The Top 5 Trends for Digital Transformation in 2018

Most companies today will tell you that it’s no longer “business as usual” in any area of the enterprise. The only constant is change and digital disruption is the norm. But it’s no wonder when you think about the benefits of digital transformation. Companies implementing smart digital transformation strategies generate better gross margins and realize more earnings and net income than companies that are slower to adopt. According to Harvard Business School, leading companies in digital transformation will see a 55% average gross margin on a three-year average as opposed to 37% for digital stragglers. But just because something is different doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better—or right for your business.

 There are, however, trends in digital transformation that promise to be meaningful for companies in 2018 and we’re sharing our picks for the top 5 here.

 1. The Internet of Things will finally find its true power. In 2013, Gartner forecasted that the Internet of Things installed base would grow to 26 billion units by 2020. Today they state that there are 8.4 billion “things” on the Internet, well on the way to their 2020 prediction. But we tend to think that it’s not the “things” of IoT that are as important as using IoT as an engine to power three things: analytics, 5G and edge computing.

Analytics will be put to the test by the huge amount of data revealed by the IoT. Mobile providers will be forced toward 5G by the sheer volume of IoT data. And edge computing will bring cloud computing closer to the source for quicker utilization.

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