  
Welcome to the Hype Cycle Special Report for 2007. This year, we assess 1,500 technologies and trends across 70 IT topics, markets and industries to provide you with the most comprehensive assessment of technology maturity in the IT industry.
Understanding Gartner's Hype Cycles, 2007
(Summary)
Hype Cycles offer a snapshot of the relative maturity of technologies, IT methodologies and management disciplines. They highlight overhyped areas against those that are high impact, estimate how long technologies and trends will take to reach maturity, and help organizations decide when to adopt.
Industries 2007
Application Development (Summary)
A shift to process and service orientation is altering staffing, tools and methods of software development. In parallel, governance, planning, control and quality assurance techniques are being refined and strengthened to drive more predictability and meet the challenges of global sourcing.
Automotive Demand Chain and Supply Chain Technologies (Summary)
Successful automotive companies must develop desirable products in the right quantities and create consistent and positive customer experiences. IT is a key enabler for these objectives, but companies need to understand the real potential that various technologies provide, now and in the future.
Banking and Investment Services Front-Office Technologies (Summary)
The objective of the front office is to provide customers with a consistent and satisfying experience irrespective of channel. This Hype Cycle will assist banks and investment services firms in assessing new technologies that can improve processes to achieve that objective.
Banking Risk and Compliance (Summary)
Responding to complex and continually changing organizational risk exposures depends on IT operations and requires a high level of IT effectiveness. Emerging technologies can assist banks aggregate and assess risk, and create the connectivity to reuse information across the organization.
Business Processes (Banking) (Summary)
Several emerging technologies and applications for business processes are specific to the banking industry. In each case, they are considered for how they are applied in this specific sector, rather than the underlying technology per se.
Business Process Investment Services (Summary) Several emerging technologies and applications for business processes are specific to the investment services industry. In each case, they are considered for how they are applied in this specific sector, rather than the underlying technology per se.
Consumer Goods (Summary)
Consumer confidence is running high and consumerism is growing in developing countries. Competition has never been more fierce. IT must proactively support the related business processes that provide real-time awareness and insight across all essential enterprise partners in the value chain.
Financial Services Payments Emerging Technologies & Applications (Summary) New payment and settlement applications are posing challenges for all financial services companies as emerging providers and refocused competitors seek to extract maximum profit from the market. Banks must look to these new technologies to help them compete and retain profitable customers.
Government Transformation (Summary) This Hype Cycle identifies technologies that have the potential to help public-sector organizations achieve their transformation and efficiency goals.
Healthcare Payers� (Summary) In response to demands for increased quality and lower costs, care delivery organizations are turning to computer-based patient record systems, next-generation administrative and financial systems, and innovative healthcare applications to assist them in delivering high-quality care.
Healthcare Provider Applications and Systems (Summary) In response to demands for increased quality and lower costs, care delivery organizations are turning to computer-based patient record systems, next-generation administrative and financial systems, and innovative healthcare applications to assist them in delivering high-quality care.
Healthcare Provider Technologies and Standards (Summary) Gartner tracks technologies/standards that are of value to care delivery organizations. Some transform the way a CDO does business; others progress evolutionarily, offering increased reward versus risk. Still others have little impact and become obsolete before reaching the Plateau of Productivity.
Higher Education (Summary) The priority for most higher education institutions in 2007 is to ensure that IT investments follow institutional strategic and tactical needs and plans. New investments must be made to ensure institutional competitiveness and provide services and support for changing student and staff needs.
Life Insurance (Summary)
Life insurers, including those offering annuities and pensions, must adopt new technologies to support new business, underwriting, customer service and operational procedures. These include improved transactional capabilities, exception-based processing and heightened business intelligence.
Life Sciences (Summary)
Life science manufacturers must embrace IT if they want to increase the speed of product development, to establish and maintain relationships with physicians and to reach an empowered consumer. CIOs must help their companies determine the technology mix necessary to achieve corporate objectives.
Manufacturing Processes and Systems (Summary)
The upcoming maturity of lean manufacturing systems and product life cycle management, in addition to the emergence of a new service-oriented architecture for manufacturing operations management, promise to deliver the most business benefits during the next five to 10 years.
Media Industry (Summary) Although its full impact will play out over a decade, real-time digital distribution is already transforming the landscape for every sector of the media industry. The key to success is in knowing why, when and how to respond to changes in the market for digital media.
Media Industry Advertising (Summary) The advertising landscape remains volatile as ad spending continues to grow online and remains relatively flat elsewhere. Advertisers and publishers continue to struggle with problems of fragmentation and the onslaught of emerging forms and models.
Media Industry Entertainment (Summary) A mix of consumer technologies and internally focused IT systems that ready the entertainment industry for the pending digital explosion form the basis for this year's media entertainment industry . Media Industry Publishing (Summary)
The analog-to-digital transformation has hit publishers hard, and it is being compounded by a growing expectation from consumers for highly personalized content delivery. Competition from Web-based aggregators has caused turmoil for newspapers, magazines and book publishers.
P&C Insurance (Summary)
Property and casualty insurers must adopt new technologies to enable market growth and competitive differentiation. Insurers must also improve core system capabilities, such as underwriting, policy, claims and distribution channel management.
Retail Technologies (Summary)
Much is changing in the retail sector. Retailers are realizing that technology has a role to play in driving revenue, as well as increasing operational efficiency. Effective IT solutions, or the lack of them, can be a survival issue in the fast-paced but low-margin retail sector.
Technology in the Natural Resource Industries (Summary) Natural resource industries (oil and gas; mining and metals; and forest products) are looking to technology to better respond to the increasingly rapid swings in demand for products. Investing in the right technologies can have a dramatic effect on enterprise agility.
Telecom Industry (Summary)
Carrier transformation affects networks, systems and operations. The Telecommunications Industry Hype Cycle amalgamates key technologies, solutions and platforms to provide a comprehensive view and ascertain market relevance.
Transportation (Summary)
Global cargo shipments increase, as do passenger air and cruise line traffic, in a hotly competitive environment. Carriers must continue to deploy new technology to achieve sometimes conflicting goals of customer satisfaction, revenue growth, operating efficiency and reduced operating costs.
Utility Industry IT and Business Processes (Summary) Utilities will continue to invest in industry-specific applications and improve business processes in their quest to improve business performance by meeting rising customer expectations, catering to volatile markets and creating an expected shareholder return in a changing regulatory environment.
Utility Industry Operational and Energy Technologies (Summary) Energy utilities will continue to explore operational and emerging energy technology options to meet rising customer expectations, as well as address energy sustainability issues, while aiming to create expected shareholder returns in uncertain regulatory settings.
Vehicle-Centric Information and Communication Technologies (Vehicle ICT) (Summary) In 2007, the auto industry is increasingly embracing vehicle ICT. A realistic understanding of these emerging and mature technologies enables manufacturers, suppliers and IT providers to make the right strategic decisions.
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