How well do you really know your customers and their experiences in your retail store?
Retail Industry
Customer pain points come in all shapes and sizes. They also change all the time, driven by advances in technology, shopping experiences online, and growing expectations around speed, convenience, and delivery.
Attracting & Retaining Customers
Building relationships with customers is vital to business, and one of the easiest ways to keep track of what people are up to is with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that takes into account multiple platforms and social data. Data-analysis tools turn raw data into easily digestible information about how customers engage with your business.
Retaining & Engaging Employees
Retail is one of the industries with the highest employee turnover rates. Retaining staff is one of the toughest challenges in the industry. Meanwhile, replacing employees requires a lot of energy and costs.
The solution to this challenge is to increase employee engagement within your company. Provide regular training to optimize their competencies.
Customization & Personalization
One-size-fits-all is no more an option for businesses. Hence, they need to personalize their products, services, and communications based on their customers. Whether it is providing recommendations, sending advertisements, or communicating for any support, everything needs to be personalized based on customers’ preferences and needs. Customers can prove very demanding and they are increasingly looking for unique experiences that allow them to build and customize their own products.
Supply Chain Management
Gain complete visibility into your Supply Chain. managing the entire supply chain of retail organizations. The differentiating factor of retail supply chain management from other supply chain management is in the volume of product movement and the fast-moving nature of the products of the retail industry. The retail supply chain has to be monitored very closely and has to be free from defects as the products are always on the move and the cycle time is very low. Further, the continuous movement of materials across the supply chain is crucial to the success of any organization in the retail industry.
Healthcare Industry
The Healthcare sector plays a tremendous role in the overall welfare of society and the nation’s economic growth. A robust healthcare system is a reflection of how developed a country is and hence every hurdle in this sector needs to be addressed efficiently. The ability to leverage healthcare data generated from digital technologies is set to alter the healthcare landscape forever, inevitably bringing into the spotlight concerns of data privacy and security.
Healthcare is moving irrevocably towards a patient-centric business model, and systems need to adapt.
Data Analysis & Management
As patient medical records, clinical notes, and administrative data start to grow exponentially, better tools would be required for their storage and management. The advanced business intelligence tool would be of immense use to the patient and record keepers at the hospital. It will make information handy and easily accessible, helping patients book appointments and keep track of their treatment easily.
Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks and data breaches are the cons of the digital age and need to be combated with swift and strong security measures. Sensitive information such as patients’ health records falling into the wrong hands is a breach of privacy and can be misused by hackers for various purposes. From personal data to payment information and even insurance details, the patient has a lot to lose in cyber theft.
Hospitals too risk their reputation in such malicious attacks and are often required to pay a hefty penalty. Hence it becomes crucial that healthcare providers invest in strong cybersecurity which includes implementing multi-factor authentication and robust firewalls.
Healthcare Experience
Healthcare as an industry has undergone various changes and offers better and more advanced medical facilities. Patients too have heightened expectations and expect the best services from health establishments.
From booking appointments to getting records, taking tests, and easy payment of medical bills, patients want each service to be hassle-free. A streamlined user experience helps hospitals attract patients and grow as an organization. This sector too faces tough competition and has to go the extra length in terms of better services and technology.
Effective Payment Methods
Medical practices are citing patient collections as their top revenue cycle management struggle as patients are becoming responsible for a larger portion of their medical bills. In order to help encourage patients to submit payments in a timely manner, providers must adhere to patient payment preferences.
To meet patient expectations and improve the user experience, ensure billing statements are patient-friendly. You should offer paperless statements (eStatements) and a variety of payment options (e.g., eCheck, credit card, etc.) via an online patient portal and utilize the latest payment technologies, such as mobile and text-to-pay. New features like text or email reminders help effectively communicate with patients and encourage them to pay their financial obligations.
With COVID-19, there has been a wider focus on staying healthy and boosting immune systems which is driving consumers to all sorts of health-focused products including CBD.
CBD Industry
One of the biggest trends in self-care, health, and beauty today is the rise of cannabidiol products, popularly known as CBD. The CBD industry is an interesting market to follow. Like any agricultural product, there are ebbs and flows to its supply and demand. The supply chain of this industry is made up of five stages in the processing of marijuana. The first stage is the cultivation of the herbs. This is followed by the extraction of cannabinoids. From there, the next stage is testing. Distribution and retail are the fourth and last stages respectively. The supply chain itself may sound simple, but it actually can be quite complex.
Business Intelligence
Data science and big data are the future of online marketing, and CBD products have no exception. Using BI, it is possible to gather a lot of information regarding CBD customer buying habits and preferences. Using that information, you can know which products to improve, products to remove from your portfolio, as well as understanding which products have the highest demand in the online market.
Business intelligence has also played a massive role in helping scientists and marketers collect data which they use in analyzing commercial trends as well as using it for scientific reasons. If you can invest in BI tools, you will gain valuable information that will help your CBD business get an advantage over the competitors. The essential thing to understand is that if you have access to market data and customers’ purchase habits.
Technology Driven Hemp Farming
Smart farming technology through the use of drones is molding the future of hemp and cannabis cultivation. The crop management concept employs modern technology to increase the quality and quantity of agricultural products. It also allows farmers and companies to have access to GPS, data management, soil scanning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies.
