Business leaders in the Asia Pacific region are increasingly aware of the huge opportunities and threats that digital transformation can bring. In a survey conducted by Fujitsu, 70% of CEOs and IT decision makers felt that digitalization is a gamble, but 75% want to move faster. We are entering a new industrial revolution that will completely change the way we conduct business and go through our daily lives.
Consider that it took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users. In contrast, Niantic’s Pokémon GO mobile game, which makes use of location based technology, mobile broadband and augmented reality (AR), took just 19 days to do the same in 2016. Besides increasing potential customer bases, digital transformation has helped to attract and retain talent, made businesses more responsive, enhanced customer satisfaction, and helped employees become more productive.
2016 was the year that enterprises saw how early adopters have benefited from digital transformation. 2017 will be about how the majority of enterprises focus on digital transformation, with the leaders working on how to go about it more effectively. Enterprises will need to plan a business transformation journey that considers what they would like to achieve, and how they can leverage the advanced digital technologies now at their disposal.
Even as the Internet of Things (IoT) matures, we are seeing the fourth wave of digital technology emerge, mainly around artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Fujitsu expects the following digital technologies to disrupt the present and redefine the future, interacting and amplifying with each other, creating new synergies and catalyzing the formation of new ecosystems in 2017:
Mature technologies
Big Data– Insights from enormous volumes of data will be deeper and arrive faster in 2017 through new platforms capable of analyzing it at higher velocities. Performance improvements in technologies like parallel processing, event processing, transaction processing and in-memory data management will lead to more real-time decision-making.
Cloud Computing– Cloud platforms are maturing, with technologies and managed services working in concert to ensure that cloud users can become digitally enabled much more quickly. The most forward-thinking cloud platforms will offer more flexible pricing and support hybrid IT – a combination of legacy IT along with public, private and managed cloud services, all in a secure manner. They will also enable their users to build and deploy new digital services more quickly and easily.
Maturing technology
IoT– Gartner predicts a bright future for IoT, forecasting US$2.5 million spent per minute on IoT related goods and services, and a million new IoT devices sold every hour by 2021. The research firm further predicts that IoT will be indispensable for preventative maintenance, saving consumers and businesses US$1 trillion a year in maintenance, services and consumables.
The Internet of Things will be much more of a reality in 2017, impacting the Manufacturing, Healthcare, Transport, Retail, and Government sectors in particular. The year will see tighter integration between cloud-based big data, geographical location technology and sensor communications platforms that support IoT use cases. We will also see more benefits from IoT, including greater operational insights, business process improvements and more effective resource utilization. There is a rapid increase in using data gathering wearables, especially for workplace safety, such as for mobile or lone field workers who may be in potentially vulnerable positions.
Emerging technologies
Blockchain– Blockchain is an emerging technology that has made waves in the finance sector. According to Gartner, a Blockchain-based business will be worth US$10 billion by 2022. In 2017, we are likely to see further refinements to Blockchain architecture, particularly for various security aspects. In October 2016 for example Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and Fujitsu Laboratories of America developed security technologies for Blockchain that allow multiple organizations to safely handle confidential data. Blockchain will also be adopted more widely, such as in logistics and document management.
Virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) – VR/AR adoption will grow as consumers become more comfortable with using wearables and receptive to using them beyond the home and gaming environment. According to CCS Insight, shipments of VR/AR wearables is expected to grow from 15 million units in 2016 to 100 million in 2020, while IDC predicts that 30% of consumer-facing A1000 companies will experiment with AR/VR as part of their marketing efforts in 2017. Quality AR/VR software that works with head-mounted displays will become more common as demand increases.
Gartner has placed AR’s sweet spot in retail, predicting that 100 million consumers will shop in AR by 2020. We will also see more awareness about data security and privacy accorded by standards from independent organizations like Coelition. VR will also shine in training scenarios as it allows useful information to be overlaid onto the real world environment to simulate decision making – identifying the right switch to pull, for example.
AI– According to IDC, 40% of digital transformation initiatives in Asia Pacific excluding Japan will be supported by cognitive/AI capabilities by 2020, providing critical on-time insights for new business models.New AI platforms will consolidate discoveries from multiple disciplines like deep learning, knowledge processing and decision-making to bring about further business transformation and innovation. This technology will drive more products and services going forward, including robots which leverage cloud data to communicate intuitively with humans.
While these are the major technology trends going forward, enterprises are not likely to replace their legacy technology completely. Indeed, the most effective digital transformations will occur with enterprises that can successfully integrate their new digital and cloud solutions with existing technology infrastructure, introduce ways to deliver new digital initiatives, and look for ways to extract more value from the data they already have.
To reap maximum benefits, we believe that digital transformation has to be human-centric. The technology has to empower people - unleashing their creativity and maximizing their potential - if it is to gain acceptance and widespread adoption. Greater success will also come when enterprises integrate their new digital projects with existing IT investments.
We are facing a world which contains more potential to transform than ever before. By 2020, CIOs in a Gartner survey have forecast that 77% of their processes will be digital. In the face of certain digital disruption, enterprises must stand ready to turn the challenges they face to their advantage so as to leverage opportunities for growth in the coming year.
Wong Heng Chew, Country President, Fujitsu Singapore