Gartner, Inc. has come up with six trends of its own for 2006 and beyond. By 2008, the consultancy says, 10 percent of companies will require employees to purchase their own notebook computers. Prices have declined so dramatically that employees will find it easy to comply, removing personal-computer assets from corporate books. By 2010, 30 percent of U.S. homes will use only cellular or internet-based telephone systems, discarding their land lines. Also by 2010, the job market for IT specialists will shrink by 40 percent. In their place will come "versatilists," people with multiple assignments, roles and expertise.
By 2008, business process outsourcing (BPO) providers will have captured some $11bn in insurance revenue. BPO will have acquired the intellectual property and technology platforms needed to align with the distribution channel. That will allow providers to launch insurance ventures, capturing up to 1 percent of the global annual premium total of life, annuity and casualty products. By 2013, Gartner adds, a 50-percent growth in healthcare software investment could allow clinicians to cut in half the level of preventable deaths. Finally, through 2008, companies will be forced to slow their adoption of new technologies as they divert budgets to regulatory compliance. In some cases, says Gartner, discretionary IT budgets have been entirely consumed by compliance efforts, "stifling initiatives that are important to business growth."