Anyone who tries to predict the future is playing a dangerous game, but successfully anticipating big IT trends on the horizon can be hugely lucrative. The number of internet and social media users worldwide surpassed five billion people in 2022, encompassing over 60% of the world’s population. If ever there was a time to try gazing into the IT crystal ball, this is it.

Before we dive into our predictions for top 2023 IT trends, let’s recap some of the most interesting trends from this past year:

Increasing Digital Transformation

The pandemic radically increased the rate at which technology is transforming the business landscape. More than ever, companies are developing strategic digital roadmaps and investing in new and innovative technologies to drive transformation. Digitally mature companies will gain competitive advantage and be better prepared to handle future business disruptions.

Embracing Decision Intelligence

Decision intelligence became a more mainstream approach to organizational decision-making in 2022, with the help of sophisticated AI tools such as analytics and simulations. Decision intelligence allows businesses to improve their operational effectiveness, potentially even automating many decisions.

Rising No-code and Low-code Technology

A fascinating trend from 2022 is the move from purely textual coding platforms to more visual “drag and drop” interfaces. Low-code environments remove the programming barrier for non-technical users, allowing developers, SMEs, stakeholders, and decision-makers of virtually any skill level to get involved in the development process.

Pushing the Total Experience (TX) strategy

Total Experience (TX) is a strategy that creates greater unity between the user, customer, and employee experiences online. It became extremely popular during the remote working boom in 2022, as businesses that use the TX approach create more integrated workforces and eliminate communication silos.

This year, we’re going to see a lot of these new technologies continue to evolve, with some additional trends that significantly impact companies using SAP:

Top 5 IT Trends to Prepare for in 2023

As expected, the ongoing shift to remote and hybrid work continues to shape the future of IT. Heightened cybersecurity demands and incredible advances in automation also play a role in shifting trends.

Our top 5 predictions for 2023 IT trends reflect these major shifts in society and technology.

1. Accelerated digital transformation

2022 saw big gains in transformative technologies, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, blockchain, and 5G. This trend will continue into the new year, with these transformational technologies combining and augmenting each other to create interconnected “intelligent enterprises”. These systems will be able to perform menial tasks far more efficiently than we can today, according to Forbes, if not eliminate them entirely.

Enterprises that use SAP should embrace this shift towards transformative technologies quickly in order to remain competitive. One specific way companies can speed up their digital transformation is by automating SAP change delivery and governance. SAP change automation allows businesses to implement fast and responsive updates to their systems while avoiding human error, delays, and sunk costs.

ActiveControl’s automation tools are built to facilitate any changes to SAP, whether minor updates or massive transformations, such as the move to SAP S/4HANA.

2. Reduced friction with DevOps

DevOps is an organizational philosophy that leads to more efficient software development and updates by encouraging continuous communication between development teams (Dev) and IT operations (Ops). We might classify this approach as less of a trend, and more of an imperative for modern enterprises.

While companies may have adopted DevOps in certain IT environments, they may not have considered doing so in SAP systems. Businesses can support DevOps in SAP by using automation tools like ActiveControl, which streamlines processes between development and operations with improved visibility, decision-making, and change delivery speed. Better integrating SAP teams with the wider IT function makes everyone’s lives easier and helps to ensure the entire IT organization is working towards the same goals in pushing the company forward.

3. Collaboration is the “New Normal”

We’ve all heard the old business adage “tearing down the silos”, a 1980s ethos encouraging businesses to re-organize themselves around a collaborative mindset, functioning seamlessly across different departments. This movement has taken on new dimensions in our increasingly digitized workspaces, where collaboration between previously isolated systems, not just teams of people, has become a competitive necessity.

SAP is one such system that benefits from greater integration. Businesses that connect SAP with their CI/CD orchestration platform using ActiveControl, for instance, can substantially reduce the time needed to review, repair, and approve changes. Users can easily see and understand the status of every change, and it’s easier to coordinate changes that span SAP and non-SAP software. This continuous delivery process allows them to adapt SAP in tandem with business demands.

4. Automation on tap to drive efficiency

Improving efficiency is a tried and true strategy for increasing profitability, and automation is the foremost tool for driving higher efficiency. Businesses can use automation tools to remove time-consuming and repetitive tasks that drain resources and negatively impact their bottom line.

Early adopters of automation, such as the telecommunications giant Ericsson, can speak to its promising benefits. Ericsson introduced automation into their SAP change delivery process using ActiveControl in 2019, reducing manual effort, eliminating errors, and experiencing immediate improvements to their delivery speed and quality.

As advances in automation continue to emerge at a breakneck pace, we expect to see even greater adoption in 2023.

5. DevSecOps using no-touch automation

The old-school approach to system security requires many teams working in parallel. Developers test for code security, operators run protections in the production environment, and experts and managers handle access controls and other tasks. Businesses can eradicate this decentralized approach and greatly improve efficiency with automation.

Automation tools, such as ActiveControl, can bring the DevSecOps approach to your SAP change delivery process by reducing security risks right from the outset. ActiveControl provides businesses with automated SAP access controls, code quality testing, analysis, and complete auditing. This comprehensive approach to security also means that when issues do arise, remediation is quick and painless.

How Basis Technologies’ Automation Solutions Harness Top Trends

There’s little doubt about it: the overarching theme of our 2023 IT trends is automation. And it’s easy to see why. All the recent stunning advances in automation have significantly increased efficiency, reduced human error, opened new avenues for collaboration, and removed many menial tasks from our workloads. The avenues for improvement and growth in this field feel endless and exciting.

Basis Technologies is bringing these cutting-edge innovations to SAP change delivery with advanced automation, allowing businesses to innovate quickly and confidently to stay one step ahead of the competition. Implementing SAP change automation means meeting business objectives while lowering risk, effort, and cost. What more could you do with all that extra time and resources?

If you’d like to learn more about how ActiveControl can help your company drive efficiency and stay ahead, check out our free demo, webinars, and further resources.