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Nucleus Research: Top 10 Predictions for 2008WELLESLEY, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- Nucleus Research, a global provider of investigative technology research and advisory services, today issued its annual "Top Ten 2008 Predictions" report. In the report, Nucleus asserts that 2008 will be a "make it or break it year" for corporate CIOs as executive boards restructure IT departments and reevaluate their funding and strategic leadership. According to the report, available at www.NucleusResearch.com, 2008 will be the toughest year ever for CIOs - particularly those who have eschewed polishing their executive level skills in order to focus on delivering applications and training developers. Nucleus believes that CIOs must adopt an entirely new skill set in order to remain relevant in today's fast-paced enterprise environment. "As we enter 2008, CIOs are in a very precarious position," said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president at Nucleus Research. "They need to stop complaining about limited resources and unrealistic applications, going to conferences and debating ITIL vs. other acronyms and desperately thinking up new ways to prove their value to the business." Drawing upon daily interactions with some of the world's largest brands, Nucleus has accurately forecast prominent IT trends since 2003. 2007 predictions included a surge in data visualization technology and the tendency for successful vendors to offer up some of their wares free of charge (IBM and Google helped to prove that prediction correct). In addition to a drastically different CIO ecosystem, Nucleus predicts the following for 2008: -- GROWING DEMAND FOR ON-DEMAND- In light of their low risk, rapid deployment and low cost, organizations will look to hosted and on-demand solutions to perform project management, content management, e-commerce and collaboration functions. -- LINE OF BUSINESS DRAWS THE LINE- IT must come to terms with the fact that territorial lines are blurred and business users will now drive and manage new technology projects. -- BRINGING CRM BACK- A combination of social networking, analytics and collaboration technology in the mainstream CRM domain will directly benefit individual users rather than just sales and marketing managers. -- VOTING OUT TOUCH SCREENS- Touch-screen systems do not stand a chance in '08 because they are not secure, do not leave a paper trail and frustrate election officials who are not trained to operate them. -- REAL ID, RIP- Amid growing privacy concerns and intense state-level opposition, the costly Real ID Act of 2005 will collapse under its own weight in 2008. -- SAP and ORACLE: NO LOVE LOST- The tech titans are sparring over middleware and suing over stolen data; the battle will only intensify in the coming year. -- ONE-STOP SHOPPING- Extensive consolidation has created software behemoths beholden to their largest customers; large enterprises will be able to demand cheap software and easier deployments from their vendors. -- BYE, BYE DESKTOP- In increasingly complex IT environments, desktop virtualization will emerge as the only cost-effective method for managing the chaos. -- TREAD LIGHTLY ON TRENDS: NEXT UP, GREEN IT- Organizations should focus on reducing ongoing operational costs to spur investment in new projects in the year ahead, rather than worry about being left out of the "Green Club." Nucleus analysts are available to discuss any of the IT predictions listed above. To view the additional predictions as well as the full report, go to www.NucleusResearch.com. About Nucleus Research Nucleus Research is a global provider of IT research and advisory services that provides CFOs, CIOs and their staffs with the real-world information they need to maximize the business returns from their technology investments, including successfully executing their IT deployments and determining the business value of their initiatives. Nucleus Research is the only technology research firm that is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). For more information, visit www.NucleusResearch.com. |
