Two years ago, the 2012 IBM Tech Trends study underscored the momentum building around the then-emerging trends of big data and analytics, cloud, mobile, and social. At the time, only about half of the respondents had adopted analytics and mobile. Social and cloud, meantime, were deployed by even fewer (34 percent and 39 percent respectively). To update our global snapshot of these four technology areas, the IBM Center for Applied Insights conducted a 2014 Tech Trends study of 1,447 IT and business decision makers.
Two years on, most piloting stages are long gone and adoption is the norm. Each of these four technologies has now been deployed by at least 70 percent of enterprises. Significant deployments of cloud and social have almost tripled in just two years.
Now firmly established, big data and analytics, cloud, mobile and social are more crucial than ever to how business gets done. Nearly three-fourths of decision makers report that these technologies are strategically important to their organizations, up from two-thirds in 2012. They’re helping organizations stand out within fiercely competitive industries, gin up novel products and services, craft new business models, and pinpoint which markets to attack.
Just as telling, this juggernaut shows no signs of slowing. Three-fourths of enterprises plan to ratchet up their investments in big data and analytics, cloud, and mobile, while 66 percent intend to spend more on social business. While reaping the benefits of their past investments, companies plan to keep forging ahead full steam.
To understand the approaches organizations are taking to these technologies, we revisited the segments we identified two years ago: The Pacesetter group believes that these technologies are critical to their business success and adopt them ahead of rivals.
Strikingly, it appears that Pacesetters are maintaining their edge, even as the four pivotal technologies have gone mainstream. About nine in ten of the Pacesetters say they’re gaining competitive advantage from big data and analytics, cloud, mobile and social — well ahead of others. Just as crucially, Pacesetters report they’re better at achieving key business objectives with these technologies than the rest of the field.
On an increasingly competitive playing field, what sets Pacesetters apart? Compared to other segments, Pacesetters are more likely to exhibit three characteristics that help them get more out of these transformative technologies: They’re partnering broadly and creatively, driving business decisions with analytics, and combining the four technologies.
