As businesses have become more engaged in their online journey, driven by the pandemic, they now need to gear up for digital transformation, including the use of cloud and automation, to be agile and competitive and to thrive in the new economy.
Sandra Ng, group vice-president and general manager for Asia-Pacific research at tech market research firm IDC, said businesses are now entering into a new era in which digital acceleration is taking place around the world.
"This is going to be super important for organisations to drive the new digital value creation," said Ms Ng.
According to IDC, spending on digital technology by organisations in Asia-Pacific will grow by 3.5 times the economy in 2023, establishing a foundation for operational excellence, competitive differentiation and long-term growth.
By 2024, 30% of organisations in Asia-Pacific will have a business continuity crisis management strategy that includes continuous intelligence and enables an agile reaction to future economic shocks and disruptions, IDC indicates.
By 2026, 40% of total revenue for 2,000 organisations based in Asia will be generated by digital products, services and experiences, up from 26% in 2022.
Paul Burton, general manager of IBM Asia-Pacific, highlighted the importance of automation, which can respond to the business needs of fast processes in the face of digital transformation.
Automation can also lead to cost reduction amid high inflation where pressure is building up for higher labour wages, he said.
According to him, businesses and governments need to think holistically about their technology architecture and adapt to the changing world.
Prapussorn Pechkaew, research manager at IDC Thailand, said Thailand needs to leverage data to gear up for digital transformation.
Many initiatives have now been developed to transform Thailand, as a data-driven nation, including the roll-out of Open Government Data of Thailand, a collection of important data through www.data.go.th that can be analysed for other purposes, she said.
According to an IDC Asia-Pacific cloud survey in 2021, 92% of Thai organisation respondents said they would increase the use of cloud services in the next 12 months, giving a huge opportunity for cloud business in the country.
The country's public cloud service market is expected to reach US$1.7 billion by 2025 at a five-year (2020-2025) compound annual growth rate of 23.4%, IDC said.