We are now undeniably in a digital world, where even if information technology is not your product or service, it will touch every part of the products and services that you provide. This means we need to adapt, and traditional organizations must better position themselves for the exciting digital changes that lie ahead.
Provider, partner, promoter, peer
For many years, we have seen IT departments exist as Providers to efficiently deliver the systems and capabilities that the firm requires, with emphasis on reliability, efficiency and compliance. They have also been Partners working like consultants to the firm, advising/directing the use of IT to support the business change agenda. The emphasis on application/process modernization and know-how is crucial for ongoing success.
In addition, we now need a new cadre of technology leaders acting as Promoters and serving as technology evangelists, advocating how new technologies can improve the firm’s speed, agility, productivity and innovation advantage. These leaders act as Peers, working at the CXO level to shape the digital strategy and value proposition of the firm, while engaging in major initiatives such as smart products, M&A, intellectual property development/protection and learning.
In 2020 we anticipate that this shift to digital business leadership will gain real momentum as technology driven-marketplaces — with new capabilities, business models and disruptive possibilities — proliferate and companies need to effectively respond to rapidly changing external developments. This is a different mission, requiring different skills and a different culture to emerge.
5 steps to digital business leadership
As we transform the organization, leaders need to come along too, not just at the executive level but also in the middle layers, where inertia is often cited as a key obstacle to change. Most organizations acknowledge that this shift is happening, but turning abstract agreement into solid action is challenging. This is where the next generation of business leaders can emerge. To do so they must:
Build awareness – Scout the emerging technology scenes of Silicon Valley or China for trends and insights into the future.
Be more open – Participate in open initiatives and share with partner organizations or the wider marketplace.
Get access to R&D – Establish and maintain links to leading universities/academics or government agencies in relevant areas.
Build partnerships and alliances – Pick the right partners to help on the journey, as most organizations can’t make the changes necessary alone.
Push digital culture – Energize and engage employees and executives through immersive digital experiences such as hackathons, incubators and accelerators. Focus on multidisciplinary teams, experimentation and learning, and business outcomes.
We acknowledge that there are many reasons why this aspect of digital transformation is hard but now, more than ever, we must emphasize the value of becoming double-deep professionals — one of those leaders who not only has a deep understanding of their profession, industry or function, but who also embraces the technology that’s relevant to their role, as well as the required skills and learning that come with it. As these leaders come to the fore, we’ll see more tangible business value realized from the exciting emerging technology portfolio and organizational transformations will accelerate.
Logos are like puzzles, they don’t make much sense to the users when it comes to influence. They don’t contribute in persuading the users, however they play a crucial role in identifying a brand or a product. Depending on the brand’s familiarity, logos can provoke a lot of emotions, from nostalgia to relief, it could be anything. When companies try to introduce new logos, they often face backlash and complaints from the users, which shows they significance of logos.One thing that branding gurus say about classic brand logos is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. However, at times it becomes a necessity to revamp the logos or even completely change it, if it is hurting the brand image. Keeping up with changing trends, styles, colour combinations, etc., requires a lot of effort and that might make the company look like it is behind the times. But, if a company revamps and changes the outdated logo, it gives an impression that the company keeps up with the times and is forward thinking.
Sophisticated logos containing multiple colours might look appealing in digital mode, but sometimes there comes a huge difficulty in scaling it up and down and placing it effectively. In such a situation, considering re-designing is a good option.
Change in a company’s portfolio, due to value, mergers, etc., can also prompt re-designing of logos. They are dedicated to choosing a new logo that best represents them.
For instance, HeroHonda was a single company, but when they separated they obviously discarded the signature hero-honda logo and chose brand new logos for their respective companies.
Designs are extremely sensitive and prone to losing relevance at a higher pace. There goes a lot of cultural, psychological research behind designing a logo. It is essential to know what relates best to the brand/product.
The broken letter logo caught the fire amidst designers not long ago. The reconstruction, deconstruction of alphabets in a geometric sense, slicing them aesthetically, this is all what broken letter logo is about. This represents a modern shift in design, wherein with a touch of creativity, logos are designed in a way that it is clear to the users as to what the brand stands for.
