Priorities 2023 ^[i]

The majority of CEOs are not technologists, but they pay attention to the technologies that make the headlines in the press. After all, when the leading financial publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, document the successes and benefits of how certain technologies enable enterprises to increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs, how can one argue otherwise? With careful consideration and placement, journalists use words to reduce complexity, time, and effort into an elegant expression of simplicity, speed, and (even some degree of) certain success. “The pen is mightier than the sword“, never have the words of the playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton been proven so accurate.

For another year, Cloud and AI dominate both business and industry press for another year. By now, corporate leaders have gone beyond wondering about the benefits of these technology categories, but have an expectation that technologies in these categories are already contributing to the success of the enterprise. The reality is often contrary to the perception.

One cannot purchase AI “off-the-shelf”. While Cloud was critical during the COVID pandemic, technology leaders must, and we reiterate must, review how “cloudy” the medium to long term enterprise technology strategy will look.

At Neuralytix, we believe that 2023 is going to be an exciting but also an uneasy and uncertain year. We believe that it is not a year for haste. We believe that 2023 will be a year of taking stock, review, reinvention, and discussion. We believe that in 2023 inaction will triumph.

Agenda 2023

Apart from our consulting, advisory, and realization services, we will be publishing a series of Insights that are designed to provoke consideration and discussion beyond “if we implement this technology then we will get this result else we will fall behind the market”. We will present both sides of an argument objectively, but ultimately, Neuralytix will express our position clearly and emphatically. In 2023, we will publish Insights on the following the technology categories and themes:

• Cloud: Bring your umbrella, or just stay inside.
• Datacenter: It’s time to bring in the cleaners.
• Go-to-market strategies: “Rip it out! … you’re not going to go to Hell for this.” ^[ii]
• AI: My CEO has made a plan – AI, AI, OH!
  (to the tune of the nursery rhyme “Old MacDonald had a farm”)
• Startups: “One (is the loneliest number)” ^[iii] – be better, not unique.
• Product Marketing: Take me on a journey so I don’t just wander.
• Capital markets: You show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.
• 10 Years On: Has true innovation stagnated? What will it be like in 10 years?
• Data storage: Solid state drives are in your server; HDDs will continue to spin
  (to the tune of the lullaby “Rock-a-bye baby”).
• Strategy: Has technology entered suspended animation?

As in our style, we have tried to add some levity into our titles, we emphasize that these are serious considerations that need to be considered as we enter a post-COVID era.

Decisions 2023

We believe 2023 is a critical and pivotal year for decision making that will have impact on an enterprise’s ability to adapt to an, as yet, unknown future with ramifications that are likely extend from years to decades to come. Many of these considerations have nothing to do with technology, but the role of technology in the overall strategy relating to the interaction between technology and business operations, how data is handled, the many level of risk, and For each of these themes, we consider the business and environmental impact, the sustainability of the category, and the opportunities and challenges for each of these categories. Decisions made in 2023 must consider at least the following non technology related issues:

• How business will be conducted in light of a new era of technology consumption and the impact of digital overload experienced during the COVID pandemic.
• The considerations between the use of Cloud versus maintaining a datacenter, in light of the legal, compliance, and privacy risks associated with either approach.
• A new form of “lock-in” never experienced before in the technology industry that could result in a form of indenture by an enterprise.
• The review of what are an enterprise’s most valuable assets – capital infrastructure, human resources, or data; and how to accumulate these assets, protect them, and increase their value.
• What it means for enterprises to cater for a new generation of customers.
• What it means for the new generation of technology leaders, many of whom have not had first hand experience balancing adapting and integrating new and emerging technologies to address dynamic consumer behaviors versus the risk associated with change, resulting in the application of the adage of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
• The influence of social, political, and geography on how and what decisions get made.

Strategy 2023

Neuralytix does not believe that the concerns highlighted above can or will be solved in 2023. In fact, we assert, with vehemence, that 2023 will be a year of consideration, consultation, and modeling and not decision making. We also believe that a delay in decision making into 2024 will benefit the competitive nature of many enterprises in the medium and long term; while a rush to decision making for the sake of short term again will ultimately result in negative impact on an enterprise’s ability to compete in the medium to long term. Our observations of the financial markets in the last two decades indicate that they favor short term gains over longer term considerations.   We reiterate our belief that 2023 will be a pivotal year in terms of how technology vendors engage with the market. We believe that our unique approach will help our Clients to consider and weigh their options to outcompete their rivals in the medium and long term. We encourage prospective Clients to reach out to us at [email protected].