Enabling Information Technologies Radar

The impact levels of new and emerging trends are defined as:

Transformational: likely to require transformation changes within organisations.
High: it will have high impact at work on companies (process, products and services) and people walk of live as user / consumer.
Medium: it will impact on people and organisations, enhancing companies process & services or will affect walk of live to users and consumers.
Low: more likely to require minor improvements rather than radical changes.

The status of new trends are defined as:
Emerging (Red): mainly expressed by academia and a very small number of specialised markets.
Adolescent (Amber): expressed more widely by analysts and thought-leaders.
Early adopter (Green): seen more widely by clients markets. Clients starting to look for solutions.
Mainstream (White): there is a clear need and many clients are implementing solutions.

The implications of time and impact of new and emerging technologies are defined as:

Now-1 year: Look today at how solutions address need.
2-3 years: Consider potential solutions with maybe some pilots.
4+ years: Understand now and consider the potential implications and how these could be addressed.

2010+

• The advances being made in ICT are bringing about a revolution both in the way companies are doing business and the way people interact with or use such technologies as a worker, employee, or consumer. Sustainability, Cloud Computing, knowledge, and ‘Collaboration’ are hot mega-trends that are supported by a wide range of Enabling Information Technologies (EIT).
• Much of the foundation on which this revolution is being built is from improvements in hardware and digital devices distribution (faster CPUs, lower cost storage, better graphic cards, System on Chip (SoC), 3D monitors, haptic devices, etc.) and network capacities (e.g. more bandwidth, network storage, sensor networks, IPv6), but there have also been remarkable changes in software and software use. Examples of new software and usage include mashups, MC-KM, 3D Virtual Words, holographics, real-time Virtual Assistants engines, avatars, speech and voice technologies, motion tracking, and face and emotion recognition. All of these technologies and trends enable the offering of new real-time services and a constant high-quality Graphical User Interface (GUI).
• As social networks and collaborative tools are spreading through society and technology innovation is delivered first to customers in a Customer-to-Business model instead of Business-to-Customer, technology evolution is more led by the consumer market than the corporate world. As businesses start to investigate what Web 2.0 Platforms can do for them, not just for linking information but also for linking people, the understanding of wikis, blogs, RSS, forums, and communities is becoming important. Customers and employees are becoming the source of information (‘Crowd Sourcing’) and inspiration for companies. This will evolve towards Enterprise 2.0.
• Big web actors have massively adopted Identity Federation strategies, and most B2B exchanges should do the same and let power business users consume the data in mashups.
• The ‘Internet of things’ is likely to see strong authentication of each component become a mandatory feature of B2B activity. The legacy solution x509 certificate appears to be too complex and expensive to adequately service this need. Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) could be a low-cost and very secure solution. It is particularly fast (100 milliseconds for response computation) and avoids the inconvenience of protecting a private key as in the certificate approach. In the same way, Collective Intelligence and Collaborative Design are becoming widely accepted as paths to improved innovation and performance on processes, products, and services. The benefits of communicating and knowledge-sharing with people within and external to an organisation through standardised and open platforms will be a key differentiator in a modern Company 2.0. Applying Design Personas (a user-centric design method that provides a common shared view of the users of a service or product), linked to collaborative tools, may provide a way to guide decisions both on product development processes and on products themselves. The persona, a user-centric design method based on real data collected from real users, is useful for large projects involving many people or multidisciplinary teams, in order to improve collaboration.
• Regarding interoperability and knowledge sharing and accessing, future versions of the web will integrate the Semantic and Contextual Web (also referred to as Web 3.0) and ontologies. A number of ontologies — XBRL being one of the more mature — are beginning to enter the mainstream for defining financial information.
• GRC Platforms for Governance, Risk, and Compliance will bring together the portfolio of functionality in the GRC space, enabling the automation of GRCM activities — in particular, the documentation and reporting of risk management and compliance activities.
• Although the Semantic Web is a few years off full realisation, niche applications such as Semantic Search Engines are already available.
• Businesses are investigating how they can benefit from Virtual Reality and 3D and / or Immersive Virtual Worlds such as Second Life. Virtual cyber-characters, or avatars, will evolve towards a new generation of enriched and converged B2B / B2C, self-service, and mobile applications.
• Organisations are using the world of multimedia applications and video gaming applications as a way of retaining and improving loyalty of Generation Y, digital native users, and customers. Virtual Reality, Physical Reality, and Augmented Reality techniques are blending to create new applications and new ways of working, closer to games, embedding of real objects and / or persons into Virtual Worlds, or virtual objects or persons into real scenes.
• The applications available on the web are becoming richer and more multimedia-based. They are more lively, natural, interactive, realistic, original, with real-time 3D engines being increasingly used to achieve these objectives. In coming years we will see the 3D web emerging for eCommerce web application as a way to increase web user experience and sell products with more information.
• Avatars and real-time Interactive Virtual Assistants (IVAs) or Virtual Advisor engines are a key differentiating factor in the development of new services, business models, and commercial relationships in virtual channels. They will allow organisations to be given a face, voice, and personality as conversational interfaces. They are humanising
  and socialising the interface, improving accessibility and branding, simplifying navigation, helping and guiding through self-service applications, and introducing emotional intelligence concepts within the virtual commercial cycle. This will categorically improve the interaction experience for clients and users.
• Speech and voice processing technologies, such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR), high-quality text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis, speech and voice verification, and new improvements and capabilities in spoken natural language processing, are enabling a new portfolio of second-generation Intelligent Voice Applications, such as automated translators and new applications such as Speech Analytics. These will be useful for customer intelligence strategies in Contact Centres, and for web-searching and automatically indexing capabilities in audio and multimedia content management systems. All these basic speech and voice processing technologies are being adopted in multiple embedded devices and mobile terminals, extending the importance of these technologies as one of the key HCIs (Human-Computer Interactions) of the future.