ANIMATED LOGOS
By far the hottest trends, logos designed with animation and special effects. As a modern world, where digitisation plays a crucial role, the brand that sells on the web is clearly on top. An animated or a moving gif logo surprises the users in a way they didn’t expect to be coming. How would you feel when you look at a logp thinking it to be still, rather you find it in an animated form? Now how does something like that not catch the users’ eyes?
GEOMETRICAL SHAPES
Clean lines and clear shapes are satisfying to the eyes right? It is like an oddly satisfying element in design. From squares to trapeziums, almost all the shapes are in trend and that too, for all kinds of design. We are inevitably drawn towards geometric shapes and our designer-mates like multi-use design shapes. It is like a simple yet effective element in design.
VIBRANT COLOURS; SINGLE SHADE
Adding pop of colours generously lead to the creation of quirky, eye-catching logos. Of Late, many brands have reinvented their image by adding vivid and vibrant singular colours to their logos. This addition of hues enables the brands to attract users’ attention and leave an impact.
GRADIENT
Remember those days when designers used to create 3D logos to catch those eyes? Sadly and happily, those days are long gone. Here we are with the concept of ombre, i.e., gradients. The subtle mixing of colours to create a beautiful effect, mostly starting with darker tones and ending with a lighter tone. It is very pleasing to the eyes and as a bonus, it also opens up a lot of creative possibilities.
SIMPLICITY IS THE BEST
If designed the right way, simple and crisp logos become impactful in a soothing way. “Less is more”, best suits such logos that have set newer benchmarks everytime in the industry. Art can be creative and can be sleek, simple at the same time. It is not an impossible task to achieve, all you need is balance. And the best part is, such logos work for all sorts of brands and businesses.
HAND-DRAWN
Personal touch always leaves a mark and hand drawn logos are the perfect example. It brings back an ocean of nostalgia and memories. Such kinds of logos bring about a variety of senses: humaneness, grounded feeling, playfulness, quirkiness and happiness. They aren’t restricted by letter or technology, they set your hands free. However, whilst designing such a logo, make sure that it makes sense, looks legit and does not get affected by the doctor-like handwriting.
Before designing a logo, make sure that you’ve researched well into the trends and highlights. But that is just to keep you up with the times, the design that you create should be entirely unique and should solely belong to you. It shouldn’t be like, “oh this looks like..” that’s a huge NO.
There are a lot of expectations from logos and so make sure to create a beautiful combination of the trends and your innovation. This will lead to the production of a modern-looking, timeless logo.
The media and entertainment industry is often the most proactive in enhancing itself for the digital shifts of tomorrow and 2020 is no different. In fact, what was thought of the marketplace prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, has only been proven right and rather catalyzed by people staying at home and turning to the streaming services for entertainment.
One of the most glaring digital media and entertainment trends is that an increasing number of players are retracting from video content aggregators in order to stream their content direct-to-the consumer.
The move signals an attempt to maximize the cost of operations by canceling out cable and satellite royalties. This and a whole lot more makes up for the digital innovation trends, poised to reverberate through the fabric of this sector. Knowing what these trends are can give you a leg up in the crowded entertainment sector.
Trends on the Demand Side of the M&E
The demand side are the users, you and us, who create the demand for a product. While postulating upcoming industrial changes it’s better to draw the line between trends that are being forced onto M&E studios by the consumer, and vice versa. In this section, we’ll mention the most palpable consumer-end i.e. the demand-side trends fruiting in the M&E industry.
These trends are attributable to the audience side of the picture as without their behavioural patterns, whether online or offline, we may not have had much development in this direction. The latter sections will touch base with the role of technology in the entertainment and media industries.
D2C Video Streaming
Video streaming got its dose of steroids with the initial faces of lockdowns imposed through varying geographies of the world. With the expected use of internet services ticking up, so did the demand for diverse, meaningful, and quality video content. There was such a force behind this push that Pay-TV subscription, for US customers, took a backseat. The diversity of choices and cross-platform compatibility offered by players such as Netflix and Amazon Prime threatens the limited bounds of TV-channels that demand users be on their couch.
