Zebra’s 2018 Insights: Digital Transformation is Moving Along – So What’s Next?

2017 has been another great year for technology, and for us at Zebra Technologies. Among the many new and exciting developments we have experienced at Zebra, one thing stood out clearly – organizations and enterprises want, and need, increased visibility into their operations to gain actionable insights.

As companies have started their digital transformations to become more intelligent, they will look to adopting what we call the 3 As: Analytics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence. This ties in with the increasing focus for real-time information and the wider use of locationing technologies. Be it Healthcare or Retail – the change is real, and IT decision makers must take swift actions to remain competitive.

Below are some of our top outlooks of what we expect to happen in the enterprise environment in 2018:

• Digital transformation continues to resonate as businesses recognize the need to get more intelligent

Businesses are leveraging ties between the physical and digital worlds to enhance visibility and mobilize actionable insights that create better customer experiences, drive operational efficiencies and enable new business models. Some are still in the middle of the transformation, but we see more organizations aggressively deploying solutions. We are excited to help them drive this forward aligned with our Enterprise Asset Intelligence vision built on the foundation of a strong core device portfolio.

• Businesses need to leverage the 3As (Analytics, Automation and Artificial Intelligence) to embrace an “on-demand” economy

As we enter the age of the on-demand economy, businesses are striving to provide more compelling and personalized customer experiences that are delivered in “the moment of need”. To embrace this on-demand economy, 3As (Analytics, Automation and Artificial Intelligence) will be the key to build up modernized systems that help businesses navigate their operations in real-time to meet the emerging needs of customers.

• Businesses are relying on critical real-time data and analytics software to gain visibility for best next action

In this data-driven world, businesses are expecting to capture more critical real-time data and need solutions that will integrate it with analytics that unlock deep insights and greater visibility into decision-making optimization.

We see this trend showing itself in a number of ways: the rise of 2D (more data in a bar code), RFID (faster reading of data) and innovative integrated solutions with new data capture technologies combined with integrated advanced analytics software.

• Locationing technology is generating effective tracking data for visibility into smart decision making

As businesses are getting more intelligent, they have an increasing need in advanced analytics to provide new insights for smart decision making. Locationing solutions will generate more real-time tracking data that is needed to conduct advanced/predictive analytics, so as to help businesses across healthcare, retail, hospitality and manufacturing gain more visibility into their operations.

• Transformation continues in retail industry at a healthy pace with increased focus on making store as a service center

The retail industry is growing at a healthy pace. We see many forward-looking retailers are transforming their business models and have realized that the way to win is to offer convenience and positive customer experience. With an increased focus on making a store into a service center, retailers are leveraging data and digital technologies that are related to fulfillment solutions, in-store operations and seamless customer experience.

• Hospitals are digitalizing the workflows to optimize the quality of patient care and operational efficiency

The healthcare industry faces a myriad of challenges. Hospitals need to leverage advanced technologies to improve the efficiency, accuracy and quality of healthcare workflows. With the aid of technologies, doctors and nurses will be able to free up their minds and hands to focus on quality patient care and drive increased efficiency, and – most importantly – deliver accurate and error-free treatments.