• To date, a number of new HCI technologies, and devices based on HCI, are emerging as Natural Language Processing (NLP), motion tracking, the recognition of emotions and also the capture by cameras connected to a computer of other general human pose, movements and live characteristics as facial / gesture recognition.
• Computer Vision is, in effect, an artificial vision system implemented in software and / or hardware that jointly to image processing enable Gesture Recognition and create a whole range of new applications. Though it is immature at present, we can expect more widespread capabilities in the future for computer vision. Intelligent robots have been made for a diverse array of applications, ranging from security to sheep-shearing.
• The addition of these new techniques and such Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities as Machine Learning algorithms will soon widen the scope for robotic applications, and new AI-enhanced robots will appear.
• Multi-Channel Knowledge Management (MC-KM) systems for Customer Services automate the collection and categorisation of information into a central knowledge repository to enable faster retrieval of contextual information related to products, services, and procedures from different front-office interfaces (Contact Centre agent’s desk, web self-service, or branch / retail store channels). MC-kM complements Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Experience Management (CEM) strategies.
• Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platforms and other informational and documental systems (such as Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence) have to evolve towards integrated platforms for Enterprise Information Management and Planning (EIM / EIP platforms), extending information management and analysis capabilities into business applications. EIM and EIP will be to informational process automation what Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has been to transactional process automation.
• Unstructured information analysis, such Contact Centre conversations and customer-agent interactions, audio from IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and voice self-service applications, e-mails, SMS, Instant Messaging or chat interactions, have delivered high value for organisations. Interaction Analytics will provide new perspectives
  on customer understanding, for identifying trends and having organisational feedback.
• Grid Computing, as with other virtualisation models that involve sharing heterogeneous resources and data across a network using open standards, improves time-to-results performance. It also supports the success of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) through support of on- demand access to services and SOA applications, allowing portability and reusability of application components.
• Biometric systems will enhance access control and security systems, by uniquely recognising humans based upon one or more intrinsic physical (face, fingerprints, hand, iris, DNA) or behavioural (keystroke, signature, voice, speech) trait.
• Open Source Mobile software development kits and operating systems, such as Android and Symbian, will enable third-party applications to run on iPhone and mobile terminals and develop new mobile services and applications, such as location-aware applications and 3D Location-based Services Geographical Information Systems (3D LBS GIS) in a mobile environment. It will drive new 3D-generation mobile applications and the use of any phone on any wireless network.
• 3D LBS GIS provides complete geospatial analysis, functionalities, and representation of any kind of attributes relating to locations. 3D visualisation allows non-trained users to understand geospatial information easily.
• Netbooks and mini-notebooks are a lightweight, low-cost, energy efficient, highly portable sub-category laptop that require less processing power and a reduced ability to run resource-intensive operating systems. These kinds of terminals, in addition to other miniaturised devices like PC on Chip, should be positioned as a window into the Internet rather than a computing device. They are suitable
  for web browsing, email, and general purpose applications, and are targeted at users accessing web-based Cloud Computing applications that require a less powerful client.
• Its high legibility and very low power requirements make ePaper or eBook readers an interesting alternative to LCD as a means of displaying information, with a broad range of applications, from displaying available balance on smartcards to eBook readers, including digital signage.
• More and more applications and operating systems will converge for any kind of terminal and devices (mobile terminals, netbooks, eBooks, etc.), and the physical computing, the Internet of things, the ‘Haptic’ computing, and things that think (all included under ‘Pervasive Computing’ and Ubiquitous Computing market) will be around a very limited number of operating system providers and Open Source Software development communities.
• The term Open Source Hardware (OSH) has primarily been used to reflect the free release of information such as schematics, designs, sizes, and other information about hardware, including hardware design and distribution.
• Many mobile devices from today (for example smart phones, netbooks, tablets PC, M2M modules, sensor networks) or other embedded systems such as payment terminals are using SoC technology, integrating several key electronic components (CPU, GPU, wireless modems, GPS, EEPROM, sensors / actuators, etc.) on a single integrated circuit element. This noticeably reduces the cost of these devices and makes those devices more accessible to the general public.
• Multi-touch interfaces will allow users a richer, more immediate interaction with applications, terminals, and new devices. This includes swiping, pinching, rotations, and other actions.
• Wearable computers have been applied to areas such as behavioural modelling, health monitoring systems, IT, and media development. Government organisations, military, and health professionals have all incorporated wearable computers into their daily operations. New more sophisticated wearable computers (gloves, glasses, helmets, etc.) and smart objects are appearing in the markets.
• Solid-state storage technology will replace hard disk drives in mobile devices such as laptops and netbooks in the not too distant future. Having no moving parts, they are quieter than hard disk drives, smaller, and also less fragile. Continuous progress in technology, as with multilevel cell NAND Flash chips, will favour cost reductions and enable the emergence of new kinds of storage devices applicable to all environments (personal and professional). The principal advantages of this technology will be: input / output speed increases, reduced energy consumption, and size reduction. Nevertheless, it must be considered that in the following years the cost reduction will evolve in a progressive way, not making it affordable to all markets.
• The wireless power concept enables us to transmit power to devices without the use of electric cords or batteries, with the possibility to charge batteries by replacing the wire by using induction. Wireless power will be a lifestyle changing technology like WiFi and Bluetooth, and not having to factor in heavy batteries will also impact industrial design and portability of devices that need electricity and will have
  a profound impact on the environment, eradicating much of today’s pollution by heavy metals.
  
