In this particular 2022 that has changed our lives due to the impact of COVID-19, technology is an important cushion that minimizes the impact suffered by people and companies.
This success represents a boost in the digitization of organizations and marks the future roadmap. Technologies that manage to provide greater flexibility will enable companies to adapt to changes quickly and efficiently.
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What Technologies Lead Companies To Invest?
The four main strategic pillars attracting the most technological investments from companies for 2022 are digital transformation, operational efficiency, customer-centric innovation and cybersecurity, the first two being the highest priority.
As for more specific technological trends, up to ten types are distinguished: virtual and augmented reality, blockchain, big data, cybersecurity, RPA, machine learning, cloud, digital channels, internet of things and others. Among them, the most relevant are: big data, cloud and digital channels, to which the participants contributed their visions in this meeting.
The Cloud Revolution
This great growth is explained by the investments of large companies and the incentives they provide to smaller ones to facilitate their transition to this technology, which offers interesting opportunities:
- Innovation: the products are available to everyone, thus facilitating the production of new advances.
- Flexibility: the cloud allows you to manage resources comfortably.
- Low cost: it is a cheaper system than the traditional ones.
On the other hand, there are several risks associated with this technology that must also be taken into account:
- Security: This content’s heterogeneity and great accessibility make it more insecure.
- Cost – If not properly optimized, the cloud can become more expensive than others.
A company’s transition to the cloud must be carried out efficiently to take full advantage of its benefits. The first step to achieving this is to have an initial plan analyzing the intended starting point and the intended objective. In addition, there are four other main challenges to consider:
- Expense control: although this technology represents cost savings, it is necessary to adjust them properly within the budget.
- Team Management – This technology is most beneficial with flat organizational models and an agile structure.
- Security: the increase above in risks that the cloud implies a new security policy with more complex and effective systems.
- Maximize the value of information: Cloud allows data to be handled quickly and easily, so you should take full advantage of this visibility.
The cloud is also bringing about a remarkable change in the human factor because the information is no longer exclusively in the hands of the main person in charge of an organization. Still, rather anyone can self-manage their environment more independently. This supposes a more open environment, where the best solution is to commit to specialized talent training.
How To Transform Towards Customer-Centric?
Innovation will be one of the priorities in companies. According to the survey above, 65% of them will have a group dedicated to that field and 56% of those who invest in digital channels put customer-centric innovation first.
- Marketing automation + CRM: these two solutions allow you to choose the right channel, time and content to offer each customer what they need.
- Artificial intelligence: this technology enables, from big data, the creation of algorithms to offer each person the products that best align with their interests.
- Marketplace: digitization makes it easier to sell your products and reach agreements with third parties to increase the offer.
- Digital transformation in the BackOffice: the company no longer operates around a physical catalog but has adapted its resources and processes to the online context.
The Benefits Of RPA
Another great technological trend is machine learning, which focuses on facilitating operations, and, related to it, RPA (Robotic process Automation), which has a top 3 priority in technological investment for 16% of companies by 2021.
This technology emulates the tasks of a human through robotics and offers important advantages for organizations, making them more productive and competitive. Among them, six mainly stand out:
- Error minimization
- Greater speed and productivity in tasks
- Cost reduction and better process traceability
- Elimination of processes that do not provide added value so that people can focus on relevant tasks
- easily scalable
- Greater regulatory compliance
Big Data – The Engine of Innovations
Technological advances make digital processes increasingly complex, and it is essential to analyze them. For this reason, big data is tremendously useful for companies, and two out of three indicate it as one of the three priorities for technological investment.
The pandemic has accelerated the trend of remote work and, with it, the conversion of the digital home user to a corporate digital user. Therefore, companies seek to know what the experience of their remote employees is like.
This monitoring of the digital experience allows organizations to improve operational efficiency, digital infrastructures, employee satisfaction and security. This monitoring should be expanded in the future with the notable increase in the level of devices and connectivity that the development of the Internet of Things implies.
