Published on the 17/10/2013 | Written by Newsdesk

As part of its global symposium, Gartner has released the next in its line-up of predictions for 2014 and beyond, this time focusing on predictions for industry sectors including banking, retail, government, energy and utilities, insurance, education, manufacturing and healthcare. The title of the annual ‘Predicts’ research on industry trends highlights the major step change in technology use, saying “the pressure for fundamental transformation continues to accelerate”.  Indeed, it says, most industries are facing accelerating pressure for fundamental transformation, including embracing digitalisation in order to survive and stay competitive.

“Transformation remains a critically important phenomenon across all industries. Many industries will face intense challenges in 2014 and beyond, and will have no choice but to radically change their established business models,” said Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Last year saw many industry decision-makers focusing on adopting new technologies to improve business operations by addressing developments such as the Nexus of Forces, the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and information. Today, by contrast, leaders are significantly shifting their business models and processes.”

Harris-Ferrante said that this trend is driven in part by the challenges of consumer empowerment and market commoditisation, which in many ways are greater than in the past, and are particularly difficult for traditional enterprises to address. The need to digitalise the business and be customer-centric is also crucial, and requires new approaches to information delivery, communication and transactions. Business leaders and CIOs must carefully assess their industry-specific strategic requirements, including the demands of consumers and business partners, to map out transformation plans based on new technology availability, consumer demographic/behavioural changes and market conditions.

The predictions feature 12 strategic planning assumptions that CIOs, senior business executives and IT leaders should factor into their enterprise planning and strategy-setting initiatives and use to better understand the forces that are changing their world and develop strategies to address the requirements of this fast-changing business environment. Top industry predictions include:

• By 2016, poor return on equity will drive more than 60 percent of banks worldwide to process the majority of their transactions in the cloud.
• By year-end 2017, at least seven of the world’s top 10 multichannel retailers will use 3D printing technologies to generate custom stock orders.
• By 2017, more than 60 percent of government organisations with a CIO and a chief digital officer will eliminate one of these roles.
• By 2017, 40 percent of utilities with smart metering solutions will use cloud-based big data analytics to address asset-, commodity-, customer- or revenue-related needs.
• By year-end 2015, inadequate ROI will drive insurers to abandon 40 percent of their current customer-facing mobile apps.
• Full-genome sequencing will stimulate a new market for medical data banks, with market penetration exceeding three percent by 2016.
• By 2016, 60 percent of U.S. health insurers will know the procedure price and provider quality rating of shoppable medical services in advance.
• Through 2017, K-12 online education spending will increase 25 percent, while budgetary constraints will keep spending on traditional instructional categories stagnant.
• By 2018, 20 percent of the top 100 manufacturers’ revenue will come from innovations that are the result of new cross-industry value experiences.
• By 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least $100 billion per year in intellectual property globally.
• By 2017, 15 percent of consumers will respond to context-aware offers based on their individual demographics and shopper profiles.
• By 2015, 80 percent of life science organisations will be crushed by elements of big data, exposing poor ROI on IT investments.

“The pressures of consumerisation continue to disrupt many enterprises, forcing them to change their traditional business processes and operational models,” said Harris Ferrante. “The necessity to adopt digital business models transcends all industry verticals, and its diverse impacts are creating business opportunities that were not possible in the past. Enterprises must respond immediately in order to build the right business and IT road map for future market demands.”

The technology trends highlighted in these industries will be the focus of the first day of Gartner Symposium/ITxpo on the Gold Coast on Monday 28 October.

To read the full report, click here.