A guide to making sense of ‘Everything Tech’
In the 1990s, when Amazon, eBay and other Internet pioneers introduced the concept of e-commerce, it was seen as a niche that would never make it to the mainstream. Within 10 years it seemed like every business had an e-commerce strategy, even if they didn’t offer online retail but simply took orders by e-mail, rather than by fax or phone.
Fast forward to 2010 and suddenly it felt like every business operated a cloud model, even if they didn’t offer a centralised, globally accessible, flexible computing infrastructure or application hosting services.
Over the last two years we have seen the latest trend that ‘every’ business needs to be part of – the emergence of EverythingTech. Take the name of your sector, abbreviate it and stick the word “tech” on the end and you are there.
EverythingTech is looking to put the end-user at its heart, deliver value for money, enable seamless integration and data flow between different systems and applications and enable access to everything right here right now. EverythingTech is driven by entrepreneurs using modern technology to disrupt the norm, the drive for higher valuations and ROI, and the aim to deliver innovative products and services.
In truth, and to combat any myth that some sectors have developed their own tech, the technologies used in all these sectors are the same. However, the application of these technologies can vary significantly depending on sector-specific drivers such as regulation, the desire for transparency, customer centricity, requirement to remove cost or to improve efficiency.
To understand sector specific use cases, it is important to cast a light on the underlying advanced technologies that are and will be shaping significant disruption in more detail: AI (Artificial Intelligence) the machines are taking over, but taking over what?, Data Analytics the science of examining raw data, IoT (the Internet of Things or IoE (the Internet of Everything) which is physical objects communicating with each other and Blockchain, most commonly known for its cryptocurrency application but which reaches much further than this.
We’ll also look at individual sector applications. Now EverythingTech is spreading its wings. We have FinTech, HealthTech and GovTech, LegalTech and RetailTech, InsurTech and RegTech, Real Estate Tech and TravelTech.
I’ll be looking at these technologies and sectors over the coming months, trying to understand and explain their myriad applications and the impact on businesses across all sectors.
