It’s prediction time again and I am jumping into the crystal ball to see what the year will bring. I have surveyed the web and the predictions of BIG thinkers so you don’t have to.
1. Social media will keep growing, following the same path that e-commerce and corporate web sites did. You will no longer be able to say "What’s LinkedIn?" without shocking your younger business colleagues.
2. Cloud applications will move to the mainstream as better, more robust applications and widespread web access converge. Small business will see new ERP applications delivered from the cloud.
3. Mobile applications will grow rapidly as enterprises leverage these devices to power the workforce, speed decision making and grow their revenue. More than 49% of small business owners use smartphones, racing ahead of America in
smartphone adoption, according to a
recent Forrester study. Business owners are
tweeting, using
GPS services and investing in
mobile advertising and texting. This year the wider availability of the iPhone on Verizon will continue to push the move.
4. Real-time business analytics will define and drive the real-time organization. As business intelligence is layered onto the trends of cloud, mobile and social media, it will birth true real-time businesses. Business Intelligence applications – formerly reserved for Fortune 500s – will be available for Intuit Solution's QuickBooks users, helping business owners to manage multiple enterprises from anywhere.
5. Small businesses will increase online marketing spending, with websites taking the front seat, according to a recent survey. Although nearly 60% of businesses have web sites , most are on-line brochures. Smart business owners recognize the need to be found on the web and SEO spending will soar. Upgrades to online presence will increase capabilities for e-commerce, reservation systems, corporate blogs and social media integration.
6. The Economy will not revert to the mid 2000s. Now is the new normal. Many companies will continue to struggle as they try to identify and supply demand for products, Successful companies will focus on cost management, niche markets, social media, government contracts, alternative energy and outsourcing key positions such as part-time CFOs and whole functions such as invnetory management.
7. Business Funding will continue to be a struggle as banks recapitalize and focus on strong balance sheet companies. Managing the working capital cycle will be as important as ever, with savvy companies using trend analysis and dashboards to gain incremental improvements in internal funding.
8. Venture Capital firms will be hungry to invest in green business. This trend has the potentail to mirror the late 90s when anything "web" , no matter how silly, was ripe for investment. So going green has one more benefit.
