The Post-Digital Era is upon us

ARE YOU
READY FOR
WHAT'S NEXT?

TECHNOLOGY VISION 2019

THE POST-DIGITAL ERA
IS UPON US. ARE YOU
READY FOR WHAT’S
NEXT?
Companies are taking their first steps in a new world—
one that tailors itself to fit every moment. It’s a
world where products, services, and even people’s
surroundings are customised, and where businesses
cater to the individual in every aspect of their lives,
shaping the very realities they live in.

Japan’s biggest e-commerce company, item on that list.3,4 Virgin Hotels greets its
Zozotown, is delivering “custom fast guests with a cocktail of their choice and
fashion.” Its skintight spandex Zozosuits a minibar stocked with their favourites,
pair with the company’s app to take thanks to a digital platform the company
customers’ exact measurements; custom- uses in place of a rewards program. 5
tailored pieces from Zozotown’s in-house
Discovery Health’s electronic health
clothing line arrive in as few as 10 days.1
record – Health ID – provides doctors
Gillette is catering to individual with a complete view of the patients’
preferences in health and beauty, health history and test results. Discovery
partnering with 3D printing startup is incorporating HealthTap into the Health
Formlabs to offer customised razor ID. HealthTap uses AI to transform patient
designs.2 Consumers create their symptoms into a personalised diagnosis
personalised product through the recommended by doctors. Additionally,
company’s website; the digitally- Discovery is using existing Vitality member
personalised design is then physically data to predict the likelihood of patients
printed and assembled, to be shipped developing new chronic conditions or
directly to their door. worsening disease conditions. Discovery is
also launching Smart Plan – a health plan
And customising for the individual doesn’t
that provides patients with a network of
necessarily require Zozosuits or direct
highly rated GPs, specialists and hospitals
design input. Sam’s Club developed
– into its app.6
an app that uses machine learning and
data about customers’ past purchases to MultiChoice South Africa has launched
auto-fill their shopping lists, and plans to a virtual assistant, TUMI, which enables
add a navigation feature, which will show MultiChoice to provide fast responses to
optimised routes through the store to each subscribers’ questions and queries.

2 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
The chatbot has helped the call centre But its impact is still changing the
answer queries 20% faster than before, relationship between businesses and
by providing detailed information while society, and the expectations of individual
the agents are on the phone with the people.
customers. TUMI, which has helped
Digital-born companies and those
MultiChoice train new agents 60% faster
completing their transformations have
than before, is also reducing operational
showered consumers with digital
costs and allowing the company to
products and services. Facebook, Twitter,
redistribute resources to other valuable
Snapchat, and a constant rotation of new
activities.7
social media brands have become go-
Companies like these are figuring out to destinations for finding and sharing
how they can shape the world around information. Smart home devices enable
people and pick the right moments to contextual interactions between the digital
offer their products and services. Looking and physical world (Hey Google, remind
at these companies individually, there is me to talk to the accounting staff when
a story of hyper-personalisation and on- I get to the office), direct requests for
demand digital services. But the collective physical products and services (Alexa,
enterprise efforts reveal a fundamental order more dish soap), and even digitally
shift in how people will experience the driven social interactions from wherever
world for generations to come. Soon, people choose (Siri, call Mom with
each individual will have their own reality, FaceTime).
and every moment will represent an
The digital saturation of reality has granted
opportunity for companies to play a role in
companies with exceptional capabilities.
shaping it.
They can understand their customers with
What is enabling—and driving—this reality- a new depth of granularity. They have
shaping shift? The emergence of a post- more channels than ever to reach those
digital world. We as a society are nearing consumers. And with every company
a turning point in digital enterprise, where finally converging on the same digital
more businesses will have completed footing, there are more digital ecosystems
their digital transformations than not. and more potential partners to help
Digital-era technology, which began as a companies create holistic experiences.
differentiating advantage years ago, is now
expected from every business.

3 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
 Significantly
40% Accelerated

According to our Technology

Vision 2019 survey of
284 business and IT
executives, 40% report the
pace of innovation in their
organisation has significantly
51% Accelerated accelerated over the past
three years.

