4 Top Technology Predictions That Will Affect Your Organization

These Gartner predictions highlight the trends and disruptive events that will reshape the nature of business for the next four years.

They focus on changes in the role that technology plays in business performance, our personal and professional lives, and in the global economy.

Gartner evaluated more than 100 predictions based on audience appeal, impact and relevance. The 2011 predictions showcase a link between technology decisions and economic and societal outcomes.

Here are four top predictions that will affect your organization.

1. Workforce Shifts To Tablets By 2013

By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support their workforce using tablets.

By 2014 consumers will have purchased more than 208 million tablets. The first wave of tablets focuses on content consumption and communications.

Tablets drive the adoption of applications running on another computer or in the cloud. At a minimum, organizations will need to offer employees network connectivity (email, calendars, files) and digital device support.

Takeaway: Your organization should be offering its content, programs and services via mobile friendly websites or apps. Use social graphs and other analysis tools to monitor your market. Also expect to see more tablets at your annual meeting than in the past.

2. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) To Work Soars

By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will support employees using their own devices with corporate applications.

Consumers are driving this trend. 75% of Gartner’s respondents already see employees connecting their devices to the enterprise system with or without permission. 50% of respondents had mandates to support iPads within past six months.

By 2014, it will be common place that organizations support corporate applications on employee-owned devices such as notebooks, smartphones and tablets. Employees will drive the adoption of mobile devices instead of the standard old-style traditional corporate computers.

Takeaway: Your organization should pursue cross-platform application development strategies. In addition to the mobile infrastructure, your organization should prepare for a shift to interaction and engagement with its customers via mobile devices.

3. Your Organization’s Social Presence And Mobile Applications Generate Half Of Online Sales

By 2015, organizations will generate 50 percent of the online sales from their social media presence and mobile applications. Uptake of mobile devices drives a demand for collaboration and choice via cloud services.

Takeaway: Organization leadership must compliment their established business skills with new skills rooted in social sciences. They must master which channels their customers’ customers are using for engagement and sales. Organizations must also reinvest in e-commerce capabilities through social networks.

4. Your Social Bot-Friends Increase

By 2015, 10 percent of your online friends will be “non-human.”

Using social media effectively as an organization involves several steps: creating social outposts, listening to online conversations, communicating a message, and ultimately engaging in two-way discussions. To date, most organizations have established a presence and are broadcasting messages. By 2015, efforts to automate social engagement will result in social bots that can manage personalized communications with individuals.

Takeaway: Your organization must address the engagement gap in its adoption of social media. Two-way communication with customers and potential customers is critical to success in social media. Consider a hybrid approach with automated assisted with human talent.

Which of these trends will be the most challenging for your organization to adopt? What barriers keep organizations from transitioning to mobile friendly practices?