Top 10 Digital Transformation Trends to Watch Out in 2018 – Part 2

Published: 26 Feb 2020

We are talking about the digital transformations to watch out for in 2018 and discussed 5 of them in the last blog. If you have not read the previous blog you can read it here…

Moving on, let’s look at some of the other important digital technologies, which will move towards the peak this year and make a mark on the business landscape.

Augmented reality

AR is a digital trend to definitely bet on. Googles AR core, Snapchat Lens Studio, and Apples AR kit are proving that investing in AR today will open up new revenue streams tomorrow. These platforms are also providing people an opportunity to create their own augmented reality applications. AR is easily accessible and can be exploited via smartphones, thus providing a ready market. Various analysts project that mobile based augmented reality will act pivotal in adoption and usage of augmented reality, providing sustainable revenues. From Headsets to now smart contact lenses, AR is not limited to just visualizing things but also provides flexibility of creating things that can be harnessed by dynamic programming.

As we are talking about AR we also need to throw a light on Mixed Reality, which is basically a combination of VR and AR. MR or Mixed Reality is still on early research phases but holds considerable promise in business landscape.

Low code platforms

The need of extensive resources required to build application quality user experience applications across mobile, web and desktop development is not feasible for every organizations. This is because UX services with intensive coding are expensive, especially for small and medium sized enterprises.

Low code platforms have tapped into this space and provided accessibility to creation of advanced multi format applications faster. Traditionally it takes at least six to nine months to develop a custom application or a mobile app, which can be substantially lessened by use of low code platforms and can be done by an internal team simultaneously with other tasks.

Considering the increasing volatility in markets and ever changing customer demand patterns, having a quicker and affordable option towards building successful and updated applications is the need of the hour. Major giants like Google coming up with low code platforms only stresses on the fact that this tech holds potential to turn big.

5th Generation Cell Processing

As discussed in our previous blog, IoT and emerging trends like AI require higher speed and seamless connectivity prompting the need for speedy development of 5G wireless standards. Looking at the current progress in research to introduce 5G we can see that it suffices all the 3 major needs, more number of connections, reduced latency (up to 40 times less than 4G) and increased throughput (transmission capacity to billions of bits)

Key players in the telecommunications industry like Verizon, AT&T, Samsung and Vodafone have already forecasted that 5G will be introduced soon and are gearing up to be equipped with compatible gadgets and infrastructure when 5G is commercially introduced. Although we can’t say for sure that 5G will be a thing of 2018, we can definitely say that it’s not too late before 5G will be the new essential.

Hybrid APIs

We think it’s safe to say that we are all in the API economy, and so choosing the right API connection for your organizations or project needs is important. As the API management platform market is maturing, enterprises are formulating holistic API strategies. All that said 2018 will be the year when people look at the APIs from the user perspective. 2017 was the year when we saw many large vendors acquire individual software vendors focused on API management for eg, Google’s acquisition of Apigee, pointing towards the need of hybrid cloud integration platforms. This can help organizations incorporate data and applications across varied and diverse cloud infrastructures.

This year organizations will be seen automating API frameworks which can be a systematic approach from creation to retirement of applications bringing the Life Cycle API management platforms into the limelight too. Moving away from the current approach we can expect organizations to use same tools and practices for managing their public and private APIs cohesively.

Apart from the above, the Open API initiative can also be seen gaining traction and opening up new business avenues.

CX-Optimization

Investing money in customer experience has been looked upon as a gamble since a long time as the returns might not happen right away. For the past decade we have been observing steady intervention of top-level management in creating value for the customers and raising the level of customer experience. Forrester reported this year that the top three challenges for a customer experience program include organizational culture (54%), organizational structures (45%), and processes (41%), which can only be solved with C level cognizance. The other important thing observed is that customers no longer want to watch long ads, disclaimer video, infomercials etc. instead want answers personalized to their background, and they want it quick. We can see machine learning stepping in here, as it can leverage the real time information it receives from the end user.

Customer experience is seen to get a data makeover, as the data generated is limitless and when leveraged efficiently can achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction and reduce the churn rate.