By measuring the exact variations within a field and adapting the strategy accordingly, the effectiveness of fertilizers and pesticides can be significantly increased by using data to make a more selective application. What’s more, drone technology in agriculture settings can decrease the number of risks while offering agriculturalists valuable insights.
Blockchain and Crypto in the Hemp Industry
The major strides in the hemp and cannabis industry were not without their pain points. Setting a standard of transparency, quality assurance and maintenance, payment processing and storage, and general regulatory uncertainty have overwhelmed CBD entrepreneurs for years. The blockchain is basically an indisputable distributed database at the core of what many people are calling a cryptocurrency revolution. Blockchain can help the CBD industry solve its current concerns and navigate the uncertain path ahead.
From processing the payment and identity confirmation to monitoring the entire supply chain from seed to end-product, CBD businesses have several entry points for blockchain technology. As the blockchain and cannabis companies evolve together, there will be an even deeper collaboration and mingling between the technological advantages, respective entrepreneurial talents, and political activism of each die-hard community.
Personalized Products
All consumers are different in terms of individual biochemistry, and this means that they process chemicals differently. For some people, edibles can work well, whereas they don’t affect others. Therefore, it’s challenging for someone exploring the CBD industry for the first time to find the right product for their needs.
With the help of technology, CBD companies are creating products according to their client’s body reactions to different products. Some of them even allow customers to customize their products.
The present market is saturated with the same products that share the same quality. But clients are looking for special CBD products that meet their unique needs. Producers can now research their audience’s needs and tailor their products to offer wider ranges of personalized products.
Wireless Industry
The wireless retail industry has reached a tipping point. The U.S. wireless industry is booming as more consumers and businesses snap up smartphones, tablet computers, and billions of wireless applications. With wireless penetration at nearly 100% in the U.S., commoditization threatens to further cut product margins and make an already competitive industry even more challenging. Retailers who can successfully differentiate from the market stand to capture the largest gains in this rapidly changing industry.
Demand for wireless products has never been higher, yet the industry has never been more competitive.
Creating Customer Value
Consumer expectations continue to rise; as their lives are becoming increasingly digital, consumers want their telecommunications providers to give them the fastest networks and newest devices, coupled with the lowest costs possible, now. Add to that the higher standard and speed of customer service and frontline support that consumers are demanding, telecoms have a lot of variables to contend with to hold on to their customer base.
It is essential that telcos offer differentiated value to build loyalty and retain customers. This could be through alternative customer experience models, service processes, and customer support.
Focus on Customer Experience
Given the growing usage, and even dependence, of wireless telecom services, these companies target audiences are wide-reaching and quite diverse. Thus, telecom companies are tasked with creating sales and marketing strategies that appeal to many potential consumers and solve a plethora of challenges.
The biggest factor they identify in the success of the wireless retail industry is providing a superior customer experience. If the customer doesn’t get the perfect experience, they’re not going to come back. With razor-thin margins, particularly in pre-paid sectors, a differentiated customer experience is the only way to ensure that customers do not switch brands or providers.
The Role of Analytics
One of the big indicators of change in the telecom industry was the market shift around success metrics and customer relationships. Since the cost of customer acquisition is now so high, and mass attrition so common, measuring customer loyalty and implementing customer retention measures has never been more important.
The telecommunications industry receives a substantial amount of data continually. Telecom companies must utilize the same to appropriately approach the rising competition, increasing regulations, and constant technological advancements. With the easy-to-use data analysis that comes from a telecom data analytics solution, a company can make decisions based on data, not guesswork. Companies can efficiently assess, evaluate, and utilize the data available accurately, to efficiently optimize networks, develop data-driven strategies, and achieve optimal business operations. Putting their collective heads together to lower service costs, drive expansion, and act immediately when key performance indicators (KPIs) change, your departments will function as one smooth, profit-generating machine.
Reflecting on Sales Model and Sales Representative
Incentives drive sales behaviors. The heart of sales performance is motivation. Without it, there is no incentive for your reps to push to close deals. When you get it right, it’s a win-win for you and your sellers. So it suffices to say, your sales incentive compensation plays a major role in your ability to drive revenue and growth. Employees who feel valued are more likely to work harder and stay longer, which saves your business time and money on employee turnover.
Fast-paced and lively, the sales commission work environment has many benefits. Telecom agents and telco sales reps can be influenced by commissions and spiffs. Sales commission is a huge part of showing your sales employees they’ll be rewarded for hard work and appreciated for the time they put into their roles. Competition brings up the curve and delivers more sales for the business. Commission-based pay depends on making customers happy. When the sales team is focused on assisting customers, you’ll have a friendly, problem-solving environment that will invite excellence.
Inventory Management
More than just the physical practice of ordering, receiving, and returning inventory, an efficient inventory management process helps you plan, control, and organize goods. It means truly managing what you’re ordering to ensure that you order only what you need and when you need it. The key is having the right inventory at the right time to give your customers the options they want without being stuck with too much excess inventory at the end of the day.
