If you are running an enterprise business, the phrase 'Digital Transformation' will no doubt be familiar to you. Every part of the economy is looking to run a digital transformation project (or has already started) and they are looking at vendors that can help them with this. In this article, we look at the digital transformation technologies that are hot in 2023, and the software and technology services vendors that are popular right now and underpinning the digital plans of the very best organizations around the world.
If you are not familiar with us, Viewpoint Analysis Ltd acts as a 'Technology Matchmaker' - we help businesses to FIND and SELECT enterprise technologies (software, hardware, and services) to meet their needs. As you can imagine, digital transformation is a very common requirement right now and in our various customer engagements, we see what's really hot at the moment and which vendors and technologies are making the most of the situation.
Which Digital Transformation Technology Vendors Are Hot Right Now?
Digital transformation is very hot right now and therefore lots of technology companies are actively engaging with companies across the industry spectrum - from banking to healthcare and from retail to travel - and everything in-between. There are six vendors that we see time and time again. They are some of the most familiar companies in the tech space, and also some of the very largest. The six digital transformation technology vendors that we are seeing the most right now are (in no particular order):
AWS or to use their full title, Amazon Web Services - is a regular top vendor in digital transformation projects. The AWS of today is very different from a few years ago and its technology now encompasses a variety of different areas. Often seen as a foundational building block for any move to the cloud, AWS is deeply involved in some of the most impactful projects around the globe.
Microsoft - a company with such a rich history in the technology space and one that is the 'go-to' partner for many of the most familiar well-known businesses around the globe. Like AWS, Microsoft is a core 'cloud' infrastructure partner but the business plays in almost every aspect of technology. They also benefit from long-term relationships with the CIO community and partnerships with the very largest tech vendors and systems integrators.
ServiceNow - under the leadership of its rock-star CEO Bill McDermott, they are a 'platform company' that provides digital IT workflows upon which big businesses build their digital strategy and transformation plans.
SAP - the German software vendor powers many of the world's largest businesses with their ERP and Software as a Service applications. Like Microsoft, they have a seat at the table of many of the most influential CIOs. Still as relevant today as they were 50 years ago, SAP continues to be integral to industries around the globe.
Snowflake - a much more recent addition to the technology heavyweights than those we detailed above, Snowflake has been rocket-propelled over the last few years. They can be found at the core of many digital transformation projects as customers build their data plans on Snowflake's technologies. Data is a major area for almost all digital transformation projects.
Salesforce - no technology vendor list can leave off this juggernaut - Salesforce and its acquired technologies (e.g. Mulesoft, Slack, Tableau etc) are central to the strategies of companies around the world. Salesforce applications for sales, service, marketing, commerce, and more, are vital to the digital operations of businesses of all shapes and sizes and almost every industry imaginable.
Which Digital Transformation Technologies Are Hot Right Now?
So now that we have looked at the technology vendors, which digital transformation technology areas are really hot right now? Well, the answer to that is to an extent based upon the industry a company operates in (e.g. banking companies are looking at updating and replacing core banking applications) - but as a general observation, here are some of the most popular industry-agnostic digital transformation technologies:
Artificial Intelligence - expect to see more and more AI projects as companies look to reduce administration costs and offer customers a slicker engagement process. AI can be found in a variety of different areas and is becoming a central part of digital transformation plans. AI Chatbots are maybe the most obvious sign of an AI deployment but it can be so much more than this and will grow as the technology develops.
Software as a Service Applications (SaaS) - continuing a theme that started more than two decades ago, companies are continuing to remove older on-premise-based applications and replace them with cloud applications. Importantly, these more modern applications are also more suitable to connect to the modern economy - allowing IT leaders to drive a modern API strategy.
Cloud Infrastructure - like SaaS, cloud infrastructure is another central building block of digital transformation as customers move across the continuum between having an on-premise data center to a full cloud infrastructure. Companies like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud have helped companies along this path and will continue do to so over the next decade or more.
IoT - the 'Internet of Things' - is very hot in the manufacturing sector in particular as companies look to move towards Manufacturing 4.0 or 'smart manufacturing'.
Big Data & Analytics - data vendors like Snowflake, Databricks, Informatica, and others, are helping customers to make the most out of their data assets. Many say that 'data is the new oil' and it is true to some extent. Getting data out in the open, and making sense of it, can be a real game-changer in a digital transformation plan.
Platform Technologies - as mentioned in our piece about ServiceNow, platform technologies are increasingly being deployed as a way to allow businesses to build processes that support and underpin a customer's journey or a digital process of almost any kind.
Conclusion
Digital Transformation is the buzzword of the 2020s and any company - no matter the size, shape, or industry, is talking about how digital is going to transform them for future generations. It is talked about by the CEO and Chairperson of the Board of Directors. It's in the annual report. It's a key talking point in shareholder meetings. Digital transformation is here to stay - but to implement the strategy needs the technology vendor community working at its very best.
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Looking for vendors that can help with your digital transformation plans - hopefully, Viewpoint Analysis can help you along the way. Tell us your technology challenge and we will bring the vendors that can help deliver it. Find out more about Viewpoint Analysis here.