• LTE (Long Term Evolution) is been positioned as the last step in wireless communications before 4G for a wide segment of devices (notebooks, mobile phones, smart objects and terminals, etc.). It will at a minimum provide download peak rates of 100Mbps, but is capable of providing 300 Mbps with enhanced quality and security.
• Another step in wireless and mobile communications evolution will be the Fourth-Generation Communications System (4G wireless). A 4G wireless system will be able to provide a comprehensive IP solution where voice, data, and streamed multimedia can be given to users on an ‘anytime, anywhere’ basis, and at higher data rates than previous generations. It will be a fully IP-based integrated system and will be capable of providing 100 Mbits/s and 1 Gbit/s speeds both indoors and outdoors, with premium quality and high security.
• Unified and Converged Communications enabled by IP will become mainstream across all sectors as a way of reducing communication costs and interconnecting multiple devices and business applications. The combination of new users, additional devices such as sensor networks, wearable devices, robots and new innovative applications, are still raising the speed at which the expansion of the global IP network takes place. This raises the need to prepare urgently for the inclusion of IPv6 capabilities or we will be locked out of some market segments crucial for continuity of our company.
• IPv6 is not expected to replace IPv4 within many years but rather to be added as additional capabilities. The concurrent support of both versions will be mandatory requiring complimentary facilities and know- how and could, to a certain extent, be compared with the year 2000 millennium transition.
• Smart Utilities and new concepts as Smart Metering will take advantages of IPv6 and sensor networks — spatially distributed devices that are able to detect and monitor events and turn real-world information across wireless networks or capabilities such as GPS and Internet access. The term sensor network refers to the entire system, consisting of multiple sensors connected in a mesh network each of which includes simple networking, computing and sensing capabilities.
• Modern optical mesh networks are networks of nodes based on OxC (Optical Cross-Connects) and will take advantage of current developments in GMPLS (Generalised Multiprotocol Label Switching) as the control plane at the optical layer. Mesh networks, as a decentralised network model formed by meshes of peer nodes with no single point of failure, will improve efficiency in traffic management and faster self- recovery against failures.
• Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags will be incorporated into more products, animals, or persons for the purpose of identification, localisation, and tracking.
• 2D barcodes are used in innovative mobile applications such as ticketing, as a low-tech and unidirectional substitute to contactless technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC). The sensor networks formed by RFID tags, NFC, 2D barcodes, and associated readers will enable new services in all sectors, and will optimise the Supply Chain Management (SCM) and logistic processes in the industry, retail, and manufacturing sectors.
• Communications for short transactions, such as the purchase of an item, will make use of Near Field Communications. NFC allows mobile devices such as mobile phones to connect to each other when in very close range (10cm) to allow them to transfer data. Third version NFC incorporates ISO14443 and ISO15693 to read the devices, and will evolve from a range of contactless technologies via the 13.56 Mhz link between RFID (ISO18000) and ISO15693.
• Pilots of mobile payment applications are now being seen, particularly in the travel, transport, and retail verticals.