Real-time data and solutions provide visibility into delivery cycles to help you with route planning and scheduling, route optimization, delivery appointments and customer service.
Food & Delivery Service Industry
In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion of food delivery options for consumers. From restaurant delivery to bags of groceries arriving within minutes on doorsteps, technology has had a serious impact on transporting food items to individuals. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, some restaurants have cut down on labor forces and physical location rent costs by relying solely on food delivery services. Numerous grocery chains have added delivery and pickup options to their offerings. As consumers become busier in their daily lives, food businesses have turned to digital tools to simplify the delivery of foodstuffs.
Real Time Visibility
In the food service industry, timing is critical. Customers expect to receive deliveries on time at the lowest possible cost and are quick to switch to competitors if the service provided is not at a consistently high standard. With real-time visibility into delivery operations, you can maximize the opportunity to up-sell customers at the time of delivery. It is easy to coordinate trucks and sales staff to arrive at the same time and capitalize on situations where up-sell opportunities exist.
Relationships often hinge on foodservice suppliers meeting established time windows, even when order volumes change and/or grow. In the food service industry, timing is critical. Customers expect to receive deliveries on time at the lowest possible cost and are quick to switch to competitors if the service provided is not at a consistently high standard.
Need For Flexibility
Adaptability is key for foodservice suppliers, especially with multiple stops and set routes scheduled for any given day. Any delays or exceptions, such as a truck breakdown or traffic tie-ups, mean having to reschedule or move around daily orders, which can often lead to delays in customer service and missed calls.
Few operations have visibility into their fleet activities once their drivers are on the road. Suppliers need to be able to recalculate the estimated time of arrivals (ETA) based on changes that occur throughout the day. With the ability to plan for changes that occur throughout the day, the number of trucks used each day is fully optimized based on customer needs.
Monitoring & Benchmarking Delivery Performances
Real-time data allows you to create a plan and track it in real-time to optimize efficiencies, reduce miles driven and increase stops per paid hour. Real-Time solutions have analytical functions that can help managers assess planned versus actual drive and service times to increase driver productivity and accountability, measure on-time percentages, determine schedule adjustments, and maximize resources on the road.
You can benchmark driver and customer performance by comparing driver and customer performance to an engineered plan it is easy to determine where exceptions are recurring and which issues are causing delays. The information can be used to adjust delivery schedules and optimize performance.
Improve Customer Communication
While customer service portals remain important to businesses, there are new real-time methods of speaking with customers that are very handy in food delivery. Voice technology and chatbots allow companies to speak with their customers in real-time. Automated customer callouts such as proactive pushed customer notifications can be used in advance of scheduled deliveries to notify customers of ETAs. This enables customers to plan for the appropriate resources and schedule their labor needs around planned delivery windows.
Automated chatbots can simplify customer communication. They can notify individuals when their food is being made when it’s ready for delivery or report where an order is in the delivery process. Chatbots help unburden employees from being online all the time to answer questions, which is especially helpful during rush times. Some common questions are easily managed with automated responses and even acknowledging a message has been received and when it will be answered can have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.
Incorporate Personalisation
Outside of regular communication, there have also been big technological impacts on personalizing messaging to customers. Stored data information holds all types of ways to personalize messaging to people. And with increased tools at their disposal, food delivery companies can customize their messaging no matter what outlet they deploy. When a customer places an order, push notifications sent throughout the delivery process now include their name. In addition, emails sent out to customers not only include their name but can also showcase common items ordered or discount deals for their favorite products. Even social media posts can target a customer who has recently visited a business’s website and recommend products they reviewed.
Personalization is a big draw for companies because it shows that they take note of a customer and their preferences. It also removes generalization which although helpful in some instances, can remove the feeling of an individualized touch.
Leverage Data Available
Each customer transaction generates information that is useful to a company. All of this data is invaluable to businesses looking for areas of improvement and highlighting where breakdowns occur.
Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine communication, and commercial device management all produce vast amounts of data information for food companies. All of this data needs to be stored and organized in order for businesses to successfully learn and identify issues or streamline processes. Collected data gives companies deeper insights into their customers and market. For instance, a peek into the key differences in rural versus urban behaviors, each location’s busy times, and individual product demand. All of which aid in making better overall business decisions as well as improving the bottom line.
The Energy & Utility Industry
Real-time business intelligence solutions are expected to be game-changers for asset-intensive and field-force driven enterprises, such as Utilities. These solutions have become pervasive for enterprises to find a value that had been “unseen” in the data. From electricity distribution to demand response, water supply management to collecting meter readings, oil transmission to delivery – Utility enterprises need flexible business processes to adopt intelligent capabilities in order to deliver vital services to their customers. Delivering the right information to the right people in the right format and at the right time is a significant aspect of real-time business intelligence. Real-time business intelligence solutions give them the power of insights to uncover significant events & identify trends in order to adapt quickly to the ever-changing business dynamics.
The utility industry deals with enormous amounts and increasingly diverse sets of data coming in from various sources. However, somewhere in this data deluge lies the path to a more efficient tomorrow.
Harness Business Intelligence
Powerful BI features include personalized dashboards, automated alerts, graphs, charts, gauges and other view options that enable clear, concise display of data with complete drill through analytical capability.
