By Enrique Ferrer, Director of sales engineers EMEA, Zebra Technologies

The fourth industrial revolution is happening as you read these words. The transformation of cyber-physical systems is upon us. We know that industrial revolutions have radically transformed business and technology for the past three centuries, but the real question now is how will the fourth industrial revolution affect business this decade? How will businesses adapt to evolving technology and rapid industrial innovation? Think for a minute of the trending topics that are currently shaping the business world: virtual and augmented reality, big data and analytics, terabytes and zettabytes, cloud services and cloud denial, remote work and mobility, and accessibility and visibility… this is just the beginning!

The haste of current breakthroughs is unprecedented. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), “the possibilities are endless for the billions of people connected through mobile devices with unfathomable processing power, storage capacity, and access to information. Emerging trends in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and autonomous vehicles further enhance these possibilities.” How ready is your company to embrace these trends? 

Remoteness and mobility are intrinsic to the fourth industrial revolution. Mobile devices have the power of bringing the world to our hands and almost 60% of the global population has access to some sort of mobile device. In fact, the 2015-2020 Global Mobile Workforce Forecast by Strategy Analytics predicts, “the global mobile workforce is set to increase from 1.32 billion in 2014, accounting for 37.4% of the global workforce, to 1.75 billion in 2020, accounting for 42% of the global workforce.”

The WEF predicts that in this new industrial revolution, “technological innovation will also lead to a supply-side miracle, with long-term gains in efficiency and productivity. Transportation and communication costs will drop, logistics and global supply chains will become more effective, and the cost of trade will diminish, all of which will open new markets and drive economic growth.” Global and regional CEOs must stay ahead of the trends and adopt opportunities to develop stronger and more efficient technological platforms that drive major impact on businesses.

Keeping up with the challenge

Enterprises have the rare opportunity to assess their mobility requirements and redefine their strategies to increase productivity, efficiency, and accuracy in their operations. The competitive business landscape requires smart tactical analysis to develop a more innovative strategy in order to remain productive.

Harnessing this Workforce Mobility Revolution requires companies to determine their mobile operating system (OS), and app migration and mobile device strategies. Following a massive adoption of enterprise-grade mobile computers and wearables for the workplace, a critical deadline approaches – the life expectancy of the core OS of certain devices.

Android-based platforms respond to current challenges within the fourth industrial revolution with speed, efficiency, and flexibility. New technologies make assets more durable and resilient, while data and analytics are transforming how they are maintained. A world of customer experiences, data-based services, and asset performance through analytics, meanwhile, require new forms of collaboration, particularly given the speed at which innovation and disruption take place. With apps a la carte that help transform current processes and bring visibility to company activities, Android helps businesses and users overcome these new challenges.

When the aging yet ubiquitous Windows CE/Mobile soon loses Microsoft support, companies will have to choose a new operating system that is flexible, intuitive, and adaptable. Many customers have been slow to transition due to the uncertainty around Windows 10, the perceived complexity of app migration, and a general lack of understanding surrounding the cost of maintaining aging devices. However, everything suggests that OS migration away from Windows is inevitable and the industry is starting to prepare for it.

The momentous transition from digitisation to integration – what we call the fourth industrial revolution – forces companies to rethink their strategic approach to transformative technology and innovation. CEOs and leaders must begin to understand the changing environment and market, challenge the assumptions of their operating teams, and relentlessly and continuously innovate. Luckily, leaders are not alone. Several IT and solutions providers have garnered vast experience in adapting, adopting, and transforming business platforms and processes for them to become more reliable with their current technology.

As a response to these challenges, Zebra Technologies offers Enterprise Asset Intelligence solutions that give customers operational visibility to gain crucial business, market and customer insights. Zebra empowers manufacturers, healthcare providers, retailers, hotels/resorts and transportation and logistics companies with visibility that’s visionary by providing smarter, more visible environments that help them optimise today, plan for tomorrow and see into the future. Zebra’s philosophy of breaking paradigms and offering state-of-the-art solutions could represent a starting point for companies to shift focus towards the fourth industrial revolution.

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