Tag: Predictions

While data has long been the lifeblood of businesses – critical to making the right decisions at the right time to drive revenue, experiences, and outcomes – connectivity provides the means to keep that data in motion. And, connectivity has become a priority as employees, businesses, and consumers increasingly look for digital resiliency, where digital experiences are supported by ubiquitous, reliable and robust connectivity. Enterprise network must scale to support the ever-growing volume of data coming from both inside and outside the organization.

When we discuss the Future of Connectedness, we recognize that there is no actual end state to connectedness. Rather, it is an evolutionary path that leads to improved agility, increased business flexibility, and more adaptability for organizations as markets and business conditions inevitably shift. Employees and customers have come to expect that any digital interaction with things, applications, processes, or other people is guaranteed no matter where, when, or via what medium they choose.

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a key driver of change. The transition to hybrid work and more distributed workforces has created greater expectations from employees, customers, and partners for seamless anytime-anywhere digital interactions to mission-critical systems and processes. The convergence of physical and digital workspaces and storefronts and the evolution of smart spaces require business leaders to align technology, policy, and operations to drive agility and revenue.

As businesses look ahead to 2023 and beyond, they face added stressors – from inflation and economic uncertainty, regional conflicts, supply chain constraints, and a shortage of workers and staffing that align to key skill sets. While these forces play a role in key decisions, IDC data shows that 81% of organizations are still prioritizing connectivity programs. We expect companies to continue to leverage those investments to automate key processes, transform workplaces, improve customer experiences, and increase corporate resiliency. Connectivity programs will embrace 5G, edge, and cloud infrastructure and services to keep data moving.  More importantly, these programs will continue to improve efficiency and enable data to provide real-time insights to the business. As networks evolve and business needs scale or change, enterprise network and IT departments must align systems and processes. This will ensure business continuity, empower greater employee productivity, and help organizations quickly adapt to changing business environments and requirements.

IDC’s worldwide Future of Connectedness 2023 top 10 predictions are:

• Prediction 1: By 2024, 75% of enterprises will leverage cloud-based APIs to create customer engagement applications that integrate UCaaS/CPaaS platforms with multichannel options to improve customer experience.

• Prediction 2: By 2025, 50% of digital organizations will augment “cloud first” with a “wireless first” multi-access network fabric using diverse technologies for mission-critical and business continuity use cases.

• Prediction 3: By 2025, only 30% of organizations will benefit from defined 5G use cases due to fragmentation and lack of leadership among connectivity, technology, and managed services providers.

• Prediction 4: By 2026, 40% of enterprises will double investments in hyperconnected digital spaces to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and boost energy efficiency.

• Prediction 5: By 2024, 50% of large enterprises will use a hyperscaler’s cloud WAN service within their network, either directly or indirectly, pushing telcos further toward the role of service integrators.

• Prediction 6: By 2027, the metaverse will account for 70% of annual media traffic growth on the internet, where both consumer and business use cases will drive increased bandwidth demand.

• Prediction 7: By 2023, 40% of enterprises will benefit from optimized operational efficiency, enhanced security, and reduced network costs by leveraging SD-WAN and security for cloud-managed networking and security.

• Prediction 8: By 2024, 30% of enterprises will extend network attentiveness across all major IT teams (e.g., SecOps, DevOps, and AIOps) by expanding skill development, screening requirements, and NetOps interactions.

• Prediction 9: By 2026, 40% of companies will lag in executing a resilient connectivity strategy due to budget shortfalls, as workplace transformation becomes the new normal for customers, employers, and partners.

• Prediction 10: By 2027, 80% of G2000 enterprises will require LEO satellites to cover gaps in network coverage for remote, rural, and high-risk international locations.

Interested in learning more? Watch our on-demand webinar, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Connectedness 2023 Predictions.

As enterprises execute their transitions from digital transformation technology investment strategies to focusing on running digital businesses, a critical enabler will be the ability to innovate by developing differentiated and disruptive technologies. Data and data analytics will play increasingly important roles. In IDC’s view, companies that acquire the right data sets and apply the right analytics to derive key insights and build desirable capabilities will achieve desired business outcomes.

Our research supports this view. The rate of innovation in organizations with excellent enterprise intelligence was on average 2.5x faster than organizations with poor enterprise intelligence, according to IDC’s August 2021 Future of Intelligence Survey. Getting the data and analytics equation right, however, will require partnerships, rigor, efficiency, and ethics – all areas that are addressed in our predictions.

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated just how powerful digital technology and innovation can be in delivering resiliency, revenue, and opportunity to the enterprise in the face of crisis. Now, as we face additional global challenges, such as war, inflation, the threat of recession, and ongoing supply chain disruptions, enterprise relationships with technology will be more critical than ever. We anticipate the emergence of a divide between organizations that are able to scale development and delivery of digital innovation and those that can’t. Enterprises that deliver on digital innovation initiatives will emerge as leaders in their market sectors.

IDC’s 10 Future of Digital Innovation predictions are: 

• Prediction 1: By 2024, the top five companies in each sector will be those that used technology to innovate their way out of a global crisis such as recession or supply chain disruption.

• Prediction 2: By 2026, 10% of companies will successfully incentivize consumers to share closely held data to devise nontraditional offerings, improve customer experience, and grow market share.

• Prediction 3: By 2024, 35% of businesses that build innovative algorithms to glean intelligence from unique data sets will deliver successful new product offerings and pricing models and tap new customer segments.

• Prediction 4: By 2028, new efficiencies will allow developers to increase the share of time they spend on innovation from 25% of their development-related work to 75%.

• Prediction 5: By 2028, recurring revenue from smart products will make up 65% of revenue for companies that sell “dumb” and “smart” versions of the same products.

• Prediction 6: By 2026, 75% of market leaders will have systemic, structured digital innovation programs and investments that support ongoing iterative innovation, enabling growth, scale, agility, and resilience.

• Prediction 7: By 2026, companies that share data with business partners to leverage their collective data sets for new revenue potential will grow revenue 10% faster than those that don’t.

• Prediction 8: 85% of CEOs of the G2000 will demand senior leaders deliver data-driven insight into innovation activity including developer efficiency and business outcomes by 2025.

• Prediction 9: In 2027, the share of non-technology-focused people in companies who will spend 10 hours or more a week contributing to digital innovation will grow from 5% today to 45%.

• Prediction 10: In 2028, 15 large companies will make headlines for using digital technologies to manipulate customer experiences to spur upgrades and replacements.

Interested in learning more? Watch our on-demand webinar, IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Future of Digital Innovation 2023 Predictions.