Big data, cloud, mobile, collaboration and business process management will be the top technologies over the coming 24 months, according to a survey by Software AG. The survey also notes that adoption of these technologies is guiding the software market at an inflection point, significantly changing the way enterprises do business and accelerating their reaction to changing customer and market behavior.
About 20% of the survey respondents pointed to big data management and collaborative work practices as important technologies; 30% saw cloud and mobile applications driving new business; and more than 40% viewed BPM as the key technology for digital enterprises.
Big data, cloud, social and mobile technologies have been named the top business technology trends in the past few years by some of the most prominent consultant firms. What Software AG’s CTO, Wolfram Jost, points out, however, is their integration. According to Jost, the real-time data, rapid scalability and fast decision making enabled by these technologies are of little use if companies still take months or years to implement business process change.
Software AG sees the successful management of big data as a game changing force for all businesses. This explains Software AG’s acquisition of Terracotta, a move that targets the future use of in-memory data processing.
Big data in focus
The impact of big data has been the subject of many analysis. In a recent interview, TM Forum’s Robert Rich noted that carriers may not be well prepared for the impact of “big data,” while Al Kurtze, business development executive at Capgemini, said that carriers have a lot of available information about their customers, their usage and interactions. Big data’s effect on carriers and how they can take advantage of it were also discussed in an interview with Olly Downs, SVP of data sciences at Globys.
In a recent blog post, Forrester’s Mike Gualtieri wrote that “big data is not just a buzzword; it’s real. But it disrupts many who don’t see anything new in it or don’t see the tremendous opportunity firms have to harness it for competitive advantage.”
Looking at other economy sectors, Software AG noted that an estimated $300 billion could be saved each year in the U.S. healthcare system with big data technologies and that European Union agencies could cut their bills by $250 billion. Further calculations indicate that American companies could increase their operating profit margins in the retail sector by 6% or liquidity in manufacturing by 7%.
