Asia-Pacific enterprises lead global digital disruption

| April 27, 2018

Companies in Asia-Pacific are more confident in their ability to disrupt markets by implementing new digital technologies and business models than firms elsewhere in the world, according to research conducted by International Data Corporation and commissioned by Avaya Holdings Corp. Almost a third, 29.2%, of respondents said they were market disrupters, compared with the global average of 19.5%.

According to IDC’s Digital Transformation: The Key to Getting it Right report, increased employee productivity is a primary driver for digital transformation for 65.6% of organizations in Asia-Pacific, above the international average of 62.1%. Supporting new products and revenue streams and delivering better customer experience were ranked as the second and third-most important drivers for digital transformation.

Greater use of communications was seen as vital by organizations, with 91.5% saying it is important or extremely important to embed communications into core business processes and applications. This would enable better productivity and collaboration for remote and mobile workers, cited by 80.5%, and allow greater control over the business (84.6%).

While organizations acknowledged the importance of human interaction in customer service, insufficient skills and training was seen as the biggest barrier to blending digital technologies with the “human touch,” followed by lack of appropriate procedures and processes.

“Organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are setting the pace for digital transformation, and are driving innovation in their industries. Companies understand the importance of communications and its impact on increasing employee efficiency.”

“Empowering workers should in turn lead to better customer experiences, as more productive staff should be better able to meet their needs. However, companies recognize that there is still work to do on driving digital transformation. Avaya is working with leading organizations here in the region to leverage emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and the Internet of Things to enhance business performance.”

The report also found that 53.1% of Asia Pacific firms said their digital strategy was being executed in a coordinated way across the organization, compared to 50.4% globally.  15.6% of organizations have a centralized digital innovation group in charge of DX, against 11.1% in the rest of the world and 57.4% of organizations claim that most customer interactions are supported by a single, seamless experience across all services, functional areas and departments against 45.5% elsewhere.

79.5% of organizations regard blockchain as important or extremely important in managing customer security and privacy, in line with the 79.1% in other areas while 73.5% of organizations see biometrics such as voice recognition for authentication purposes as important or extremely important, compared to 66.5% as a whole.

Lack of insight into customer behaviors and preferences was ranked as the greatest barrier to improving customers’ experiences, cited by 52.8% of firms in the Asia-Pacific, a higher figure than the 48.7% of firms who prioritised that issue in the rest of the world.

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