The industry is united on this - organisations will need to change, and fast. A recent study by Vodafone Business has found that businesses in Asia-Pacific (APAC) expect continued disruption and transformation through 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
According to the Vodafone Business Future Ready Report – Asia Pacific, almost half (48%) of businesses in the region expect that ‘substantial’ or ‘radical’ changes will be required to their business models in the next 12 months. Of these, 43% expect that making these fundamental changes to their business will be difficult to implement.
Despite these challenges, Vodafone Business also uncovered an undercurrent of optimism across businesses in APAC – more than half (54%) across the region say they are ‘excited’ about the future of their businesses ahead of 2021.
Digital transformation will become a responsibility and not just an opportunity, said Talend. "COVID accelerated digital transformation, but also the consequences of not doing it. Employees, consumers and businesses might all rely on the decision made by a single company that could make or break a global system.
"A single piece of data used in a clinical drug or vaccine trial could be flawed and have disastrous consequences. Businesses will have a responsibility, not just for themselves but for every touchpoint across its ecosystem, to make digital transformation a key priority in 2021," said Christal Bemont, CEO, Talend.
Things will get serious enough that the makeup of boards of directors could change, added Claroty. "Boards of directors, especially of more traditional infrastructure businesses, will diversify by getting new board members who are technology executives and understand how to effectively supervise and drive digital transformations, as every company is becoming a technology company," commented Galina Antova, Chief Business Development Officer, Claroty.
As is usual with predictions, industry players see digital transformation differently on the how and what as businesses transform themselves:
Budgets have changed
"Following a tumultuous year, 2021 will prove to be a balancing act for organisations in Asia as they tackle incoming business and IT challenges with a more budget-conscious approach, while aiming to maximise the return on their investments in new initiatives.
"This will translate to bridging existing digital systems and applications with emerging technologies, heavier emphasis on intelligent processes to save costs, and a closer look at network security to avoid exposing the business to more disruptions. At the same time, strict compliance still needs to be maintained to meet the expectations of consumers and watchdog groups," said Stephen McNulty, President Asia Pacific and Japan at Micro Focus.
Restructuring internally
"2020 brought with it an accelerated pace of digital transformation. The rapid shift to a remote workforce and e-commerce for business continuity required organisations to redraw their technology roadmaps.
"While the shift in priorities is centred on digital transformation, the structure of organisations is transforming too. In other words, businesses must look to foster new ways of working, learning and living with technology as the enabler. Agility and remote collaboration have become essential factors for business continuity, and businesses are exploring the cloud for some of these needs," said Eric Goh, VP & MD, Singapore, Dell Technologies.
Software priorities
Keysight said that the pace of innovation would accelerate in 2021. "The adoption of digital tools, processes and software-led solutions will change the speed at which enterprises innovate, grow, support customers and conduct business," said executives in a set of 2021 predictions.
"Enterprises will speed transformations using software that improves productivity, efficiency, accuracy, security and time-to-market by collecting and acquiring information digitally, coupled with the use of advanced analytics and data visualisation to gain insights needed to accelerate innovation."
Focus on the data
And for Commvault, data is key for digital transformation. "On this transformation journey, organisations have been challenged to harness and protect data that has become increasingly distributed over the past year – from data centres to endpoints at various locations across the world," said Sunil Mahale, VP, Sales Engineering and Emerging Technology, APJ, Commvault.
"CIOs are tasked to gather this data and derive its value for the business. It all boils down to the fact that data is the new crude oil, because data in its rawest form is essentially useless. But when the right technologies and tools are applied to data, it becomes a business’ most valuable asset. This valuable data is what will drive effective digital transformation.”
Working with specialists
"A unique trend is emerging with larger enterprises undergoing a cultural shift, moving from selecting traditional large systems integrators to selecting specialist vendors to implement turnkey projects. As larger enterprises modernise, there is also greater appetite for adopting cloud native solutions and open source programs," said Richard Marr, GM, APAC, Auth0.
"For instance, outsourcing identity management to cloud customer identity and access management (CIAM) vendors helps organisations initiate, capture, record, and manage user identities and their access permissions, without having to keep an army of specialist engineers in-house 24x7. This not only saves time and resources, but most crucially gives businesses an easier way to gather and use data to make smarter business decisions, alongside providing greater personalisation for the content it provides individual users.
"More enterprises will harness the expertise that specialist vendors introduce. By working with a solutions that gives their development teams the tools to create adaptable rules and extensions, businesses can achieve cost-efficiencies today and future-proof for what comes down the line."
Implementing open source
Marc Linster, CTO, EDB, had some advice for those using open-source software to drive innovation, a practice he predicted will accelerate in 2021. "To succeed, they will need to follow a few best practices:
- Implement development policies that enable developers to use open source and integrate it into their products. They must also support those policies with technology that makes using open source secure, such as IP and vulnerability scanning.
- Implement agile processes, such as Scrum, to accelerate internal processes, and create a CI/CD environment to integrate changes quickly and get them into new releases.
- Futureproof their technology architecture by decomposing big, lumbering systems into microservices; or by adopting modern technologies such as Postgres.
- Encourage collaboration and experimentation to allow people to take risks and grow. Hackathons, meetups, and lunch-and-learn events can also be introduced to cross-share knowledge and seek innovation," he shared. IP stands for Internet Protocol, while CI/CD refers to continuous integration and continuous development or deployment.
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