1. 2017
Applications Trend Report
Explore. Adopt. Optimize.

2. Trends in the applications space are quickly evolving due to the strategic impetus to use digital technologies
As IT trends find tangible and commercial purpose in the market, in the form of a killer application or a new practice, it is critical for IT executives to evaluate the implications of change on industry and business strategy.
IT executives need to avoid running a business that overlooks innovation and falls behind, and they need to recognize trends and develop an action plan that will generate business value for your stakeholders.
Info-Tech’s Applications Trend Report explores eight trending technologies or practices in the applications space that are poised to gain mainstream momentum in the short term. For each identified trend, this report addresses the following questions:
What is the trend?
Why is it trending?
What is in it for me?
How should I take action?

3. Early Commercial Products
We live in an age of technology disruption, where early adopters often gain the upper hand
This report addresses trending applications technologies and practices.
While many more trends will likely disrupt industries within the next 3 to 5 years, those that we selected have already found one or more early market applications and are expected to move closer to mainstream adoption in 2017.
This is represented by the red shaded area in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Applications Maturity Journey
Idea
Hypothesis
Early Commercial Products
Killer Application
Early Success Stories
Standard Practice
Technology
Practice
DISCOVERY
EARLY ADOPTION
(Selected Trends)
MAINSTREAM ADOPTION
Source: IDC FutureScape
66%
of CEOs from Global 2000 companies see
digital transformation at the center of their corporate strategies by the end of 2017.

4. IT executives now realize that they need to assume three key roles…
Member data from Info-Tech’s CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic shows that IT executives have a variety of competing priorities.
These priorities (left) are relevant to each of the three roles that an IT executive must fulfill (below).
MANAGER OF IT
BUSINESS PARTNER
INNOVATOR
n = 152 IT executives
This data is drawn from Info-Tech members, in response to Info-Tech’s CEO-CIO Alignment Program surveys. IT executives were asked: “How important are each of the following business goals? Please allocate 100 points across these goals.” An average was taken across the business goals, which were ranked and grouped according to their relevance to IT executive roles. (2016)
For more information on this diagnostic program, please follow the hyperlink below:
Info-Tech’s CEO-CIO Alignment Program Diagnostic

5. Successful IT executives achieve all three objectives.
…and deliver value to the IT department, enterprise users, and the business
Most IT executives start in a primarily managerial role, with an “all hands-on- deck” philosophy to manage IT operations. Their role then grows to become partners of the business, and then innovators who lead business growth.
Successful IT executives achieve all three objectives.
Figure 3. The Three-Fold Role of the IT Executive
Market
Core Objectives A B C
Optimize the Effectiveness of the IT Organization;
Boost the Productivity of the Enterprise;
Enable Business Growth Through Technology.
Enterprise
IT Organization
INNOVATOR
PARTNER
MANAGER

6. Optimize the Effectiveness of the IT Department
The applications trends selected for this report are aligned with the core objectives of IT executives
We have identified eight trends in the early adoption maturity phase that are poised to help today’s IT executives achieve these three core objectives.
Core Objectives A
Optimize the Effectiveness of the IT Organization; B
Boost the Productivity of the Enterprise; C
Enable Business Growth Through Technology.
Boost the Productivity of the Enterprise
Enable Business Growth Through Technology B
Social Media Intelligence
Enterprise VDAs C
Omni- Channel Services
Context as-a-Service
Cloud Integration
New Seats in the C-Suite A
Skills Crowdsourcing
Service Virtualization
Optimize the Effectiveness of the IT Department
Figure 4. The Trends in the Core Objectives Framework

7. 2017
The Applications Trends

8. Optimize the IT function’s effectiveness and boost the enterprise’s productivity with these leading trends
1. Application Service Virtualization
Application service virtualization allows for concurrent application program interface (API) testing by simulating the behavior, data, and performance characteristics of applications while they are still in development. Of organizations, 46% using these solutions report a 41% or greater reduction in total defects during application development.
2. Cloud Integration
Of organizations, 56% cite lack of integration as the primary driver for abandoning cloud solutions. Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions allow organizations to fully integrate an already full-cloud environment, or integrate key cloud systems with important legacy applications without sacrificing functionality and data integrity.
3. Skills Crowdsourcing
Of executives, 25% consider the lack of advanced technology skills to be their number one staffing pain point. Crowdsourcing can help to bridge these internal gaps. Organizations are leveraging crowdsourcing as a way to address the technical skills shortages in the applications and information management domains.
4. Social Media Intelligence
As global social media ad spending exceeds $24 billion annually, companies are looking to optimize their social media efforts by leveraging SMI to respond to social signals and analyse social data to generate augmented user insight and trigger an insight-driven action.

9. Stimulate and enable business growth through these trending technologies and practices
5. Context-as-a-Service
The Context Aware Computing market is expected to grow at a 30% CAGR and context-as-a-service vendors and solutions are becoming more mainstream in the market. Context-as-a-service solutions pull contextualized and situational information to allow for brands to respond with personalized offerings in the micro-moment.
6. Enterprise Virtual Digital Assistants
With 2017 projections for over 300 million unique interactions between enterprise virtual assistants and consumers, and 29% cost savings associated with enterprise chatbots, organizations are beginning to deploy AI-based virtual digital assistants (VDAs) in their digital communication channels.
7. Omni-Channel Service
Only 11% of organizations are currently capable of truly providing omni-channel service despite 90% of consumers demanding consistent interaction across channels. It is more vital than ever to present one unified customer journey, so that it can include any number of interactions with the ability to alternate seamlessly between channels.
8. New Seats in the C-Suite
There are now over 2000 Chief Data Officers and 2000 Chief Digital Officers in the world. Roles that have been traditionally within the applications and information management spaces are being elevated to C-level positions, offering technology professionals an opportunity to influence and direct the corporate strategy.