The NHS and public sector organisations will leverage the agility of start-ups and small businesses.
The Government has tried to promote working with small businesses with the g-cloud, but 2017 will see more traction in this area, with hospitals and government departments becoming much more willing to engage with small businesses and deliver great results. This is a trend we have already started to see within the industry (for example JLabs, Unilever and Wayra are all working with tech accelerators), but this will grow massively next year.
2017 will see a huge increase of automated/algorithmic based solutions to deal with time consuming problems
Companies that have collected large amounts of data over the past few years now have a rich mine of historical data – and this comes just in time. These new solutions, which will revolutionise the foundations of business, are able to feed off the data collected and finally bring day to day operations into the 21st century. The world of tech has spent a long time innovating technologies and developing complex data collecting and data analysis methods. In 2017 we’ll see a real push to integrate the two – leading to smarter cities, businesses, and societies overall.
The rise of the “gig economy” will result in companies looking for efficient, flexible ways to match their workers with demand.
It’s estimated by 2020, 40 percent of US workers will be independent contractors. Employees who have worked in the gig economy and enjoyed its flexibility will want the same kinds of flexibility in their fixed employment. Greater flexibility can improve work-life balance and reduce staff churn – both leading to happier employees servicing happier customers.
Technology will empower the lower paid worker, allowing for improved working conditions
We have seen some huge advances in the perks that employees get – from fresh fruit to sleeping pods to frozen embryos and kitten therapy. But all of these stories have been exclusively directed to the city-dwelling office worker. Rostered employees are largely left out of this conversation. So far, true flexibility of different shifts of different length for different people each day has been too complex to do all manually. For those with children, or caretakers, or undergoing education or even starting a business from scratch – these working conditions are real obstacles. But the future flexible revolution can be enabled by smart auto scheduling software that considers both business demands as well as employee availability and preference.
Retail will undergo a digital revolution to improve business processes
We’re seeing some great tech in retail, enabling improved interactions with customers and some great opportunities for inter-channel play. But in 2017 retailers will need to step up their innovation when it comes to their business processes – we need to make sure that the foundations are as efficient, automated and data-driven as possible if we want to add new cutting edge technology to retail. The sooner this happens, the better prepared we are for more innovation.
Hospitality will hit the digital era in 2017
We’re seeing technology do interesting things in this space but there’s still very much room for improvement. From booking tables to scheduling staff, processes need to become integrated. The hospitality industry hasn’t fully committed to the 21st century, but we’re bound to see this space revolutionise in 2017 with some great apps, technologies and innovations to make this service providing sector as accommodating as possible. “
