Digital Lifescapes

When you think about the applications of big data and analytics, the industrial and manufacturing sector may not be top-of-mind. However, consider that every type of commercial enterprise will become a 'digital business' and it makes sense. Automation and big data analytics will continue to transform key sectors of the global economy. Today's factories run on data. To harness that data, manufacturers are turning to software applications such as Electronic Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Inventory Management, and CRM and Demand Planning. Big Data Analytics App Market Development The investment within the industrial and manufacturing sector on these applications is set to grow from $18 billion in 2019 to just over $27 billion in 2024, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "Data underpins activities such as onboarding raw mater

Smart city projects will gain new momentum in 2020 as more municipal government leaders adopt new technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) communications. Street lighting is the area where adoption is noteworthy. According to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight, the installed base of smart street lights was 10.4 million worldwide at the end of 2018. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.5 percent, the installed base will reach 31.2 million in 2023. Smart City Market Development Global market leadership continues to evolve as new projects are launched. Europe is the leading smart street lighting market accounting for nearly 40 percent of the installed base. Characterized by a higher degree of utility ownership of street lighting assets, the North American market has seen a more scattered uptake of smart street lighting but is nevertheless home to several of the world’s largest deployments. North America acc

Talent development was a reoccurring topic at the WEF 2020 event in Davos this week. In related news, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) full-time employment (FTE) will reach 55.3 million worldwide in 2020 -- that's an increase of 3.9 percent over 2019, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Moreover, the global ICT FTE workforce will maintain this pace of growth over the 2019-2023 forecast period, reaching more than 62 million people in 2023, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8 percent. ICT Talent and Emerging Staffing Trends IDC believes a person can, as part of an occupation, perform several roles and split their time across those roles. The combination of roles for an occupation may vary over time between industries and organizations, even though the activities performed by a role remain relatively stable. Within ICT job roles, activities are performed within projects, programs, and lines of busi

The global mobile communication services market has always been prone to technological disruption and innovation. Over the past 10 years, however, the mobile voice services landscape has been profoundly affected by advances in new technology. These include the penetration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in communication services, the rise of highly customized Over-the-Top (OTT) mobile voice and messaging applications, and the rollout of superior connectivity modes such as 4G LTE and 5G. Mobile Voice Service Market Development To adapt, mobile network operators are migrating their networks to an all-IP ecosystem. Focus has moved beyond Evolved Packet Core (EPC) frameworks to converge data and voice services on the same network. In turn, this has created offerings such as Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-Fi) and HD Voice services. This has enabled mobile network operators to provide services that can compete directly with the OTT software app pr

The evolution of information technology (IT) leadership -- sometimes driven by the line of business (LoB), sometimes by the legacy IT organization -- is reaching a state of balance where business-IT collaboration sets the stage for meaningful digital transformation. Software application leaders must examine these predictions to learn how this equilibrium will take shape in their organization. Over the next two years, ~50 percent of organizations will experience increased collaboration between their business and IT teams, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Gartner believes that the dispute between LoB leaders and traditional CIOs or CTOs over the control of enterprise technology deployment will lessen, as both sides learn that joint participation in the process is critical to the success of innovation within a digital workplace. Application Leadership Market Development "Business units and IT teams can no longer function in silos, as distant teams ca

Following the transition from magnetic stripe to EMV (smart cards that store data on integrated circuit chips), the U.S. retail market is upgrading to contactless point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Meanwhile, 100 percent of POS terminals may already be contactless-enabled in Canada, the UK and Japan. Moreover, Visa reports that about 50 percent of its in-person transactions (outside the U.S.) are already contactless, through payment cards and mobile devices. In the U.S. market, where the EMV rollout is recent, it's estimated that 52.7 percent of POS terminals were now contactless-enabled in 2019. Contactless POS Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the installed base of contactless-enabled POS devices will exceed 161 million by 2024 -- growing from 78 million devices in 2019. Contactless POS devices will then be about 94 percent of all POS devices in use. Juniper believes that this growth will be driven by the deployment of cont

Across the globe, CIOs and CTOs are evaluating the adoption of intelligent automation and other technologies that will be applied within a factory environment. New applications, such as Digital Twin, will transform the manufacturing process by creating a replica of the physical production plant. Technology investments in the industrial and manufacturing sector are set to grow significantly, going from $59 billion in 2019 to $375 billion in 2030. Including hardware revenues, that figure will climb to over $1 trillion, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Manufacturing is in the midst of a major digital revolution and is investing in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), robotics (AGVS, AMRs) and cloud-based simulation and modeling. Digital Factory Market Development "The transformative shift toward Industry 4.0 technologies and the broader field of software-defined manufacturin

Across the globe, mobile network service providers are preparing for the ongoing deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless network infrastructure. The number of 5G connections is forecast to grow from roughly 10 million in 2019 to 1.01 billion in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 217.2 percent over the 2019-2023 forecast period. By 2023, IDC expects 5G will represent 8.9 percent of all mobile communications device connections. 5G Use Case Market Development There are several factors that will drive 5G adoption: Data Creation and Consumption . The amount of data created and consumed by consumers and businesses will continue to grow over the coming years. Shifting data-intensive users and use cases to 5G will allow network operators to more efficiently manage network resources, improving performance and reliability as a result. More Things Connected . As the Io

Digital trust is the measure of confidence in an organization's ability to protect and secure the data and privacy of individuals. An increase in related government regulations has motivated CIOs and CTOs to explore technology combinations to secure data assets and thereby improve stakeholder trust. As an example, the majority of Internet of Things (IoT) technology adopters in the U.S. are also adopting blockchain technology and combining it with their IoT networks, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "The integration of IoT and blockchain networks is a sweet spot for digital transformation and innovation," said Avivah Litan, vice president at Gartner . "It is actually moving ahead at a much faster pace than expected, according to the survey." IoT and Blockchain Market Development Seventy-five percent of IoT technology adopters in the U.S. have already adopted blockchain or are planning to adopt it by the end of 2020. Among the blockchain ad