Business and consumer users see Digital Cohesion as an inevitable, positive societal development, according to a 16-country survey conducted by Juniper Networks.
Consumers anticipate it will bring certain advantages, ranging from improved community infrastructure with more responsive, effective emergency services to more efficient use of personal time, improved education and learning capabilities, lower living costs such as greater home energy efficiency and more informed decision-making. Business respondents say Digital Cohesion will deliver advantages including increased productivity, improved budget efficiency, new workforce management models and business service innovation. And with mobile devices serving as data collection points to drive mega-services, we believe telecommunication service providers will need to re-examine the way they architect their networks in order to support this era.
Security Concerns: Users to Make Careful Choice of Trusted Provider Brands
The survey also highlights that consumer and business respondents have concerns about security and compliance around mega-services. It also indicates these concerns will be significantly more influential than design and aesthetic preferences on user behavior and brand choices. These findings suggest that trust is non-negotiable for users and a thoughtful, proactive approach to security provisioning within these mega-services is paramount.
Living Smarter & Greener in Singapore as a result of Digital Cohesion
More than half of consumer respondents (59%) in Singapore expect their surroundings to become ‘smarter’ over the next five years, as services and apps become more integrated and automated.
Currently, consumers have an average of 4 connected devices (3.95), around half of which are connected to their home’s infrastructure.
Sixty-one percent of those surveyed in Singapore (58% global) cite ‘time saving’ as a key benefit of smarter services in their daily lives; 53% (43% global) believe smart services will deliver more useful information leading to better decision making; 27% in Singapore as well as globally believe it will reduce the cost of living.
In a world where Digital Cohesion leads to mega-services, 59% of local consumers (61% global) expect to see improved energy consumption as a result of these services, while 54% (51% global) expect to see better support/response from emergency services.
Three-quarters of consumer respondents (74% in Singapore, 75% global) say they rely on mobile connections to live safer, smarter and more efficient lives.
Trust Matters
In Singapore, 61% of consumer respondents locally (53% global) specify security as the most important factor when selecting a new smart device. Eighty-two percent (77% global) specified trust as “important” for an integrated, connected service-related device.
Ninety percent of local respondents (76% global) also say brand is an important factor when choosing a ‘smart’ service provider.
By comparison, only 28% of consumer respondents (20% global) consider design as a very important factor in smart services.
Driving Business Advantage in Singapore
A majority or 92% of business respondents in Singapore expect business services innovation to result from Digital Cohesion; 88% in Singapore (91% global) also expect it to enable flexible new workforce management capabilities.
When considering the biggest commercial benefits resulting from Digital Cohesion, 62% of business respondents (60% global) cite increased automation and control capabilities and 66% (58% global) cite increased productivity.
More than half (59%) of business respondents (51% global) also expect Digital Cohesion to deliver improved customer experience within their organizations.
Trust is Critical
Singaporean businesses are the second most unready of all markets for a digital cohesion era in trust, with Japanese businesses the most unprepared across the board.
Seventy-seven percent of business respondents (66% global, 84% Malaysia) see security/compliance as the biggest risk factor in Digital Cohesion. Only 14% in Singapore (25% global) say they are “completely ready” to trust the security in the underlying networks and devices.
When thinking about dealing with the consequences of more smart devices being introduced into an organization’s network infrastructure, 83% of business respondents (85% global) expect to manage the influx pragmatically rather than restricting devices as a way to counteract security concerns.