Convergence of social media, mobile, analytics and cloud: Accenture

Accenture has released Technology Vision 2013 Report which talks about convergence of social media, mobile computing, analytics and the cloud.

All these will help in transforming the way businesses operate, and companies that adopt available technologies to "go digital" will be better positioned to take advantage of rapidly shifting business opportunities and leap ahead of the competition, according to a new report by Accenture.

The Accenture Technology Vision 2013 report finds that technology has become core to virtually every aspect of a business, every business is a digital business and that all senior leaders - not just CIOs - must be able to understand, embrace and drive value from new technologies that affect their organization.

"Organizations and their leaders need to hit the reset button on how they use technology to drive market differentiation, deepen customer relationships, and deliver growth and profitability," said Paul Daugherty, Accenture's chief technology officer.

"Our latest Technology Vision report finds that the technology for accomplishing these business goals is available today, but that adopting a new digital mindset is required to harness the potential. The power and reach of converging IT trends such as mobility and cloud means that business leaders need to understand the implications of a software-driven, ‘connected everything' world," said Paul Daugherty.

The Accenture Technology Vision 2013 report makes recommendations on how companies can take advantage of technology and software to improve their competitiveness, operations and business results.

Mobile computing, social networks and context-based services have increased connections with consumers but many companies have lost customer intimacy in the process. These connections have been viewed as another communication or transactional channel rather than opportunities to improve relationships.

"Businesses are at an inflection point enabled by new technologies that can take customer relationships beyond transactions and deliver more personalized interactions," said Daugherty.

Effectively developing meaningful relationships at scale requires a real change in how companies approach these strategies and implement a new unified approach across IT and the business added Daugherty.

Organizations use existing data as an input to make strategic decisions - and often find that information gaps arise because important questions weren't formulated when the applications were being designed. As a result the relevant data isn't captured. What's needed is a strategy that sees data more as a supply chain than a warehouse. It's about asking the questions that need to be answered first and then designing applications for the "right" data. Companies that recognize this and make data a strategic asset that drives business outcomes will have an edge over those that view data merely as an output.

The pervasiveness of Web-based social technologies like Facebook and Twitter and video tools like Skype and Google+ Hangouts has profoundly changed the way users communicate with one another. By embedding similar collaborative tools into their business processes, enterprises can take advantage of employees' growing comfort with social networks to gain a new level of productivity.

Software-defined networking (SDN), where the network is managed through software instead of through hardware, provides a giant leap forward in enterprise flexibility. With SDN, organizations can reconfigure the connectivity of systems without changing the physical characteristics - making it easier for businesses to manage change, integrate cloud services and get more return from their network investments.

IT's core challenge is to not only stay current with the latest in security, but to get smarter about understanding and engaging the enemy and be able to adapt the enterprise's defenses to match the threat. Security architectures need to remain flexible and incorporate "active" defenses to deal with the constantly changing field of security threats.

Many organizations are already embedding cloud with their legacy systems and traditional software to create "hybrid" environments. This requires a clear understanding of, and approach to, the skills, architecture, governance and security required, whether it's the applications, platforms or IT infrastructure that's in the cloud.

"The challenge for businesses in today's digital landscape is to reimagine themselves in the context of an increasingly software-driven world," said Daugherty.