7% Stayed the Same

Slowed

But as we move collectively into the Now, to meet expectations in the post-
post-digital era, these capabilities and digital world, they need to turn that
advantages are now available to every illusion into reality.
organisation. Digital itself is no longer
That means understanding people at a
differentiating. With every business heavily
holistic level and recognising that their
investing in digital technologies, how will
outlooks and needs change at a moment’s
leaders set themselves apart?
notice.
As the playing field evens out, companies
In the post-digital world, every moment
will need to acknowledge a shift in
will represent a potential new market of
their reality too—around the level of
one. It’s where demand is communicated
expectations they face from digitally
instantly and gratification is expected
mature customers, employees, and
immediately. What’s more, both are
business partners. Businesses have used
constantly changing, creating an infinite
technology-driven mass customisation to
and never-ending stream of opportunities
get more granular with consumers through
to be met through business-to-business
a top-down approach: selling two different
(B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C)
options, then 10 different options, then
engagement, as well as in the public
100 different options. Companies’ success
sector. The post-digital world is one
with this approach has fostered the illusion
where technology is the fabric of reality,
that they can meet any need, no matter
and companies can use it to meet people
how personal or custom.
wherever they are, at any moment in
time—if they rise to the challenge.

4 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
A Parallel Transformation

Companies have not been alone on their journey to digital transformation. People
have been on a parallel path, incorporating new technologies at an increasingly rapid
rate. When mobile phones were first introduced, they took 12 years to reach 50 million
users; the internet took just seven to get to the same point.8 Looking at purely digital
technologies, the rates become frantic: Facebook reached 50 million users in four years;
WeChat, one year. Pokémon GO, the augmented-reality gaming app from Niantic? 19
days.

People are adopting new technology both quickly and completely, and whether they’re
customers, employees, or even threat actors, they are beginning to outpace enterprises
in their digital transformations. They are more knowledgeable about technology itself
and how companies use it, and are becoming selective and demanding of what they
adopt, challenging companies to work with them or adapt to them in different ways.

Post-digital consumers are enjoying the results of technology

1 saturation. In a world of unprecedented technology choice, people have
strong sentiments about which technologies they will or won’t adopt to
get the experiences they want. Companies must pay close attention not
only to the choices themselves, but also to the powerful new insights
those choices can provide about their customers—and about new
market opportunities.

Post-digital workers are incorporating technology to complete tasks

2 in new ways, in new types of jobs, but they are still being hired, trained,
and managed in pre-digital ways. With the war for talent continuing to
rage, companies must adapt their technology strategies to close the
divide between themselves and their digitally mature workforce.

Post-digital threat actors have nearly unlimited points of entry to

3 enterprise. With a global army of connected devices ready to be pressed
into service, and an attack surface that includes not only the target
company but every partner and vendor in the company’s ecosystem,
they have the clear advantage. Businesses must respond to this post-
digital threat with a collaborative approach, recognising that they are
not just potential victims, but someone else’s vector.

Post-digital markets are made up of consumers, business partners, and

4 governments alike enjoying the spoils of the digital revolution. Fully on-
demand or fully customised products are now the standard in practically
every industry, and sooner than later, customers will expect every
organisation to achieve both.

