With only less than two months left for 2018, leading research and advisory firm Forrester has published a new report which identifies the major dynamics that will shape the next year.

"2018 will be a year of reckoning and will force many companies to take decisive action," said Cliff Condon, chief research and product officer at Forrester. "While the economy is still growing and employment is healthy, the fate of companies has never been more uncertain. The window of opportunity to take bold action is starting to close and executives need to move past incremental approaches and make sweeping changes tuned to a customer-led, disruptive market."

The report names blockchain technology as one of the major dynamics, which also includes artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and open banking among others. According to Forrester, blockchain technology promises to be the foundation for a bold platform and ecosystem strategies while guarding against increasing cybersecurity threats.

“And that extraordinary promise is, in part, the problem. The exuberance for blockchain hindered progress in 2017,” the report states.

To that end, it listed the key obstacles – the hype around the technology; “narrow tests” delivering underwhelming results against high expectations; and application of blockchain-like approaches to problems which could have been solved with existing technologies.

“Eighty percent of projects failed to meet expectations,” Forrester said. “In 2018, the combination of rhetoric and enthusiasm will continue to limit blockchain gains. However, 30% of proofs of concept will accelerate blockchain for those companies able to consider its operational impact.”

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