Business intelligence solutions help energy companies in many ways, by enabling them to optimize the supply chain by providing data access to suppliers, distributors, and customers to enhance performance and responsiveness (all while reducing costs); Improve stock control by providing visibility across the organization and supply chain to enhance just-in-time management and reduce excess inventory; Minimize procurement inefficiencies by analyzing supplier performance, and driving negotiations and pricing structures; Respond quickly to market opportunities by tracking and analyzing operational data from inventory, financial, point-of-sale, and marketing; Differentiate and refine product offering by analyzing historical information and assessing product profitability on a geographic basis; Strengthen customer relationships and increase their value by tracking customer behavior and service issues, better targeting promotions, and improving service deliver.
Optimize Asset Performance
Identifying potential problems in field assets, grids and wells, utility distribution equipment can help avoid unplanned service interruptions in advance. Also, any delay in responding to equipment failure and maintenance issues can lead to operational inefficiency. This inefficiency can be regulated by monitoring the performance and health of assets to predict decay points or equipment failure. Hence, analyzing real-time machine data or operational data can help solve these challenges. Real-time insights into asset health, peak periods, supply and demand analysis, and abnormal conditions can help improve asset performance.
Data analytics-driven business intelligence solutions that provide analyses via rich visuals and statistics are what utilities need to adopt. The capabilities provided by BI systems can help enhance the reliability, capacity and availability of the assets, which in turn improves asset performance. This can help ensure smoother operations at peak periods, eliminating downtime occurrence. It also allows them to trigger maintenance schedule operations at regular intervals to receive notifications on asset health.
Dynamic forecasting and load management
Business intelligence acts as a modeling platform to determine patterns, spot trends and understand predictable behavior in order to ramp up overall efficiency. Real-time and accurate utility demand forecasting is crucial to successfully managing supply and demand operations in a timely fashion. Utilities have to leverage real-time or historical data of consumption, usage, supply and weather constraints to perform complex analysis. This would help them to identify key performance indicators and patterns for dependable forecasting of asset failures and performance. They can also determine the correlation between grid performance and grid conditions for maintenance.
Workflow improvements gained by integrating business intelligence solutions with existing automation processes can help avoid asset failures, thus resulting in asset longevity and higher uptime. Getting actionable insights, prescriptions and foresight are necessary for better decision making towards preventive maintenance, quality of service and outage management.
Improve Operational Efficiency
Real-time business intelligence systems bring forth an interaction process for utility operators to proactively view and analyze operational data. BI dashboards enable them to monitor everything from meter reading to uptime for every single minute. It helps gain high visibility of historical comparison of asset performance, access real-time data and promptly reacts to make better decisions in a timely fashion. It also helps find opportunities to improve operational efficiency as and when an event occurs.
Dashboards also generate comprehensive performance reports to help utility operators develop an optimal course of action depending on specific key performance indicators. It also displays the overall performance of the assets in real-time on a periodic basis, i.e., year-to-year, monthly, weekly, daily or hourly. These capabilities of business intelligence automate and help optimize asset performance, reduce risk and operational costs, and enhance business responsiveness.
Prevent Utility Loss & Fraud Management
As enormous volumes of data streams driven from smart meters, grids and sensors become readily available, utilities can perform real-time and predictive analytics to gain critical insights. This can help operators continuously monitor the vital signs of utility distribution systems, reliably and quickly assess system integrity, and gain hidden insights. This in turn helps them in outage and fault detection, and to determine anomalies on supply-distribution lines, thereby optimizing utility distribution. Thus minimizing utility loss and providing early detection of supply, theft, leaks, consumption and over-usage.
As market barriers to entry steadily lower, and advancements in AI, machine learning (ML), and analytics accelerate, you can expect AI (and allocation of resources funneled towards AI) to play a more significant role in construction in the coming years.
Construction Industry
Globally, individuals and businesses spend over $10 trillion per year on construction-related activities — and that’s projected to keep growing by 4.2% until 2023. Part of this enormous amount of spending is on and enabled by, rapidly-moving technological advancements that touch all areas of the ecosystem. In the 2020 report, McKinsey identified a growing focus on solutions that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI).
Construction Drones
Drone use in the construction industry continues to be one of the fastest-growing trends, with usage rising by 239 percent year over year. The technology offers far more uses than just aerial photography for real estate and commercial efforts.
Today’s drones are used for rapidly mapping large areas over long distances, producing valuable aerial heat maps and thermal images. The advancing drone software provides real-time, actionable data that can be used for rapid decision making, further streamlining the entire construction process.
Personal safety and equipment loss continues to be the biggest liabilities in construction. Drones can perform jobs in place of human workers to prevent injury, such as jobs requiring scaling supertall structures. As on-site security tools, drones can be leveraged to reduce labor costs and minimize the risk of theft, keeping projects on schedule and minimizing hiccups.
Blockchain
Experts see blockchain technology improving relationships in the construction industry — it’s a powerful component in providing a more secure and fast-moving workflow that allows all involved parties access to improved productivity.
