Closer technology consolidation and specialisation.
The number of software companies increases and modern software development languages and practices evolve, creating an expectation of technology that can integrate with other systems simply. We see two trends in creation, seemingly contradicting each other at first glance: Technology consolidation and specialisation.
Technology consolidation.
For businesses, it’s hard to grow with an infrastructure of large, complicated, poorly integrated technology stacks and many different systems. Modern software offers flexibility and diversity and is applicable to different uses. It’s likely we’ll see a move towards companies valuing fewer providers, offering high functionality on each platform.
Services like Zapier are helping with time-saving workflow management, for example. The objective for core systems is to share data in real time. Applied, we are looking at the phone line, website, reservations system, email tool and CRM all working together.
Blockchain is a move to an even closer integration of technology, moving it from an API level to a data level. When people think of blockchain, most think of cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. However, the underlying technology focuses on the idea of decentralising data storage, with all data being held by each party in the chain. An interesting implementation of this is with Travel Ledger, which is using blockchain technology to power a billing and settlement platform for the travel industry. This lets different entities involved in travel planning hold and amend data in a decentralised system which applies the changes in the chain.
Technology specialism.
Different from a broad integration of multiple features, this means tapping deeper into a specific area. Following the simplified collaboration of different software, the idea of focusing on a specific area in one of those software systems is the route to success. We can see an increasing trend towards companies adopting new tech for each business challenge. For example, disrupters like Monzo, Revolut or SofI are making huge waves in the banking space.