Connected Planning, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 10Digital Planning

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

—ARTHUR C. CLARKE

It's a cliché nowadays to say that change is coming at a rapid pace and that change is constant. The speed of technological advancement has never been more apparent than it is today, as driverless vehicles take to the roads, smartphone manufacturers race one another to market with the latest designs and features, and artificial intelligence enables computers to recognize—and even generate—language and images.

All of these changes are impacting our daily lives, and have come about because businesses have effectively leveraged new technologies. By extension, these changes are also beneficiaries, and enablers, of Connected Planning.

Over the last few decades, technology has equipped businesses with faster processing speed, increased storage capacity, and resource planning applications. As a result, they've been able to run more efficiently, operating in near–real time to bring innovations to market faster, collect more data on customers, and compete more nimbly. Over the same period, however, technology also enabled the emergence of new competitors for these businesses; by lowering barriers to entry and extending access to new markets at the click of a button. Some of the most recognized cases of industry disruption include Amazon for bookstores (and now retailers in general) and Netflix for video rentals (and now network and cable television). More recently, Airbnb ...