According to this article, the forces shaping the future of IT work are: automation, speed, agility, security, technology budgets, collaboration, flexibility, symbiosis and ubiquity.
“Technology is increasingly freeing workers from routine tasks, from the warehouse to the C-suite,” the article says. “Massive amounts of data are being ingested in real time, as business decisions are beginning to be offloaded to machines, leaving more time to focus on planning, pursuing leads, and adopting new technologies.”
The adoption of automation will change how certain services are delivered. In turn, the world of Business Process Outsourcing is also going to be significantly impacted.
As discussed at IAOP’s recent event, RPA17, robotic process automation is changing how processes are automated to remove the physical content currently in use. Service providers who have depended on skilled talent to provide services will see pressure from their customers to automate some of those processes, and increase overall productivity and quality.
In January, the McKinsey Global Institute published A Future that Works: Automation, Employment and Productivity, the results of a two-year study of automation technologies and their potential impact on jobs over the next several decades.
The author offers these opinions: only a small percentage of occupations can be fully automated by adapting current technologies; automation will likely take decades; and automation can boost productivity and help close a GDP growth gap.
This article about innovation and advancement in software creation should catch the attention of both providers and customers of software outsourcing services. The use of techniques such as “containers” and “machine learning” is becoming more common, reducing cycle time for software creation. It is going to demand that end users have higher control over content and an expectation of “quick” delivery.
Traditional software outsourcing service providers need to be ahead of this curve or some of the upstart players will take control of the market. This will raise questions about who is responsible for defining development methodology – customersor providers. How will customers determine whether innovation was engaged in the delivery of the software?