornly sluggish economy that
challenged enterprises to balance the sometimes conflicting imperatives of
maintaining costs control while enabling innovation. The market, economic,
demographic and technological environments that industries will face in 2012
will require them to be nimble in their operations and enterprise practices.
Being agile and adopting new business practices will be imperative for survival
in 2012.


By Kimberly
Harris-Ferrante, vice president and distinguished analyst, Gartner
[email protected]