For the past five years Deloitte have published an annual technology trends report that looks at the tech landscape, with a particular focus on the technologies that are disrupting and transforming society.  Such reports are quite common of course, with the McKinsey Global Institute also producing a similar report last year.

Anyway, the Deloitte report features ten technologies, split evenly between disruptors and enablers.  You can check out the full report at the end of the post, but it’s interesting to see crowdsourcing included by Deloitte, or as they call it industrialized crowdsourcing.

Enterprise adoption of the power of the crowd allows specialized skills to be dynamically sourced from anyone, anywhere, and only as needed.  Companies can use the collective knowledge of the masses to help with tasks from data entry and coding to advanced analytics and product development.

The report highlights some of the more well known case studies from the field, before outlining a few steps to help you get started:

1. Scope – Focus on a clear and specific problem
2. Focus on gaps – Find gaps in your organization’s abilities and focus on those
3. Keep an open mind – Let your employees orchestrate the crowd
4. Get ready for what’s next – Start thinking about how this affects policies and processes

Whilst it’s obviously only a very brief look at the topic, it is nonetheless nice to see crowdsourcing get a mention.  You can see the full report below.