TechWave: A Gartner Podcast for IT Leaders

There is a great deal of hype and confusion about the creation and value of platforms. Since 2004, Google searches on the word “platforms” have increased about 300% to a peak last August. And in the last couple of years, the word has appeared in 5% to 10% of the questions clients ask or the notes of the advice we give when we answer those questions. Based on the high interest in the topic of platforms, in this podcast Gartner explores value drivers for successful platforms.

A few factors that are explored regarding platforms include:

• The definition of a platform is less important than the proposed product’s value proposition.
• The platform is a product. It is a product that must be developed in alignment with the customer-centric use cases that drive compelling value that is sustainable and effective.
• Platform is not the same thing as the network effect. Network effect occurs in business models where something gets better with the addition of every customer.
• SaaS is not the same thing as platform. Structurally, a SaaS model allows for multitenancy of one or more assets — the user interface, software, data, hosting approach and many other technology elements. SaaS has robust partitions and compartmentalizes participants. 

A sample of interesting Gartner predictions across the extensive coverage of platforms includes:

• By 2025, 80% of IT spending will be subscription- and/or consumption-based, driven by a shift to product and platform business models.
• By 2025, four of the top ERP vendors will rebrand themselves as business platform providers

Digital workplace leaders who readied their organizations for remote work were able to meet the challenges of the pandemic swiftly and successfully. Right now, leaders across the organization — most notably, human resources, corporate real estate and the C-suite — are having discussions about the return to the office as well as the alternative flexible hybrid work options. 

Workers want to choose when and where they work. Every organization, team and department will execute this differently. The good news is that you likely have the main applications you need to support these work patterns. You’ve been deploying cloud-based productivity capabilities (e.g., collaboration, calendaring and meetings) to support remote work. In this TechWave podcast, a Gartner analyst provides his perspective on the gaps in functionality where new, interesting vendors will emerge to enhance the digital workplace.

In this podcast, Gartner analysts discuss some very interesting predictions that are among Gartner’s top predictions for 2022: 

• By 2024, 40% of consumers will trick behavior tracking metrics to intentionally devalue the personal data collected about them, making it difficult to monetize. Analysis is by Rachel Steinhardt.
• By 2025, synthetic data will reduce personal customer data collection, avoiding 70% of privacy violation sanctions. Analysis is by Svetlana Sicular, Jim Hare and Anthony Mullen.
• By 2027, a quarter of the Fortune 20 companies will be supplanted by companies that “neuromine” and influence subconscious behavior at scale. Analysis is by Jackie Fenn.

Data privacy law became relevant in the early 1970s alongside the advent of computer retail sales. Today, more than 140 countries with data privacy laws are attempting to control personal data collection and use while mitigating the risk of downstream data misuse. However, most are ill-equipped to accomplish either. This leaves data and analytics leaders incapable of applying much-needed data and analytics across their organization, let alone globally, while also protecting individuals from data misuse. In short, data privacy law is a mess, creating inefficiency and undermining goodwill. 

In this podcast, Gartner expert analysts share a “maverick” approach on how business and IT leaders driving business and consumer value should use the seven-point framework: Positivity, Rally, Inquire, Validate, Abandon, Comply, Yield (P.R.I.V.A.C.Y.). This framework takes the maverick approach of proactively strategizing on how to concurrently scale data while protecting individuals worldwide from data misuse.

This podcast discusses a very interesting prediction that was selected as one of Gartner’s top predictions for 2021. The prediction is:

By 2025, customers will be the first humans to touch more than 20% of all products and produce. 

The hope of long-term business impact for any hyperautomation initiative is a fully automated process that results in a product advancing through the assembly line, onward through the supply chain and distribution channels to arrive at the end customer, whereby the first human to touch and interact with the product is the consumer. Machines and computers are increasingly performing more types of tasks independently. So much so that Gartner anticipates that, by 2025, there will be a critical mass of commercial examples of products or produce that have fully automated end-to-end processes.

Gartner analyst Penny Gillespie recently introduced new research on rogue thinking, an approach for idea generation to drive revenue and ignite transformation. Rogue thinking goes against conventional, mature business wisdom by connecting what may appear to be disparate elements in ways that redefine category norms and expectations that produce business value.

Rogue thinking facilitates idea execution through the common barriers of benefit recognition, measurement, risk assessment, funding, delivery and communications. In essence, it is a recipe for identifying business opportunities.

Host Whit Andrews speaks with Penny Gillespie, vice president and Gartner fellow in Gartner’s Customer Experience/Digital Commerce team, which resides in the larger Applications and Software Engineer Leaders Group. Gillespie is responsible for conducting research and developing publications aimed at helping IT leaders recognize digital opportunities, develop a competitive strategy for digital commerce as well as improve digital commerce performance.

Kevin Roose’s book, “Futureproof,” presumes a future in which automation has reconfigured the natures of employment and social life. Roose provides nine rules for how to survive this era. In this podcast, we discuss the rules as they apply to IT leaders and what steps such leaders can take in their lives to thrive. Roose shares stories about how previous generations of automation can teach us how to react to this one. 

Host Whit Andrews talks with Kevin Roose, an award-winning technology columnist for The New York Times and New York Times bestselling author, about his new book “Futureproof.” Roose is the host of “Rabbit Hole,” a New York Times-produced podcast about internet culture, and a regular guest on “The Daily,” as well as other leading TV and radio shows. He writes and speaks regularly on many topics, including automation and artificial intelligence, social media, disinformation and cybersecurity, and digital wellness.

Changes in how organizations mature their data and analytics strategies will define how organizations accomplish their future directions. 

Host Whit Andrews met with three Predicts authors at the Data and Analytics Virtual Summit to discuss data and analytics predictions.

Erick Brethenoux specializes in machine learning, artificial intelligence and applied cognitive computing. He guides organizations on the strategic, organizational and technology aspects of using advanced analytics as a driving force of their growth. 

Mark Beyer covers broad data architecture solutions including data management and its intersection with use cases and data governance issues. His recent areas of client issues and research include adapting best practices for data management to remove false distinctions between cloud, on-premises and hybrid fallacies. 

Frank Buytendijk is a Distinguished VP and Gartner Fellow in Gartner’s Data and Analytics Group. His work often takes a futurist approach, researching the edges of what he covers. Buytendijk pioneers the topics of the future, digital ethics and digital society, helping organizations do the “right thing” with technology.

Host Whit Andrews engages leading Gartner analysts in this podcast to explore the future of digital control. They discuss rewards, penalties and virtual imprisonment through digital tools, and what listeners may need to do to make their enterprise ready in various scenarios. 

As an example, leaving your house without your phone is increasingly an unimaginable action for many people who live rich digital lives. The control that governments can exert on the phone in some countries gives them the ability to influence people without needing to affect their physical selves. Such impacts will be available to commercial entities as the sophistication of user behavior monitoring grows in intensity.

Two Gartner analysts who have authored Maverick publications are joined by one of the leaders of our Maverick program, Frank Buytendijk.

Gartner research suggests that, by 2026, 80% of organizations will abandon pursuing a 360-degree view of the customer. This is for several reasons, including that it doesn’t adhere to privacy regulations and obliterates customer trust.

Host Whit Andrews discusses the future of pursuing the 360-degree view of the customer with Marty Resnick, VP analyst and co-lead of the Maverick program; Lizzy Foo Kune, VP analyst in Gartner’s Marketing practice; and Benjamin Bloom, VP analyst in Gartner’s marketing practice.