*NEW RESEARCH* Enterprise Software Predictions 2019

One thing business leaders are sure of as they deal with complex, multi-faceted transformation programmes is they cannot do everything by themselves, a sentiment that is richly reflected in our 2019 research theme ‘The Year of the Relationship’.

Relationships - collaborative, sophisticated, adaptable, trusted -  form the bedrock of successful business. The supplier-to-customer relationship is crucial but is just one of many that includes people-to-software, software-to-outcomes, data-to-algorithms and legacy-to-digital software stacks. They are ranged alongside relationships within and between changing technology and supplier ecosystems. These factors form the backdrop to developments across the 2019 enterprise software market.

Organisations seek ‘connecter’ software to convert digital transformation plans into action

2019 is set up to be a year of practical enablement as organisations move from simple to complex digital projects. This will drive demand for ‘connector’ software - the sometimes overlooked products and components that link applications, fill out key processes, ease migration and deployment and provide ready-to-use services to further intelligent automation.

Pressure for ‘continuous everything’ brings second row tech forward

Organisations are in continuous change. BizDevOps and agile methodologies set the intent but organisations need the tools to enable them to act which will bring second row technologies forward such as low code development platforms, graph databases and latter-day data platforms.

A move towards governable AI/ML  

As AI/ML adoption ticks up, the need for governance racks up too. AI/ML needs to be transparent, auditable and explainable - this is about knowing what AI/ML algorithms actually do with the data fed to them. Usage has to be ethical too, raising questions around self-regulation; and it needs to be accessible by a wider community. Discussions around these issues will become ever more prominent over the coming year – and beyond.

Discovering the need for Data Discovery and Process Mining

Organisations that don’t know what they have, can neither fully exploit their data and processes nor manage accompanying risks. These issues will stimulate near term interest in data discovery and process mining tools. Looking further out, organisations will gradually awake to the value dark data analysis - particularly their own caverns of dark data - to improve the quality of predictions and decision making, which will also act as a driver for discovery tools.

Dallying with direct data monetisation

Direct monetisation can be achieved through the sale of raw data (Data-as-a-Service),  analysis of data (Analysis-as-a-Service); or through the provision of API applications that allow external parties to interact with the data on terms set by the organisation. From an end user perspective, direct monetisation comes with more advanced (complex) digital change; the immediate opportunity for suppliers is around DaaS and AaaS.

Prepare for interrogation - trust and credibility under scrutiny

Business leaders are struggling to differentiate between suppliers so building a more collaborative relationship is an uphill struggle. Suppliers will have some tough go-to-market calls to make to create differentiation and build trust and credibility. Opportunistic wins should be questioned and new outcome-based commercial models need to be devised – the time for saying ‘we’re exploring’ is coming to an end.

Enterprise Software Predictions 2019 provides a deeper dive into these topics and the report is now available for download. If you’re not a current subscriber please contact Deb Seth for details about how to take one out.

Posted by: Angela Eager at 18:05

Tags: partnerships   predictions   digital   machinelearning   data  

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