Businesses and Technology
Company spending on technology is still following a predictable pattern – with growth rates in the new emerging markets far outstripping those in the mature markets of the US, Japan and Western Europe.
For major corporations, innovation is taking centre-stage. Companies are looking to innovate across their businesses – their business models and processes…the way that they develop new products/services…and the way that they access, manage and share information across the organisation. Consumer-led technology, in the form of Web 2.0, is increasingly being considered by companies to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration. IT departments are expected to help drive innovation strategy and deliver tangible business benefits. Spending on technology by SMBs is growing strongly, particularly in the emerging markets where the sector is pre-dominant. SMBs remain a vital target for technology providers but it is also a difficult sector to target because companies are so heterogeneous.
Other key trends:
- Mobility is finally at the forefront of organisational plans, with IT departments having to balance an increasingly mobile workforce against risks to security
- Making convergence (voice, data, applications) work is critical
- Technologies that reduce complexity and/or cost (e.g. SaaS, Virtualisation) will be near the top of many IT departments’ consideration lists
- The complexity of corporate decision-making is now fully appreciated – many decisions are driven from outside the IT department
- Brand has become a key driver of success in technology markets, with ‘emotional investment’ now a key element of the customer experience
- Large corporates from the emerging markets continue to challenge those from the West in all markets
We help major technology/mobile providers understand the needs of the market and to unravel the complexities of the corporate decision-making process. Some of the areas that we have recently been working on include: understanding the potential opportunity for SaaS; assessing the potential market for mobile CRM solutions within SMEs; and understanding the decision-making process for voice and data products.
We also have many years experience running complex large-scale international brand, advertising, and customer satisfaction/loyalty programmes.
Examples of our recent business–related projects. More>>