Technology change immanent for most firms

Massive changes are coming in enterprise technology for many firms, and paperless strategies may be leading the way.

According to a recent Gartner study, 70 percent of CIOs expect to be deploying major technology changes within the next two to three years. These investments are being driven by rapid innovation and evolution of new services and systems in nearly every market, which most firms are struggling to keep up with.

Eric Rocco, managing vice president of Gartner, noted that change is the primary focus for CIOs currently. Switching providers, implementing new systems and adopting new solutions, like document conversion services, are all intended to drive market shares and focus on new opportunities and challenges. With technology markets evolving at an overwhelming pace, this is putting stress on CIOs to adopt quickly or get left behind.

"Digital business is an unstoppable and irresistible catalyst for change – change that will affect the fundamental foundations and baseline assumptions of every business," Rocco said in a release. "The digital business revolution is underpinned and enabled by the macro technology forces of cloud, social, analytics, mobility and the Internet of Things. Not every business fundamental will need to change to the same degree, nor will every technology driver have a role to play in every business scenario; however, businesses that decide to 'wait and see' are likely to become irrelevant."

One of the main technology strategies helping companies cope with this evolution is paper conversion services. By migrating to digital formats and eliminating paperwork from the workplace, businesses are able to streamline productivity and efficiency and help employees accept other technology changes more readily. This supports growth while adding its own advantages of cost reduction and improved data management.

Gartner reported that, despite the huge increase in investments expected over the next few years, the overall market is only anticipated to show a 4.6 percent growth rate in 2014. The main reason is because companies are looking at agility as their primary motivator, and firms are deploy cloud solutions to help achieve this first. This strategy will provide the foundation for future changes in 2015 and 2016. By implementing a paperless strategy, firms will be able to migrate to the cloud more efficiently and better support those future investments from the ground up, because they will have implemented stronger information management and organization guidelines.

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