The (digital) elephant in the room

Everybody’s pointing at it and talking about it. Some are even trying to feed it. Nobody can ignore it. It’s the digital elephant in the room.

Going digital is today’s ‘big thing’ and it is shaping the direction of travel of the UK software and IT services (SITS) market and the fortunes of its suppliers.

Of course, IT has always been digital by definition. But the term has now been repurposed to suggest, broadly speaking, the transformation of traditional business applications and business processes using modern technologies to take the end-user—and most important of these is the customer—on a ‘journey’ from start to finish, and make the journey such a pleasurable experience they will want to repeat it.

The technologies most frequently employed to facilitate digital transformation are the so-called ‘SMAC stack’, i.e. Social media; Mobile technologies—in which class we should include micro-mobile sensor-based technologies, alluded to as the Internet of Things (IoT); Analytics and big data; and of course, Cloud computing. Indeed, one of the best definitions we have heard for ‘digital’ is ‘integrated SMAC’. It’s the combination of these technologies that holds the promise of transforming the ‘customer journey’.

And therein lies the rationale for TechMarketView’s theme for 2015 Joining the Dots that we launched at the end of last year.

‘Joining the Dots’ represents huge opportunities for IT suppliers. The opportunity starts at the very top of the customers’ businesses, with high-level consulting around the ‘art of the possible’, through to nitty-gritty, nuts-and-bolts installation, integration and support.

But be prepared. The underlying ‘rules of the game’ in the UK SITS market have not changed. Customers still want more for less (and better for less!) from their suppliers and ever will. And customers want to minimise the inherent and considerable risk in digital transformation by doing things step-by-step and, in any event, seeking to transfer as much of that risk as possible to their suppliers. With the deflationary nature of new technologies, suppliers will find digital transformation challenging for both revenues and margins.

Which is why you really will want and need to read and inwardly digest our annual keynote reports, UK Software and IT Services Market Trends & Forecasts 2015, and UK Software and IT Services Supplier Rankings 2015, published today.

In UK Software and IT Services Market Trends & Forecasts 2015, TechMarketView analysts outline the trends that will drive the market over the next few years across key segments and verticals, and present their forecasts for market growth.

The accompanying report, UK Software and IT Services Supplier Rankings 2015, reveals our authoritative rankings for the leading suppliers of software and IT services (including business process services) to the UK market.

You’ll see some highlights from both reports here in UKHotViews.

UK Software and IT Services Market Trends & Forecasts 2015, and UK Software and IT Services Supplier Rankings 2015 are now available for download by subscription clients of the TechMarketView Foundation Service. If you are not thus blessed, then don’t forget to contact Deb Seth on our client services team who will point the way.

Just remember – you can’t ignore an elephant!

Posted by HotViews Editor at '10:15'