MIAMI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As 2021 draws to an end, Nucleus Research is helping businesses plan for the year ahead with its annual Top 10 Technology Predictions. In the 18th edition of the firm’s projected dominant technology, Nucleus analysts examine the effects of the continued pandemic and what that means for automation innovations and real estate, as well as remote work’s impact on administrative burdens for SMBs.

“Our analysts measured the functionality, cost-effectiveness and innovation of tech trends over the past year to identify the technology we expect will impact our clients in 2022,” said Ian Campbell, CEO Nucleus Research. “If the past two years has taught us anything, it’s that being prepared and expecting the unexpected is the way forward for many organizations. Given that, we expect that 2022 will see many of these predicted technology trends come to fruition.”

Nucleus Research’s top 10 predictions for 2022 look at opportunities and potential pain points based on the numbers that drive business and protect the bottom line. Publishing more ROI case studies than any other research firm in the industry, Nucleus works closely with thousands of end-user customers to provide an accurate picture of tomorrow’s trends through a numbers-driven approach.

Nucleus’ predictions for 2022 include:

• DMBA leads the way: In-database analytics processing and query engines Database management systems (DBMS) have become a backbone of cloud technology, with many SaaS and PaaS products requiring high levels of data connectivity to achieve proposed value. As we progress into 2022, DBMS vendors will focus competitive efforts on the speed of mixed workloads processing with those who fall behind likely seeing increased customer churn and reduced market share.
• Omnichannel technologies continue to show massive growth: The Covid-19 pandemic forced businesses to rethink their digital strategies and prioritize system resiliency, agility, and the ability to connect with customers via nonphysical channels. Companies that merge enterprise communications with VoIP and phone offerings are well-positioned to succeed and will likely continue to evolve their platforms to encompass additional communication channels in support of customers’ omnichannel communication strategies.
• Increasing automation at all levels of business: One of the main challenges regarding AI and its feasibility in the enterprise is its need for massive amounts of relevant, properly formatted data to train a model to perform a specific task. Going forward, more generalizable workflow automation capabilities and solutions will roll out, and more customers will begin leveraging the capability at scale.
• Consolidation and death of point solutions: Consolidation across the enterprise application market spells death for the small point-solution. Point-solutions outside the core classes of ERP, HCM, CRM, and SCM will be prime acquisition candidates of large vendors offering those listed solutions.
• Implementation cost reduction: As SaaS has become the product of choice for both buyers and solution providers, we have seen vendors move away from service revenue in favor of the much more dependable and desired recurring subscription revenue. Nucleus sees vendors ramp up competition around the total cost of ownership (TCO) of their solutions and platforms.
• Hotdesking/real estate: As more employees look to escape the confines of their home office for some face time, employers must optimize the little space that they haven’t purged. For organizations that have purged the entirety of their office space, demand for collaborative spaces from employees may reignite the commercial real estate market.
• Tax problems: Remote work has created costly, administrative burdens for SMBs. Companies with one physical location may find themselves having a taxable presence of four or five, all because of the necessity of remote hiring. We expect that employers will begin to be more discerning when sourcing employees based on tax or other employment laws that are too risky to take on when hiring remotely.
• Talent management/identifying top performers: A lack of willing talent is causing some organizations to invest less in who they can bring on and more in engaging, retaining, and developing who they already have. Internal talent markets and tools that identify and bridge gaps in employee competencies are gaining more traction in talent management deployments.
• The fall of cookies: the next generation of Martech: By removing third-party cookies from the highly used Chrome internet browser, Google increases the barriers to entry within the advertising space as cookies often functioned as a shortcut to personalized ad targeting. To remain competitive, many SMBs without the same resources will look to MarTech providers to achieve a comparable level of targeted advertising, filling the void left by cookies.
• Demand for managed security will skyrocket: As remote work became the norm, employees started using work devices for personal use or personal devices for work activities and logging in from public networks creating new cyber security vulnerabilities. Nucleus predicts organizations will have to outsource security measures and rely more on managed cyber security vendors that provide extensive network monitoring capabilities, such as end-point detection and response (EDR) and flexible firewalls.

For the full 2021 Technology Predictions report, visit here.

About Nucleus Research

Nucleus Research is a global provider of investigative, case-based technology research and advisory services. The company’s ROI-focused research approach provides unique insight into the actual results technology solutions deliver, allowing organizations to cut through marketing hype to understand real operational value and select or renew the best technology solution for their environment. For more information, visit NucleusResearch.com.