The Covid era taught us the hard way that going digital is not a business luxury but a survival strategy today. The world went through a huge digital transformation to enable remote working and promote collaboration across teams and departments.
2020 has been a year when businesses aggressively adopted innovative technologies like cloud servers, data analytics, artificial intelligence, automation, contactless payment solutions, and API security, among others.
The trend of adopting non-conventional technologies has extended into 2021.
By 2023, the spending on the technologies and services that enable digital transformation worldwide is expected to amount to 2.3 trillion U.S. dollars. (Source: IDC)
Deloitte, BMW, Alcon, Rockwell Automation, The Home Depot, and Microsoft are the perfect examples of companies that are leading the digital transformation journey.
Brick-and-mortar companies in huge numbers have started making the move towards a digital presence to remain competitive in the dynamic business landscape today.
Here are some of the top digital transformations that are expected to make it big in 2021:
1. Multi-cloud Architectures
Multi-cloud is the future of cloud computing.
It combines the best of different cloud environments to help businesses meet the diverse needs in this data-driven world.
It is useful to:
- Avoid vendor lock-ins
- Meet data compliance
- Drive innovation
- Avoid cloud compatibility issues
Until recent times, migrating to the cloud for businesses essentially meant adopting a hybrid cloud model where they combined different cloud environments (private as well as public). But now, enterprises, especially medium and large ones, are realizing that it’s time to mature their cloud services and adopt a multi-cloud architecture.
It is the data-driven world, after all. It is unfeasible for one cloud provider to meet the diverse needs of a business today. A multi-cloud strategy is the solution to these growing data management needs.
A multi-cloud approach means adopting a combination of cloud computing services from two or more cloud providers to get the most flexibility and features. It involves choosing multiple cloud providers and taking advantage of each of them to meet the specific needs of your business.
In short, the best of all worlds!
The latest forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests that 2021 will be the year of multi-cloud and by 2022, over 90% of enterprises will be deploying a multi-cloud architecture.
It is time to adopt a multi-cloud approach if you’re looking to avoid vendor lock-ins, enable innovation, meet data compliance, avoid cloud compatibility issues, and get the best possible price point.
2. Robotic Process Automation
The era of bots and AI is officially here! RPA is a leading strategy that allows businesses to leave their tedious, rule-based tasks to software bots.
It is useful for:
- File transfers
- User provisioning
- Report generation & distribution
- Database entries
- Claims processes
- Maintaining spreadsheets
- Terminal emulation
- Batch processing
- Event log monitoring
A multi-national research study into global productivity released by Unit4 claims that office workers are spending around 69 days per year on administration tasks, globally this represents lost productivity in the region of $5 trillion annually.
Whoa! That’s a huge figure.
But fortunately, we’re officially in the era of bots and AI.
Businesses are increasingly relying on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to improve productivity, speed up processes, enable innovation, and help workers become more efficient and strategic.
According to a study by McKinsey, 57% of organizations say they are at least piloting the automation of processes in one or more business units or functions.
Today, no discussion around digital transformation can go without mentioning RPA, the leading strategy that businesses across industries are adopting massively.
RPA technology enables software bots to handle business processes and tasks, from file transfers to user provisioning, report generation & distribution, database entries, claims processes, maintaining spreadsheets, terminal emulation, batch processing, event log monitoring, and more.
It is quite apparent that through 2021, we’ll see more and more business processes, especially routine and rule-based ones, be automated.
3. Contactless Payment Solutions
They’re not just a reality, but a necessity today!
Today, cashless and contactless are no longer concepts we only see in futuristic sci-fi movies. They are a reality now. They allow businesses to increase customer satisfaction and ramp up sales.
They are useful for:
- Limiting physical interaction
- Promoting faster transactions
- Secure transactions
- More convenience
- Ease of payment
The use of contactless payment solutions has surged in the COVID-19 epoch dramatically. Not that they weren’t in use earlier. They were certainly nice to have.
But with the onset of Covid-19, these solutions became a necessity.
And after we’re out of the global health crisis, there’ll certainly be no doubt about their importance in today’s digital age.
Businesses of all sizes across industries are adopting contactless payment solutions to not only limit physical interaction but also to promote faster and more secure transactions, thereby delivering increased customer satisfaction. These solutions have opened up a multitude of opportunities for businesses and have ramped up their sales like never before.
Digital trends and technologies like these that reduce the need for face-to-face contact increase consumer demand multi-folds.
Contactless adoption rocketed in 2020 and is further expected to take off globally. Studies show that more than 2 billion contactless cards are estimated to be in circulation by 2023.
There are lots of contactless payment instruments for businesses to accept today, from contactless cards to Tap and Pay options, key fobs, watch applications, bank mobile applications, mobile wallets, and digital payments, among others.
Technology leaders like Jellyfish Technologies can ensure that your payment terminals have the capabilities to work with your chosen contactless payment options.
Make the move to contactless payments today.
In A Nutshell
We can all admit that 2020 has been a roller-coaster year. Although it brought tons of losses and immeasurable pain, it also changed the business landscape and brought about a digital transformation.
There is no looking back now.
The coming years are expected to witness massive adoption of digital trends and technologies like the ones outlined in this post, across all sectors.
Are you ready to capitalize on the incredible potential of these ground-breaking technologies?
Jellyfish Technologies is a reputed tech company that has a proven record of helping organizations adopt the latest technologies and drive digital transformation.