But at the same time, these very rivaling clans are giving each other a run for their money in the streaming wars – – strengthening the foothold of apps redefining the entertainment sector. In the Digital media industry, Disney was the first to retract its content from Netflix and offer it in a D2C channel through its pet project Disney+. The move defined the now reformulated entertainment industry standards that have seen the largest media houses following suit in receding content and hitting third party applications right where it hurts the most.
It pays to ask the question, how forthcoming are the viewers in subscribing to digital media entertainment and paying for so many streaming apps? One survey revealed that the average user subscribed to 3 video streaming apps with this limit staying constant for the last 2 years. It can be surmised that overtime the economy of such an experience will be questioned by all.
One way to buck this trend would be to reorganize the content and offer multiple formats such as music, movies, TV shows, etc., aggregated on a single platform. The prime example (pun intended) of this trajectory is none other than Amazon Prime and Roku. In addition to video, these vendors can create customized, pay-as-you-go packages for availing the music and games libraries.
Ad-Driven Viewing Experience
One of the reasons mobile streaming caught on to people is that it cut down on ads. The volume of consumable content increased and made retaining users easier. But with the top studios of the global media industry turning to video streaming, ad-supported content is expected to seep in soon. This is partly due to the pitfall of keeping subscription fees competitive, which in and of themselves, won’t suffice for expanding the content offering to games and music.
Ad-supported videos are already a thing in Asian locations such as India and China. But for them to assume a profitable outlook for media entertainment in the US, platform owners must curate enough user data for targeted advertising. Else such a promotional expenditure would appear unjustified and disoriented. Chiming in tune with the adage of our century, data is the new oil, platform owners will look to get their act together with structured data to deliver suitable (not annoying) ad interruptions in between video streaming. Youtube already does that to a good measure, the result of which is:
Data Privacy and Security
A study conducted by Futurum Research in partnership with SAS Software revealed that the media industry was one of the most distrusted by customers when it came to guarding user data. The same report concluded that as much as 61% of the participants felt they had zero to no control over how their data was used by the vendor.
Media houses are expected to toe the line for transparent data collection applications with which to assure the customer of data security. For instance, the European Union’s GDPR reforms allow customers the right to be forgotten after they have discontinued a particular business, having submitted personal information initially. Much of this will play out in the near future as well, if only with added refinement but let’s not forget had there been no demonstrable outrage over data misuse, the media organizations wouldn’t care to rise from their slumber.
Content Personalization
There are deeper levels to customer relationship management than sending emoji-fied emails every now and then. Millennials and Gen-Z want, and would happily pay for services that are personalized to their tastes. This includes content recommendations the kind that will gel well with their unique preferences.
This paves way for even more sophisticated Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms to do what they do best, predict user behavior. It is primordial for both the content creators and content hosts to know the demographics of the audience they excite and attract. Therefore, don’t be surprised when you see a media software development company dive deep into AI and sharpen the edges around streaming service applications. We are in the age where everything has to be smart and content is no different thanks to the hard-to-capture, unique choices of the users.
Trends on the Supply-Side of the M&E
The trends mentioned above have been directly derived from user behavior i.e. if the users hadn’t reacted to digital media apps the way they did, we probably wouldn’t be seeing much commotion in that zone. Having said so, the link between media showmen and consumers could not be possible without technology. And whereas some technological advances are urged by the users there are others that percolate their way down to the masses no matter what. In this section, we’ll look at the emerging technologies that are most affecting the manner in which media enterprises go about their business.
Augmented & Virtual Reality
The global media and entertainment industry will be a driver of emerging technologies the frontier of which will be led by Augmented and Virtual Reality. The past few years have seen much hype but less adoption of AR/VR. But that was a consequence of the price-barrier of standalone AR/VR devices, which is also beginning to get pocket-friendly.
Smartphones have crossed the inflection point in AR adoption with the majority of models supporting AR content. The media entertainment industry will make use of these technologies in the following ways:
Act as a substitute for high-priced joysticks and keyboards at the same time delivering a quality experience to gamers.
Be the de-facto technological genre for media app development especially in the field of digital education.
Help in enterprise-level media software development for learning management solutions.
Possibly make way into theatres and cinemas to reinforce the power of digital effects through immersion.
