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Gartner recently published their predictions for 2002, and
some of those predictions are already coming true (at least as far as the
technical publications industry is concerned).
Outsourcing will increase
Gartner is predicting that commodity and utility services will
be outsourced increasingly over 2002 in an effort to transfer assets, forego
capital expenditures, and reduce costs.
The technical publications industry is already beginning to
experience an
increase in outsourcing initiatives. It seems that every time I turn around,
another large corporation is announcing its intent to outsource its technical
documentation. Although it is devastating to a technical publications
organization, it is important to realize that moves like this are always
cyclical, and we find that after two years, organizations move to bring technical
documentation back into the organization as result of a refocus on quality
rather than costs.
Obsolescence of Mobile Applications
By the end of 2002, 50% of mobile applications developed in
2002 will be obsolete. Due mostly to a void of mobile and wireless standards,
companies are rapidly developing applications in the hopes they will hit on the
winner. Be prepared though when those applications that your department spent
many sleepless nights documenting go the way of the T Rex.
Web Services become More Important
Companies will increasingly offer applications or application
components through the Web so that any Internet client can access an
application. Gartner feels that by 2003, 40% of interactions through the Web will
involve Web services from distributed enterprise-wide applications.
Integrated Applications
Gartner feels that integrated business applications within and
without the enterprise will dominate in 2002; this integration is the basis
for its other predictions.
The technical publications industry has increasingly felt this
pressure,
which is one of the reasons single sourcing and content management have taken
center stage of late. Without a systematic way of creating and storing
information within the context of content management, information cannot be used
enterprise wide or fed into other enterprise-wide applications. Integration of
business applications throughout the company will increasingly put pressure on
technical publications departments to follow suit with more aggressive
content-management solutions.
To see the complete list of predictions and Gartner's
analysis, please visit their
Web site.
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