Editorial

As 2022 is halfway, we can reflect on the plethora of technological optimism and advancements, Covid-aside, has been reaching new ceilings. The range and variety cover Virtual & Augmented Reality, Blockchain & NFTs, Artificial Intelligence, Clean energy consumption, Clean-up of Oceans and Cyber Security. The financial markets have also soared to unprecedented heights resulting from the wide-spread adoption of these advancements. Though, let’s not get overexcited as the world is also bracing to understand the right model to adopt hybrid work, sustainability (and ESG) and making large steps to address and tackle climate change.

Entrepreneurship is at an all-time high, with start-ups and companies of all sizes across the world seizing momentum to impact and improve our (business) world. However, we still need to focus on the quality of data driving these advancements, regulatory controls to be adhered to and effective management of risks due to all this agility.

A number of hypes and trends have been around for some years and have taken large steps. However, some are still nascent and commencing to make the necessary noise to be a growing platform in the next five years. In Figure 1, we selected an assortment of wide-ranging general and technology trends, that we see as being relevant. Several have been addressed in this edition or will be in the next two editions.

Figure 1. KPMG’s Sourcing Trend Radar 2022 ([KPMG22]). [Click on the image for a larger image]

Happy flow is the preferred path for all these hype topics, though all technology strategists are working with multiple contingency scenarios to account for challenges such as ecosystem collaboration, economic shifts, complexity management, sustainable development, government inhibition, organization changes and fair trade.

This Compact edition will give you a glimpse of some of these IT hypes, trends and their progress as they become real and globally adopted on a wide scale. Like you as the reader, we are not sure all of them will show significant promise and we can only hope for the best. Our endeavor is to inspire and enable you to reflect on this, possibly sparking a eureka moment and come back refreshed, with renewed momentum to participate and adopt the trend yourself in your organization. We invite you to connect with us or the authors for further exploration.