5 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
This is not to say digital is old or over. The three have pooled their resources
Far from it. Companies have used the in a joint effort that has companies in
power of digital transformation to shape entirely different industries preparing for
themselves, to shape customers and foundational disruption.
employees, and then to shape people’s
Look at JD.com, an e-retail platform and
expectations. What’s left is using their
one of the fastest-growing companies
now-digital core to shape the market.
in China. JD is radically differentiating
Companies face a world of renewed
itself with its “Toplife” platform—a service
expectations and core digital technologies
that helps third parties sell through JD by
are more critical than ever. But the time for
setting up customised stores for unique
pilots and experimentation is long past,
shopping experiences.9 Not only do these
and leaders must begin to strategise for
third parties benefit from the e-retail
what’s next.
personalisation, they also have access
to JD’s supply chain with cutting-edge
Getting To The New robotics and drone delivery that can reach
“Moment” rural areas. And through a partnership
with Walmart, a physical store in Shenzhen
Realistically, the world is not yet at the will offer more than 8,000 products
point of everything being instantaneous. available in person or delivered from the
But post-digital companies are already store in under 30 minutes.10 By offering
playing a different game. Companies still unprecedented customisation and speed,
completing their digital transformations JD is enabling other companies to capture
are looking for a specific edge, whether moments, and in doing so creating a new
it’s innovative service, higher efficiency, market for itself.
or more personalisation. Post-digital
Locally, Nedbank launched a humanoid
companies are looking for much more.
robot, Pepper, created by SoftBank.
They are out to bypass the competition
Pepper can be programmed to recognise
by changing the way the market itself
voice and human emotion, as well as chat
works. From one market to many custom
to customers and answer questions.11
markets—on-demand, in the moment.
Another company, Nielsen, has launched
Industry lines are no longer a boundary to a SmartStore – Africa’s – first virtual reality
growth, and the disruption that came in shopping technology.
waves as technology matured in the digital
The technology provides retailers and
era is now ever-present. Any company
manufacturers with shopper insights and
can compete with any other or carve out
behaviours, allows them to test multiple
a new market. Take Amazon partnering
new shop and shelf layouts and designs,
with Berkshire Hathaway, an insurance
trial in-store locations for new products,
and holding company, and JPMorgan
and/or determine the appeal of packaging
Chase, a global financial services firm, to
options to shoppers.
tackle challenges in health care spending.

6 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
SmartStore builds a live virtual environment to create multiple scenarios and collecting
wide-ranging analytics of the customer’s experience such as tracking their movements
(head, eye, feet), 3D heat maps and more.12

It won’t be long before the standout examples of today are the norm. Companies are
already investigating the next generation of technologies such as artificial intelligence
(AI), distributed ledgers like blockchain, extended reality, and quantum computing.
The message is clear: “keeping up with the digitals” won’t cut it for what’s coming next.
Business leaders looking to do more than just complete their transformations must set
new goals in their sights, including:

• Move your focus to the end. As companies begin to understand instant demand
and supply options expand, they will have more opportunities than they can pursue.
Success will mean carefully choosing the specific opportunities companies want
to target—and just as important, the ones not to target—then working backward to
determine how they will get there.

• Define what it means for your business to be post-digital as the world moves into a new
phase of cooperation. As companies settle on their new goals and the pathways they
will take to reach them, they must also determine which ecosystem partners they need
and where their own place in the ecosystem should be.

• Master SMAC as a core competency and a foundation to rotate to what’s next. When it
comes to enterprise-level technology strategies, companies can never stop moving.
Social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) combined to drive the biggest enterprise
and market transformations since the dawn of the Industrial era. At this point, the
failure to complete a mastery of SMAC will leave businesses unable to serve even the
most basic demands of a post-digital world. But success will unlock boundless future
opportunity. Distributed ledger technology, artificial intelligence, extended reality,
and quantum computing (DARQ) are already having an impact in disparate areas of
enterprise. DARQ technologies will drive the post-digital wave, but catching that wave
will only be possible with the firm foundation of SMAC. Looking even further down the
road? DARQ technologies will enable innovation in such core aspects of the business
that they will be foundational for whatever comes after that.

