IT Trends

As published in Fast Company's Co.DESIGN, Chris Butler, of the "design and innovation consultancy" Ziba, writes about twelve trends for 2013. 

The 12 Trends That Will Rule Products In 2013 

WRITTEN BY: Chris Butler 

THINK 2013 WILL SPELL THE END OF GOOD OLD ANALOG AND HUMAN INTERACTION? EH, NOT SO FAST. 

Near the end of 2012, a group of us at Ziba got together to review what we’d learned over the course of the year. Working with dozens of clients who serve customers around the world, we designers spend a lot of time observing people as they interact with technology, services, and experiences, noticing how they seek solutions to everyday problems and make decisions. In the process, certain patterns emerge so forcefully that they’re practically unavoidable.

Meeting over three sessions spread out over a week, 23 Zibites (designers, researchers, and creative directors) discussed the patterns we’d seen, and distilled them down to the 12 insights we thought were most current and useful, to us and to our clients. Each one is presented here, as a brief essay that suggests how it will affect business practices in 2013. . . 

Story continues at link. 

This isn't the usual list of predictions (Everything is Mobile, etc.). For instance, 

#3 ANALOG WILL NEVER GO AWAY. 

Sales of LP records have quadrupled since 2007. It’s a powerful reminder that convenience isn’t the only thing people care about. Music, like video and telecommunications, reached a digital/analog split long ago, and digital won because it’s cheaper, faster, and more convenient. But analog persists, in part because of nostalgia but also because formats like film, print, and vinyl reflect the people and processes that made them, forming an emotional connection that digital can’t match.
 
Stop worrying about the contradictions. 2013 will not be the year that analog displaces digital, nor will any other year. But it will be the year when mainstream consumers start to embrace “outdated” technologies along with cutting-edge ones. A brand that can seamlessly straddle the divide makes far more sense to them.

#8  FLAWLESS FUNCTION IS TOMORROW’S GREAT USER EXPERIENCE. (Consumers can be unforgiving of technology that doesn't get the basics right.) 

Imagine if your washing machine gave you dirty clothes one time in five, or your alarm didn’t work on Tuesdays. You’d be indignant. Yet today’s tech-heavy gadgets and services can be that unreliable. Customers can handle a few kinks in new technology, but we expect that basic functions will be worked out. And despite the proliferation of features, more of us are realizing that what we really want is a phone that makes good calls, every single time.

Fill in the gaps. A few smart brands will seize on the opportunity to highlight reliability and function in 2013, and make it just as exciting as a new feature. Customers who want respite from the noise of newness are many and hungry for an elegant return to flawless basics.

#7 TECHNOLOGY MOVES TOO FAST TO CARE ABOUT. (That is, offer services, not technologies; don't confuse the ends for the means.) 

 The 8 track, the CD, the Pentium chip, FireWire--people used to invest in products just to get their hands on these new technologies. They were a real differentiator, and a kind of magic. But it’s become too much, too fast. The Internet runs on an alphabet soup of languages and protocols, and only a slim population of early adopters counts pixels or processor speeds anymore. The rest of us just want to know what it’s like to use.

Talk about experiences, not features. Technology is there to enable an experience, and as long as it doesn’t get in the way, most consumers would rather not worry about it. The smartest brands in 2013 will follow suit, emphasizing the product or service, not the features that make it possible.

#12 EVERYONE IS A SPECIALIST.

Constant communication and social media are pushing us to show off our passion and specialized knowledge, as a way of standing out in the storm of mundane information that fills the air. Mom posts photos of Victorian furniture on Pinterest, while Dad’s Facebooking his latest cooking project, and your cousin tweets about nothing but Korean pop stars. We’ve always had these secret pools of expertise, but now they’ve got an outlet, and an appreciative audience.

You’re a specialist, too. Trying to be everything to everyone is a losing proposition. As customers embrace their connoisseurship, they seek out brands that match it. The success stories of 2013 are companies unafraid of putting a stake in the ground, to boldly indicate where their expertise and passion lie--and where they don’t.

Consumer Technology Trends

Here's a reasonable summary in PCMag of trends from January's Consumer Electronic Show. They're worth noting, in that enterprises will soon have to address them for their employees and clientele. . . 

The 8 Biggest Trends at CES 2013

By Jamie Lendino January 9, 2013

...

Even with both Mobile World Congress and CTIA looming in the next two months, there's plenty of mobile device action to go around at CES this year. Precious few new phones are making their appearance at CES, but their influence on the consumer electronics industry is clear. Laptops and desktops aren't going anywhere, and their death has been greatly exaggerated. But the more people buy and use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets, the more consumer electronics manufacturers realize that they have to cater to these users, and have to stop thinking of everything as PC-centric when designing new products.

So that's going on in addition to the usual complement of TVs, insanely expensive audio equipment, cameras, and car tech on the show floor. Speaking of which, cars are getting smarter than ever, all thanks to the mobile device that's already in your pocket. As for the TVs, something new is underfoot that's more exciting than 3D television, at least according to this author. And the stagnant gaming industry is getting a much-needed shot in the arm. 

There's also a general sense out there that devices really aren't the story anymore.

Story continues at link. 