Create wearables for visitors headed to museums, art galleries etc., and represent artifacts with added features/info.
eSports Broadcasting
The Trends in broadcasting industry point towards the hot spring areas of the sector that are gaining mainstream traction among audiences. The first and foremost of this is the one touted to be the future of sports – eSports segment.
The entertainment app development sphere is galvanizing its priorities towards this segment as the worldwide eSports revenues are expected to hit $1 billion in 2020. The lion’s share of this money, although, will be from sponsorships ($614.9 million) and media rights ($176.2 million). Nevertheless, gaming events will be the center of attention for displaying the latest in AR/VR.
And lest we forget, there is Legalized Sports Betting that will also profiteer off the incoming 5G technology. Betting is one arena that swirls the mind in unpredictable ways, forcing users to place bets over telecommunication networks. Come to think of it, 5G is a technology that is born to manage high volume communications. This is one of the reasons the US has 5G towers popping up at sports stadiums and related venues that’ll be a hotbed for placing bets. Entertainment software development can be easily turned in this direction to foster app creation the kind legalized sports betting would need.
Artificial Intelligence
There is not a single sub-set of M&E that has not been impacted by AI. Its predictive powers are influencing television, animation, VFX, Out-of-Home advertising (OOH), radio, and much more. A case in point is the following applications of AI in enhancing customer experience.
M&E companies hold a huge repository of user data at their data centers. In many cases, the data is largely unstructured i.e. like a mound of haystack waiting to be made sense out of. AI has added a cognitive, human-like dimension to mining and saturating this unstructured data.
Engineers are using AI, ML, and Natural Language Processing to apply relational parameters to the big data. The technology helps in categorizing the data as per mutual characteristics and further consolidates a company’s predictive capacity to forecast user engagement with the content. This Targeted efficiency leads to better monetization opportunities.
AI is being applied readily to video content to speedily calculate and absorb emotional changes at the user side. The summary of such studies is then used for highly customized content recommendations. The same principle is at play in music streaming apps, that know precisely which songs to pitch you that eventually make it to your favorite’s list.
The Cost of content creation will be vastly reduced following the advent of AI that can automate editorials consequently mitigating human intervention.
The distributed ledger technology with its chief qualities of immutability and transparency are breaking technological stereotypes in the M&E
. People have been spectators to an exchange of charges between artists relating to content plagiarism and piracy time and again. Blockchain Technology can and will settle such debates once and for all.
Intellectual Property rights can be safeguarded with Blockchains nullifying the scope of disputes around ownership management. With immutable record management, ownership rights can be traced to the original producer of the content. Likewise, the system architecture of blockchains, in its current iteration, is powerful enough to track transactions for royalty payments across multi-layered platforms.
There are solutions in the market that offer a springboard for budding artists to curate funding directly from their fanbases. Such a step would allow the fans to own a share of the record, the rights of which, otherwise, ebb naturally into the hands of the producing labels. Transactional history along with public ownership will be recorded on the blockchain. Living examples of such trends are being shaped by companies like Vezt, Sony, and BMG.
Another issue faced by media stakeholders is revenue distribution. The industry being this giant labyrinth of middlemen that it is, intermediating parties charge their share of the profits for managing the revenue cycle for a film/commercial, etc. But Blockchain is a proven disruptor of this very model. With an online ledger, transactional streams can be optimized without spending a fortune on intermediary channels. FilmChain, an Ethereum based Blockchain, is a prime example of this upcoming trend.
There is a huge black market for ticketing sales that needs serious quenching. While managing a megaevent such as a concert or a music festival, artists are left to bite the dust as the intervening middlemen play the sleight of hand in ticket distribution. Blockchain-powered ledgers can remediate the situation by ensuring the profits generated follow an equitable distribution amongst all participants of the value chain. YelloHeart is a company trying to achieve exactly this.
Enterprise Resource Planning
We are in the age of automation and optimization, with the streaming apps being a transformational by-product of the digital revolution. Building AI-powered smart apps for better user management is not a standalone procedure but an interconnected block in a chain of events that would deem workflow optimization necessary. Consequently, an entertainment app development company will not have its service level agreements limited to just fine tuning the application itself but also the overall enterprise software for maximization.
