Firms must identify impact of social trends on business, says Gartner

Social issues are set to become increasingly important to product success as IT-based devices and technologies become "more personal in scope and application", Gartner has suggested.

The analyst firm predicted that by the end of 2010, 15 per cent of US and European enterprises "will have formalised societal trend watching as a corporate discipline".

Scott Nelson, managing vice president at Gartner, explained: "A connected enterprise must understand the connected society in which it resides.

"Most firms wait until societal trends have overwhelmed them before they try to react.

"Slowness to respond can cost firms incredibly large sums of money and may drive them out of business all together."

However, there is a danger that organisations may not be able to determine which trends to keep track of.

Gartner suggested that firms give responsibility to a group to watch societal trends and to focus on certain points to "maximise short-term and strategic decisions while positioning the business for the future".

These points include adopting a "human-centric design perspective", appointing staff to "identify legal, ethical and social risks" and looking at privacy as a way of life and a business strategy decision and not a technical issue.

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