Forget big-bang changes: 2012 will bring important but incremental advances in trends such as social and mobile. Consider how your enterprise will tap into these five, Forrester Research advises.

1. 5 Twists On 2012's Big Tech Trends
I wish I could pen a 2012 predictions piece without reference to the
usual suspects of cloud, mobility, social media, and the commensurate
explosion of data. But the fact is, these remain the biggies, and for good
reason. They're no longer isolated trends but intertwined opportunities--
intertwined with one another and with your efforts to build lasting digital
business strategies.
Where I deviate from the normal outlook piece is to predict that we
shouldn't expect big-bang changes. Instead, next year will be one of
important advancements in established trends. Here are five evolutionary
steps coming in enterprise IT during 2012.

2. 1. More-Nutritional Enterprise Social Apps
Despite explosive growth in social technology adoption on the home front,
only 12% of U.S. information workers even have access to an enterprise form
of a social app, according to Forrester's survey--and even fewer are using
what's available to them. Outside of customer service applications, IT leaders
are hesitant to invest in enterprise social. Why? Collaboration initiatives, to
which social capabilities are tied, are often viewed like eggplant--no downside,
but also little nutritional value.
Enterprise social apps will gain momentum in 2012 at companies where there's
a change of objective: Instead of just trying to connect information workers to
known peers or defined repositories, the new goal will be helping them find
expertise beyond their Rolodexes. The concept of a social graph--a virtual map
of whom users are connected to and the content that those users access and
create--will underpin these strategies. When companies learn how to use social
apps to drive revenue from this information, we'll see more offerings and
finally more uptake in demand.

3. 2. A Focus On The App Internet
Mobility used to be simple: Support the BlackBerry. But smartphones and
tablets from Apple, Google, and other platform providers besides RIM have
redefined expectations for executives and employees. For IT, there are now
myriad mobiles apps in the development queue that are aimed at reaching
customers and business partners. Device-resident apps that rely on cloud
services will continue their ascent. That's in direct contrast to the browser-
based Web model that dominated the PC world for 10 years. At Forrester, we
call it the "app Internet.“
Devices will always advance (see my next nugget), but the greatest change in
mobility in 2012 will be around this app Internet. Companies will get more
serious about the leadership, governance, and processes needed to deliver
effective apps. The largest companies will appoint someone as the leader of a
mobility council, responsible for the portfolio of employee, partner, and
customer apps.

4. And companies will start creating their own app stores. At most, these app
stores will remain in planning stage next year. But eventually, employees will
able to download preapproved apps they need and charge them back to their
business unit, or they'll let managers sign off on employee app downloads just
like they do a travel expense. Expect these app catalogs to support multiple
device platforms.
The developers behind Orra Health are of the strong opinion that in order to
facilitate the multiplication of several app stores as rivals to the existing Apple
app store and the Android market place, the multiplier effect in the field of app
development needs to be manifold. It may be a distant dream for the year
2012, but not an out-right impossibility.