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5 Digital Trends to Help Companies Move to the ‘Next Normal’

Companies that want to succeed must speed up digital transformation and reimagine everything from people to data to architectures to ecosystems, according to the report.

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Every business is a technology business today, and the sooner companies realize the hard truth, they can successfully move to the ‘next normal’. However, a new report by Accenture, reveals that most organizations are not moving as fast as they should. Companies that want to succeed must speed up digital transformation and reimagine everything from people to data to architectures to ecosystems, according to the report.

The new report identifies five key trends that companies will need to address over the next three years to accelerate and master change in all parts of their business:

  • Stack Strategically: Architecting a Better Future – A new era of industry competition is dawning – one where companies compete on their IT systems architecture. But building and wielding the most competitive technology stack means thinking about technology differently, making business and technology strategies indistinguishable. Eighty-nine percent of executives believe that their organization’s ability to generate business value will increasingly be based on the limitations and opportunities of their technology architecture.
  • Mirrored World: The Power of Massive, Intelligent, Digital Twins  Leaders are building intelligent digital twins to create living models of factories, supply chains, product lifecycles, and more. Bringing together data and intelligence to represent the physical world in a digital space will unlock new opportunities to operate, collaborate, and innovate. Sixty-five percent of executives surveyed expect their organization’s investment in intelligent digital twins to increase over the next three years.
  • I, Technologist: The Democratization of Technology – Powerful capabilities are now available to people across business functions, adding a grassroots layer to enterprises’ innovation strategies. Now, every employee can be an innovator, optimizing their work, fixing pain points, and keeping the business in lockstep with new and changing needs. Eighty-eight percent of executives believe technology democratization is becoming critical in their ability to ignite innovation across their organization.
  • Anywhere, Everywhere: Bring Your Own Environment – The single biggest workforce shift in living memory has positioned businesses to expand the boundaries of the enterprise. When people can “bring your own environment” they have the freedom to seamlessly work from anywhere – whether that’s at home, the office, the airport, partners’ offices, or somewhere else. In this model, leaders can rethink the purpose of working at each location and lean into the opportunity to reimagine their business in this new world. Eighty-one percent of executives agree that leading organizations in their industry will start shifting from a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ to ‘Bring Your Own Environment’ workforce approach.
  • From Me to We: A Multiparty System’s Path Through Chaos  The demand for contact tracing, frictionless payments, and new ways of building trust brought into sharp focus what had been left undone with enterprises’ existing ecosystems. Multiparty systems can help businesses gain greater resilience and adaptability; unlock new ways to approach the market; and set new, ecosystem-forward standards for their industries. Ninety percent of executives surveyed state that multiparty systems will enable their ecosystems to forge a more resilient and adaptable foundation to create new value with their organization’s partners.

Outlining those companies that use technology to master change – the study shows, leading enterprises are compressing a decade of digital transformation into one or two years. Relying on a strong digital core to adapt and innovate at lightning speed, leaders are growing revenues 5x faster than laggards today, versus only 2x faster between 2015 and 2018, according to Accenture research. The result is a wave of companies racing to reinvent themselves and use technology innovations to shape the new realities they face.

“Over the last year, technology has emerged as the cornerstone of business leadership. As companies shift from reacting to the crisis, to reinventing themselves, those who use technology innovation to shape the new realities will come out as winners,” said Piyush N. Singh, Lead – India Market Unit & Lead – Growth and Strategic Client Relationships, Asia Pacific and Latam, Accenture.

Singh suggested, “To build greater resilience, enterprises must open themselves to more digitally led partnerships, invest strategically and think beyond traditional industry boundaries to function like digital natives.”

In other words, prioritizing technology innovation in response to a rapidly changing world has never been more important. Accenture gives the example of the restaurant industry: 60% of restaurants listed as ‘temporarily closed’ on Yelp in July were permanently out of business by September. Through the chaos, Starbucks emerged as a leader, using technology to expand customer and retail channels. By August, three million new users downloaded its app, and mobile ordering and drive-thru pick up accounted for 90 percent of sales.

As demand surged, it deployed an integrated ticket management system to combine orders from its app, Uber Eats and drive-thru customers into a single workflow for baristas. Starbucks also introduced a new espresso machine with sensors to track how much coffee was being poured and predict necessary maintenance. This is a powerful illustration of technology as the core enabler of a company’s agile, resilient and successful response to change.

“The global pandemic pushed a giant fast forward button to the future. Many organizations stepped up to use technology in extraordinary ways to keep their businesses and communities running – at a pace they thought previously impossible – while others faced the stark reality of their shortcomings, lacking the digital foundation needed to rapidly pivot,” said Paul Daugherty, group chief executive – Technology and chief technology officer at Accenture.

“We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn this moment of truth for technology into a moment of trust – embracing the power of exponential technology change to completely reimagine and rebuild the future of business and human experience,” said Daugherty.

Shaping the future will require companies to become masters of change by adhering to three key imperatives, said the report.

  1. Leadership demands technology leadership. The era of the fast follower is over—perpetual change is permanent. Tomorrow’s leaders will be those that put technology at the forefront of their business strategy.
  2. Leaders won’t wait for a new normal, they’ll reinvent, building new realities using radically different mindsets and models.
  3. Leaders will embrace a broader responsibility as global citizens, deliberately designing and applying technology to create positive impacts far beyond the enterprise to create a more sustainable and inclusive world.

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