Author: Jim Lundy Date: February 18, 2014
Topic: Innovation Research Note Number: 2014-06
Issue: What trends influence how ideas are created and shared?
Issue: What technologies will be used to harness and exploit new ideas?
Summary: Aragon introduces a special edition of its 2014 Technology Arc focused on innovation and the transition to digital business. Due to their disruptive potential, business leaders may need to adopt new technologies sooner for competitive reasons.
The workplace is changing faster than ever, supported by a broad and varied range of technologies. People can work anywhere while freely accessing other systems, other people and much of the world’s information to achieve their goals. Business managers want more and are demanding more from technology. As a result, innovative startups are addressing these business needs, and new transformational products and categories are emerging.
Innovation is always a top issue for CEOs, and a cluster of innovations that we call digital business is transforming industries and the way that enterprises get their work done. The 2014 Technology Arc for Innovation and Digital Business identifies the technologies that can help enterprises move faster with better results. Subtle shifts in the approach can mean product and market differentiation or better and faster ways to collaborate inside and outside of the enterprise.
With the advent of new digital technologies such as machine learning, traditional barriers to entry are breaking down in nearly every industry. New product and service models are emerging. One of our new entries is an example of this: predictive lead scoring for sales and marketing. In the past, sales leads had to be developed, nurtured and qualified, and it was largely a guess whether the lead would close or not. Predictive lead scoring uses machine learning to predict the probability of a lead’s closing. This can give enterprises an advantage over others that score leads the old, manual way.
This infusion of new applications puts pressure on enterprises to anticipate transitions and evolve their products and services, or develop new ones, before their competitors do. In the face of this pressure, traditional approaches to product development aren’t enough. Enterprises need more options to ensure long-term success. They also need to track their innovations at a process level, so they can determine their probability of success.
Often, the enterprise leadership team sponsors major business process changes, but line-of-business managers make many of the early moves. The major indicator of the shift is the rise of technologies and applications that are focused on business needs. This technology arc identifies the ones that we feel are making an impact or are poised to do so over the next few years.
Digital technologies affect all facets of the business and how products are developed, marketed and sold. A digitally focused enterprise can move further faster, and change course with more agility. Areas that benefit the most include marketing, sales, support and product engineering.
Note
This Technology Arc is part of our archived research. Read our latest digital business coverage to get the most up to date insights.