'Consumer demand to force companies to change business rules'

EMC corporation, provider of IT storage hardware solutions, in a study released on Wednesday said that mega trends of social, mobile, analytics and cloud (SMAC) have changed consumer expectations, thereby forcing companies to change business rules.

According to the report, globally nearly 96 percent of business leaders surveyed believes that new technologies have changed the rules of business. In addition, 93 percent reported that recent technology advancements are resetting customer expectations and nearly all leaders say this will accelerate over the next decade.

"The top reported consumer expectations are faster access to services, 24/7 and everywhere access and connectivity, access on more devices and a more unique personalised experience," said Amit Mishra, country manager at the Isilon storage division of EMC corporation.

The report also identifies five make or break business attributes that would be the result of the digital drive among consumers and claims that emphasising on the attributes would aid the company from being disrupted. The attributes include predictively spotting new opportunities in markets, demonstrating transparency and trust, innovating in agile ways, delivering unique and personalised experiences and operating them in real-time.

The report also reveal that nearly 76 percent of businesses in India think that the mega trends of SMAC have changed consumer expectations. As per the report, though Indian businesses exhibit a high degree of importance towards the identified attributes, they admit that they are not future ready.

"While 79 percent of Indian organisations understand the importance of delivering a unique and personalised experience organisation wide, only 36 percent of business leaders say their organisation can act in real time, and a further significant portion (48 percent) say they can do so, but not always with the insights that they need," Amit Mishra added.

"Also, 88 percent of business leaders say they are demonstrating transparency and trust organisation-wide and 89 percent of organisations expressed a desire to innovate in an agile way," he added.

The research was conducted by Institute for the Future and Vanson Bourne on behalf of EMC. Vanson Bourne surveyed 3,600 business leaders across 18 countries from mid-size to large enterprises in nine industries to determine top business imperatives required for success in the current day scenario and over the next decade.

Institute for the Future led the creation of the study to identify and forecast the imperatives and shifts in the new digital world.