Now that the business world has closed the door on an exciting, yet challenging 2021, now’s the time to look to the future. What does 2022 have in store for us? There’s only one way to find out.
According to our highly valued partners at Salesforce: predictable growth is the name of the game this new year. Forward thinking organisations are spending this first quarter looking at ways to capture and utilise data, streamline processes, manage workloads efficiently, maintain system security, and onboard and retain staff – this is the recipe for success.
With a new year, comes new challenges – the Covid-19 pandemic continues to negatively affect the world around us, with new variants causing public uncertainty and business disruption. Despite this, a huge amount of organisations met this challenge head on by facilitating a digital transformation across the board. 2022 will largely be about maintaining that, adopting it (for businesses that haven’t already), and getting the most out of it.
Our Predictions
Rather than gazing into a crystal ball to help predict the future, we’ve conducted some of our own research – by listening to our customers, keeping an ear to the ground in terms of tech news, and following the lead of our forward-thinking partners at Salesforce. As a result, we expect to see the following:
- More organisations moving to the cloud, adopting either a fully cloud-based or hybrid cloud model. Including the progression to the cloud of more traditional “on premises” industries.
- Remote working will persist for previously office-based employees, not only as a safety measure, but also for staff convenience and other business benefits.
- Processes that previously required in-person attendance (for example, submitting forms) will move online, with organisations taking advantage of user-friendly digital dashboards and easy to complete online forms.
- The ongoing customer engagement model will continue to improve digitally in the B2C world, driving a need for an excellent interaction experience regardless in B2B or internal business models.
- Data will continue to be as important as ever, with tech-savvy organisations harvesting the power of data and analytics to get the most value out of their digital transformations.
- A more diverse future will emerge, as organisations start to reap the benefits of the ongoing push over the past few years to encourage people from all walks of life to get into tech.
- Accountability will be a big thing in 2022 – especially around the environment. Businesses will be expected to track and improve their carbon footprints, and those that successfully achieve this can expect to see a reputation boost.
What’s Driving these Changes?
The impact of last year’s COP26 cannot be underestimated; all eyes were on Glasgow for the duration of this conference, which many considered to be the globe’s last chance to tackle the climate crisis. Many organisations pledged to hit a target of net zero emissions, and the world will be watching to see if they stick to their words. As a result of this, we expect to see businesses invest in carbon accounting technology as part of a wider environmental strategy.
In the tech sector, the skills gap looms large over organisations, as they search for highly skilled talent. The natural answer to this is less of a focus on degree qualifications and more on skill-set when hiring. Additionally, we can expect a more diverse workforce as the idea of what a tech expert “looks like” dissolves and businesses further embrace diverse hiring strategies. Remote working opportunities will also help businesses attract and retain previously out-of-reach talent. Not only do we predict that remote working is here to stay for 2022 and beyond, but we also see businesses altering other aspects of office-based culture, in favour of a digital-first, more transparent and communicative approach.
In terms of digital transformation, we’re going to see the vast majority of companies that haven’t yet moved to the cloud finally doing so, or adopting a hybrid model. Data will be at the heart of these transformations, with organisations who’ve been cloud-first for some time now upgrading their systems further to embrace automation and take customers/users on a pre-planned journey. Data will help businesses understand in real-time what’s working and what isn’t, then automated systems kick in to carry out actions or provide solutions according to pre-set instructions. Not only will this take pressure off marketing and sales teams, but it will increase efficiency, leading to larger and more frequent wins.
Moving Forward
So, how do you take part in these exciting changes and ensure your organisation isn’t stuck in the past? We work with forward thinking organisations to deploy bespoke Salesforce solutions that facilitate stronger communication, more efficient processes, and a whole heap of automation for businesses. The digital transformation aspects that we provide include Salesforce Sales Cloud – the award winning CRM that delivers personalised buying experiences to your customers, Salesforce Marketing Cloud – an effective marketing solution, optimised for B2C clients, and Pardot – the B2B equivalent. There’s also Salesforce Service Cloud – an all-digital customer service product that connects you to your customers on a whole new level thanks to analytics and AI-powered workflows, as well as the newly acquired Slack for fast, flexible, and secure communication.
Salesforce recently released Net Zero Cloud (formerly known as Sustainability Cloud) which is a carbon accounting system designed to help businesses reach their net zero aims faster, with the help of powerful analytics. This is a crucial part of any organisation’s green strategy. Salesforce’s innovative solutions are designed to help get your organisation to the future faster.
For a lot of people, January 1st 2022 symbolises a fresh start; banishing bad habits once and for all, adopting a healthier lifestyle, and promising to make more time for the important things. Funnily enough, businesses can take a similar approach to success in Q1-22 and beyond, by removing inefficient practises, updating systems and processes in a way that’s kinder to the environment, and establishing predictable growth in terms of sales, lead gen, staff retention, and wins. Salesforce’s solutions will help organisations make a fresh start, or improve on their current standing – it all starts here, now.
If you’re looking to modernise your organisation’s systems or take your internal processes to the next level in 2022, get in touch with a member of our dedicated team today.