Abstract/Executive Summary

The ability to scan and harness emerging technologies is no longer an option, but a necessity for driving and sustaining long-term business viability and competitiveness. The list of ‘next big things’ perpetually grows longer. The impact varies on the basis of maturity and nature of solutions. Some technologies have the potential to disrupt economies, lives, workplace, and experiences. The questions remain on how to get the best out of changing times and how much of relevance do the latest trends hold for enterprises and businesses.

Disruptive technologies will transform life, business, and the global economy. In coming years, either enterprises will run for sustenance or will be pushed out due to lack of adaptability. Testament to such premature endings are companies like Kodak and Nokia. The major reason for these erstwhile industry giants dying out is the obvious lack of a strategic road map. How, where, and when to leverage the emerging technologies, and at a significant pace, are the questions that need answering. Timing the identification, evaluation, and execution is critical to the well-being of the enterprises. As the digital thought process and innovation maturity foster across organizations, they need to have a cadence and governance to handle the anatomy of the technology filtration.

In coming years, enterprises will either run for sustenance or will be pushed out due to lack of adaptability

Introduction

In the age of the consumerism, it is more important than ever for enterprises to innovate to differentiate. The current economic turmoil provides the best possible justification for innovation. There is so much to evaluate, and the rate at which the disruptive technologies are impacting the market, they are making it challenging for enterprises to manage and control the innovation program. As the emerging technologies continue to proliferate the industries, the need for governance and framework also become more and more essential. A pragmatic approach is the need of the hour in order to harness the technological advancements and utilize them optimally where they fit. The continuous push for evaluation is what necessitates a reverse engineering on how and what needs to be filter out, based on strategic direction, market conditions, business requirements, use cases, ROI, TCO, and other external or internal factors.

The current economic turmoil provides the best possible justification for innovation

The service integrator market is growing at a phenomenal pace because of the exposure to other industries and experience in implementing and evaluating the latest trends. The seamless adherence of the ecosystem that includes the enterprises, the OEMs, the various strategic partnerships, and R&D labs, differentiates a company from them from another. An organization can benefit either by leveraging the experience from outside or having an in-house innovation management program. All emerging technologies are not meant for all problems, which implies that right mapping for business, best execution, and a strategy-driven process are critical to a matured innovation program.

Key findings

• How to stay abreast and connected with latest trends at the current pace of a changing paradigm of technology and consumer behavior
• There are so many options available. How can one filter the noise, leveraging the tools and parameters to maintain relevance and ensure ongoing success
• Accelerate the process; automate and direct energy in right directions to ensure sustainable improvement while keeping the transformation swift and seamless
• Defining business cases, adding value to the strategic road map, and avoid distractions

Recommendations

Innovation leaders, evangelists and enterprise architects should regularly:

• Leverage business relationships and assess the functions based on internal and external impact factors to get the vertical and domain experience
• Collaborate with OEMs and analysts to gain market insight on the emerging technologies and trends while having access to academic understanding of the relevant skill set
• Leverage in-depth assessments of current maturity to ensure future actions justify the results which align with funding and resources for ongoing support
• Follow the ‘Seven Phased’ process of evaluating emerging trends with a pragmatic approach and automate the consistency through the lens of organizational goals

In the second blog of this blog series, we will be analyzing the framework-led approach.