The impact of technology on business

The world is changing, and changing fast. We have seen so much technological innovation in the last decade that we might not have witnessed in the previous century. This rapid growth has impacted all spheres of our lives, and has changed the way we communicate and interact with other people, even machines; it has changed the way we conduct business with our partners and customers; it has changed our lifestyles, changing the definition of luxury and necessity.

We have seen conventional business models being toppled by new innovative business models; for example, Uber is changing the way we have recognized the taxi industry for centuries. We have seen an evolution of highly profitable new companies that own minimal assets, for example, online shopping giants such as Alibaba, Amazon, e-bay, and Airbnb. There has also been a change in the way new customers are being acquired through targeted marketing in near real-time, by analyzing their preferences and historical choices.

The driver for all of these successes has been one or all of the three following factors:

• Enhancing customer experience
• Improving workforce productivity
• Bringing efficiency into business operations

Most of these successes have been achieved by effectively collecting and analyzing the available data from multiple sources, processing the data at the speed at which the data is being generated, adding contextual information to the available data, and taking meaningful decisions and communicating back effectively and efficiently with their customers and partners. It is evident that Information Technology has played a crucial role in the success of these giants. It should not come as a surprise then that most CEOs have started to consider IT as a critical success factor rather than a cost center.