The trends are 

1. Ultra HD televisions 
2. Touch-screen PCs. I think touch screen works for tablet conformations, but it's not a useful affordance in a laptop. 
3. Next-gen mobile chipsets (faster performance and better power consumption qualities) 
4. In-car smartphone integration 
5. Digital health (specifically, devices that collect health status information) 
6. Non-traditional gaming devices (consoles) 
7. Wireless audio and video 
8. Wireless cameras 

Telecommuting

What with the current event of Yahoo's Marissa Meyer abolishing telecommuting, putatively to foster innovation (see, for example, CEO Mayer Calls in All Yahoo Telecommuters, in Monday's CIO), this guidance via Ziff Davis's CIO|Insight is (largely) sensible and timely. (Some of the practices are **too draconian or *debatable, based on my experience.) 

Nine 'Best Practices' For Telecommuting 

By Dennis McCafferty  |  Posted 02-27-2013 

Despite Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s ban on telecommuting, CIOs and other senior managers are warming up to the idea of allowing certain employees to telecommute. For certain, these workers must hold job positions that are compatible with the concept. And they have to "earn" this accommodation through proven performance. That said, the concept is gaining popularity. More than 3.1 million professionals in the U.S. telecommute for more than half of their working hours, which is a 76 percent increase since 2005, according to the Telework Research Network. And 20 million employees work from home at least one day a week. You can expect such requests to increase, because four of five workers say they'd like to work from home at least part-time. Clearly, a CIO can't move forward with these arrangements without giving the topic a great deal of consideration. After all, telecommuting can impact productivity, work quality and the safety of your organization's data assets. So to establish some guidance, Janco Associates has developed the following "best practices" for CIOs and other tech managers on telecommuting. These best practices are part of an extensive report from Janco titled CIO IT Infrastructure Policy Bundle.

1. It's management's responsibility to decide which jobs can telecommute 
2. Telecommuters should demonstrate appropriate independence and accountability 
3. **Managers should allow one week's notice before terminating a telecommuting agreement 
4. Employers should reimburse additional expenses of telecommuting 
5. Telecommuters should work the same number of hours as other employees 
6. **Caregivers must be used if dependents are present where the telecommuter works 
7. Telecommuters should participate in mandatory meetings 
8. Corporate data and sensitive information is company property 
9. *If the telecommuter uses her/his own equipment, the company is not obligated to support same 

Update on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 08:35AM by williamgarrity

http://www.fastcompany.com/3006478/why-working-home-worst-both-worlds 

. . .

For working parents, working from home is the worst of everything. It isn’t really working, and it isn’t really being at home. You can defend it or rail against it as much as you like, but here’s the unspoken truth: You are fostering disappointment and frustration from all parties while fooling yourself into believing you’ve arranged for the best of both worlds. You can’t be two places at once. That’s it; that was my epiphany--astoundingly simple, as they all are.

On the days or half days that you are working from home, you’ll get the sense that the office is questioning your commitment. You’ll probably even question your own commitment, so why shouldn’t they? Instead of focusing on your work, you put energy into proving your work ethic to people at the office. But even more importantly, when you don’t set up clear boundaries between work and home, you’ll end up with no clear boundaries between work and home. I’ve seen many employees write their emails at all hours of the early morning and late night revealing they are always catching up or playing offense to put the ball back in the office’s court while they're busy tending to kids. As an employer (and someone who has worked at home), I can honestly say that I feel a lot less hesitation to call someone at home at night if they’ve been working from home during the day.

. . .

Strategy and Tactics: What's the Difference?

Confused or at least unclear about the difference between "strategy" and "tactics"?

This piece by Jeremiah Owyang includes a good, succinct chart illustrating differences in purpose, roles, accountability, scope ("Strategy is often what you don't do"), duration, methods, and outputs. 

The Difference between Strategy and Tactics 

Posted on January 14th, 2013 

The purpose of this post is to clearly delineate the distinct differences between strategy and tactics, and show how they work in tandem for your organization. 

Often, we use the terms strategy and tactics interchangeably and in a haphazard manner.  When probing at online definitions and dictionaries, they often share many of the same characteristics, making them difficult to differentiate.  Rather than debate Greek military etymology, Sun Tzu philosophy, or latest publications from the Harvard Business Press, here’s a simple way to look at strategy and tactics by their associated actions:

See the link for full story. 

Mobility

All prediction-for-the-future lists (e.g., see here) list "mobility" as a trend. This ten-slide slideshow published in Ziff Davis's eWeek captures many of the specifics. 

10 Mobile Technology Trends Sure to Impact Your Work, Life in 2013
 
By Don Reisinger  |  Posted 2013-01-23
 
The mobile market has dramatically changed the IT industry. While deskbound PCs were once the most important products in the industry, smartphones, tablets and even lightweight notebooks are now on top. Desktops and heavier laptops have lost favor to highly mobile devices that generate excitement among consumers and even enterprise users. Given the importance of the mobile device market today, many buyers are likely wondering what they can expect from products built by Apple, Samsung, Nokia, HTC and others. The average consumer and enterprise user today are more mobile and want the latest and greatest features in products they bring on the road. And companies that capitalize on those needs will be far more likely to succeed than those who will not. But before customers can set out to buy certain products, they'll need to find out what sort of features they can expect in them this year. From big screens to 4G LTE wireless connectivity, mobile devices will offer several features to look forward to this year.