Technologies must fit the business model

As part of the “Deloitte Tech Trends 2020”, Deloitte, a leading provider of audit, consulting and financial advisory, has identified the technological developments that will have the greatest impact on the next two years. The main drivers of disruptive change are nine macro-technological forces: Digital Experience, Analytics, Cloud, Core Modernization, Risk, Business of Technology, Digital Reality, Cognitive and Blockchain. The combination of these macro factors in particular holds considerable disruptive potential. Other new and sometimes fast-moving trends can be attributed to these technological forces.

Digital Experience, Analytics and Cloud have already proven and established themselves over the past decade. They are regarded as an indispensable basis for successful corporate strategies and new business models. Digital Reality, Cognitive Technologies and Blockchain are the disrupters of the current decade and will significantly shape the 2020s. Companies are increasingly taking advantage of these three macro trends, and the number of business cases is growing rapidly across industry boundaries. The Deloitte Report considers Business of Technology, Risk and Core Modernization to be fundamental technologies. They need to be stable to shoulder the weight of technology-driven transformation and corporate innovation initiatives.

Reconciling the new and the old

Since no company can escape technological change, the complexity of the issue means that those responsible are faced with the challenge of identifying the respective trends that offer added value for their own business model and driving them forward accordingly. First and foremost, technological innovation requires agile IT.

The key question here is: How can traditional financial and budgeting processes, for example, be combined with an agile approach to IT? A look at the companies shows that many players have not yet found the right answer to this question: On average, IT departments spend 56% of their budget to support the operational business. Only 18% is spent on developing new business models.

Strong and flexible: modern IT architecture

Decision makers are therefore faced with the task of developing a comprehensive technology architecture for their company. This architecture must be strong enough to support the necessary growth of the company. But the IT systems also need a high degree of flexibility that allows short-term strategy changes.

In order to shape technological change to their own advantage, companies should not view the numerous innovations and technological trends as individual issues, but rather combine them intelligently and profitably. The most important prerequisite for lasting business success is that the players involved harmonize investments in future technologies with the actual business benefits that can be achieved.