Smart contracts offer all organizations in a project a shared system to do business, allowing them to buy, track, and pay for services. Rather than getting contracts and tracking deliverables from separate parties, firms can use smart contacts as an all-in-one tracking system where rules and deadlines are set and the blockchain enforces them. This system will make for faster closeouts, increased security, better project tracking, and an automated supply chain.
Building Information Modeling
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a process that incorporates digital representations of buildings in 3D models to facilitate better collaboration among all stakeholders on a project. This can lead to better design and construction of buildings.
Changes to the BIM model occur in real time, so any changes or updates to the model are instantly communicated to all team members when they access the model. Everyone is working with the most up-to-date information at all times. Because the schedule can be simulated, a visual representation of the construction process allows team members to plan out each phase of construction.
Mobile Technology
Smartphones and mobile apps have made communication and collaboration on projects easier. Instead of driving to the office for impromptu meetings, firms can use mobile technology to facilitate a meeting of the minds that lead to definitive conclusions without interrupting the day’s work.
Being able to communicate in real-time ensures that any issues on the job site get resolved quickly and effectively and that every stakeholder can have a say. Integrated solutions that sync in real-time allow different stakeholders to add notes, change drawings and respond to RFIs instantly and then share that information with everyone involved with the project at the same time.
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
Construction firms are now using data to make better decisions, increase productivity, improve jobsite safety, and reduce risks. With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems, firms can turn the mountains of data they have collected over the years on projects to predict future outcomes on projects and gain a competitive advantage when estimating and bidding on construction projects.
AI can improve worker productivity by reducing the amount of time wasted moving about the construction site to retrieve tools, materials, and equipment to perform certain tasks. Workers are tracked throughout the day using smartphones or wearables.
Transportation Industry
With the world getting more interconnected under globalization, the transportation industry is under pressure more than ever before to improve its services. Everybody needs a smooth, free from any danger experience whether they are moving casually or commuting for a job. Along with that, expectations from logistics organizations have also increased. Transportation Industry technology trends have a tremendous impact on the adaptation of transportation and delivery services with the new technologies. As the eCommerce businesses grow, more and more companies are selling their goods over the internet which in return increases the demand for shipment and delivery of goods ordered by people all around the world.
Transportation management is not anymore about moving cargo cost-effectively. The technology has progressed, and the businesses have expanded. The current complex supply chain structures and numerous components are compelling transporters to improve their management and services to succeed in the market.
Blockchain in Logistics
Blockchains help companies to make the customers’ experience better by providing them with transparency. This enables them to communicate and see the whole journey of the product. It also enables to see reviews and, as a result, improves the security factor by detecting the fraud easier. In this way, the companies and people.
Blockchain assists with checking the history of carriers and various suppliers. The decentralized technology of blockchain can ensure the secure exchange of information and finances with the help of smart contracts by
- Reducing the chances of fraud or cheating
- Staying away from bottlenecks and botches
- 3PL confirmation
- Moreover, smart contracts can save both time and costs
Blockchain is one of the most amazing trends in the transportation industry. Blockchain in the shipping industry can help with ensuring the precision of different tasks.
Regulation Compliance
It will be more correct to say that regulatory compliance is a must rather than one of the latest trends in transportation. Commercial transport companies should stay up-to-date on recent requirements and regulations adopted, changed, or removed by any local, state, or federal government. Whether they are regulations regarding electronic logbooks, overtime, or safety rules, timely monitoring regulations will always be a trend.
Adoption of Cloud-Based Systems
One of the biggest transport industry trends is the adoption of cloud-based systems, since the platforms in the cloud force a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model which opens unlimited opportunities for companies’ scalability and innovative digital resources usage. It allows reaching higher profitability and exceeding the common returns of on-premise systems’ capabilities.
Leveraging Drone Technology
As delivery gets more and more challenging and expensive, logistics companies have been on the lookout for ways in which they can fulfill orders in a timely manner. For such organizations, enabling delivery through drones is going to become a popular choice to improve the efficiency of delivery while reducing costs. With enterprises like FedEx, Amazon, and DHL already utilizing drones for delivery, 2021 will see a lot more companies join the bandwagon to improve delivery speed and efficiency, and regulatory authorities smooth the way for drone deliveries.
Adoption of MaaS
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) or Transportation as a service is one of the most interesting Tech transportation industry trends in 2021. The innovative idea behind this trend is to share the vehicle or transportation methods between the users who need it at the same time in the same place.
This is easily possible through software installed on smart mobile phones. That’s why sometimes this new technology is called Smart Mobility. Using this new technology in transportation is the best way to save on delivery time, reduce the traffic problem and increase the productivity of delivery services.
Society functions much differently than it did prior to the advent of the digital revolution. New tools, ranging from social media to digital transaction management, have re-contoured the ways in which people interact and do business. The digital age also notably influences how we learn. In fact, the classroom has become one of the most rapidly growing markets for new technology.
EdTech Industry
Considering the fact that education is something that can change the world in a positive way, the introduction of technology in education has become even more essential. Education technology (Ed Tech) includes many of the popular digital developments, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality (VR), but it has unique applications exclusive to the task of teaching. The education sector thus presents a significant opportunity for tech entrepreneurs looking for a promising market.
