Experts Dish on 2010 Trends, Predict the Path for 2011

Well folks, it's time for our last roll-up of expert advice for the year. We're ending things on a good note, too: 2011 trends for content management, what to expect when it comes to the mobile industry, and why our inboxes will remain the place we most love to hate.

2011 Themes: The Mobilization of Legacy Applications. As we round out 2010 and look towards 2011 for the year’s major technology investments, one thing is clear: mobile adoption is exploding. According to a Morgan Stanley research study, in the next two years, sales of smartphones will overtake PC sales — including both desktops and notebooks (Morgan Stanley, “Ten Questions Internet Execs Should Ask & Answer,” November 16, 2010). With more than 300,000 apps available on Apple’s App Store, the ubiquity of smartphones, apps, and easy, convenient, mobile experiences are putting pressure on IT to mobile enable B2C and B2E applications to facilitate increased employee efficiency and keep up with consumer demand for mobile access to B2C applications.

2010 Content Management Trends That Will Continue to Surge into 2011. As 2010 winds down, it is time to look back at the year that was and forward to the next one. The past year's trends will continue to heavily influence the world of content management well into 2011.

Enterprise Content Management in 2010: More than the Cloud. What did we learn from 2010? The clear message is that a more difficult economic climate is gearing mindshare towards cost-effective solutions, especially when it comes to ECM systems. Mobile technology and SharePoint are forcing IT professionals to reassess their IT governance structure. And even though 2010 brought the dream of the cloud, the question remains how much that dream will actually be realized.

Three Off the Beaten Path Predictions for 2011. With 2011 around the corner, it’s prediction time. So when I think about next year, I’m going with three off-the-beaten-path predictions that have serious implications for the way work gets done.

2011 Predictions: 'Email Forever’ or ‘Rip and Replace?’. “You’ve got…mail.” Fifteen years ago, this statement created the excitement of receiving a letter from a friend in the mail. And it wasn’t just at home. Without a doubt, email was one of the two most important developments in corporate communications of the last twenty years. (The other was mobile telephony). But the jeannie is out of the bottle.