We asked our CEO Jeffrey Palermo what he believed would be the most important trends for the software industry during the upcoming year. Here’s what he had to say:
“As leading companies in 2014 experienced first-hand, software is no longer the functional role of an IT department, but rather the driver of business success across lines of business and throughout the enterprise. As this continues in 2015, we will see a transformative shift in how companies are leveraging software development firms — from providers of tactical resources to true business partners — offering longer term strategic software platforms to address the new needs of the connected enterprise, deliver ROI, and help clients differentiate their businesses as they continuously engage their customer base.”
-Jeffrey Palermo.
Four of the top technology trends for 2015 include:
- Every Company is Software-Driven.
Companies of all sizes are now realizing that software has become the competitive differentiator of their business no matter what market they are in or what they are selling. They are looking beyond pre-packaged solutions and standardized infrastructure to find ways to differentiate themselves and achieve revenue growth and increased profitability by creating flexible custom software “platforms” that run their core business functions. In 2015, we’ll see more emphasis on custom software for competitive differentiation and DevOps to manage ongoing technology operations and adapt on the fly to business changes.
- Connected Systems Drive DevOps.
New cloud and mobile technologies are disrupting the fundamental approach to IT services across the business landscape in every industry, elevating IT experts to a mission-critical role in business strategy, yet creating increased complexity as business users and customers engage anywhere from anytime on multiple devices that must be managed and supported. The role of DevOps will increase in 2015 to address this challenge because it bridges the gap between software engineering and IT operations and fills an important role to help companies respond quickly to change, and profitably run custom software systems in the cloud and on multiple devices.
- Decentralized IT Strategy and Implementation.
With custom software as a driver of core business functions expanding in 2015, line-of-business users will become agents of change to promote the creation and implementation of these systems as a source of competitive advantage in order to improve business performance. In a newly decentralized environment they will work more with strategic IT experts within and outside of their organization to accomplish IT transformation through green-field designs that address the complexities of the business environment, customer demands and market dynamics.
- Modernization of Legacy Lives on.
With thousands of core business systems feeling both their age and the new architectural pressures of mobile and cloud, we’re now firmly in the next wave of legacy modernization. In 2015 we will see a major push of companies adapting these sprawling legacy infrastructures to ensure that they work seamlessly within mobile, cloud and social environments and on multiple devices — from laptops, to tablets to smartphones — to create a unified customer experience that builds upon, but does not replace, large legacy investments.