Almost half, or 47%, of businesses in Asia believe they will struggle to compete against “digital disruptors” – more agile, digital-based market entrants – according to a research report by IDC, commissioned by Avaya Inc.
Only one in five, 23%, of enterprises are confident of winning against their digital competitors, while 21% are unsure of their ability to compete when compared to their industry peers, according to the research.
The study, entitled The Promise of Digital Transformation in Asia Pacific’s Leading Institutions, polled close to 1500 key IT decision makers and business owners across 13 countries in the Asia Pacific.
The research shows that companies face significant challenges in achieving their own digital transformation (DX) goals, with the need to transform the culture of an organization cited by 57% of enterprises, followed closely by lack of skills and resources (cited by 53% of respondents) as well as challenges with implementing cross-team collaboration (50%).
“The study affirms what Avaya believes – that true digital transformation requires an open, collaborative culture,” says Sami Ammous, Director – Sales Engineering APAC, Avaya.
Ammous adds that finding staff with skills and experience in 3rd Platform technologies and building capabilities in other innovation accelerators such as cognitive systems, Internet of Things, robotics, augmented and virtual reality can be especially challenging.
“It is therefore not surprising that many organizations are building a strong ecosystem of partners to help them in their DX journey,” noted Ammous.
With IDC predicting one third of the top 20 market share leaders in various industries worldwide will be “significantly disrupted” by 2018, companies in the Asia Pacific market are undertaking DX initiatives despite these challenges.
The study also revealed that almost two-thirds, 63%, are investing in customer-facing applications and developing an omni-channel experience, while 60% of respondents said they were focusing on employee productivity.
State of Digital Transformation across Asia Pacific
The survey showed marked differences between companies in “nascent, developing” markets, compared with more mature markets. For instance, 41% of survey respondents in India, and 39% in Thailand and the Philippines believed that innovation was extremely important to business. In contrast, just 14% of those surveyed in Singapore and 15% of those in Japan felt the same.
Commenting on this, Nidal Abou Ltaif, President of Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Asia-Pacific, Avaya said, “Digital Transformation for Asian enterprises will result in two big benefits – improved customer satisfaction and enhanced employee productivity. In the era of software-defined everything, customer experience is the battleground for organizations. Overcoming the roadblocks to transformation is key to building customer trust. With our in-depth expertise in business communications solutions, we will continue to enable organizations to capture the broadest and deepest customer insights in real-time, in ways that will transform customer engagement and build deeper relationships. By breaking down silo walls and enhancing collaborations within enterprise, companies can build new bridges to their customers.”