Much will change by the end of the decade – the question is whether our businesses will be prepared to absorb the coming transformation. Some will ride the wave; others will be powering that wave – but many more will founder as an ever-accelerating pace of change disrupts the way we carry out many business functions.
This issue is very much a look into the future. It carries different voices, different points of view – some may be proved right, some wrong. We don’t know – but we can look at the technological factors that will influence our businesses in the near future and take them forward to the end of this decade.
We talk to three people with an interesting view on the importance of tech to business.
Tomasz Zalewski of law firm Bird & Bird looks at how regulation and the law are struggling to keep up with advances in technology, and which technologies will take business forward – and which ones are hype. Marc Burrage, managing director of Hays Poland, has been in charge of the recruitment firm for six months after spending many years in the Far East. He looks at the factors that will help businesses and individuals adapt to rapid technological change. Łukasz Fiszer from HL Tech, the Warsaw-based IT hub of FTSE 100-listed financial-services platform Hargreaves Lansdown, addresses the challenges of staying competitive in a constantly evolving tech environment – and what that means for recruitment and retention.
Following on from the Marc Burrage interview, Bartosz Dąbkowski from Hays explains what skills will be needed in the future as tech becomes all-pervasive across business. The answer is partly counterintuitive…
Tomasz Rudolf, CEO of The Heart, wonders about corporations’ ability to move swiftly as the tech revolution rolls out. He suggests that working hand-in-hand with agile start-ups that can move fast would be a useful hedge against future disruption.
Sławomir Lubak, Mariusz Ustyjańczuk and Daniel Martyniuk of Deloitte sift through the key trends in the tech sector to decide which will have the greatest impact on business in coming years. Rafał Górski and Konrad Gaponiuk from KPMG’s business advisory unit consider the impact that digitalisation will have on consumer preference. Technology has already dramatically changed the way companies communicate with consumers. Advertising, marketing and PR are in a state of flux, and this change will only accelerate. Jarosław Bochenek, a partner of Mazars Audyt sp. z o.o, looks at the five technologies tipped to transform business, and which ones are really doing that – in the context of the Polish market. Kazimierz Piekarz from Binaria Upgrade Marketing considers how PR and content marketing is becoming more targeted and effective thanks to tech.
Outsourcing IT to Poland has become a trend in recent years, as the value-added to services that Poland can offer to corporates keeps rising. An interesting case study is the UK’s largest fashion retailer, Next, which has outsourced its IT development to FlexDev in Poznań. FlexDev’s CEO, Graham Fell, considers what makes Poland such a strong player in outsourcing tech, and why apps – rather than artificial intelligence or blockchain –are the hottest tech solution for business today.
Dealing with breaches of cyber-security is a costly business – how do you insure it? Aon looks at changing the way your firm thinks, so it can become truly cyber-resilient, using a loop of continual improvement. Insurer Willis Towers Watson considers whether data is considered as a firm’s property when it comes to insurance and the notion of ‘silent cyber’ risk. Assessing how well prepared your firm is from the tech-risk perspective is crucial. Joanna Bańkowska, president of BDO Technologies explains how training your people can dramatically improve awareness of the cyber risks firms face every day.
Erling Hesselberg, vice president of Crayon considers the ethical implications of the new technology, in particular artificial intelligence. And Marcin Pietkiewicz, a lawyer with Wardyński & Partners, looks at how the Polish securities market is going paperless, and what this means for firms buying, selling or floating bonds, shares or investment certificates.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is having a major impact on the way companies are actually run. Paweł Primakowski, CEO of IT Vision, explains how placing ERP solutions in the cloud means that they can be rolled out faster and more effectively, and be of value to smaller-sized businesses too. ERP also plays a significant role in eCommerce. This article from Streamsoft puts the two into context. Manufacturing also faces a disruptive challenge in the shape of Internet of Things (IoT). Read how you can bring it all together into one intelligent network, with GTT.
Lean Office, an enterprise information management system, brings corporate-class tech to smaller firms that need to be run smarter. This article from B Power explains how. Finally, the implementation of Sage accounting software into businesses that span several countries, each compliant with local tax and HR regulations, is presented by Guy Leclercq, CEO of Deveho.