Emerging Technologies

New technologies are rapidly evolving. They are beginning to filter into the global market place and their impact is being felt. There are trillions of market $$$ dollars out there. To support the acceptance and market growth of these technologies, the world needs to become educated on them and their capabilities. That requires new curriculum and courseware. Without proper training, the overall value of emerging technologies will be slowed and limited. If you are not aware of these emerging technologies or a very quick follower – you will likely be pushed aside. This blog is devoted to giving professionals an introduction to the emerging technologies with the greatest potential. Each month the posting on this blog will introduce one of those technologies. There is no time to waste. It’s time to get ready now! The next blog posting will be October 31^st and look at Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Technology is continuously in motion and that Is indeed the case when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) or as some have called it, the Internet of Everything!  There is good reason for their massaging the title.  A recent study suggested that this year, 2020, the global IoT market value is projected to reach over $915 billion USD. Yes, just shy of a trillion $$$. With a double-digit compound annual growth rate, the IoT market is projected to reach $1.9 trillion in 2028. That is a huge amount of money.

When you think about all the work involved in the design, development, marketing, sales, installation, integration, and service involved in the global IoT market today, and in the next few years there is an abundance of work involving IoT.  Now we must add to that work, all the efforts to add security to protect all those IoT devices and the data they produce.  There are projections that the global use of IoT devices will likely top 40 billion units worldwide and all those devices will be generating nearly 80 zettabytes (or 80 times 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data in 2025.  Since we are talking about data, we must consider last week’s blog about the collection, storage and analysis of all that data, as well as the effort to take actions based on the results of that data analysis.

Here are a few weird IoT devises that I thought might be good or at least humorous to mention to illustrate just how broad of a range the devices have.  First and perhaps my favorite is a ‘Touch-screen Wine Bottle.’ When activated, it provides a wide range of information about the contents of that bottle. Think about applying that to pharmaceuticals! Secondly, is a ‘Dog Alert’ that contacts your smartwatch/smartphone and tells you your dog is barking.  Once alerted, you can go to your home-cams and look inside your home and see what is going on and talk to your dog if you would like.  One individual told me they were working to determine if the dog’s bark suggested if the dog was happy or upset. So here is the third of my top three.  An IoT toilet, plays music, has a soft light, opens when you approach the toilet, has a heated seat and you ASK it to flush. Ok, now one has to wonder, what data that collects, where it goes and in the United States if that is covered by HIPAA regulations.

I am wondering what is next? What are the hot areas of IoT applications in our specific domain(s) or our domains of interest? As we all move into the connected future of the world, innovation and creativity is the limiting factor in the products and services around the IoT explosion and all the data they produce and how that will be used.

Chances are, nearly all of us have heard of the Internet of Things (IoT) by now.  IoT can be many things and that list continues to grow with new innovative ideas being explored daily.  Basically, we can think of it as a non-traditional network connected device.  To expand upon that, IoT is a collection of billions of physical (electro/mechanical) devices that serve a wide variety of purposes and are distributed throughout the world and are connected to the Internet. It is a device or system that is electro/mechanical equipment with digital input/output.  It is a wide variety of network connected computing components.  Each with a unique identifier that enables it to transfer data over a network without any other assistance or interaction. That data is received and processed and utilized by a variety of systems/applications and their number grow minute by minute.

The shrinking physical size and cost of microprocessors is expected to propel the global IoT market forecasts.  All things considered suggests that the number of IoT devices will grow to around $1.6 trillion U.S. dollars by 2025. That is up from just over $210 billion U.S. dollars in size at the end of 2019. Link: https://www.statista.com/statistics/976313/global-iot-market-size/  It is important to keep in mind that IoT will be influenced by a number of emerging technologies and that includes blockchain technology as well as 5G. Many believe that IoT will have a transformative and disruptive impact on business, government, industry and our daily lives. Given the projected growth, variety of applications and estimated value IoT brings to the table, program and project managers will likely see initiatives involving IoT devices and technologies going forward.

When talking about break-through technologies - some place them together under the header of Exponential Innovation, while others put them together under Exponential Technology.   No matter what you call them, they are those technologies where their capabilities (functionality, capacity and performance) doubles in each reporting period of time (typically annually). These technologies are at a point in their evolution where their price/performance makes them viable solutions to real-world problems that up until this point in time, could not have been functionally and/or economically addressed.  Now let’s consider the current spike in the creation and discovery of advancements in technologies that bring with them creative products and services, innovative solutions, and breaking traditional best practices and or thought processes. Basically, we are talking about DRAMATIC CHANGE!

When discussing this topic, many are quick to point to the evolution of microprocessors (chips) as to the first initiation of such an occurrence and reporting. Regardless of its point of origin, it is changing how we must think about business strategy. Below are five of the more commonly referenced exponential technologies of today (alphabetical order).

• Additive aka Accretive Manufacturing (3D Printing)
• Advanced Robotics
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Biotechnology
• Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Human Augmentation (VR, AR and HA)

Stop for a moment and think about these five technologies and the potential implications of their exponential advancement on your organization and more importantly, your career. Now consider this represents only a small percentage of the technologies commonly put under this same exponential innovation umbrella. How prepared are you and your organization? If you’re not, time is flying by.  It might be a career limiting move if you fall behind or fail to catch up.

INSIGHT: John D. Rockefeller said, "Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."

Earlier this year, Forbes published an article titled, “Today's Companies Have a Technology Adoption Problem, Not an Innovation Problem.” By most accounts they are correct.  As for emerging technology, some organizations don’t understand it, some believe they can’t afford it, others believe it is just not necessary. Whatever the reason, failure to monitor and adapt to emerging technology driven change is a big risk.

Leveraging these emerging technologies is necessary for any business to grow and prosper as well as for an increasing number to even survive!  The following are the five most likely highly disrupted industries based on my analysis of the current state of emerging technologies. (In alphabetical order)

• Construction
• Finance & Insurance
• Government
• Healthcare
• Real-Estate

The way we live and work is changing. Emerging technologies have begun to have an intense effect on organizations large and small.  There is a delicate balance that must be achieved between likely benefit(s) and the risk(s) of dealing with the new/unknown.  Subject-matter Experts (SME) believe organizations need to take the first step.  They commonly recommend ‘Pilot Projects’ as the best approach.  Some suggest organizations seek and independent opinion from an objective third-party about the emerging technologies and or project(s).  That is great advice before any organization jumps into the deep end of the emerging technology application pool. We all know what that means, more pilot programs and projects coming into our offices and being laid on our desks. Given the current workloads, resource shortages and increased expectations with regard to accelerating the delivery pace, the existing demand and overload sure looks like it will continue to increase with little regard to PM workload.

Insight:  Douglas Rushkoff, American Journalist said, “When things begin accelerating wildly out of control, sometimes patience is the only answer. Press pause.”