7 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
As companies move to AirMap, which operates an airspace
management system for the low altitudes
meet these goals, they must at which drones fly, partnered with
also accept a new level of Microsoft Azure to create a platform
responsibility. As businesses that gives state and local authorities
authorisation, enforcement, and restriction
use technologies to reach
abilities for drone operation in their
further into people’s lives, areas.14 The platform also lets companies
shaping the very fabric of incorporate security and compliance
reality, they must address checkpoints into drone-related workflows.

the privacy, safety, ethics, By positioning themselves as the curators

and governance questions of reality, companies already have a
new level of obligation to society. But
that come along with that being able to deliver for specific and
level of access. constantly changing moments creates
challenging additional questions for
Look at drone usage, which companies businesses that are used to one market
are incorporating for everything from of many and long-static circumstances.
agricultural services to public safety, With limitless opportunities, how do you
utility monitoring, and product delivery. measure the potential impact of products
They’re even changing what’s possible and services on society? How do you
in health care, with Switzerland’s postal avoid crossing ethical boundaries where
service provider using drones to move there are different lines for every reality
time-sensitive lab samples between and moment? And how does a company
hospitals and bypass the delays of ground responsibly pick the opportunities
transport.13 But this does raise issues of to target in the first place? When you
patient safety, privacy, and data protection reach the point of being able to deliver
that the involved organisations must nearly anything instantly, it is critical to
address, as well as navigating potentially remember that “can” doesn’t always mean
restricted airspace. “should.”

It’s every company’s responsibility to

understand the impact of its moments
at scale.

8 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
2019 TECH
TRENDS
This year’s Accenture
Technology Vision highlights
five emerging trends that will
shape businesses over the
next three to five years. In
each trend, you will see how
digital saturation is raising

expectations, abilities, and

risk across industries, and
how businesses are seeking
new ways to differentiate
themselves as the world moves
into the post-digital era.

9 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
 TREND 1
DARQ POWER
Understanding the DNA of DARQ

New technologies are catalysts for change, offering extraordinary

new businesses capabilities. Distributed ledger technology,
artificial intelligence, extended reality, and quantum computing
will be the next set of new technologies to spark a step change,
letting businesses reimagine entire industries.

TREND 2
GET TO KNOW ME
Unlock unique consumers and unique opportunities

Technology-driven interactions are creating an expanding

technology identity for every consumer. This living foundation
of knowledge will be key to not only understanding the next
generation of consumers, but also to delivering rich, individualised,
experience-based relationships in the post-digital age.

TREND 3
HUMAN+ WORKER
Change the workplace or hinder the workforce

Workforces are becoming human+: each individual worker

is empowered by their skillsets and knowledge plus a new,
constantly growing set of capabilities made possible through
technology. Now, companies must adapt the technology
strategies that successfully created this next generation workforce
to support a new way of working in the post-digital age.

10 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
 TREND 4
SECURE US TO SECURE ME
Enterprises are not victims, they’re vectors

While ecosystem-driven business depends on interconnectedness,

those connections increase companies’ exposures to risks. Leading
businesses are recognising that just as they already collaborate with
entire ecosystems to deliver best-in-class products, services, and
experiences, it’s time security joins that effort as well.

TREND 5
MYMARKETS
Meet consumers’ needs at the speed of now

Technology is creating a world of intensely customised and

on-demand experiences, and companies must reinvent their
organisations to find and capture those opportunities as they
come. That means viewing each opportunity as if it’s an individual
market—a momentary market.

The Post-Digital Future

Just as people no longer say they live in By moving the company’s focus to targets
the “age of electricity,” the days of calling of opportunity, finding a place among the
something digital to insinuate that it is ecosystems of the post-digital era, and
new and innovative are numbered. mastering digital investments with an eye
toward the post-digital future, leaders will
The word is already passé in the
position for success for years to come.
consumer space. Soon, it will be the
Your digitised organisation will be the
same for enterprise. There is no need to
foundation from which you drive all future
say you are a “digital business.” If you’re
innovation.
still in business, investing in digital is
understood. It’s a tall order; thanks to the power of
digital now and post-digital next, the
What does “post-digital” mean for
next era will be one of massive customer,
companies? Doubling down on completing
employee, and societal expectations.
their digital transformations to get the
Fortunately, it’s an era of equally
most value from those investments—and
tremendous possibility: to deliver for any
at the same time, turning a strategic eye
moment in any reality.
toward what’s next.

11 THE POST-DIGITAL ERA IS UPON US. ARE YOU READY FOR WHAT’S NEXT?
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