The pace of technology growing and evolving shows no signs of slowing even during and post-covid19 pandemic. In fact, the global health crisis may have given the digital world a kickstart to innovate more and think outside the box in terms of client experience and where automation can take us in the future. Over the past couple of years we have all seen our health, business, and digital landscape change drastically. In some cases our workplaces changed in the matter of a couple of days in March 2020 and have not quite gotten back to normal, even as we enter yet another new year - 2022. We have learned to adapt to the rapid pace of change. However, at the same time, it’s always a good idea to know what may be coming in the near future.’/One of our goals as IT professionals is to keep an eye on emerging trends and technologies that may be on the horizon and approaching at alarming speed. Therefore, to start our year on this blog, we have outlined just a few of the tech trends that we and other tech experts have noted as possible things to be on the lookout for as we enter 2022 and subsequent years.
Shifting From Short-Term Problem Solving
Many small and medium-sized businesses have struggled with issues dealing with the pandemic. From navigating a shift to remote or hybrid workplaces, to dealing with new safety measures in the dental and healthcare areas, as well as new ideas of curbside pick-ups and contactless deliveries. (Personally, I’d like to keep those last two items.) The changes have come fast and furious, and for most of us, we were able to keep up technically and physically with the demands.Now that we have measures in place such as social distancing, masking, vaccines, and boosters, we have a jump on the immediate needs we faced back in March 2020. Due to these mitigation efforts, many small and medium-sized businesses have been able to return to some sort of new normal. This means that organizations are no longer just “surviving” but able to shift their thought processes, especially those in the digital world, from problem solving to long-term innovation and planning for the future. This comes as a relief to many who felt that innovation may suffer during this pandemic and our digital world may become a breeding ground for cyber criminals. How has your organization innovated in the face of great hardship? We’d love to hear your stories of overcoming issues this year!
A Tech Talent Deficit
Just like in many other work sectors, the IT world is also struggling with finding a skilled and talented workforce. You have probably heard about the many issues right now with unemployment and employees leaving their jobs in droves causing a labor supply shortage like one we have never seen. This is true in the IT industry as well. In fact, Forrester online, a research and advisory company, states that this phenomenon will result in, “IT firms facing the highest turnover and see the longest time to fill open positions among all industries. The result is a surge in sourcing demand for tech skills, far outpacing supply. In response, future firms will use a cloud-first, platform-based architecture and adopt low-code, no-code solutions to reduce their need for the most advanced technical skills. They will also turn to new sourcing models. Firms that don’t get in front of this challenge will resort to boosting wages to attract talent, resulting in (typically negative) financial impacts for their firm and the overall talent market.”Even in the years before the pandemic, business leaders were talking about the shortage in “tech skilled” employees. The issue has become even more critical now that we have all seen how dependent we can be on technology to keep up interconnected during a world-wide event like a global health crisis. Forbes online magazine gave an exceptional example to demonstrate the urgency of these staffing shortages. “At a macro level, people are either not returning to work despite job vacancies, or they're voluntarily leaving work in larger numbers. In the U.S., for example, there's a record-breaking 10 million advertised jobs combined with 164,000 new voluntary job-leavers in June 2021. These trends are combining into some dramatic numbers in places such as Brazil, where it's expected that there will be a shortfall of 400,000 tech jobs by 2022.”Our next trend, automation, may alleviate some of these staffing shortages, but humans will never be completely replaced. Talented computer experts will always be needed to analyze and innovate the “next great thing” in the technology sector.
Hyper Automation
How many business processes are automated in your office? You probably aren't even aware of the multiple tasks that require the press of one button that result in multiple tasks being completed digitally. Automation is present in modern businesses large and small. Automation can range from subtle features in common software applications to more obvious implementation, like self-driving vehicles! But we are getting ahead of ourselves here. The ultimate goals of automation are to: speed up common tasks, increase productivity, reduce human mistakes or errors, and ideally improve quality of output too. Hyper automation takes this idea even further. Gartner, a New England-based technology research and consulting company, explains that hyper automation is, “a business-driven, disciplined approach that organizations use to rapidly identify, vet and automate as many business and IT processes as possible. Hyper automation involves the orchestrated use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms.” This could include:
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Machine learning
Robotic process automation (RPA)
Business process management (BPM)
Integration platform as a service (iPaaS)
Low-code/no-code tools
Packaged software
Other types of decision, process and task automation tools
In past years, automation was seen as a threat to the workforce, whereas now, it is seen as a complementary aspect that can enhance workflow, increase efficiency, and improve productivity overall.
Health Tech Trends Increase
Imagine if medical researchers, immunologists, and virologists could not communicate and share data across the world or inform each other of the best practices to prevent the spread of this deadly virus? Imagine if telehealth was not in place prior to the outbreak? We have all seen the life-and-death work the healthcare sector has juggled and managed over the past couple of years. We have also seen the struggles that emerge when technology demands are not being met, especially in this critical field.As IT tech experts in HIPAA privacy laws and compliance, we know that healthcare technology needs to be updated to become more proficient and on par with other industries across our nation. That has become painfully apparent throughout this global pandemic. We are thankful for that technology, but also realize that gains need to be made in this sector for recovery and security to be real and lasting. Supportive trends that began during the pandemic are set to continue in the healthcare field throughout 2022. According to Forbes online, “Similar to the world of work, the way health services are provided has been forever impacted by the pandemic. Startups that focus on areas such as remote patient management for chronic diseases or are working to remove the frictions for research and drug discovery are particularly well-positioned to benefit from more funding and less inertia from their potential buyers.”
A Final Word
While we value looking at the future trends for the IT world, we also realize that looking back to see what worked and what issues still remain is also important. That’s why we will continue to follow security trends, software, hardware, and issues that continually impact our clients. Follow our blog to stay updated on news of ongoing issues as well as what is right around the corner!