Learning Analytics
Researching, tracking progress and analyzing data have all been used to improve the learning process. Learning analytics is built on those pillars, but it also offers new opportunities once the data is captured.
Learning analytics uses computational analysis techniques from data science and AI to improve the quality of learning and teaching. Learning analytics programs help educators measure students’ growth and make predictions of academic success. It also identifies the students who are at risk of falling or dropping out. Learning analytics programs evaluate the overall competency skills and offer insights to educators that allow them to focus on other areas apart from academics, like coordination, communication, critical thinking and more.
When educators receive this analysis, they get an idea of what students enjoy the most. It provides them an opportunity to increase engagement in the classroom and identify any blocks students might be experiencing. These analytics empower educators to develop a teaching pattern that benefits the students and helps them reach their full potential.
Gamification
Educators are always looking for ways to provide knowledge through fun activities, and gamification can be the answer. Gamification is the process of taking something that is not a game and applying game-like mechanics to increase student engagement. This emerging trend is getting popular in primary education. Students can learn and practice important lessons under the pretense of gaming activities.
Gamification improves student engagement and allows them to learn without feeling bored. Gamification has several benefits, including aiding in the cognitive development of kids. Gamification can also create a positive environment in the classroom and help students collaborate.
Artificial Intelligence
According to a market report, the global AI in the education market is projected to reach $3.68 billion by 2023. One of the main applications of using AI in education technology is the automation of activities like grading. AI can grade multiple choice questions and fill in the blanks without the assistance of an educator. It frees up time for teachers and enables them to focus on other more important tasks.
Another issue AI solves is the need for individualized attention in an overcrowded classroom. AI can fill this gap by providing personalized tutoring to the students in need. AI programs can also create individualized learning tracks for every student and allow them to learn at their pace. This way, children can explore their lessons at a comfortable speed and reduce the frustration that comes with traditional teaching methods.
Growing Big Data
After the trend of distance learning is adopted by various educational institutions after the pandemic, we will see bigger sets of data than ever. Since many schools are operating remotely or have the capacity to do so, educational institutions have a unique opportunity to collect student data, like how they respond and their engagement levels. This data can be used to improve the student learning experience. Losing important information in the flood of this data is understandable. This is where big data comes in.
Special techniques need to be applied to identify beneficial knowledge hidden within the collected data. This data can demonstrate the results of adopted techniques and allow educators to alter their curriculum and measure students’ performance. Educational techniques and methods can be measured against students’ performance, empowering teachers to see which methods are most effective.
Blockchain Technology
Blockchain is a way to structure data. A blockchain collects information in small blocks, and when these blocks are filled, they are chained to previously filled blocks of data, forming a chain of data known as the blockchain. Blockchain technology has a big role to play in the education sector, especially in data storage.
This trend has transformed record-keeping for student credentials and certificates, and it eliminates the need to verify degrees and other academic papers. Blockchain ensures transparent ledgers for academic qualifications, reducing the cases of fraud at workplaces.
Blockchain ensures honesty and transparency in academic qualifications. Once information is recorded in a school’s online ledgers, it is not easy to change — you will be required to get permission from network users to modify the information. This can tackle issues like fraud and keep the data secure. Blockchain technology can also address issues like plagiarism by storing all data on a blockchain platform, which makes it almost impossible to modify any data without permission. In this way, blockchain is laying the foundation for a transparent and better future.
E-Learning
When schools around the world were shut down due to the spread of COVID-19, distance learning was the only available mode of learning. That resulted in a rising demand for e-learning platforms, and overnight this tech became one of the biggest educational trends. E-learning platforms let you deliver educational content through phones, laptops and computers.
E-learning has opened a door of opportunity for educators to teach students without the boundaries of a classroom. Many educators also use animations, podcasts and videos to make the e-learning experience more fun and interactive for the learners. From customized learning environments to being cost-effective, e-learning has many advantages, and this is why we will see this trend grow in the future.
Government & Public Sector
Driven by evolving citizen behavior and the need to accomplish basic tasks, the government is aggressively pursuing innovative new tools and adopting cloud technologies. At the vanguard of this change is the public sector CIO and CTO. Once perhaps a behind-the-scenes role, CIOs and CTOs have emerged as key players in advancing the work of government. While pandemic-related challenges will continue for some time, technology trends have emerged that address critical challenges in areas such as security, cost containment and citizen experience.
The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred the acceleration of digital innovation across the government sector around the world, presenting government leaders with new opportunities to use data and technologies to build trust, agility and resilience in public institutions.
Operational Analytics
Operationalized analytics is the strategic and systematic adoption of data-driven technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced analytics, at each stage of government activity to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of decision making. Decision-makers can make better context-based operational decisions in real-time to improve the quality of the citizen experience.
Multichannel Citizen Engagement
Citizen direct participation with governments reached new heights in 2020 as communities dealt with the pandemic, wildfires, hurricanes and other events. Multichannel citizen engagement is a seamless, bidirectional engagement with constituents across organizational boundaries while delivering a personalized experience using the preferred and most effective channels to reach them.
Gartner has predicted that over 30% of governments will use engagement metrics to track the quantity and quality of citizen participation in policy and budget decisions by 2024.
