The world of technology has undergone massive changes over the years, and these changes have a profound impact on how businesses operate across the world. Some technological developments, like artificial intelligence and blockchain, have lead to disruptive innovation in many industries. With the disruption come the opportunities that businesses can capitalize on to transform and grow over the next few years.
As we kick off the next decade, let’s look at some of the strategic information technology (IT) trends identified by international research firm Gartner, and translate them to the closely related trends that impact medium sized businesses.
Hyper-automation
Gartner identifies this as a key technological trend that will change how businesses operate over the coming years. Hyper-automation focuses on using advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to automate complicated tasks. Gartner says that, “Hyper-automation is an unavoidable market state in which organizations must rapidly identify and automate all possible business processes.”
How this translates to midsize businesses: This boils down to IT automation, which is a key objective for all businesses. IT automation allows organizations to operate more efficiently, reduce IT operating costs, and have more time for strategic initiatives. IT automation is achieved by agents executing scripts on each of your endpoint devices. Ideally, it is guided by policies to standardize processes across groups of machines in your IT environment.
Policies can specify your server configurations, the events and conditions to be monitored on the endpoint, the processes to run and on what schedule to maintain each endpoint (including automated patch management), and how to respond to common IT incidents. You can auto-remediate these incidents with agent executed scripts. IT automation frees up time to focus on the more critical and strategic projects that will move your business to the next level.
To learn more about IT automation, download our checklist: 7 Processes to Automate to Improve Productivity and Reduce IT Costs
Multiexperience
The traditional way humans interact with technology will undergo a dramatic shift over the next decade. Gartner predicts that the single point of interaction that you have today with your computer will transform into a multi-sensory approach using augmented reality (AR), wearables and multi-touch-point interfaces. These technologies will be used to greatly enhance activities such as product design, field service work, and training. This transformation will be facilitated through advanced sensors and connected wearables.
How this translates to midsize businesses: The IT world has witnessed many changes over the years in terms of how IT teams perform their tasks. A first step in the journey to multiexperience should be the mobile app experience for managing IT on the go. A mobile app that brings together your RMM / endpoint management solution with your service desk solution is the key piece of technology needed here. It allows IT technicians to manage service tickets and get fast access to IT asset information while they’re onsite at a client or remote office location . This makes technicians more efficient and helps them resolve service tickets faster. Real-time updates to asset information, in the field, provide enhanced visibility to IT managers and other key stakeholders in the business.
Democratization
Another big trend concerns the democratization of technology. This technology focuses on providing people with easy access to technical or business expertise while eliminating the need for extensive training. This is also referred to as “citizen access”, and it provides non-experts with expertise in four key areas including data and analytics, application development, design, and knowledge. Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a key role in this trend.
How this translates to midsize businesses: This is about IT technology ease of use and intuitive user interfaces for a better user experience (UI/UX). At Kaseya, one of our critical initiatives is to continue to enhance our IT management software user interface to improve ease of use and help your IT team operate more efficiently. This shortens the learning curve for new technicians and streamlines daily IT management activities.
When the tools your technicians use are unintuitive and hard to use, it leads to frustration, burnout and employee turnover. In today’s tight job market, where finding qualified IT technicians is harder than ever, it pays to have the right tools in place.
Human augmentation
This trend focuses on how a person’s physical and cognitive experiences can be enhanced with the help of technology. For instance, physical augmentation can be facilitated with the help of wearable devices that improves a person’s inherent physical capabilities. Conversely, cognitive augmentation can be achieved with the help of various multi-experience interfaces. Overall, this technology focuses on helping humans make better decisions by exploiting information and gaining new experiences.
How this translates to midsize businesses: In IT management, you need to have better tool integration and seamless workflows across products to make your job easier. It means having the right information at your fingertips, when and where you need it. Kaseya has brought together its endpoint management solution with its service desk and IT documentation (knowledge and configuration management) solutions to create an efficient IT management platform.
Move seamlessly from your service tickets to the remote management function in your endpoint management tool to quickly access the endpoint and resolve a problem. Bring IT asset information right into the service ticket and remote management tools- no need to switch to another application. Close tickets faster. Get more done in less time and with less effort.
Looking to the future
As we start a new decade and move further into the digital era, new challenges and opportunities await in the world of information technology. The technology trends we’ve discussed here create great opportunities for businesses to grow faster, improve profitability, and stand out from their competition. Let’s get started!
For more information on our core IT management platform, download the product brief Unified IT Management: Beyond Business as Usual.
