6 Industries Experiencing Digital Connectivity’s Dramatic Effects

‘Now’ is the new standard for business, and digital connectivity is key. We look at six industries the digital revolution will dramatically affect in 2016.

Sensors, real-time applications and digital connectivity are driving a massive upheaval for the entire tech industry. Connected devices, sensors and real-time applications are already changing consumer and business behavior as everyone aims to work smarter and faster. According to Dimensional Research for ParStream, in 2015, 96 percent of buyers of IoT products face challenges. 2016 will be the year that enterprises adopt technologies that allow them to connect data from the IoT to other digital content and customer information, empowering sales, support and marketing teams to put data in context and make it actionable—all in real time.

The health care industry is going through a major transformation in 2016. According to PwC, 2016 will be the year millions of consumers have their first video consult and use their smartphones as diagnostic tools for the first time. Health care is also moving from a fee-for-service model to a strategy of measuring and compensating for the quality of care and outcomes. This change requires greater visibility into clinical data and a new level of interoperability between providers and the systems they use to inform patient treatment. 2016 will be the year that health care providers, technology companies and research institutions share and analyze data to enhance the patient experience and find data-driven recommendations to improve patient outcomes.

The financial services sector has historically been resistant to change. However, this is changing in 2016 as banks and other financial institutions evolve to meet the demands of connected consumers. Analyst reports indicate just how prevalent digital technology is in the financial services world—69 million Americans bank online, with 81 percent of those who manage household finances banking online at least once in the past 12 months. Financial institutions are racing to connect traditional delivery channels with emerging digital business models. In 2016, we’ll see financial institutions start to integrate their apps, data and devices so they can put the data they collect from customers through digital and traditional channels to use.

With a growing number of students learning online, education can no longer count on in-person lectures and tracking student progress in paper files. A report from Global Industry Analysts (GIA) predicted that the global e-learning market would reach $107 billion in 2015, propelled by technological advancements and demand for additional skills. E-learning platforms, such as Khan Academy, Coursera and iTunesU, will continue to proliferate. Digitally connected generations will come of age in an era where access to education is just a click away. As the number of connected devices grows and their capabilities improve in 2016, digitally connected apps designed for student recruitment, learning and retention will cease to complement traditional in-classroom learning experiences and will become key components of our education system.

According to McKinsey, “the explosion in data and new computing capabilities—along with advances in other areas such as artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, additive technology and human-machine interaction—are unleashing innovations that will change the nature of manufacturing itself.” The digital manufacturing revolution will connect disparate components of the manufacturing supply chain and their technologies to enable automated data flow regardless of where it is held. We’ve already seen the transformational power of connected manufacturing processes in the way that Autodesk has embraced the cloud to streamline product design and assembly for manufacturers. 2016 will be the year the entire product lifecycle becomes digitized.

According to Deloitte, only 1 percent of the information gathered by oil and gas companies is currently being made available to decision-makers. As oil and gas companies start using more analytics and the IoT to become more operationally efficient, they can reap considerable value by developing an integrated IoT strategy to transform business using IT, sensors and cloud-based applications. In 2016, oil and gas companies will move away from traditional data networks that require human interfaces, intervention and decision-making toward integrated digital solutions based on connected devices, sophisticated sensors and the cloud.