IDC predicts 2020: What it takes for digital transformation to succeed

This is a guest post by Simon Piff, vice-president of security practice at IDC Asia-Pacific

The essence of IDC’s predictions for 2020 is about efficiency, velocity and productivity in this era of massively digitally augmented business. Digital is no longer the platform that IT uses; it is the business platform that drives topline revenue, captures critical KPIs (key performance indicators), delivers new digital products and provides real-time insights on customer satisfaction.

What IDC has done is to capture the leading indicators of digital transformation success and forecast where we expect the Asia-Pacific region to be – but there are assumptions.

The first assumption is the key one, that business leadership understands, accepts and funds their transformation into a technology-led business. That means equipping workers with the right tools to do their jobs properly, creating an environment that not only supports, but also promotes innovation (i.e. a safe place to fail), effectively measuring success, and working closely with partners and suppliers to create new ecosystems and markets.

If business leadership is not signed up for all of that, then their future is less clear.

The second critical thing to understand about this change is that it’s taking place across the board. Every customer expects to be understood, individually catered to, treated like VIPs, and have their personal data kept safe.

Customers also require immediate response to any issue or concern with a product or service. And if we don’t treat them the way they want to be treated, their ability to turn to a competitor that can fulfil their needs is increasingly at the click of a mouse or phone button. That means the data we capture and collect about customers has to be accurate, secure and available to the right teams on-demand, and with integrity.

It all seems like a tall order, but IDC already sees some Asia-Pacific organisations exhibiting many of these traits, so it’s about who can do this first, not if.