Technology trends we expect to see in 2022


In terms of driving collaborative innovation, organizations should look to a strategy that combines API management, integration, and automation

By Deepak Pargaonkar

The past year has transformed the world more swiftly than anyone imagined. As we reflect on the year 2021, no one could have prepared us for the challenges we faced. Nevertheless, leveraging technology to prevail was the only common thread across every situation, be it the distribution of vaccines, remote working, or catering to customers across multiple touchpoints. 

The pace of digital change continues to accelerate in the coming year. As we step into 2022, it has become imperative for organisations and decision-makers to plan their approach considering all probable scenarios. It is now more important than ever for organisations to meet the expectations of their employees and customers or run the risk of falling behind their competitors. This can be observed in the technology trends emerging across varied industries, focused on delivering
improved user experiences and innovation at speed.

Digital transformation is enabling organisations across industries to recognise the importance of adopting digital tools, omnichannel approaches, and data-driven decision-making to succeed in today’s work-from-anywhere world. Today, digital and work-from-home models are creating great opportunities to bring more people into the workforce. 
 
 
Future of Work 
 
Before COVID19, working from home (WFH) wasn’t particularly a preferred option as the trust in employees to finish tasks away from a designated office space was very low. The global lockdown enabled us to leverage the digital tools and capabilities available today to succeed from anywhere. The use of these solutions rocketed during the crisis. Gartner estimates that use of collaboration platforms alone surged 44% between 2019 and 2021.
 
The future of work will come in many shapes and forms, including hybrid working culture, where employees work from their office desks for a few days a week and are able to WFH for the remainder. McKinsey estimates that more than 20% of the global workforce — although mainly those in highskilled roles in verticals such as finance, insurance, and IT — could work most of the time away from the office without any impact on productivity.
 
Yet to make this a reality, organisations need to double down on digital transformation. This essentially means that they need to expand beyond short-term investments in new collaboration platforms, to initiatives that create fully connected workplace experiences. Organisations will therefore need to create a frictionless hybrid working environment. This will be almost entirely
enabled by new digital initiatives — where aside from the social aspects, their employees don’t notice any difference between working from home or being in the office.
 
Evolution of employee policies 
 
The global pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way we work forever, where an all-digital, work-from-anywhere world is the new norm. The key priority for companies today is to keep their workers safe and healthy—not just physically, but psychologically as well. Companies need to imbibe HR policies that will create flexible, resilient, and adaptive workforces.
 

In 2022 companies that create an environment for greater employee commitment and engagement will enjoy significantly improved top-line growth rates. This is probably the most opportune moment for organizations to relook at their concept of workspaces, reimagine work, and the very definition of productivity. It is imperative to create the right environment where your employees feel valued by giving employees what they most want i.e flexibility, autonomy, and choice about where they work
when they work and how they work. 
 
Currently, we have the unique opportunity to hire people from anywhere in the world who fit the role, and that is where the real power of a strong hybrid culture policy will come into play. Creating a smooth virtual hiring and onboarding plan, ensuring real time collaboration and providing a level-playing field for all employees, irrespective of their geographies and background will become an essential part of improved employee policies. 
 
If your policy provides for – smooth virtual hiring and onboarding, real-time team collaboration, and a level-playing field for all employees, irrespective of geography or gender – the world is your talent pool. Create targeted policies that are conducive to the diverse work routines of employees choosing to work from the office, remote employees still following the 9-5 routine, and remote employees following flexible work hours.
 
Innovation is the constant change
 
In the past year, we saw organisations tackling new challenges and opportunities, such as hybrid experiences, distributed environments, hyper-automation, and an explosion of data. In 2022, it will become imperative for organisations and IT teams to embrace the challenges of this new reality, leading them to find new and more sustainable ways to deliver the rapid change that businesses, customers, and employees now expect. 
 
In terms of driving collaborative innovation, organisations should look to a strategy that combines API management, integration, and automation that will enable the composable business and increase the speed of work. Across a distributed workforce, effectively harnessing digital capabilities and data will be instrumental to create connected experiences.
 
The coming year will be one of composability, where organisations increasingly shift to agile architectures that enable both business and IT teams to effectively harness digital capabilities while accelerating employee and customer experiences to another level. 
 
In the year 2022, as people continue to work from anywhere, a digital HQ will continue to be more significant than our physical HQ and it will become imperative for employee experiences to be seamless. More and more organisations will seek to implement strategies that empower teams across the systems with easy access to collaborative tools and apps and data they need to effectively do their jobs. Moving ahead, it will become important for CIOs to drive collaboration in the organization by enabling both IT and business teams to access, unlock, and integrate data and apps in a secure, governed manner.

The author is VP, solution engineering, Salesforce India

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