The Top Ten Global IT Trends For 2008 and Beyond

2008 is the year IT becomes a key growth driver for the organization. IT for competitive advantage will become business-critical. IT will be the enabler of new growth, new customers and new products. Business justified IT, where real metrics can defend growth, will reshape the IT landscape. This is just the beginning.

This year, IT future trends will be about enabling the enterprise to do more, to become faster and more cost-effective, and competitive. 2008 will be a new era for IT executives because, for the first time, top management will realize IT is the primary enabling force that can drive competitive advantage. IT will no longer be back room alchemy, but a key competency, a weapon used for seizing new market share, forging new alliances and better serving customers. This is also a new era for the CIO-a business accelerator of new opportunities. Here are the top IT trends for 2008 that every leader needs to know.

1. Super Portals - The evolution of the Internet web services space will become a key competitive weapon for companies in every vertical market - from health care to financial services - special purpose portals will proliferate with embedded transactions, info on-demand, and decision-support.
2. Web 2.0 - Social networking, to Wikkis, to blogs and instant messaging -- The next Net will emerge as an intuitive, easy to use, anticipatory extension of personal and business life. Fast, robust, transaction-intensive, streaming application environment enabling supply chains, enterprise productivity and consumer adoption. Look for seamless channel integration from wireless, to digital TV, to wearables.
3. Pervasive Mobility - New fast wireless platforms will be a key driver of business services, enterprise productivity and consumer buying. Look for location and context awareness emerging with the fastest growth in offshore markets. Is your infrastructure ready to go mobile?
4. Real-time Business Intelligence - Getting the right data to the right people to make the right decision is the future of BI. BI is essential to global Competition. Real-time data mining will give leaders a new view of the business landscape—customers we want, customers we don’t.
5. Customer Care Empowerment - The future of customer care will be redefined, given mobility and real-time everything. AI - decision support, intelligent agents, data warehousing, real-time capture and customer demographic profiling, will shape customer service.
6. Smart Security Management - In the post-9/11 world, security will drive the business agenda. Everyone wants it, but too few are buying and using security. From RFID to 128 bit, to quantum encryption - the future of security as a product will be mission-critical to the organization. More extensive threats are coming in 2008. Get ready.
7. Rich Media - From Video Blogs to interactive phones, multimedia will be an important trend this year as the integration of anywhere portals for business and consumers will go live. Sell with rich media before the competition does.
8. Real-Time Supply Chains - Transparency is power. The ability of IT to electronically link producers, agents, suppliers and providers throughout the supply chain will provide optimization enabling customers to see and know more.
9. Knowledge Engineering - This is the next evolution of knowledge management, total knowledge visibility across the supply chain, or enterprise. KE is the packaging of content, the reuse of knowledge, the capacity of an enterprise to find the right information and get it to the right person at the right time.
10. Business/IT Metrics - How does IT drive business growth? What is the ROI? Metrics will be the IT leaders' challenge to demonstrate the effectiveness of IT on productivity, service, sales and market growth.