Mark White, US Consulting Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Deloitte, who is in South Africa for the first time, presented key findings on the ‘Technology Trends of 2011 – The natural convergence of business and IT”, to Senior ICT Executives at a function held at the Deloitte corporate offices in Johannesburg.

The Deloitte 2011 Technology Trends revealed the changing role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the re-emerging enablers and disruptive deployment trends within IT (Information Technology).
The Deloitte 2011 Top Ten Tech Trends are:
Re-Emerging Enablers
1. Visualisation
“Visualisation refers to the innovative use of images and interactive technology to explore large, high-density datasets. Through multi-touch interfaces, mobile device views and social network communities, organisations are enabling users to see, explore and share relationships and insights in new ways.
2. Almost Enterprise Applications
“Quick and agile solutions appeal to the business, but are they enterprise enough for IT? Business units have historically had a love-hate relationship with IT. ”
3. Cyber Intelligence
“Protecting vital information assets demands a full spectrum cyber approach. Cyber intelligence represents a vastly more sophisticated and full set of threat management tactics, providing tolls to move to a more proactive over the horizon threat awareness posture. In 2011 security incidents remain nearly unavoidable.”
4. CIOs as Revolutionaries
“CIOs shift from stewards of, to catalyst for business revolution. The CIOs role is emerging as both vanguard and catalyst for business innovation via advances in information collaboration and consumerisation.”
5. The death of ERP
“Rumours of ERP’s death have greatly been exaggerated. Now more than ever, companies need trusted data, timely and consistent data and reliable core business processes to realise their analytics, mobile, social and cloud strategies.”
Disruptive Deployments
6. Real Analytics
Applying technology and deep modelling techniques to find business performance opportunities in exploding data volumes.
7. Social Computing
“Social computing, not just media, collaboration or social networking, it’s a new fundamental for enterprise IT.”
8. User Engagement
“User engagement can enable productivity gains, but that’s not the only goal. Effectiveness and empowerment are even more important.”
9. Applied Mobility
“The edge has become the new battleground for innovation. The rise of mobile computing is staggering in sheer scale, 5 billion subscribers by December 2010. Mobile solutions have shifted from consumer favourites and enterprise hobbies to become enablers of business innovation. ”
10. Capability Clouds
“The cloud market evolves from capacity to capabilities. White warned corporates not to rush into cloud.”
What key lessons can African business owners glean from the latest Deloitte 2011 Technology Trends report?
“There are many trends that will enable African businesses. Cloud computing is a major trend. From a mobile technology point of view, M-Pesa is a classic example that has worked really well,” says Gys Hyman, Deloitte Consulting Director.
“CIOs in Africa need to move into the position where they differentiate the company at board level, where they take the lead and take initiative,” says Hyman.
“From a pure country competitiveness perspective, every single one of the key trends should be looked at in some way or form, says Kamal Ramsingh, Deloitte Consulting Director.
“The underlying theme of the Technology Trend report is the elevation of information as a competitive advantage,” says Mark White, US Consulting Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Deloitte.
White advises African enterprises to take the information about their business and create a new value that will attract foreign investments and speed up the flow of commerce.
For more information, download the entire Tech Trends 2011 report on the Apple app store ‘Deloitte on Technology’ or follow the tweet stream on #TechTrends2011
Bontle Moeng – ITNewsAfrica Online Editor