As Asean nations continue to grapple with the pandemic, including the impact on the economy and the way organisations have to react quickly to changes, accelerating digital transformation remains at the forefront for many organisations.
The motivation to be successful and innovative in a digital-first economy is only getting stronger with time. Asean organisations are increasingly looking not only to innovate and generate revenue from digital products and services but also to be part of ever-growing and evolving industry ecosystems.
"We will see more and more Asean enterprises of the future forging partnerships and collaboration with ecosystem players to derive value from shared data, applications and operational initiatives," says Dharmaraj Sivalingam, senior research manager for Asean with IDC, the global information and communication technology (ICT) market intelligence group.
"This will lead to the birth of innovative products and services as well as better engagement and experience for customers."
By 2023, 1 in 3 companies will generate more than 15% of their revenues from digital products and services.
Listed below are IDC's predictions for the top ICT and business trends that will shape how Asean organisations and industries operate in a digital-first world:
1. Digital rules: By 2023, 1 in 3 companies will generate more than 15% of their revenues from digital products and services, compared with 1 in 6 in 2020.
2. Diversity matters: By 2025, 55% of successful digitally innovative products will be built by teams that include people with creative, critical thinking, analysis and automation skills, as well as software engineers.
3. The value in trust: By 2023, 35% of organisations will allocate half of their security budget to cross-technology ecosystems and platforms designed for rapid consumption and unified security capabilities to drive agile innovation.
4. The value of ecosystems: By 2026, on average 30% of the revenue of top-500 companies in Asean will be derived from data shared among industry ecosystems, applications and operations initiatives with partners, industry entities and business networks.
5. Scaling with digital twins: From 2021 to 2027, the proportion of new physical assets and processes that are modelled as digital twins will increase from 2% to 24%, resulting in operational performance optimisation.
6. Scaling with knowledge: 25% of large enterprises will see a 20% improvement in information usage by 2026 due to investments in intelligent knowledge networks that turn structured and unstructured data into findable and actionable knowledge.
7. Evidence-based culture: This is a paramount need for digital-first enterprises. By 2026, 20% of organisations will use forms of behavioural economics and AI- or machine learning-driven insights to nudge employees' actions, leading to a 60% increase in desired outcomes.
8. Digital infrastructure at the core: By 2025, a six-fold explosion in high-dependency workloads will lead to 65% of the top 500 Asean companies using consistent architectural governance frameworks to ensure compliance reporting and audits of their infrastructure.
9. Business value of networks: By 2022, more than 50% of organisations will prioritise connectivity resiliency to ensure business continuity, resulting in uninterrupted digital engagement with customers, employees and partners.
10. Business value of IT: By 2024, digital-first enterprises will enable empathetic customer experiences and resilient operating models by shifting 50% of all tech and services spending to as-a-service and outcome-focused models.
"The future of Asean enterprises is truly in the palm of their hands. It is time for organisations to take control of their journey and dictate the desired outcomes for their business," says Sudev Bangah, managing director of IDC Asean.
"Technology is an enabler and tool -- and it's what they choose to do with it that will be telling in the next 12 to 60 months.
"With more than 85% of Asean enterprises choosing to push through or accelerate their digital initiatives, technology will be the 'make or break' compass helping them navigate the crosswinds of a digital-first world."
