New technologies come in and out of fashion as vendors push the next big application, solution, capability, or strategy. Only with time can IT executives know for certain which will have staying power and which will fall short of the initial hype.
The study examines adoption trends, current investment activity, and customer experience of 15 selected technologies, including eight that fall broadly into the category of business systems and seven that we categorize as infrastructure technologies.
Our current survey covers the following enterprise systems: ERP, CRM, e-commerce, supply chain management, human capital management, business and data analytics, enterprise asset management, and artificial intelligence.
We also analyze the following infrastructure technologies: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), mobile devices, mobile applications, the Internet of Things, robotic process automation (RPA), and security technology.
Finally, we look at 18 early adopter and future technologies to determine mindshare and early momentum in adoption.
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First, the data gathered for each initiative is summarized at the beginning of the study in three ways:
Next, the following charts are presented for each of the technologies covered:
ERP functionality surveyed includes accounting/finance, purchasing, customer orders/fulfillment, customer service/support, human resources, operations management, resource planning, inventory/warehouse management, and facilities/equipment maintenance.
CRM functionality surveyed includes sales force automation, marketing, customer service, customer self-service, customer analytics, e-commerce, social media monitoring/engagement, partner management, contact/call center, and estimating/quotation/configuration.
E-commerce functionality surveyed includes web storefront, digital fulfillment, PunchOut, customer portal, supplier portal, back-end integration, marketplace integration, data synchronization, web APIs, and electronic data interchange.
Types of SCM solutions surveyed include demand forecasting/demand management, sales & operations planning, advanced planning/inventory optimization, warehouse management, transportation management, automated data collection, supplier relationship management, supply chain visibility, fleet management, and network optimization.
Types of HCM solutions surveyed include organizational reporting structure, payroll, benefits administration, compliance, workforce management, workforce planning, recruiting/applicant tracking, learning management, career development/succession planning, and workforce analytics.
Types of business and data analytics capabilities surveyed include data warehouse/data marts, ad-hoc queries, predictive analytics, ETL, dashboards, big data storage, unstructured data analytics, in-memory analytics, and machine learning.
Types of enterprise asset management solutions surveyed include asset life cycle management, asset accounting, maintenance planning, asset monitoring, maintenance supply chain, geographical information systems (GIS), and virtual/augmented reality.
Artificial intelligence functionality surveyed includes rule-based reasoning, machine learning, speech recognition, natural language processing, and facial/object recognition.
SaaS applications surveyed include ERP/financial systems, CRM, marketing automation, payroll, HR/HCM, email/calendaring, reporting, collaboration, expense reporting, and e-commerce.
IaaS capabilities surveyed include virtual servers, bare metal, containers, multiple availability zones, and platform as a service. Uses of IaaS surveyed include system development/testing, production systems, disaster recovery, spikes in demand, big data, and archiving of inactive data.
Mobile devices surveyed include smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smart glasses, and mobile data collection scanners.
Mobile applications surveyed include time/attendance, expense reporting, sales/CRM, inventory/order management, purchasing, service, workflow/approvals, geolocation, and customer-facing apps.
Internet of things functionality surveyed includes manufacturing/warehouse, asset management, smart products, environmental monitoring, energy management, service/field service, transportation/logistics, aerospace/defense, healthcare, and agriculture.
Robotic process automation functionality surveyed includes accounting/finance, operations, IT support, human resources, customer service, procurement, and sales.
IT security technologies surveyed include incident detection, firewalls, identity and access management, anti-malware, mobile device management, spam filtering, vulnerability scanners, and virtual private network (VPN).
This year, for the third time, we decided to look not just at technologies in major use today but also ask our respondents about technologies that are a little more on the horizon or in the early adopter stage. We wanted to find out which of these newer technologies are really catching the eye of decision-makers and which are either too far out in terms of practical application or are simply in the news because of vendor or media hype.
We listed 18 technologies, virtual reality, autonomous vehicles, drones, 5G, augmented reality, 3-D printing, digital currencies, digital assistants, blockchain, quantum computing, microchip implants, volumetric displays/holograms, no-code/low-code, self-healing systems, 4-D printing, digital twins, electronic tattoos, and smart dust.
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