What trends are set to affect IT businesses?

The world of IT is is always evolving and as a result, companies in the sector are required to make sure they adapt to the changes accordingly.

Gartner has revealed its top technology predictions for the year ahead, which are likely to have an impact on how well companies perform and the tasks their staff are encouraged to undertake.

For example, the group forecasts that by the end of 2016, as many as half of the digital transformation strategies already in place will become unmanageable.

This is likely to be the result of fewer portfolio management skills being accessible to businesses, which may encourage them to make use of HRIS software and other products.

Gartner also believes the use of mobile technologies will have a greater impact on consumer behaviour, which companies will need to make sure they respond to accordingly.

Customer experience is expected to come to the fore next year and continue to grow until 2017, by which time Gartner believes 50 per cent of investments in consumer products will be redirected towards new innovations.

In fact, the group anticipates that customer experience will become “the new competitive battlefield” as brand loyalty plays a more important and relevant role than ever before.

This follows a report last month from Ernst & Young, which highlighted the productivity gains that investment in IT could potentially lead to.

Of the workers polled, 70 per cent believed their productivity would improve if they were able to access accurate data more efficiently.

Over the past year, the EY Australian Productivity Pulse suggested that overall worker productivity had decline from 7.7 points to 7.6, indicating that new systems need to be properly adopted.

Employers are now under increasing pressure to make sure workers fully understand the new strategies that are put in place, which have the potential to encourage better output in the long run.