Masters Of Change At A Moment Of Truth: How Ready Is Luxembourg?

Accenture’s Technology Vision 2021 highlights that the newly accelerated pace of digital transformation, driven in large part by the global pandemic, is set to continue.

Photo: Thomas Musiolik, Managing Director | Technology Lead Luxembourg at Accenture / Credits © Kaori Anne Jolliffe / Silicon Luxembourg

Based on its global survey of business leaders in 14 industries, Accenture’s report identifies five key technology trends that companies will have to tackle in the three next years to stay ahead. How ready is Luxembourg?

According to Thomas Musiolik, Managing Director | Technology Lead Luxembourg at Accenture, most Luxembourg industries still miss the necessary skills to master these changes. We asked him to put the five trends in the Luxembourg context and give pointers on what our business leaders should do next.

In general, the leaders are larger firms, those that have already understood that business and IT strategies are indistinguishable, and that have been able to adapt and take action rapidly. They have a clear strategy and are very well connected globally. In contrast, smaller companies (with > 1bn€ revenue) continue to struggle.

On Trend #1 (Stack Strategically), Luxembourg’s telecom companies have been the first to adopt this mindset, followed by the financial services industry. Larger organizations are better positioned to adapt and implement a strategy of thinking about technology differently, whereas SMEs are still struggling to take the first step. However, the logistics industry is not yet leveraging cloud sufficiently. This industry still misses the idea and skills to leverage the business opportunity of cloud native applications.

When it comes to Mirrored World (Trend #2), this is largely nonexistent in Luxembourg. Take for example the energy and the metal industries, which operate machines and applications using sensors. At present, these are only being used in production processes, whereas they could be leveraged to collect and turn data into a strategic decision-making asset.

Here we see an opportunity for CIOs to help their business assess the technology and translate data into relevant insights that the company can leverage to improve or bring new services to its customers and increase competitivity. I think all companies in Luxembourg, especially larger organizations, should explore this opportunity.

“In terms of technology architecture and digital twins, startups can be a great source of innovative tools and solutions that bring the right answers in the right place.”

With Trend #3, I, Technologist, it’s clear that people don’t need to be experts in computer sciences anymore. Employees can collaborate effectively using low code and no code that bridge the gap between complex technology and people at every level of the organization in order to create something new. The financial services industry in Luxembourg has successfully adapted in this respect, whereas other industries are lagging behind.

On Anywhere, Everywhere (Trend #4), most companies in Luxembourg’s financial services industry – especially banking and payment services companies – have onboarded this trend. However, the shift requires trust and leadership from the top, not just compliance.

The last Trend #5, From Me to We, is all about blockchain and distributed ledger. Luxembourg is strongly positioned here, with major players in the financial services industry, such as data distribution. For example, a Luxembourg-based company is one of the leaders on the European market with its distributed ledger technology-based solutions for security settlement services.

All these trends bring important changes and require significant investment in terms of time and money. However, the fundamental key to success is making sure the strategy is IT and business driven, for example, on issues such as sustainable technology, cross-company digitalization of departments, machines, processes and assets.

Changing company culture is also important. Organizations should allow their staff to be more entrepreneurial, creative, to try out new ideas, and work flexibly. More importantly, they should instill a sense of belonging to the organization and a culture of shared success in achieving joint goals.

Can startups help larger companies?

The need for ecosystem collaboration has never been greater. For example, in terms of technology architecture and digital twins, startups can be a great source of innovative tools and solutions that bring the right answers in the right place. Startups have also developed important know-how in AI and cloud technologies. Therefore, startups can definitely help larger companies to leverage these technologies with dedicated solutions that provide intelligent answers to each of these trends. If organizations refuse to onboard startups in their business models, they may well miss out on this moment of truth.

Total
0
Shares
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Posts
Total
0
Share