5 tech trends that are key to productivity in 2021

December 8, 2020 2:56 PM

There’s no question — 2020 was a crazy year across the globe. With the pandemic, stay-at-home mandates, paused business travel, civil unrest and an adapted election cycle, I think we are all ready to close this chapter and ring in 2021. As someone passionate about modern enterprise technology and the strategy surrounding it, I’d like to share the many lessons learned over the past year and how it changed not only the way we view business and our operations as a whole, but what business leaders must consider doing next to maximize productivity.

While one of the most strained departments has been IT, other departments like finance, accounting, mailroom and operations that require heavy use of data and documents were unprepared and paid dearly — some unknowingly. The stay-at-home mandates required remote access for all, and strategic weaknesses in technology and usage became quite evident. So, how do we learn from our experience and pave the way to a successful and more productive year in 2021? Here are five tech trends that will help businesses who embrace them:

Cloud, cloud, cloud

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“It isn’t secure." "We can’t afford the time required for the project." "Our systems are paid for, why move to a subscription?” This list of excuses to justify avoiding the migration to the cloud are long and varied. Legacy systems that “just ran” triggered complacency and the cloud was kicked down the road. When COVID-19 hit us in 2020, those that weren’t in the cloud lost employee productivity, potentially causing millions or more in lost time and work. Where was the “Global Pandemic” section in the business continuity plan?

The prioritization of digital transformation efforts hastily moved from the low column to the high column. At the very center was pervasive access to applications and, of course, the cloud.

The upshot: Digital transformation in the cloud will continue as companies prepare for uncertainty and tackle their legacy on-premises applications as the distributed work-from-home culture persists through 2021 and beyond.

AI is the new reality

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Artificial intelligence is real and helping leading-edge companies gain an advantage in the market through improved automation, enhanced decision-making and improved productivity. Whether it’s a simple algorithm that enhances reporting, a cloud-based AP automation suite or an ERP module your accounting department can leverage, AI point solutions are available and built to solve specific business problems.

We recently sponsored a well-attended webinar panel with Accounting Today discussing AI in accounting. During the webinar, we took several polls with a sampling of about 200 financial and accounting professionals responding, revealing very telling statistics:
-- Only 11 percent of the participant organizations use artificial intelligence today; and,
-- 40 percent have no plans to implement AI technology.

Moral of the story: If we put you and your top competitor in the same room, one is gaining an advantage with AI and one isn’t. Which one are you?

The upshot: AI will become more pervasive and necessary as companies look to automate their processes and improve remote worker productivity.

Rise of the citizen developer

Over the past few years, there have been major advances in "no-code/low-code” platforms that enable everyday users to build their own applications, workflows and automations without IT support or a development team. They have gone from requiring a technical background to intuitive platforms that do the complex work behind the scenes, making configuration easier. Did you ever think an accounts payable clerk could configure an AP workflow in a few minutes? Software vendors are now offering recipes that can be fired up in minutes and start servicing your automation needs.

The upshot: Citizen developer apps will continue to penetrate the workforce and provide powerful tools for any user.

Eliminating shadow processes

We all know they exist — the work just gets done miraculously. A "shadow process" is a closely held process, usually performed in a clunky, ineffective manner by one or a handful of individuals. I call it “business by email and spreadsheet.” That sales order backdoor through Becky in Sales Ops, or the handful of vendors that send Tom in Accounting their invoices directly to process. COVID-19 exposed many of these as the workforce moved to the home office and personal interaction was halted. Hunting down these non-trackable processes that are typically completely manual is becoming a target for businesses. robotic process automation was thought to be the game-changer in this area, but it mostly automated bad processes.

The upshot: Organizations will continue to focus on refining and improving legacy, shadow processes and improving overall efficiency for remote work.

Enable productive remote work

man dressed in red sweater uses laptop remotely with 3g or 4g network wireless at mountain, square orientation

The first half of 2020 was completely reactive, with IT struggling to procure hardware, enable remote access for office workers and figure out a plan for legacy application access. Then came the questions: how do we process mail? We scan invoices from the department copier and a desktop scanner, how can I do that from home? We typically collaborate on projects via in-person meetings and whiteboard sessions, how can we start those up again? Although the majority of businesses have adapted to using online conferencing, outsourcing mail processing and digital document submission methods, many companies are a work in progress and still implementing strategic technologies to enable full productivity of the remote workforce.

The upshot: In the first half of 2021, organizations will continue to complete WFH projects focused on digital transformation and automation.

As we enter the final month of the year, one thing is certain: we are in for more uncertainty in 2021. These trends are quickly becoming requirements to operate, compete and thrive in the COVID-19 era. Are you ready for 2021?