INDUSTRY

A new year means that many businesses are starting their planning cycles and a common pain-point is determining what resources to budget for. In order to help businesses of all sizes ease the strain of IT purchasing, Info-Tech Research Group offers a list of the seven hot technologies businesses should be on the lookout for in 2007. "IT managers often struggle to get funding for technology acquisitions because they don't know how to make a business case for non-IT decision-makers," said Michael O'Neil, managing director of Info-Tech Research Group's Indaba Division. "Each technology that Info-Tech recommends companies to consider this year delivers an intrinsic business case, offering tangible benefits including productivity gains and financial savings." Info-Tech Research Group's list of technologies businesses should watch for in 2007 is as follows: - Adaptive Security – Adaptive Security provides consolidated ubiquitous management of systems, users and data sources to ensure security. As a primary driver of adoption, adaptive security also ensures that information can easily be leveraged for compliance purposes. Given that the single biggest cost associated with achieving demonstrable compliance is the cost of auditing, radically trimming that cost makes adopting a unified security solution a "no-brainer" within companies that are required to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley and other compliance regulations. - Virtualization – Virtualization has the benefit of delivering real cost savings. Recent Info-Tech research shows that businesses adopting virtualization realize a 40-75 per cent reduction in hardware acquisition costs and monthly recurring savings in hardware maintenance costs of 25-50 per cent. With hard numbers like these, cost-conscious IT departments will be forced to consider virtualization in 2007. - Web 2.0 – Talk to any tech-savvy marketer and lead nurturing is the phrase you're most likely to hear. With lead nurturing, a long-term marketing campaign is designed to keep sellers in touch with prospective buyers over an extended period. Web 2.0 technologies like RSS, blogs, podcasts and videocasts are important tools for marketing departments looking to develop "buzz" over time. - Collaborative Technologies – In a knowledge-based business environment where time defines the greatest portion of costs, geographically dispersed employees need tools to share information quickly and easily. Tools that allow workers to collaborate on the same version of a spreadsheet or access current document versions while working offsite provide employees with real-time access to information they need to do business more efficiently. Resource-challenged managers from across the organization will begin to demand that IT provide collaboration tools that make their departments more productive. - Unified Messaging – Unified Messaging is the integration of different kinds of messages (e-mail, voice, video, etc.) into a single in-box that is accessible from a variety of different devices. By providing the glue that connects millions of on-the-move professionals to customers and colleagues, unified messaging increases employee productivity. In 2007, IT managers will need to tailor a support strategy for mobile users. On-Demand Software/Software as a Service (SaaS) – Info-Tech indicates that SaaS is now a viable alternative to traditionally-packaged applications. Small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) benefit in particular, as costly enterprise applications such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) become affordable through this model. As the market continues to mature, large vendors are aggressively moving to SaaS, fueling competition that helps to drive the cost of SaaS applications down further. The combination of rising demand and supply-side pressure ensures that SaaS adoption will rise in 2007. - VoIP – Although VoIP is still being driven by early adopters, Info-Tech Research Group believes that the advantages it offers to feature-hungry enterprises looking to compete more effectively will drive high new deployment levels in the coming year. Info-Tech predicts that by 2008 VoIP will have moved from the "emerging" to the "established" application category. "Info-Tech Research Group surveys thousands of business leaders, IT managers and CIOs each quarter, gaining detailed insight into the issues and technologies that drive IT agendas and performance," said O'Neil. "We will be looking at how each of these technologies continues to affect business success, to understand how these technologies will shape the IT industry in the future."