What will you spend your tech budget on in 2016?

What will you spend your tech budget on in 2016?

In its midyear forecast, Forrester Research estimated that European firms will have spent 28% of their total 2015 tech purchases, or €190 billion, on the adoption of new technology; that’s technologies that help firms win, serve, and retain customers.

The dedication of a third of their budgets to new tech represents a growth in spend across Europe which Forrester attributed in the report to the rise of mobile apps, analytics and big data, and customer-oriented applications, along with the related services for helping firms choose, implement, and maximise value from these software products.

But exactly which new technologies will businesses be buying in 2016?

Cyber Security

There is and will continue to be an increased focus on how data is dealt with and protected following some very high profile data hacks in 2015. It’s a major concern for all business and with ransom attacks only set to rise, this is one we all need to address both personally and at work. Traditional blocking methods should continue to be invested in but businesses now need to also consider how they can maintain the very highest level of security for their businessWe are able to offer our clients advanced security services and protection as well as a ‘Cyber audit’ on request.

Privacy, identity and freedom rises up the agenda in 2016

While using handheld devices for Smart payment systems (mobile to mobile) has become widely adopted, it now can lead to the question of how personal information is stored and how safe is that data. Knowing how to protect your privacy (personal and corporate), and in particular having procedures in place to protect the privacy of your business critical data, will also be a big factor for businesses in 2016.

The Internet of Things

Market research firm Gartner* suggests that the number of ‘things’ connected to the Internet will increase by 30% in 2016, with an estimated 5.5 million new things connecting every day. That’s huge though when we think how mainstream virtual reality, 3D printing and wearables have become this year alone, it’s not hard to imagine deeper and wider human dependency on Smart machines in the not too distant future.

More and more data

Speak to our network consultants and they suggest that what customers are looking for in 2016 is ‘data-centre bridging’ technologies. This technology is gaining interest as more companies in the CI move closer to requiring 10GB products. That demand is building rapidly, where the requirement for Storage Area Network (SAN) data within the front-ends of your business is becoming more mainstream.

Customer insight

Next up is the growing interest for greater customer insight and with Wi-Fi technology comes some interesting new applications that can enable us to track the customer’s experience and purchase/journey while at an event or within a retail outlet or venue. Demands for real-time marketing through Wi-Fi based technologies have greatly increased and are set to merge with video apps driving feature rich and proactively intelligent solutions that can even alert security breaches by exception in real-time.

Ultra-high definition video

Another ‘hot trend’ we have anticipated and which our team are already seeing increased demand for is ‘unifying communications’; such as video with voice for business. Combining the latest video technology with existing telephony systems can bring greater benefits and maximises investment in current voice communication assets. We anticipate this to be big in 2016 and we also have some exciting product developments to announce in this space early in 2016.

*http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317