Innovations in which investments will be made in 2017

The digitalisation is the main topic for SMEs in 2017

Percy Miller, a consulting company for IT project management, is in constant contact with decision makers. It benefits from a privileged relationship and thanks to fact that Percy Miller is in contact with financial and general managers, the company is able to predict future IT trends. Since the digital transformation is one main topic, the budget for IT investments raises in 2017. Dematerialisation, Cloud, Big Data and Business Intelligence. Have a closer look on the four main tendencies in 2017.

Digital transformation: focus on dematerialisation

According to the survey FuturScape published by IDC last November, around 75% of the 500 biggest companies worldwide will have one team dedicated to the topics innovation and digital transformation at the end of 2017. SME do not rest. This is also confirmed by Percy Miller’s barometer, analyzing the investments of SME in France. In fact, investments for dematerialisation increased by 265 % during the last four years, a remarkable growth.

C like Cloud

Percy Miller observed an increase of 42% regarding investments made for Clouds among SME. The IDC’s survey confirms this and it predicts that until 2020, around 67 % of all investments for infrastructure will be used for Cloud solutions.

“Among SME, we recognize that more and more people are convinced by the functions and benefits and they forget their doubts. Cloud solutions have benefitted from stable connections and an increase in data rate”, explains Arnaud Proust, founder and CEO of Percy Miller.

Big Data and BI - two main tendencies

All industries are concerned; investments for artificial intelligence will increase by 300 % in 2017, compared to investments made in 2016 according to the Forrester survey (“Predictions 2017: Artificial Intelligence Will Drive The Insights Revolution”).

“The operational business will dominate in the long run. Companies active on the mid-market become more and more aware of the importance and the influence of data which causes that more investments will be done. SME handle the topic pragmatically”, emphasizes Arnaud Proust.

Percy Miller observed a strong increase(+ 61%) in budgets intended for investments in Big Data and BI during the first quarter 2016, even if the amount of projects decreased (-13 % in comparison to the first quarter of 2015). Consequently, there are fewer projects but those planned dispose a bigger budget.

SME represents one main reason for the increase in IT investments because they want to be up to date. They follow new trends. More flexible regarding their IT systems, they adapt faster to changes, e.g. the digital transformation projects.

“All surveys underline that artificial intelligence and virtual reality are two important subjects who have to be considered for future investments. There is no doubt that these projects will emerge in 2017. Our customers will face them”, concludes Arnaud Proust.

To download the entire survey of Percy Miller, click here: https://www.percy-miller.com/newsletter/2016/Barometre/Barometre-PercyMiller.pdf