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Manufacturing IT must anticipate business impact of social trends
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03/09/2008
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As IT-based devices and technologies become more personal in scope and application, social issues will become increasingly important to manufacturers’ product success, according to analyst Gartner.
“A connected enterprise must understand the connected society in which it resides,” says Scott Nelson, managing vice president at Gartner.
“Most firms wait until societal trends have overwhelmed them before they try to react. Slowness to respond can cost firms incredibly large sums of money and may drive them out of business all together.”
He believes that manufacturers will require anthropological and psychological input into their systems development in order to ensure that entire systems – consisting of technology and people – are viable.
“In activities such as marketing, it is valuable to find and spend effort on several key influencers that are trusted information sources used by other network participants. Enterprises should work the network and find out where their customers and potential employees are making decisions,” insists Nelson.
“[Because] many of these networks are implemented using well-understood technical standards, they can be probed and analysed, opening up opportunities for a new generation of social network analysis and simulation tools.”
He doesn’t pretend it’s easy? Nelson says many organisations will find it tough trying to determine which trends to watch. His recommendation: give responsibility to a group to watch societal trends and to focus on key points, such as legal, ethical and social risks, and the network effects in products and services.
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Author
Brian Tinham
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