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Top 10 predictions for 2013 and beyond - Gartner

Gartner's top predictions for 2013 focus on opportunities, economic risks and innovations that will force CIOs to move to the next generation of business-driven solutions."The priorities of CEOs must be dealt with by CIOs who exist in a still-turbulent economy and increasingly uncertain technology future,"as quoted by Gartner analyst.Key highlights are as follows:

By 2015, big data demand will reach 4.4 million jobs globally, but only 1/3rd of those jobs will be filled

The demand for big data is growing rapidly, and enterprises will need to reassess their competencies and skills to respond to this opportunity.The prediction talks about the demand supply gap and an important aspect of the challenge in filling these jobs lies in the fact that enterprises need people with new skills — data management, analytics and business expertise and nontraditional skills necessary for extracting the value of big data.

By 2014, market consolidation will displace up to 20 percent of the top 100 IT services providers

By 2014, low-cost cloud services will cannibalize up to 15 percent of top outsourcing players' revenue, and more than 20 percent of large IT outsourcers not investing enough in industrialization and value-added services will disappear through merger and acquisition. This will limit and endanger the typical offshore approach run by dedicated IT services providers and create low-cost options onshore or facilitate a globalized approach to staffing.CIOs should reevaluate the providers and types of providers used for IT services, with particular interest in cloud-enabled providers supporting information, mobile and social strategies.

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By 2014, European Union directives protect jobs, reducing off-shoring by 20% through 2016

An upward trend in unemployment has continued in the European Union during the ongoing financial crisis. With little expectation of a short-term recovery, Gartner expects to see the European Union introducing directives before the end of 2014 to protect local jobs. The impact of this protectionist legislation would be a net reduction of off-shoring by 20 percent through 2016.This does not mean that organizations will abandon the use of global delivery models, but it will result in the rebalancing of where labor is located with such models.

Through 2015, 90% of enterprises will bypass broad-scale deployment of Windows 8

Windows 8 is Microsoft's attempt to bring the touch interface product to modernize its offering, and is going to push IT organizations to this new interface as quickly as possible. However Gartner predicts that enterprises will want to wait for more stability before proceeding and might only upgrade the devices that employees need to use while being mobile. While Microsoft as a technology company can make these changes at a more advanced pace, most enterprises and their trusted management vendors are not yet prepared for this change.

By Year-End 2014, three of the top five mobile handset vendors will be Chinese

Mobile phone penetration in emerging markets has resulted in a changing of the guard in terms of the leading vendors. The openness of Android creates new markets for OEMs that previously did not have the necessary software expertise and engineering capabilities.The result is that the traditional mobile phone players are getting squeezed but the Chinese vendors have the opportunity to leverage their strong position in the domestic Chinese market for entry-level smartphones and expand to other regions.CIO's should enter into mid term contracts and avoid long term contracts as the leading vendors would soon change.

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By 2017, 40 percent of enterprise contact information will have leaked into Facebook via employees' increased use of mobile device collaboration applications:

Facebook is one of the top applications installed on smartphones and tablets, and many organizations are concerned about the physical coexistence of consumer and enterprise applications on devices that interact with IT infrastructure. Gartner suggests permiting interlinking with Facebook and similar products, because those products provide a high degree of leveraging contacts and importantly to evaluate the underlying technologies that permit limited transfer of information between legitimate enterprise-controlled applications and consumer applications to control the transfer.

Through 2014,employee-owned devices will have malware at twice the rate of corporate-owned devices

Gartner believes that enterprises will adopt a "bring your own device" (BYOD) approach and suggests enterprises that adopt BYOD initiatives should establish clear policies that outline which employee-owned devices will be allowed and which will be banned. In the BYOD era, security professionals will need to diligently monitor vulnerability announcements and security incidents involving mobile devices and respond appropriately with policy updates.

Through 2014,software spending for proliferation of operational technology will increase by 25%

Now operational devices or objects, like a vending machine, medical device or even truck tyres are having software embedded in them, and sensors are being linked to the Internet to create and receive data streams. This machine-to-machine communication has the potential to trigger significant new software costs because of the amount of software/operating systems embedded within large numbers of operational devices and the people buying and paying for this are not experts in IT or software procurement, and may make expensive mistakes signing license agreements with hidden costs and risks.

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By 2015, 40 percent of organizations will use gamification to transform business operations

Seventy percent of business transformation efforts fail due to lack of proper employee engagement. Here the term gamification refers to the primary mechanism that game designers use to keep players interested, to achieve the needed engagement for a successful,action oriented game. Companies apply Gamification techniques like feedback, measurement and incentives to addresses engagement, transparency of work, and connects employees actions to business outcomes.Gartner predicts by 2015, 40 percent of Global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations.

By 2016, wearable smart electronics in shoes, tattoos , accessories will emerge as a huge industry

Wearable smart electronics, such as fitness trackers, often come with data analysis applications or services that create useful insights for the wearer. Applications and services will create new value for consumers, especially when combined with personal preferences, location and social information. It also provides more-detailed information to retailers for targeting advertisements and promotions. CIOs must evaluate how the data from wearable electronics can be used to improve worker productivity, asset tracking and workflow.

Reference:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2211115

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