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Forrester's Top 15 Emerging

Technologies To Watch, 2017

- 2021

Louis Columbus Former Contributor

Sep 25, 2016, 02:07pm EDT

This article is more than 6 years old.

Customers’ expectations of excellent experiences are accelerating

driven by the real-time responsiveness of the latest social, mobile,

analytics and cloud applications. This is especially the case for B2B

buyers, who expect the same contextually intelligent, data-rich

interactions across any channel they choose to purchase through,

anytime.

Salesforce's Einstein is an example of how Artificial

Intelligence (AI) has the potential to revolutionize CRM and

customer-facing systems.

Augmented reality has immediate implications for

streamlining the Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) and Quote-

To-Cash (QTC) strategies of many companies.

74% of B2B buyers research half or more of their work

purchases online before buying according to a recent

Forrester Study.

74% of B2B buyers research half or more of their work purchases

online before buying according to a recent Forrester Study. 30%

make half or more of their work purchases online today, and 56%

expect to make half or more of their work purchases online in 3

years. Forrester’s recently released top 15 emerging technologies to

watch, 2017 – 2021 reflect the accelerating expectations of

customers who rely on digital channels the majority of the time to

evaluate, buy and get support for products and services. B2B buyers

are collaborators in the creation and continual refining of these

technologies as their buying and service requirements force the

issues scalability, speed, and service quickly.

Defining 15 Technologies That Win And Keep Customers

Forrester’s methodology of defining the top 15 emerging

technologies is based on an assessment of which have the greatest

potential to win, serve and retain customers. Looking at which

technologies can make the greatest contribution to business growth

in the next five years, Forrester didn’t include blockchain or 3D

printing, however. Instead, the focus is on technologies that

support systems of engagement, systems of insight and supporting

technologies that enable greater speed, scalability and real-time

integration fo diverse systems, apps, and platforms. The following

graphic provides an overview of the 15 emerging technologies to

watch:

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Forrester sees the Internet of Things (IoT) creating

more valuable customer interactions and improving

the customer experience. Making the most use of

actuator, sensor, and network-captured data through the use

of advanced analytics techniques including Hadoop and R,

organizations will better be able to understand and predict

customer buying cycles. The most immediate benefit for B2B

buyers will be in the supply chain they rely on, as IoT data

will help alleviate stock-outs and inventory allocation

problems

Intelligent agents are already accelerating Artificial

Intelligence (AI) and machine learning in CRM and

customer-facing systems. Salesforce will demonstrate

and heavily promote Salesforce Einstein at this year's

Dreamforce 2016 happening next month, October 4 - 7th in

San Francisco. It's a great example of how AI has the

potential to revolutionize CRM and customer-facing

systems. Expect to see several announcements out of the

Salesforce partner community regarding intelligent agents,

AI and machine learning, further making this area one of the

main themes of Dreamforce 2016.

Augmented reality has immediate implications for

streamlining the Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) and

Quote-To-Cash (QTC) strategies of many

companies. One of the most valuable lessons learned from

being on hundreds of sales calls where CPQ systems were

discussed is the need manufacturers have to be able to

visualize the complete, finished product they are designing.

The greater the product complexity the slower the sales

cycles go. With augmented reality and 3D visualization,

being able to walk through a proposed oil refinery, around a

complex engine, and through a proposed jet would be

invaluable.

Cloud native application platforms will continue to

enable rapid advances in enterprise accounting

Source: Forrester's Top Emerging Technologies To Watch: 2017-

2021

Louis Columbus

I am currently serving as Principal, IQMS, part of Dassault Systèmes. Previous

positions include product management at Ingram Cloud, product... Read More

software. Creating more scalable, secure and agile general

ledgers is going to be increasingly possible with the

continued growth of cloud-native applications

platforms. SelectHub's latest update on Enterprise

Accounting Software Recommendations provides an

overview of where this area of enterprise software is today

and where it is going.

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