Predictive Business Applications: Don’t Get Left Behind
Author: Jim Lundy
Date: March 18, 2014
Topic: Digital Business
Research Note Number: 2014-08
Issue: What trends will affect the evolution of digital business?
Summary: Business people understand how to use technology to make a business or process move faster. Two trends are intersecting: business people want to move faster, and startups that “get it” are responding with predictive business applications.
“Predictiveness” has emerged as a term and a capability, and will become a business requirement. Applications can now recognize human or machine patterns and make relevant recommendations in context. The impact can’t be overlooked. New classes of applications can now do tasks in a smart fashion and do them well. Due to the way machine learning currently works, these applications may need some tuning to gain the maximum impact. Regardless, a new category of apps is emerging.
This means that enterprises have more choices than ever. Smart buyers will look carefully for apps that help them work smarter and faster. The apps that do the heavy lifting – e.g., that help find buyers earlier or help find answers – will be game changers.
Business managers and IT are also under greater pressure than ever to find solutions that provide that competitive edge. Strategic leaders will view technology not as a separate environment run by IT, but as an embedded capability woven throughout the business to support people’s work processes.
Prediction: By YE 2015, enterprises that use predictive applications to manage connected devices on the “Internet of everything” (IOE) will gain competitive advantage.