Big data, 3D printing, virtual workforces and SaaS have all been tipped as the hot trends that will transform our business and personal lives over the next few years. Here are four companies that are making waves in each technology, with creative applications that are already changing the game.
The virtual workforce
From digital nomads to overseas freelancers, you can buy skills from anywhere in the world these days. Millions of people are signing up to job marketplaces, selling their labour for as little as a couple of dollars an hour. Online global outsourcing is set to grow 40 per cent this year and SIA forecasts it to reach $5 billion by 2018.
Three companies have pioneered the space: Elance, oDesk and Freelancer. Elance and oDesk now plan to combine forces in a merger that they hope will see them become the eBay or Amazon of online work.
SaaS
Citi named software as a service (SaaS) as one of the most disruptive technologies and IDC expects cloud software will pass $76 billion by 2017.
Originally pioneered by companies such as Salesforce, major players including Google, Amazon and Microsoft now offer free and paid SaaS products. It’s already transforming the way we do business, from the staff we hire to the hardware we invest in.
3D printing
3D printing is tipped for huge growth this year, with unit shipments growing by as much as 75 per cent. Health care is already becoming a huge user, with everything from hearing-aid shells to personalised hip and knee replacements arriving, and 3D organ printing is anticipated. Companies including Nike, Ford, Boeing and General Electric are all embracing it, with Boeing even printing an entire aeroplane cabin.
US jewellery company American Pearl is pioneering custom-designed jewellery where computers transform a user’s design into a CAD file, printing a mould of the exact specification. The chosen metal is poured in and the selected gemstone is attached. This has allowed the company to compete with cheap overseas labour as well as sell jewellery at a fraction of the cost of traditional jewellers.
Big data
The Open Data Institute, co-founded by World Wide Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, aims to encourage the exploitation of freely available data or "open data". It has incubated big data startups such as Spend Network, which analysed procurement data to reveal that the UK’s inefficient tendering process was costing it billions of dollars.
It’s worth thinking about how these trends may affect your own business, and what you can do to get a piece of the action. Are you ready for big data? Have you considered what 3D printing or SaaS could do for you, or whether outsourcing skills for a project makes better sense than in-house recruitment? These technologies are here to stay and it’s time to run with the pack or get left behind.