Data Sharing as a Program
Data sharing is often ad hoc in government, driven by high-profile use cases such as child protection incidents or gender violence that cannot easily be generalized. Data sharing as a program moves it into being a scalable service, with multiple reusable capabilities, supporting the drive toward more composable approaches in government service delivery.
Citizen Digital Identity
Digital identity is the ability to prove an individual’s identity via any government digital channel that is available to citizens, which is critical for inclusion and access to government services. Digital identity ecosystems are quickly evolving and leading governments to assume new roles and responsibilities. The topic is high on political agendas, so government CIOs must link digital identity to salient use cases.
Anything as a Service (XaaS)
XaaS is a cloud-only sourcing strategy that embraces acquiring the full range of business and IT services on a subscription basis. Pandemic response and the critical need for digital service delivery have exacerbated pressures to modernize legacy applications and infrastructure. XaaS offers an alternative to legacy infrastructure modernization, provides scalability and reduces time to deliver digital services.
Adaptive Security
An adaptive security approach treats risk, trust and security as a continuous and adaptive process that anticipates and mitigates constantly evolving cyber threats. This approach features components for prediction, prevention, detection and response. It forgoes traditional notions of the perimeter, assuming there is no boundary for safe and unsafe, a necessary conceptual shift given the migration to cloud services.
Accelerated Legacy Modernization
Governments have experienced the limitations and risks posed by decades-old legacy infrastructure and core systems. To be better equipped to deal with the next disruption, government CIOs are accelerating the move to modern, modular architectures. While the need for legacy modernization is not new to government CIOs, the challenges related to the pandemic have only served to heighten the awareness of the resulting risks and the need for it.
The presence of data in every field that you can think of is what turns out to be a reason why organizations are showing interest in data science. Also, the fact that data will continue to be an integral part of our lives till eternity serves to be yet another driver of data science.
Data Science Industry
The emergence of data science as a field of study and practical application over the last century has led to the development of technologies such as deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. Broadly speaking, it has enabled the emergence of machine learning (ML) as a way of working towards what we refer to as artificial intelligence (AI), a field of technology that’s rapidly transforming the way we work and live.
Businesses of all sizes are investing heavily in hiring data analysts and data scientists to make sense of the new digital world and work out how they can take advantage of it by adapting their business processes. These data analysts will revolutionize the visualization and application of the data they analyze, making it accessible and understandable for employees at all levels. Data is no longer a science reserved for a select group of specialists but has instead become an invaluable opportunity for every professional within a business to improve and refine their practice.
Predictive Analytics
For a business to prosper, it is critical to know what the future might look like. This is exactly where predictive analysis comes into play. Organizations rely on their customers to a large extent. Hence, being able to understand their behaviors helps in making better decisions ahead. This technique is one of the smartest to come up with the best strategies to target the customers that’d aid in retaining the older ones and also get newer customers.
Cloud Computing
The move to cloud-based data storage has been a point of contention for many businesses who enjoy the security of local servers and view the cloud only as a tool for transactions, as was its original purpose.
However, with the rapidly accelerating developments in cloud technology, new data science trends have attracted many businesses to rethink their data storage. Providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are now the prime way for businesses to store their data and offer built-in analytics that helps streamline the data management process. According to Gartner, by the end of 2022, 90% of data and analytics innovation will require public cloud services, and, within a year of that, cloud-based AI will be five times as prominent as it was in 2019.
Augmented Analytics
While it was previously necessary for trained specialists to interpret and evaluate data, employees at any level are now able to do so thanks to integrated data technology.
The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices ensures that every employee is in possession of a smart device that is capable of processing data of some kind.
This analytics trend marks a move towards universal access to analytics in conjunction with a sharper focus on the specific needs of different business departments, business types, and individual employees.
Instead of relying on the opinions and experience of a select handful of specialists and a set of predetermined general questions, businesses can benefit from the varied, experiential viewpoints of all of their employees, who will be specifically tuned into the particular workings of their department.
Artificial Intelligence
Deep learning allows machines to operate in a way that mimics the neurons of the human mind. This means that what was once a complex network of data has now become useful and actionable almost immediately, often in real-time.
Data is now taking the form of actionable human stories at an incredibly fast rate, helping businesses to set, define, and achieve their goals sooner.
One of the reasons for this rapid advancement in AI understanding is the sheer number of IoT devices that are now in circulation. With the help of the ethical limitations of so-called responsible AI, data has never been more available to collect, and, by extension, to learn from.
Personalization
The importance of each individual consumer became more important, with businesses placing increased value on the lifetime prospects of each customer and defining the moments of greatest value within that trajectory.
For this reason, in 2021, there is a greater need for more personalized experiences and journeys for the consumer.
Data science will focus on pinpointing the right moment and the right platform on which to capture a potential customer and bring them on board. After this, a customer must be kept happy and engaged to encourage a better relationship and a higher lifetime value.
Real Time Data
One of the biggest new capabilities of data analysis in 2021 is real-time automated testing. This signals a move away from historic data that is by definition out-of-date. Companies can now engage with customers of their product or service more effectively, reacting to customer actions as they happen rather than reviewing the data at a later date.