Enterprise Resource Planning would ensure that cost overheads are mitigated immediately. Investment in the right tools and technologies will not stop with 2020 and shall continue beyond to stay in the good books of investors.
Final Thoughts
Whether it is Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, or Enterprise Resource Planning, Anteelo has the track record to back our claims of expedited, professional project delivery. Having collaborated with some of the world’s biggest brands such as IKEA, and Domino’s (to name a couple) we know the scale of demands of big businesses and are ever-ready to go the distance.
Our ties with the media industry go a long way. We developed mobile apps such as Gully Beat, with the latter garnering critical acclaim along with 25 million+ downloads on the Play Store. Long story cut short, when it comes to delivering at the international stage, brands turn to Anteelo as their technological arm. But talk is cheap. Take a minute and connect with us and we’ll showcase how you can slingshot your idea to glory.
Barriers to enterprise adoption of cloud computing including security concerns and regulatory compliance continue to crumble. As new cloud computing capabilities mature, such as support for containers and serverless computing, multi-cloud environments are becoming the platform of choice for innovation and digital transformation.
Cloud computing, a fundamental component of the digital trends affecting businesses today, will continue to grow in 2019, driven by these key trends:
Edge computing is on the rise
The proliferation of IoT devices and the need for organizations to deliver near real-time services based on advanced data analytics is pushing the action out to the network edge. The explosion of data at multiple edge locations has profound implications for data management, hybrid cloud models and digital technologies such as machine learning and AI. Sending data collected at the edge back to a single public cloud or to an enterprise data center for processing is ineffective because companies need to be able to make fast decisions as close to the data sources as possible in order to minimize analytics latency.
Multi-cloud management becomes an imperative
In an edge computing world, companies must embrace a multi-cloud strategy in which compute power and analytics capabilities exist in multiple locations but are managed seamlessly across the enterprise landscape so there is no interruption in producing the business results the company needs. Functions such as security, governance and auditing need to run across all platforms, but there are other operations that are better managed within individual clouds, so companies need to sort that out and draw clear lines.
Data management gains new importance
As data becomes increasingly distributed due to the requirements of edge computing, data management across multiple clouds becomes critical. Companies need to understand where the data is located, who has access to it, and how it needs to be processed throughout the data lifecycle.
Regulatory compliance impacts infrastructure
The full ramifications of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will be felt in 2019 and are expected to have a significant impact on how companies handle and secure data that falls under regulatory scrutiny. This affects edge and cloud data and requires companies to re-think their data management and data control systems. However, the barriers to running highly regulated applications in the cloud are evaporating and many companies are finding they can meet even these tighter compliance and security standards in a multi-cloud environment.
Data centers continue declines
As more and more workloads move to the cloud — even crown-jewel, mission-critical applications such ERP software — the pressure builds to close enterprise data centers altogether. There will always be some workloads that have to run in an on-premises environment. But companies can move those workloads to a co-location facility that features high-speed, low-latency connections to the cloud to maximize data integration, so companies can still shutter their data center without impacting the business.
Modern operating platform adoption grows
Organizations that simply lifted and shifted existing applications to the cloud are now taking advantage of maturing approaches like serverless computing and containerization to re-factor their applications for a cloud-native environment. While there is still some apprehension as organizations try to figure out the best way to benefit from these new approaches, companies will see a real payoff in application optimization on these new platforms in 2019.
DevOps and security merge
Increasingly, security best practices will be codified into the application development tooling pipeline. In a DevSecOps scenario, security is baked into the agile development process via automated systems. On the operations side, companies will benefit from the improved monitoring and increased visibility provided by cloud service companies. In fact, it is difficult to argue today that a small or mid-size company has better security than cloud providers who have made security a top priority. And third-party cloud-based providers will use machine learning to offer security services like threat detection-as-a-service.
High-performance computing moves to the cloud
There have always been some specialized, high-performance applications that organizations were reluctant to run in the cloud. But cloud providers have built high-performance, GPU-based systems that are now allowing organizations to migrate niche, high-performance applications, thus making it easier to shutter their data centers.
