Top 5 new business technologies for 2018
Maintaining a competitive advantage is at the top of any company’s priorities. Technology, in particular, has changed the way we work in many exciting ways, helping us improve productivity in-house and reach our customers in ways never before possible.
Heading into 2018, we have a lot to look forward to in the realm of business tech advances, but out of all the options available to us, what are the trends we should be paying attention to and how will they help us?
Let’s look at a handful of the top new business technologies we should look forward to in 2018:
Business technology #1: Augmented Reality (AR)
Now that AR has become more accessible, it is poised to provide businesses with exciting new ways to enhance not only the customer experience but the way business decisions are made from the top down. With the ability to mesh reality with interactivity in the digital realm, it is possible to provide an immersive mixed-reality experience that translates to many industries, from healthcare, where it can be leveraged for diagnostic and surgical applications, to hospitality and tourism, where it can provide a more meaningful experience based on the user’s location.
Business technology #2: Internet of Things (IoT) and Digital Twins
IoT has already infiltrated our lives at home, in the office, and for a range of activities in the industrial world. Digital twins work hand-in-hand with IoT devices, offering benefits in improved efficiency, asset management, and enhanced operational value. Simply put, a digital twin is a virtual replica of a product, service, or process, pairing the physical and the virtual world. connected to a cloud-based system, they gather data on processes and systems, alert us to issues before they occur, minimize downtime, and even give us a blueprint for the future. The technology itself is nothing new. It’s been in use by the space program at NASA for decades—and still is—giving researchers a way to monitor their equipment and technology even when it traveled beyond their ability to monitor it directly.
Business technology #3: AI chatbots on the help desk
Most of us by now have experienced AI to a certain degree as it is becoming quite common for chatbots to be deployed in customer service environments. Their ability to reduce costs on the help desk help the enterprise to stay lean and reduce human errors, and with the added bonus of machine learning, they can even predict what a customer might want or need based on previous transactions. While it may not eliminate the need for humans completely, the technology is becoming much more viable, accessible, and—dare I say—acceptable.
Business technology #4: Edge computing
Edge computing can be described as a way of processing and collecting information closer to the devices or objects that are the sources of this data. The edge approach is deployed as a component of your cloud infrastructure and can be highly advantageous to companies that rely on vast IoT networks as it reduces latency, improving connectivity, and does not interfere with the bandwidth servicing other devices on the network.
Business technology #5: Blockchain
Originally developed to manage Bitcoin and other digital cryptocurrencies, blockchain provides value in the business realm by enabling a shared, secure digital ledger that can then be leveraged to control processes that range from supply chain activities to identity management. Its fortress-like encryption makes it ideal for enterprise security and with the rise of new blockchain-enabled applications, we may soon begin to see it emerge in such industries as finance and healthcare.
While these are just a few of the exciting new business technologies to look out for in 2018, they are currently some of the most talked-about and useful. If you would like to learn more about technologies that have the potential to transform your business, schedule a call with Greenlight today. We are Sydney and Melbourne’s IT specialists, helping you do more with your technology today.
