As a consulting business in 2021, my colleagues and I had the honor of earning our clients’ confidence and working on various intriguing projects. I took a look back at these projects in retrospect and discovered nine tendencies that I thought were worth mentioning.

9 Business and Technology Trends of 2021

Leaning on Legacy Systems

Many firms rely on legacy systems to support business operations, according to the first trend we discovered in 2021. This technique would be completely acceptable if the commercial and technological worlds around us were not only changing but changing quickly. To stay competitive, leaders must incorporate technological progress into their company strategies. This tendency ran counter to the other patterns we saw this year. We saw 2021 as a watershed moment for many firms that had previously relied on old systems.

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Appetite for Change

In 2021, digital transformation will be a significant subject in the corporate world. We saw an unusual trend: executives and employees were more open to change and eager to learn about new tools and technologies that may help them enhance operations. Many firms misjudged their workforce’s ability and desire to adapt. We think this is due to several factors, such as changes in labour demographics, more consumer exposure to technology, and the business impact of the pandemic.

Work from Anywhere

The work-from-home trend that began in 2020 due to pandemics has continued into 2021. Shifting to a hybrid work from anywhere (WFA) company model, for example, has become increasingly popular. With the WFA capabilities, several firms have discovered major prospects for company growth, such as acquiring top talent and improving employee life-work balance. This trend has been aided by technologies such as secure access service edge (SASE), software as a service (SaaS), and 5G, making WFA implementation easier and enhancing the user experience.

Hybrid Cloud

Usage of public clouds has been on the rise for some years and is expected to continue. Businesses have embraced a cloud-first approach for application deployment, and the trend has become widespread by 2021. The strategy used SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS to deliver new or improved applications while keeping legacy systems in current data centres. This hybrid method was application-driven, which we thought was a positive development.

Consolidation

In recent years, many firms have adopted many public cloud suppliers, scattering apps and services among them. A strategic shift occurred in 2021. The decision was to combine apps into a single cloud provider and invest in knowledge inside that cloud platform. The move was facilitated by the leading cloud providers’ increased dependability and breadth of services. Although the consolidation approach will most likely take a few years to implement completely, the tendency has grown widespread.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise Suite

Many firms have seen a trend to use the more extensive Microsoft 365 suite, which coincides with the consolidation trend. Device management, AI security capabilities, workflow automation, zero trust, application provisioning, and single sign-on were among the integrated services included in the licencing (SSO). This acceptance continues a recent trend of Office 365 subscriptions.

Microsoft Teams Expansion

The rising strategic deployment of Microsoft Teams was another continuation of the consolidation trend. The development of Teams in 2020 was influenced mainly by pandemics. In 2021, there will be a push to integrate workflow, document management, and project management into Teams through a strategy concept that involves improved governance and operational support.

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Cybersecurity Operations

As most firms battled with the danger to their operations, cybersecurity remained at the forefront of their minds. More than new technologies, we saw a trend of greater attention on cybersecurity operations. The adoption of security standards like the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification based on NIST 800-171 (CMMC) and NIST Cyber Security Framework (NIST-CSF) by governments and supplier ecosystems and the rise in cybersecurity negotiations in all business sectors popped up to be driving this trend. This shift was a good development, as we have long pushed for a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity that includes both technology and operations.

Data Analytics

In 2021, data-driven decision-making requirements appeared to be at an all-time high. Businesses were eager to get their data into business intelligence systems like Microsoft’s Power BI, a business analytics tool. As business divisions faced fragmented data sets, data privacy issues, and deciding what information was necessary to make sound choices, the trend slowed. Many companies learned a lot this year.

For many firms hoping to rebound from a difficult 2020, 2021 was an intriguing year of development and transformation. Many organizations surprised our firm because they displayed visionary, strategic leadership to provide better value to their consumers. I’m excited about the year 2022!