Cloud computing was once associated with shadow IT or with apps that could be opportunistically migrated, but in 2019 we will see multi-cloud environments emerging as strategic platforms for driving innovation.
As businesses try to adjust to the new normal, many will be looking to technology to help them move forward. Digital transformation trends can give enterprises a competitive advantage but investing wisely means keeping abreast of innovations and up-to-date with trends and developments. To help, here are some of the main digital transformation trends keeping boardrooms excited.
Analytics
Analytics has transformed the decision-making process, providing data and insights that help businesses identify problems, opportunities and solutions. The vast quantities of data available for analysis, including real-time data, means companies which don’t make use of it are at a serious disadvantage. It has applications in all areas of business: procurement, operations, logistics, marketing, communications, security, finance and HR; and with sophisticated analytics tools easily deployable in the cloud, it’s becoming much more widely used.
AI and machine Learning
AI and machine learning trends are the ideal partners for data analytics and enable businesses to do much more with their data. They speed up analysis, automate large scale processing in the scalable cloud and remove the bottleneck caused by human analysts. They also learn and adapt from previous analyses while providing results in user-friendly, easily digested, graphical interfaces that non-IT staff can make sense of.
5G
While the consumer generally sees 5G as a way to improve smartphone c
onnections and speed up downloads, the deployment of 5G infrastructure will have a much wider impact that many businesses can benefit from. It will, for example, hasten the development of IoT infrastructures, such as smart cities, intelligent transport networks, smart vehicles and smart industry. At the same time, we’ll see a wider range of connected devices, making it easier for businesses to take advantage of the IoT and the valuable data it generates.
Wi-Fi 6
The next generation of wi-fi, known as both Wi-Fi 6 and AX Wi-Fi, provides up to three times faster processing and wireless connection speeds. Even better, it enables networks to handle far more connected devices, which is helpful considering the proliferation in wi-fi enabled gadgets being used in the workplace and the increasing amounts of data they send and receive.
Although it’s often associated with cryptocurrencies, blockchain has many valuable uses in businesses, such as tracking the origin and movement of goods in the supply chain and providing financial audit trails. It has applications in healthcare, real-estate, media, energy and local government and can be used for a wide range of purposes.
The reason for its increased use lies in the number of service providers, including Amazon, Microsoft and IBM, who are developing subscription-based ‘blockchain-as-a-service’ platforms and thus making it easier for businesses to put it to good use.
Robotics and automation
There is a historical pattern of businesses shifting towards automation in response to a recession. Following the 2008 crash, for example, 25% of supermarket checkout assistants in the UK were replaced by automated self-service checkouts. The crisis following the 2020 pandemic is likely to see the pattern repeated, however, with more advanced robotic processes and AI interfaces available, more skilled workers could see the brunt of redundancies. Where roles aren’t completely replaced, workloads may be reduced, enabling existing staff to be upskilled.
Connected transport
Although this is only happening on a small scale at the moment, automated and remote-controlled transport is already taking place. Drones are being used to ship medicines to remote Scottish islands, restaurants and supermarkets have been using automated robots, developed by a Cambridge company, to make local deliveries during the lockdown and the UK coastguard has just announced plans to use drones to assist with coastal searches.
Expect to see these technologies becoming more widely available and, thanks to 5G, being put to uses in more places. Many businesses can take advantage of these technologies, helping them deliver products and services quicker and without the need for a third-party delivery company.
Customer experience
According to a survey by Adobe, senior executives see customer experience as a bigger priority than investment in new products and services as it offers significantly more opportunities for growth. The key areas where development will take place are in omnichannel shopping, personalisation and frictionless payment, with technologies like data analytics and AI providing the insights needed to deploy these in the way that customers will appreciate.
By enhancing the customer experience, brands can develop both loyalty and trust. As a result, customers will engage more, share their needs and give feedback, enabling companies to develop their products and services in response.
Conclusion
Digital transformation not only affects all sectors; it also has an impact on all aspects of a company’s operations. Those that adopt and utilise the technologies mentioned here can reap the enormous benefits they offer. Being able to make use of these technologies, however, requires companies to make use of the cloud, as it is here where they are most easily and affordably accessible.
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onnections and speed up downloads, the deployment of 
