Top Strategic Technology Trends 2021

Last year was a special year, to say the least. We are working more from home than ever before and the digital workplace has been rolled out at an unprecedented rate. Although we've made a lot of technological leaps and bounds in the past year, we can expect a lot of technological trends and developments in 2021 as well. It is important to be aware of these, because it has been shown more than ever that the better companies keep up with technology trends and developments, the more resilient they are in the face of adversity.

The past year was all about the Digital Workplace. Being able to switch quickly and to provide everyone with what they need to do their job proved necessary to get through this crisis. Companies that were unable to carry out their work digitally were dealt heavy blows. It is therefore to be expected that the further development and roll-out of the Digital Workplace will be one of the most important focal points for many companies in 2021. We have listed for you which other technology trends we should keep an eye on:

Technology Trends 2021

1. Organizations will use the digital possibilities even more to involve their staff and customers. By being able to switch quickly, employees can have their needs met faster and customers will be surprised in a positive way by the extra possibilities.
2. Location-independent service is becoming a necessity for a large proportion of organizations. Staff, customers and partners must be able to work and/or be helped from different locations. The cloud will (continue to) play a major role in this. Organizations with the so-called 'digital-first mindset' will be able to exploit more opportunities and possibilities because they are not tied to a physical location.
3. The need for operational resilience between business functions, technology and services has never been greater. COVID-19 is not only forcing organizations to modernize and be agile, but more importantly, to do so at a significant pace and scale. Organizations that deliver highly digitized business capabilities in a composable and modular manner have the greatest chance of success.
4. IT spending picks up again
   Gartner predicts that global IT spending will rise to $3.8 trillion in 2021. That's a 4% increase over 2020. IT spending in the EMEA region will grow 2.8% in 2021, according to Gartner. This spending will be mainly on hardware renewal, security, system modernizations and cloud migrations. Gartner expects enterprise software to have the biggest recovery in 2021. This is due to the accelerated digitization of companies to support their employees or to provide digital services such as online education or remote care.
5. The influence of Microsoft 365 will be even greater in 2021. Many companies are already using one or more tools from Microsoft 365. Gartner research has shown that 89% of the respondents are currently using Microsoft 365. Of the remaining 11%, 72% are planning to do so in the next 6 months. Incidentally, they are not planning to do so 'because everyone else is doing it' or 'because they have to', but mainly because they are convinced that it will drastically change and improve their way of working.
6. Last year Artificial Intelligence (AI) helped us enormously in the fight against the global pandemic. It has made it possible to collect a lot of information in a very short period of time and to make accurate predictions with that data. Gartner predicts that AI will play an increasingly important role in the coming year and years. Not only organisations will do more with AI, customers consciously and unconsciously expect an increasing degree of AI in the products they buy.

It is one thing to be aware of the technology trends and developments, but another to make use of them. So how can you best respond to these trends and what do you need to pay particular attention to? We help you.

• Make sure you engage people by designing a total customer and employee experience. Always keep in mind that issues such as privacy, security and ethics are well taken care of. Openness will contribute positively to this.
• Avoid creating barriers to using the Cloud. Take the time to give people, whether customers, employees or partners, the right explanations and support them when they encounter obstacles.
• What is clearer than ever is that digitization is more important than ever. Digitization of the workplace, of processes, of experiences. It is therefore necessary to go along with this. Therefore, stimulate innovation of the business models by using the digital-first concept.
• Automate as much as possible to save time where possible. Put the time you have left into personal contacts, make sure your customers/employees/partners are the focus.
• Make sure your organisation is resilient. Discuss changes openly and be open to questions from employees and customers. The quicker you can connect with the support of your supporters, the greater the results will be.

Want to know more about the technology trends of 2021 and how we can help? Then contact us without obligation.