According to Seagate, by 2025, 75% of the world’s population will have an interaction with data every 18 seconds, making it essential to increase the speed of data analysis and the subsequent reactions.
Graph Analytics
Graph technologies have been used as a way to explain and interpret data since its foundation. They enable useful collaboration between different users and departments; and, with the increased focus on AI, machine learning, and automated data analysis, the importance of finding new applications has never been more apparent.
Graphs are an effective way of drawing parallels and similarities between audiences and products without having to translate the data into code beforehand, thus cutting out a time-intensive part of the data analysis process.
With so much new data now available, thanks to real-time analytics, countless IoT devices, and a greater engagement online, separating the anomalies in data is essential for drilling down on actionable trends. Graphs can help companies see the bigger picture of the data they have collected.
Hospitality Industry
Hospitality technology is the name used to describe a wide range of IT, e-commerce and similar technology solutions within the hospitality industry. The use of this technology is typically intended to either make life easier for a business’s employees, or to improve the overall experience for hospitality customers.
The hospitality sector is extremely competitive and this makes it essential to keep up with the very latest hospitality technology trends. Technology can help businesses to streamline their processes, reduce costs, lower staff workloads, increase revenue generation potential and improve the level of customer experience is delivered.
Contactless Payment
Contactless payments offer a number of advantages for hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars and cafes, which is why this has been among the main technology trends within the hospitality industry in recent times. Aside from speeding up payments and improving customer satisfaction, contactless tech is also easily compatible with loyalty programmes.
Mobile contactless payments are possible even if customers do not have their wallets with them, or even if their credit card has been misplaced. Additionally, with COVID firmly in the minds of hotel guests and other hospitality customers, contactless payments can also offer an excellent way to reduce human-to-human contact.
Robotics in Hospitality
The hospitality industry is getting to grips with is the rise of robotics and the use of robots to carry out tasks traditionally performed by humans. For instance, robots can occupy a concierge role within hotels, welcoming guests and providing them with important customer information.
Similarly, some hotels have started to use robots for cleaning purposes, such as vacuum cleaning floors and even for germ killing. This is a practice that can be replicated across the rest of the hospitality industry too, including in restaurants, and the use of robots can also help to make an environment more COVIDsecure. Some restaurants also have chatbots that display the menu, take the order and send alerts.
Chatbots
Chatbots have been an emerging hospitality technology trend for several years, but the importance of this option is only growing, especially as customers now demand swift answers to questions at all times of the day. Hotels and restaurants will also often attract queries from people in different time zones, so having staff available is difficult.
A good chatbot will answer the most common questions without the need for any human involvement. In more advanced cases, the chatbot can obtain information from the customer and then pass the query on to a human staff member at the earliest opportunity, while also providing them with access to what the customer has said.
Mobile Check-in
Mobile check-in hospitality tech is another important area to give consideration to, because it can help to improve the customer experience at the point of their initial arrival. This is especially beneficial, because first impressions can have a huge bearing on how customers ultimately feel about their visit or stay.
Crucially, mobile check-ins swerve the need for face-to-face customer interactions, meaning customers can potentially have greater flexibility in terms of when they check-in. This ties in with wider contactless technology trends within the hospitality industry and can be especially welcome for those who are nervous about COVID.
Recognition Technology
Recognition technology is one of the most important emerging tech trends in general, but its potential uses in the hospitality industry are especially interesting. In particular, biometrics is being used to usher in a new age of seamless authentications, and this could benefit hotel processes and customer purchases.
For example, imagine if a fingerprint or facial recognition technology could be used in your hotel to unlock rooms. Now consider the uses of the same technology for check-in and check-out purposes. In the future, this technology is also likely to allow for completely seamless purchases, with payments being authenticated by touch.
Artificial Intelligence
In the modern age, customers expect to be able to interact with hospitality companies across a variety of digital channels and receive rapid responses. Of course, actually having staff monitoring all of those channels and delivering swift responses can be difficult, if not impossible, which is where chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) come in.
Chatbots are able to understand simple questions and provide answers almost instantaneously, taking the burden away from customer service staff and improving the experience for customers. Meanwhile, AI’s uses extend into other important areas for hotels too, including data analysis. In short: definitely, a tech trend to watch out for.
Cybersecurity
The increased need for cybersecurity is among the most vital technology trends in the hospitality industry. Today, hotels and restaurants are more reliant on data than ever before and make more use of IT systems than ever before too. However, this potentially leaves them in a much more vulnerable position.
Some of the biggest threats here include ransomware attacks, phishing attacks, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and human error within the company. For this reason, hotels need to invest adequately in cybersecurity awareness training, protect their IT systems, keep customer data secure and ensure data is backed up and
Big Data
Data collection has grown rapidly across almost all industries, but can be used to great effect by hospitality businesses to provide more personalized experiences. As an example, it could be used by travel agents to make intelligent destination recommendations, based on age, gender, budget, previous locations visited, and so on.
Within the hotel industry, big data allows businesses to identify trends, which can be used for revenue management purposes. This allows for more data-driven approaches to pricing strategies and enables business leaders to gain a clearer understanding of current business performance and the outside influences that impact upon it.