I’m writing these lines from a winter cold Lund, Sweden, where the snow and frost is holding its grip on everything from beautiful trees shaped in diamond-like dresses to frosty car-windows forcing me to freeze my hands-off while getting ready for a ride. Sipping on a cup of warm relaxing green tea while watching the fire magically turn oak and spruce into black carbonized remainings is soothing for once soul.
It is at moments like this you start to summarize the past year and plan the coming year’s opportunities.
What will 2009 bring to us all? Based on my conversations with my customers I have the following focus:
- RFID and Near Field Communication
o Supply chain and logistics within all kinds of industries are seeing an ever increased pressure to cut costs, stream-line inventories and improve visibility. Using RFID technologies will increasingly achieve all of this and more. Now it is ready for more general prime-time shows where focus is on the actual value created and not the technology as such.
o On the longer horizon we’re seeing telecom operators looking into using RFID or NFC for large scale payments and ticketing solutions. 2009 is the year for trials and 2010 there might be deployments.
- Telecom Service Convergence
o Telecom operators are finally embracing Service Convergence where services are independent of the underlying network. This includes WebService and JEE/.Net services that can be delivered on any network, TDM or IP. Also part of this is the roll-out of NGOSS based OSS systems that will enable seamless deployment and provisioning of subscribers on these services. The trend has been ongoing for some time and now we're beginning to see more widespread deployments. Both Convergin and Apptrigger got additional funding during the year and this points towards further market development.
- Cloud Computing
o Hype yes, but is it mature enough? Yes, I believe so since both Google and Amazon have had their stuff out there for at least two years by now. The global down turn will force companies into the Cloud for the sake of saving money. However the most interesting opportunity with the cloud are the possibilities for innovation and interactions made available. Without any upfront investment a startup, a project or a large organization can get access to information and computing power never before imaginable. Customers are looking at the cloud as a way of saving some serious dollars where another customer sees the potential for increasing collaboration and information sharing within the projects. It is definitely here to stay and 2009 will be the year it takes off.
These areas could be summarized into 2 general conclusions:
· Innovation
o IT and support systems serves two purposes; first to automate and streamline processes and secondly to enable innovation and process flexibility. These two purposes are somewhat contrary yet indispensable for every organization that wants to grow and flourish. The key is to focus your IT investments in the areas that makes a competitive difference balancing innovation, process automation, process flexibility and streamlined operations. This is not easy, however the three areas outlined above all enables innovation and process flexibility while cutting costs.
· Interaction
o IT should enable a dialogue and collaboration within an organization and with customers and partners. Too much of today’s IT is focused on handling transactions where the real value and the real innovation is created in the interaction between people and the organizations they belong to. Thus 2009 and the down turn should laser-focus everyone on the importance of interactions and investing in IT that enables and strengthens a two-way communication between people. The solutions are different depending on the actual case and the three areas outlined above all enables interaction and collaboration knitting the ties closer between supplier, customers and partners.
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