[caption id="attachment_135" align="alignleft" width="128"]

Paul Heritage-Redpath, Product Manager[/caption] 2018 promises to be a year of digital transformation revolution - with high speed and reliable connectivity right at its heart! With all this in mind, we’ve identified five main factors that we think will drive this development throughout the year ahead!

The right connectivity

As markets become increasingly competitive it’s never been more important to get the right connectivity to stay ahead of the game. A business' connectivity must meet their immediate needs as well as offering the flexibility to accommodate future change. It’s about balancing the need for connection speed and guarantee of service with budget available and timescales needed to get up and running. That’s where the combined strength of Entanet and CityFibre can provide the level of connectivity choice and quality of service that is helping organisations across the country to get ahead.

Entanet ebook: A Comprehensive Guide to Connectivity

Productivity is key

With the UK’s productivity lagging behind much of Europe, giving employees the tools to access the information they need when they need it is crucial to cultivating a more engaged and productive workforce, providing the very best services for the customer. “One of the most profound shifts in business has been the migration of powerful technologies into the hands of the employee, with applications becoming a critical part of an employee’s workday and their ability to perform their roles smartly,” comments Duncan Greenwood, vice president, End-User Computing, VMware EMEA. “As organisations race to carve out a competitive edge through technology, the ability to provide employees with the information at the point of need, driven by the demand in applications, coupled with a culture centred on trust, accessibility and collaboration will be imperative to having their employees be engaged and productive as possible.”

ITProPortal.com: Empowered employees key to driving business growth

Expansion of Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT and the technology that sits behind it is a huge growth area, with over 8.4 billion devices already connected worldwide, from vehicles to home appliances. Forecasts suggest that by 2020 the number of connected devices will be 21 billion, so with this massive influx of information being collected and recorded the quality of the connectivity to move this data as quickly as possible is crucial.

Gartner

AI set to fly

Improved AI technology has the potential to help business boost their bottom line through smarter marketing, analytics, customer service and robotics. AI can analyse and collate data to make marketing and business plans more targeted, it can also support manufacturing by analysing processes and highlighting where time and efficiency is being lost. AI in the office environment will be lead by the development of NoOps (No IT Operations) technology. This means that tasks like software upgrades and changes are automatically taken care of by the intelligent system, preventing the possibility of human error. In her speech at Davos PM May said “We have seen a new AI start-up created in the UK every week for the last three years.”

Wired.co.uk: May's Davos speech exposed the emptiness in the UK's AI strategy

Blockchain boom

According to Gartner “bitcoin” is the second most-searched for term on their site, with the number of searches increasing 400 times from 2016 to 2017. With the crypto-currency attracting this much attention, so is the blockchain technology which makes it all possible. This can be used to trade anything that requires proof of origin and authenticity, without the need for tons of admin.

Information Age: The top 5 trends for digital transformation in 2018

Whatever the drivers for Digital Transformation, the constant throughout it all is the increasing reliance on the underlying connectivity and ensuring that it’s fit for purpose. That’s where DX brings real opportunity for the channel as a growing market. More and more data collection, storage and transfer means increasing demand for bandwidth and higher spec, reliable connectivity services - just what our partners are set-up to provide. So have the conversation with your customers and find out how their connectivity needs are likely to change over the next few years to ensure any solutions you propose today will still be fit for purpose tomorrow. Have your say! Are you already taking full advantage of the Digital Transformation boom? Are you seeing customers demands growing thanks to increasing popularity in IoT and AI? Or do you think DX is not yet on the radar for many customers? Let us know your thoughts and share your experiences by leaving a comment for discussion below. Related articles