M Y S AY THERE’S A REVOLUTION COMING… did you get the memo? It is a fact, of course, that digital technology has already changed how we all live and work over the past two decades. And clearly that technology has proved transformational because of how it enables people to gather, hold and share the right data, in the right places, at the right times. Digital technology is, after all, also known as information and communication technology or ICT. Today’s world has huge supplies of cheap computing power and fast connectivity – and the coming revolution will spring out of these. We have reached a stage where digital technology, in all its forms, will unleash far 8 AUGUST 2016 bigger changes on how we live, work, shop, socialise, receive medical care and so on. It will do this by expanding and accelerating the advance of other technologies – most notably biological and engineering technologies which are increasingly enabled by ICT – and by driving innovation in business models and industry structures. These are big ideas and they come from big global thinkers. The latest of revolutionary predictions are found in the Global Information Technology Report for 2016, written by a panel of experts for the World Economic Forum and published online last month. The report postulates the arrival of a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ which builds on the previous digital revolution and drives unprecedented convergence in different forms of technology. The revolution will force much greater innovation by businesses and governments to secure the economic and social advantages of new technologies and convergence. The report is a heady read. But actually, it’s not difficult to see revolutionary changes starting to occur here and now. Retailers, for one, already got the memo from their Internet-savvy customers! People want to know, using a smartphone or other device, what products are available, where and when. Gary Hartley is general manager – customer of GS1 New Zealand. By Gary Hartley Data is about to get even more important, as economies go through revolutionary change based around digital technology. Expect this change to sweep through New Zealand as much as anywhere, perhaps even more so.
FT AUG 16
To see the actual publication please follow the link above